Instagram: daltonjacket

How old are you?: 47

Where do you live?: Georgia

What is your history with sports and athletics? I got into short course triathlon in college because my boyfriend at the time and his brothers all did it. I loved it, except for running. I believed you should run when chased.

After college, fast forward 20 years. I was newly divorced and trying to find my passion. I remembered how much I loved triathlon and set the goal to do an Ironman. This meant I had to learn to run. When I started, I couldn’t run more than 15 seconds at a time. I would increase my run time by five seconds every week. It took about a year, but I completed my first 70.3. Two years after I made the decision, and forty pounds lighter, I finished Ironman Texas in 2014.

Michael got into triathlon when Ironman came to Chattanooga in 2014. It sounded like a great idea so he signed up despite the fact he had never done a single triathlon. He then realized that he should probably learn to swim. At 51 years old, he learned to swim by reading the Total Immersion book and watching Youtube videos. He also got into running and fell in love with how he felt when he ran. He joined the local biking group Dalton Area Cyclists, and the wonderful people in the group taught him how to ride effectively. For training, he did three Sprint distances and a Half Ironman. He turned 52 ten days before his first Ironman.

What do you enjoy most about being an athlete? By complete luck, I had also gotten into Ironman Florida the same year. I started joining Ironman groups on Facebook since there were only about three women in my area that were doing Ironman distances. In one of those groups, I met Michael. He was training for Ironman Chattanooga in 2014, and we started talking a few weeks before. We didn’t tell each other, but after our first phone call which was four hours long, we both knew we would get married. At the time I lived in Texas and he lived in Georgia. We talked on the phone, video-chatted and met for the first time in person at Ironman Florida. He had already signed up to volunteer since he had friends competing, and it would be my second. We had joked about being catfished and I had joked I was a cartoon cow. He laughed like crazy when I came off the plane wearing cow antlers.

Meeting Michael in person was like coming home. We knew we belonged together, so I made the decision to move to Georgia when my daughter graduated high school and would go off to college in 2015. In July of 2015, Michael proposed to me where the finish line of Ironman Chattanooga would be. We were both members of Ironman Singles on Facebook and we were the first couple in the group to get married. It was only fitting that I would walk down the aisle wearing, you guessed it, my cow antlers instead of a veil. Michael surprised me by asking the voice of Ironman, Mike Reilly to record a special message to be played at the end of our ceremony. We were honored to have such an icon to officially pronounce us as an Ironcouple. Everything at our wedding was triathlon themed, including dancing our first dance under the finish line inflatable archway a race director friend of ours let us use.

Have you experienced any challenges or obstacles? During Ironman Texas, I twisted to save a bottle that I had knocked out of a volunteer’s hand at mile 30 of the bike. I had felt something go in my back but kept riding. Breathing on the run became very difficult, and the medics warned me that they would pull me if I didn’t start walking. It turns out my SI joint had folded back behind my pelvis, and I had dislocated ribs (it is now my mantra to let falling things fall). I went through PT but in December of 2014 I went to bed with a cold and woke up being unable to walk without extreme pain. Being the “I can work through it myself” kind of person, I kept training until February of 2015 until I couldn’t anymore. My SI joint was still displaced, my ribs kept popping out of place, and I had a herniated L4 and bulging L2 and 3. As I began treatment, which included decompression, graston, ART release therapy and laser there came a point where I was told the treatment had a 50/50 chance of working. If it didn’t, I was going to be in a wheelchair. I went from being an Ironman to having to learn to walk properly again and being in pain 24/7. The recovery was long and there are still days I am in pain but since 2015 I have done two more 70.3 and Ironman distances and in March of 2020, Michael and I completed the Double Anvil in Florida (4.8 miles swimming, 224 miles biking, 52 miles running). He finished before me but waited so we could pound our Anvils together.

Michael has scoliosis and one of his lungs is compressed. Despite that, he continues to get faster and stronger.

What is your “why?” My father was not supportive of me trying to complete an Ironman. He did not believe I could do it. He was not there for my first in Texas, but was in Florida. The day after, he kept repeating over and over that he couldn’t believe I had biked 112 miles in one day. He no longer tells me I can’t do it, he just shakes his head and tells me I’m crazy.

Most of the training in the beginning was driven by proving him wrong. I also wanted to show my daughter that if she set her mind to something, she could do anything. Now I share this life with Michael, and it’s a lifestyle we love as individuals and as a couple. I firmly believe that anyone can do what they set their mind to, no matter what anyone else believes. As a teacher, I hope my pursuit of finding how far I can reach helps to inspire my students to follow their dreams.

Michael jokes he got into triathlons to pick up girls. Since that worked out for him by marrying me, he says he is now motivated by the idea that we do not know when will be our last moment, so he wants to push himself for as long as he can.

What’s next? Last year I came across the Deca – ten times the Ironman distance. It appealed to me, but Michael asked as the voice of reason for us to try the Double first. Now that we have done that, my next goal is to complete the Triple Anvil in October of 2021 as a step towards the Deca in 2022 or 2023. Michael has said he has no interest in going past the Double distance, so he will continue his path toward qualifying to go to Kona.

Any fun facts about yourself? I was electrocuted when I was 13 and should have died. Instead, I tend to make anything electronic behave erratically. I fried three heart rate straps in one weekend, so it was a relief when they came out with an optical Garmin. I have to train old school since we are scared what would happen if I tried to use a power meter or a smart trainer. People never believe me until they spend some time around me. Oh, and I’m allergic to cabbage.