What Happened in New Zealand?

Join me this week as I'm interviewed by perimenopause expert Shelby Tutty about my recent journey to compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in New Zealand. 

From the unexpected friendships that made this race possible to the unique challenges of competing in a country where everything operates in reverse, I share an intimate look at what it means to race at the world-class level.

Whether you're curious about the mechanics of triathlon racing, interested in how different countries approach these events, or seeking inspiration for your own life goals, this episode offers both practical insights and personal stories. 

I open up about overcoming fears, adapting to obstacles, and how a five-year journey from qualification to race day taught me powerful lessons about holding vision while releasing attachment to timeline.

This engaging conversation goes beyond just race details to explore what's possible when we remain open to unexpected opportunities and stay committed to our dreams, even when the path looks different than we imagined.

Relevant links:

Article: You Might be Perimenopausal and Not Realize It

Podcast: Perimenopause & Disordered Eating (Part 1)

Podcast: Perimenopause & Peaceful Eating (Part 2)

Workshop: Perimenopause & Peaceful Eating

Podcast: My Next Big Adventure - NZ Awaits

Podcast: New Zealand: How it All Came Together

Cultivate Group Coaching Program is open now. Learn more and join. 

Want to know why you struggle with food and what to do next? Start watching The Food Freedom Mini Series today. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Binge Breakthrough, the podcast designed to help you finally break through the barriers that keep you stuck, feeling out of control around food. I'm Master Certified Coach Jane Pilger, and I want you to know that no matter how long you've been struggling or what you've tried, food freedom is possible. And I'm here to show you how. After years of therapy, eating disorder treatment, restrictive diet, and reading all the books, I would still stop in the once again cycle of restricting thinking until I was able to see it all from a new perspective that teaches everything. Each week I will share the strategies, tools, and mindset that allowed me to overcome my decade-long battle with binge eating. Your journey to body trust starts now. Let's dive in. Hello, trusted listener. I am excited today for the podcast. Got a little something new and different for you. So uh I have my friend Shelby Tutty here to kind of do a little bit of an interview style podcast for today and next week's podcast. And uh, if you don't know Shelby, Shelby and I met last year on Substack. We both have um publications on Substack. She writes all about perimenopause over at the Periprofessional on Substack. I will put that link in the show notes if you want to check her out. And Shelby and I have done some really fun things together uh since we met each other because there is for sure um a lot of overlap between perimenopause, menopause, and disordered eating. So we have a couple of podcasts that we've done together. Uh, we wrote uh an article together called You Might Be Perimenopausal and Not Realize It. She did a workshop for my paid subscribers over at the Peaceful Eater, and uh we've just um connected in a lot of fun ways. And so Shelby reached out to me actually while I was in New Zealand, and she's been following along with the podcast and previous episodes about uh about the race and everything leading up to the race. And she's like, I have so many questions for you. I've been listening to the podcast, I can't wait to hear all about it. And I told her, I said, Yes, I absolutely am planning a podcast episode to talk about it. And she said, I have an idea for you. What if I interviewed you and I could ask you questions, and it might be fun for your listeners. It might be fun for me to kind of get to ask you questions that I would love to ask you. And I thought, you know what? That's a great idea. So that is what we are here to do today. Uh, Shelby says she has a lot of questions for me. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna split this into two episodes. Today is gonna be all about New Zealand, the uh New Zealand experience itself. So if you have curiosities about what the trip was like, uh, this episode is gonna be for you. And then next week, we are gonna talk about where Shelby is gonna be back to talk to me and ask me questions. And we're gonna be talking more specifically around kind of mindset, perspective. Uh, she uh has some questions, uh, wanting to know various things on that. So we'll do that next week. So, with that, Shelby, welcome back to the podcast. And uh, I guess you can take it away and ask me whatever you would like to ask me.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Great, thank you, Jane. I I think this is so amazing because I feel like I'm getting this exclusive opportunity to interview somebody that I really look up to and I look at the things that you've done, and it it just amazes me. And I I like to learn from people like that. So, welcome, listeners. I'm glad you're here for this sneak peek into Jane's life and things that she's not able to regularly talk about in her day-to-day. I'm giving her a chance to showcase what she's done in this amazing month last month that she had in December between her race and her book release. There's just so much going on in her life that I'm so excited to hear about. So, my first question, Jane, is a little technical on New Zealand. You had mentioned several times that you weren't quite sure how to pronounce where you were going, whether it was Taupo or Tepo, New Zealand. So, can you clarify finally what is the correct pronunciation of where you went?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yes. So it really depended. We actually asked several people this question, and and I came to decide that the people who lived there really grew up there or had a very, very extended presence in the area, they all agree that it is topaw. And uh, so topaw, and maybe sometimes based on their their accent, maybe it's a little like topo, but kind of you could say toe, like like the toes on your feet, and then paw, like the paw, like a cat's paw. So topaw is how the locals pronounce it.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Wonderful. So the answer it had the question has been answered. Yes, and now we can we can move on. So New Zealand is two islands. Can you tell me where Topaw is located?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Yes. So there are there's the North Island and the South Island. Topaw is pretty much in kind of towards the middle of the North Island. One of the interesting things about it is that uh the lake, so Lake Topah, which is where we swam, is the largest, um, the largest body of water in New Zealand. Now, obviously, it's surrounded by the ocean, but as far as lakes go, it is by far the largest lake within New Zealand.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Wow. So for some reason, I pictured you when you said that you had your race, I was picturing you swimming in the ocean, which is completely incorrect. I don't know why I thought that. I think I was thinking Hawaii and the Iron Man experiences. And then I thought, oh, she'll probably be swimming in the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

But well, that that makes a lot of sense. And and if I think back, I probably did not really clarify that we would be swimming in it's called Lake Topaw, and uh very big, beautiful body of water, the most clear water I have ever swam in.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Mm-hmm. That must have been amazing.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Okay, so let's go back a little bit and just remind everybody what you were doing. It was a 70.3 Iron Man, and this is a branded Iron Man triathlon, correct?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

That's correct. So Iron Man, the Iron Man brand has really two different distances of races that they do. They do the Iron Man distance, which is uh what people a lot of times when people think of the Iron Man triathlon, they think of the world championships in Kona, Hawaii. And that distance is uh it's called a 140.6. You cover 140.6 miles in a full Iron Man distance. So that is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run or a marathon. So that's a full Iron Man. What I did was the Iron Man 70.3, or some people call it a half Iron Man. And 70.3 is the number of miles that are covered in the race. So it is for the 70.3, it's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and then a 13.1 mile or um half marathon run. So this to a couple of interesting things about this. Uh, number one is that because we were in New Zealand, they don't they don't speak in miles, they actually speak in kilometers. So I I don't even know how many kilometers we did, but they when they talk about Iron Man, um, the distances and even even out on the race course, if you're racing in the United States, there are mile markers. When you are overseas, they have kilometer markers. Now, in this instance, because what this race was was the Iron Man 70.3, so the half Iron Man distance world championships, which means there were people literally from all over the world competing at this race. So, because of that, we had people who kind of speak in miles and people who speak in kilometers. There were both mile markers and kilometer markers out on the bike course and the run course, which is great for people like me who have a really hard time translating between between the two. But if if you were following the tracker, there's a there's an Iron Man tracker app where you can follow along during the race. That only shows information um in for this race, it was only showing information in kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour or minutes per mile. So that's it's always kind of interesting racing overseas where kilometers is the is the more preferred level of measurement versus versus miles. But this race, the world championships, so there were 6,200 athletes competing from 119 different countries. There were the women raced on Saturday, December 13th, and there were 38 wait, 28, 2,800 women and 3,200 men racing total.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And do they break it up by age or everyone just starts at once?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Great question. So they I think maybe my math was just wrong. I think it was 2,834 for a total of 6,200, just in case uh any of you are like me who are we're trying to add those numbers up and we're like, wait, that math did not compute. Um, so the question about age group. So what they do for this race in particular, because it was a world championship, what they do is they start um by age group. So they have a a schedule and they say, this for this race, this age group go. The pros, there were there are actually pros who competed. So the pros go first, then five minutes later, the um the physically challenged division goes. There were quite a few people, just so amazing. People who um there were several people. There was a guy who had one arm swimming 1.2 miles with one arm. There were people both in the women's and the men's race who um end up uh they're they're they're racing in tandem with another person who is not able to swim or to bike or to run. And so in that case, imagine somebody swimming with behind them that they're tethered to a raft and their athlete, their their paired athlete is on the raft and they pull them 1.2 miles around around the the course, and then they get on a bike where they have uh also a I don't know the appropriate terminology, but they have a they're basically um pulling them in a behind them on the bike and then pushing them on the run. I mean, just incredible. So those so those people go right after the pros and then um and then they do age groups. And the age groups, they say that they're I don't think it's random. They're they're trying to get people across the finish line at approximately the same time. But unfortunately, what that meant for me, my age group, which is uh 45 to 49, was the very last age group to start. So the race started, the the pros started at 7 a.m. And my wave time was 8 38 a.m. So it was a long time between the time that the race started and the time that I actually got in the water. And so what they do is even within the age group, so my age group started at 8:38, but what that what they do is to spread the athletes out a little bit so you're not all starting at the same time, which years ago they used to do. They start you every about five athletes every 10 seconds, and then um your time just starts as soon as you cross the the timing mat in the in the water.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So um this was not the first time though that you've done a 70.3 iron man as I I was piecing together your podcast because you would make a little fact here and then you'd say something different there, and I'm like, wait a second. She wanted to do this, and then she had other opportunities, which I'm gonna ask you about in a second. But I want to go back to what so I can picture what a 13.1 run mile run looks like. A half marathon, that's pretty standard, it's what we see here. But can you describe what a 1.2 mile swim is like and what a 56 mile bike ride is like? Because to me, I don't, I'm not familiar with the numbers as much with those activities as I am with the running.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah. So um, I might have to get my calculator out. Let me think about this. So a swim, so a 1.2 mile swim, if you think about a pool, just a regular 25-yard pool, one length of the pool is is 25 yards. So just you swim from one end of the pool down to the other end of the pool, that's 25 yards. If you swim down and back, that's 50 yards, down and back twice, that's a hundred yards. 1.2 miles, I believe, is about 1900. I believe somebody I could do the math, but it's around maybe 1900 yards, something like that. So if you just imagine that's a just that many times back and forth in the in the in a pool, but you're not in a pool. You're in open water, you're in in in this case a lake. Sometimes you do swim in an ocean, but in this case, it's a lake. What was interesting for me when I started, um, when I started triathlon. So my first triathlon was in 2002. And I kind of gradually increased my the distances and what I wanted to do over time. I just kept asking, like, well, what else could I do? What else is possible? What else is out there? And um when I started triathlons here in New Mexico, we don't have a lot of open water opportunities. So a lot of our triathlons were in a swimming pool. And I was reasonably comfortable swimming in a swimming pool. I did swim team when I was younger. But I would, when we when I started swimming in these triathlons where the swim was actually in a lake, um, I had a really hard time. There had so much fear, fear, lots and lots of fear around the water. I would go to, I would drive 45 minutes from where I live to go to our lake to try to, you know, practice. And I would just, I would freak out, just putting my head in the water. Um, it really has been a process for me. It's amazing for me to think back to the amount of fear that I used to have in the water, in in open water, and where now I can just go. I love it. I just have so much fun in the water. Um, and really looking back on that difference is it's it's pretty fun to think about. So, no, this was definitely not my first, uh, not my first 70.3.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Yep. And then what about a 56 mile bike ride? I'm trying to think in terms of like where I live. If I got on my bike and I went from my house to like, could I end up in Chicago, which for me is probably about that distance.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah. And so that's the that really is a good way to think about it is to just think about for yourself something that's about 60-ish miles away, some place that takes you maybe about an hour to about an hour to drive to, or maybe a little less, probably a little less than an hour to drive to. Uh, that would just imagine riding your your bike there instead.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

And which event did you do first? Like what order did you do the race in?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Uh, the race is is typically the race is swim first and then bike and then run. And the reason they do that is because uh on the they you can just keep better track of who's gotten in the water, who's gotten out of the water. You have all of the the safety, the people um in and safety measures in place to have everybody, you know, in the water there. So uh that's the the order of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

And then um, is there time between the events that you can rest, or is it straight through?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Good question. So your time, your race time starts from the moment that you cross the timing mat. So essentially as soon as you get into the water, and then your time ends when you cross the finish line. So the typically your race, you'll have a swim time, you'll have what they call transition one, which is the the time it took you to get from the swim to the bike, and then your bike time, and then you'll have transition two, which is the time it took you from when you cross the the finish line of the bike course to changing your changing your shoes and taking off your helmet and putting on your hat and your number and all of that. That's transition two, and then and then your runtime. So all of those added up together. There are really five different times that are added together: swim, bike run, transition one, transition two are all added up together to be your total time.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

And then what happens when you emerge from the lake and you're soaking wet and now you have to jump on a bike to change?

SPEAKER_00 19:09

So good, very good question. Um, it really depends, it depends on several things. Um, the very the first thing it depends on is the weather. So ideally, your weather is pretty good, you are able to keep yourself pretty warm, and you can just um get on the bike. Now, depending on the water temperature, you might have a wetsuit on. So, for example, I this water was pretty cold. It was 60, maybe 66, 67 degrees. Um, so you definitely wear a wetsuit. And then underneath your wetsuit, the triathlon kits are designed to be fairly water. Um, they don't they don't really hold a lot of water, and so they're really designed where you can swim in it, you can bike in it, you can run in it. And so a lot of people will just just do everything in that in their triathlon um outfit. Uh, some people will do an outfit change, uh particularly at the Iron Man distance, because it's such a long distance and it's such a long day. Uh, a lot of times people might change. They have both at the half iron man distance and at the Iron Man distance. Well, I don't know about every half Iron Man distance. All Iron Man races have a changing tent. This race in New Zealand, the World Championships, they did have a changing tent, which meant if you want to change, you can go into there's a men's tent and women's tent, you can go in um and change your clothes. And that's all part, it's still going to be part of your time, but you can change clothes, but most people don't. So if the weather's really cold, you might have a jacket or you might have, um, for example, I packed with me the weather turned out to be very nice on our race day, but I had a few things with me. Like I had packed, um, you might bring an old like a pair of men's, like long like tube socks that you can cut the feet off of and then just put them on your arms to like give you some warmth in the beginning of the bike, and then you can toss them at a at a future aid station. I have in the past like put on um like dishwashing gloves over my hands to like keep your hands warm just for a little bit. And then again, when you get to an aid station and you're able to throw trash, you can throw them away. So there's they're kind of little tricks like that that you can do to um to try to stay warm in the event that the weather is cold and you're really wet.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

I was gonna ask you about the weather.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

So I'm glad that you yeah, yeah. So it was summer, yeah. So it's summer in New Zealand. It was so interesting to be there on December 21st and hearing people um back home talking about the shortest day of the year and you know, winter and all of this. And we experienced the longest day of the year, one week really after the race, but um, we did. We had really nice weather. The uh it was the not very much, not very much wind, mostly sunny. It actually got pretty hot. I I was hot on the run, not crazy hot, but but like you wanted ice on the run. Like it was it was pretty darn warm.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

And then how do you fuel yourself? Is it do you do you stop like in your transition period? You just shove something in your mouth, or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

So fueling is is just uh, I mean, there is so much to learn about fueling for endurance. Athletics, but and and really it's very individual. So some people really prefer to only eat solid food. Some people prefer to eat no solid food whatsoever. Some people eat a lot more, take in a lot more per hour than other people. So it's it's very, very much a trial and error. It's kind of like really any, I guess anything you eat, you can't just follow what somebody else does. But um, but for example, you do, you know, you you you eat plenty in the days leading up. You eat a very good breakfast. Yeah, I I don't I want to say you because everybody's different, but I have something shortly before the race. Obviously, you're not eating during the swim, but I basically start taking in additionally additional calories on the bike. And I am one who doesn't really do well with solid foods. So um, so I take in basically liquids and other, you know, kind of chews and type this type of thing. I have what's called a bento box that you put on the top of your bike. So just imagine like a little snack, it's like a little snack box um right there that I'm constantly eating from, drinking from, getting in extra uh extra electrolytes. So you just in training, you do that. And so you kind of learn to um you learn to do that. But what was unique about New Zealand is that you they drive on the left side of the road, not the right side of the road. And which means usually when we ride our bikes, we ride our bike on the right side of the road. And you pass people on the left, and you when you come to an aid station, you grab your, you grab there are aid stations throughout, and they hand you water bottles and various things, and you grab them with your right hand. Well, in New Zealand, everything happens on the opposite side. So you ride on the left, you pass on the right, and you grab water bottles with your left hand, which doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but it really kind of is or was for me. So I I practiced ahead of time before even going. I would have my husband stand out in the driveway to hold water bottles out for me. And when I first started, I could barely even take my hand off the bike. And it's it's fascinating to really think about how our brains work. You know, we get so used to doing one thing one way, really makes you understand why, why changing habits, changing the way that you do things is challenging because our brain just kind of like, we just we groove in those things that we do over and over again. And so um I got better at taking my because I'm so used to having my left hand on the bike kind of for stability. And then my right hand is always the one that comes off. And so just taking my left hand off, I I felt pretty unstable. I was also not on my own bike. So that added another level of instability a little bit for me. And so the first um, the first aid station on the bike, I grabbed the I I slowed down a lot and then I grabbed it. And for some reason, I didn't put it into my um, into the my water bottle cage. And so then I was just like, uh now what do I do? Like I had this bottle in my hand, and then I'm like kind of still slowing down and I'm like, and then I was gonna stop, but I couldn't actually put on my brakes because I had a bottle in my hand. And so I there was definitely there were so many things my brain was just trying to like compute and figure out all of these things. And so then I eventually ended up moving my bottle to my up to my right hand, and then it was like, oh, okay, I know what to do now. And I put it in. Um, and then there was one other time where I was gonna grab water, and that time I went ahead and and just I stopped and I grabbed it. Um so because they were also passing out like free water bottles, and I really wanted the water bottle, and I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna be safe. I'm just gonna stop, take this, put it in, and then uh ride off. So so that was uh that's just another one of those you wouldn't even think about um things to that would just be different.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

And I assume you're right-handed. So this is grabbing a water bottle with your non-dominant hand.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Well, I am actually left-handed, but I am uh I I do all sports right-handed. So as far as like as far as like having a dominant hand on the bicycle, it is my right hand, even though I write and eat with my left hand.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

I understand that because my in my family, uh, left-handedness was the dominant hand in my family. So I grew up with all left-handed people in my family. Wow. And the concessions that they have to make every single day from cutting things and sitting in a booth next to a right-handed person and you're, you know, hitting elbows. Um, it's constant adjustments through the day that that a right-handed person wouldn't even think about.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Well, here's what here's what right-handed people never think about is a butter knife. And anybody who was left-handed who is listening to this podcast is like, I know exactly what you mean, but most butter knives are designed to be right-handed.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah, the world is is right-handed and two sisters and a mother who were left-handed. I kind of saw what they had to go through, right? Yeah, wow, special things, notebooks, and the way my sister had to write it so that the spiral part of the notebook wouldn't hit her arm. Yep, exactly. Exactly. That's funny. So, how significantly do you like as you're racing along on your bike, and then you have to slow down and also use your proprioception skills to figure out where is everybody? What are they doing? Are they pulling in with you? What's that?

SPEAKER_00 28:54

It it can be very overwhelming. There, there's a there's a lot of input and a lot of things to think about. Um, it's interesting because it's it's like when you first start racing, it's just like anything. When you first start doing something that's new, there's all these things to think about, like, okay, I've got a, you know, where is the water? Where is the the electrolyte drink? Where is this? Where are the people? Are they slowing down? Uh you know, there, there, there is a lot for your brain to process. And then being in New Zealand, it's like, wait, they're on the other side. And and so then you also know, okay, I know that I personally am not that as comfortable with putting my left hand out for this stuff, which means the I'm probably not the only one. And so then there's there, you know, kind of being more aware of that happening. And so it's definitely a place where practice helps understanding, like thinking about it's it's a it's a great place for visualization, really thinking about before you get to an aid station. Okay, this is what I'm gonna do. If there's this many people around, I might wait until a little bit later in the aid station. I know that water comes first and then electrolytes and then food and then electrolytes and then water. So if you know these things, you can kind of picture it and then sometimes just be willing. Like if I need to stop and pull over, I just will. Some people kind of they they get in such a rush that, you know, maybe they miss the bottle and then they drop it. And that's way, I mean, it's way worse to drop a bottle or not be able to get something or run into somebody or have somebody run into you than it is to just slow down and you know, just stop if you need to.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

It's like the reverse of everything here, like an alternative universe that you're racing in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Definitely required a lot more just a aware cognitive awareness.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Okay, so now we're gonna piece together everything that you've done. Okay. And then I'm gonna ask you how the race went. So first, let me see if I get this straight. In 2019, you qualified for this race. Correct. And then in 2019 of November, you had your accident with the cow that fractured your pelvis and caused you some recovery time and not being able to do the things that you want to do as you waited and healed during this, which I'm gonna ask you about in part two of our discussion.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yes, yes, that is that is correct. But just to be clear, the cow was fine, the cow did not get injured or um or struck during the accident. The cow crossed the road. My husband hit the brakes to avoid hitting the cow. He did not hit the cow, but I hit his rear wheel, went down, fractured my pelvis. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

It is amazing that he also wasn't pulled down by this experience. Very amazing. Yes. Yeah. But it's like, you know, when you see a squirrel in the road and you you slow down, but you don't think about the person behind you.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

He did he did, he actually he yelled, he yelled out, cow, but I didn't I didn't hear him.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

So I'm glad that he wasn't injured in the process as well. That would have been a disaster too. Yeah, big time. So then that happened. And then you mentioned that in 2021 you did 70.3 Iron Man in Utah.

unknown 32:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Okay, so you healed from your injury, and then this was this the first race that you went back to as far as the Iron Man series.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

You know, I um yes, in 20, so 20, so the race was I qualified in 2019. The race was supposed to, the race in Topah was supposed to happen in 2020, December of 2020. And when I found out the when I found out that that race was gonna be in New Zealand, the world championships was gonna be in New Zealand, I was just like, I want to go. I love New Zealand so much, and it really just opened up my mind to like, could this even be possible? Like I knew I had the desire, I knew I wanted to go, but I really did not think it would be possible for me. Um, and I qualified, which was said that you had already been there to New Zealand. So yeah, we went in 2015 and had the time of our lives, and we knew we wanted to go back. And I was just like, oh my gosh, to be able to go to this country that we love so much and race there in this sport that I love so much, like, wow, that would be so just incredible. Um and so I qualified, which was like, I just never even thought it would be possible. And the race was supposed to happen in 2020, but then COVID, and which turned out to be amazing because my body and my pelvis was not ready. Wouldn't I I could not have raced in in November. Well, I guess it was just November. It was it was scheduled for November 2020. I could not have raced then. Um, and then in 21, Iron Man started having races again. And um was it 21? I think it was 21 that I did another 70.3 in 21. And at that 70.3, I believe I qualified that was in Utah. And I believe it was at that race then then I qualified for the next um 70.3 world championships the following year, also in Utah. I think that's how it happened.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

And then what did you do in 2022 and 2023? Where did the George and Stacy come from?

SPEAKER_00 34:41

That was yes, yes. So in 2022 and 2023, both years, I so this race just opened up my the possibilities for me that like, wow, maybe I could. I I many, many, many moons ago, I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I would love to go to Hawaii, I would love to go to Kona. And I was just like, yeah, right. That would never, there's no way, there's no way I could ever go, it would never be possible. And qualifying for this race in New Zealand really opened up the possibility my mind to the possibility of like, well, maybe I could. And so, I mean, to make a long story short, I did qualify for Kona in 2022 and 2023. And um, so I met and I raced there in 2022 and 2023, and I met um George uh in 2023. I was out on the Queen K Highway um uh riding my bike one afternoon. I had gone out earlier in the morning to try to ride my bike and got a flat and had to go to the bike store to literally get a new tire. And so hours later, came back out on the on the highway when my bike was repaired. And at the very end of my ride, I came across two ladies who had recently crashed. And I um stopped to assist them, and another guy pulled over to assist them as well. And this guy, George, was from New Zealand, and I was like, Oh, we're going. And we started having this conversation, and he said, Do you have a place to stay? And I said, No. And he said, Here's my wife's card, contact her. And I ended up contacting her, and they uh they offered us to stay at their place, and um, so we did. We stayed with them in Topah.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

That's amazing. And then you it sounded like you also borrowed Stacy's bike or you borrowed the bike from there.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Yes, yes. So I reached out to Stacy and said, Hey, I don't, I really don't want to fly with my bike. We're going on vacation afterwards. Um, do you know of anybody who might have a bike I could borrow or even a bike shop that I could, you know, rent from? And she said, You can borrow my bike. I'm not riding it. And so we're the we are literally the same size.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

I I find when when I heard this story, I found it amazing that there was such serendipity between your flat tire and your your tire issue, and then you were delayed. And because you were delayed, then this experience happened, and you were probably a little annoyed that you couldn't go out and that you wanted to go out and it ruined your day. And you now you're like you didn't get the great start that you wanted. And then you approach these two women that have just collided and had an accident, and that probably set things right for you as far as, well, thank goodness, you know, I'm you know, not a part of this. And then then all of a sudden, George comes through, and you have this incredible opportunity to meet somebody who just happens to live in the place that you're going to in a remote part of New Zealand that there's not a lot of lodging that you could stay at. And he offers to have you stay there.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

I mean, that's just amazing. Well, and the other amazing part of it was because I was there in the afternoon, my husband came with me. So when I had gone out in the morning, I drove myself, went out there, drove myself because of the timing. And and he took me to the bike shop because he was in the parking lot replacing my tire when we got a new one. And so we were halfway already to where I was going to be riding my bike. He said, I'll just go with you. I'll be at the coffee shop, you ride your bike, and then you know, I'll just hang out and read. So he was down the street with the van and was able to come with the van and pick up these ladies and their bikes, who they were okay, but they were in no position to get back on their bicycles. And so that is even another component of that story that's just like I mean, you you it's it's beyond coincidence.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

You were their angels and George and Stacy were your angels. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, because like what would those women have done? And you said George was the only one who stopped.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

He was the only one who stopped.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

George was the only one who stopped. Yep, yeah. That that that whole story is so like awe-inspiring. And I just have to tell you, when you mentioned that you qualified for Iron Man, I just got like the chills through me when you said that, because it's just you hear about it. Even somebody who is not athletic has heard about Iron Man, has heard about what it is and what it entails. And I probably was around when it was created. So then the first time I heard about it, it was like, what? These people are crazy. Because I grew up in Massachusetts and I was right by the Boston Marathon. We lived it, we lived by it. I've seen it been raced many times, and it's just, you know, and then it's like, okay, well, they do that, and then they do these other things too. And it it's just it's mind-blowing what a person can do once they set their intentions to do.

SPEAKER_00 40:07

Yeah, it really is. I mean, it really is the slogan of Iron Man is anything is possible, and it is such an incredible slogan because it's true. It's like once you open up the idea of this might be possible for me, like there really is anything really is possible. It's just like our mind kind of shuts down. Oh no, that couldn't be. Like I couldn't do that. That's not possible for me. And what I love really about even the story and reflecting on all of it, um, reflecting on all of it, like starting my journey, and then even the qualifying for this race was like there had to be this seed of there was a seed of desire, and then this like, oh no, that couldn't be possible. And then somebody telling me, yes, you can do this, this is possible. And then that would just open up that, huh? Is it really like could it be possible? And then going after that, like if it could be possible, then maybe I want to try. Like that would just be so incredible. So what happens with so many of us if we're just like, that's not possible. And if we just decide that's not possible, we just close off. I mean, it makes sense, right? We close off the possibility. We don't even give ourselves the chance. But but being able to see, oh, other people are doing this. Oh, if you think it's possible, and that really my my first coach, he's the one who told me, yes, it is possible you could go to New Zealand. I knew I wanted it, but I didn't really believe it was possible. And then once I was like, oh, well, maybe it is, then it opens up the door for more possibilities and more possibilities. And it's that I can see that all the way back to my first triathlon, which is where I was like, I wonder if I could do a sprint triathlon. I don't know. And that was like that seed of possibility. So what's so fun for me is just to see what the possibility is. And if you have that desire for anything in your life, no matter what it is, it you have that desire for a reason. And then like the things the things can come together and you just watch it come together, hopefully without a um, without holding on to the timeline, because obviously, you know, I qualified in August of 2019, and you know, it's 20 December of 2024 before I actually did the race. But it makes it, I mean, to me, it just makes it even that much better and more appreciative, like the just the the gratitude and the just amazingness of being there was magnified by so much because of the journey. If it was just like, oh, I wasn't really sure, and then I qualified and then I went and like, yeah, it would still be great, but it wouldn't, it wouldn't have just the depth that it had itself. So yeah. All right, I think this is a great place to wrap up part one of our discussion. I know Shelby has many more questions uh for me, which we will um explore next week in part two. So if you have enjoyed this discussion, if you want to know, uh if you're curious about uh where Shelby's gonna go next with the questions, I'm curious. So uh tune in next week and uh we'll talk some more. So Shelby, thank you for your um your curiosity. And one of the things I was thinking about when you were talking earlier is, and one of the things that has been so fun for me is you have really highlighted um like you've highlighted the importance of this event, the kind of and really helped me to kind of celebrate the accomplishment, not only of the the race itself, but also the book and all of these things. And it really has helped me slow down and take it in and say, yes, it really is a big deal. I really am excited, I am proud. Um, like it you have helped me um let it land and really savor it and savor the moment. And what I had not realized until literally I just said that sentence, my word of the year in 2024 was savor. So I love that. It's like that invitation, like you really gave me the opportunity, and even through this conversation that we had, and the one we'll have next week, really gives me the opportunity to savor the experience. So um, that has been a gift for that's what I wanted for you.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

That's what I wanted for you because it's so momentous, and I didn't want you to just pick up your life and I know how busy you are, and I didn't want you to just get home and be like, okay, it's done, let's get to the next thing. And I was just so interested. And I'm like, if we could blend these two desires together, something special come out of it.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

That's so great. I I really appreciate the suggestion because I would have just been like, okay, uh, on the on the to-do list is a podcast with a recap. And so um I uh I just I think it's great. So tune in next week. We will continue our conversation. Until then, we'll see you then. Did you hear I just wrote a book, The Binge Eating Breakthrough. And I've decided to host the binge eating breakthrough book experience to make sure that you get this book and it doesn't become another form of help. Join me for seven weeks, guided support, and you discover my willpower is a cancer, my fire, and my understanding is great and body about insight. Not only in the book, but through. We start on February 5th, and I would love to see you there. Sign up today at janefilker.com forward slash book.