I showed up to the Boulder Ironman on
June 10th 2018 ready to swim 2.4 miles
ready to bike 112 miles and ready to run
26.2 miles all within 17 hours what I
wasn’t ready for we’re all the things
that were about to go wrong with my day
but I had a lot of help from people that
were there for me that day and I’m gonna
tell you about that but I just want you
to know that this journey was not a
journey alone it was a journey with a
team and I could not have gotten through
it without those people I was born with
ten fingers and ten toes
obviously I’ve lost a couple along the
way but it has never slowed me down I
grew up playing sports riding horses
being very active but I remember being
at my aunt Linda’s house and seeing a
poster of an Ironman competition on her
wall and I looked at that poster and I
saw those distances that I just told you
about and I said even though I’m an
active girl there is no way but I could
ever be as badass as my Aunt Linda doing
that race whether a period of my life in
my 20s when I wasn’t very active the
most exercise I got was waiting tables
at Red Lobster which during endless
shrimp is actually a lot of exercise for
the record
so that dream that I had had was
obviously something that had gone
dormant for that period of my life I
moved to Denver in 2013 my friend
Jessica convinced me to walk a local
race with her and I did and while we
were walking I saw the runners and I
wanted to be them I wanted to be a
runner with my husband’s help he happens
to make legs for a living how convenient
is that with his help I got a running
specific prosthesis so that I could
start running I had been casually biking
so I started biking a little bit more I
started swimming
I had swam as a child but only casually
never on a team and I put those all
together and I did my first triathlon it
was a short distance triathlon it took
me under two hours but I quickly
realized that that dream that I had had
that thought about my Aunt Linda maybe
it wasn’t impossible I engaged coach
Mark Sortino
to help me in my triathlon journey we
worked together for a few years and he
helped me get to some different personal
records and doing some longer distance
races I did to half Iron Man’s which is
half the distance that I talked about
the beginning and ultimately felt like I
was ready to take that leap and believe
in myself and tackle the Ironman five
years after I started running coach Mark
helped get me to that point I showed up
to the race I was super excited my
friend Sasha was my leg handler for the
day she when I asked her to be my
handler to commit her whole day to
helping me she acted like I was doing
her a favor she was doing me a favor but
she acted as if I was doing her the
favor because she was so excited to be
part of the journey and to be helping me
through that journey that she was
ecstatic
she used to race Ironman so this was a
way for her to get back into it carrying
my legs around all day the gun went off
I started to swim the swim went great I
held back so that I would have enough
energy for the rest of the day ahead of
me I came out of the water ahead of plan
sasha helped me get out of the water I
swim without a leg so she helps me get
to my leg get my leg on get to my bike I
got on my bike everything was going
beautifully it was a beautiful morning I
could tell I was gonna get hot it wasn’t
hot yet though and everything was gonna
go perfectly
this was my day I’m on the bike
everything was going perfectly until
mile 24 when my bike decided it was no
longer going to shift gears for anyone
who’s ridden a bike with gears that’s a
big deal the gear I was stuck in was one
that would be ideal for a slight
downhill
maybe flat has anyone been to Boulder is
it flat so mile 24 I had a choice and I
asked myself Emily are you gonna quit
now just because you can’t shift gears
and it’s gonna be really hard to ride 88
more miles are you gonna do it your
friend Nicole to Boone says and make it
work and I decided then in there I was
gonna make it work it took a lot of
positive self-talk to keep me going
Emily you are badass Emily you can do
this a lot of negative talk towards my
bike you are not gonna ruin my day bike
but I got halfway through the bike so I
was at my lofty six and I saw sasha
coach mark and my friend Becky on the
sidelines and I waved them over they’re
telling me I’m doing great keep going
and I’m in tears I can’t do this anymore
I cannot ride another 56 miles without
being able to change gears just being
fueled on my strength and energy alone I
need you to tell
I can do it so coach mark yelled at me
she said Emily you can do it
think about those six our trainer rides
you did this winter you can do this I
found out later she wasn’t sure if I
could do it but he told me what I needed
to hear
so using that energy I powered through
another 56 miles at this point it was in
the high 90s people were pulled over
under trees I drank so much Gatorade I
still can’t drink Gatorade but I kept me
fueled it kept me hydrated and I got
through the bike took me longer than
expected took me more energy than
expected but I did it I then went to the
transition station and found Sasha and
she was gonna help me switch into my
running gear including my running leg my
running leg has a shoe sole on the
bottom of it so I don’t wear a left shoe
when I run but I started I wanted to
start walking because the day had been
so rough so I wanted to walk a couple of
miles before I started to run I put on
my walking leg I put on my right shoe I
realized I didn’t have a left shoe Sasha
who had been carrying my legs around all
day and taking pictures with them
realized that we wore the same shoes as
shoe size so she without even hesitating
pulls her shoes off her feet gives them
to me to wear and puts her water shoes
on so that she can walk two miles with
me in her water shoes without Sasha I
probably would have just panicked and I
don’t even know what I would have done
but Sasha was there for me she gave me
her shoes off her feet and we set off on
the run together at a walking pace Sasha
stuck with me for a while I eventually
switched over to my running leg in my
own right shoe gave her her shoes back
and the day had gotten hotter I was
really feeling like can I do this
I don’t know I already fought through
that bike ride but can i really get
through this run and then this guy Steve
and I started leapfrogging
passing each other we eventually started
running together side by side not even
talking we eventually started talking
about what tree or trashcan we were
gonna run to before we took another walk
break but that’s pretty much the extent
of my conversation with Steve Steve and
I together got to the last mile of the
race in that moment we were almost there
we’re in like the final two turns my
coach comes flying around the corner
from the other direction I like you are
not going to make it you have to sprint
do you’ve had more time to finish the
race than I did because you started
later so don’t worry about Steve leave
Steve but I took coach Mark’s energy and
I did sprint and I got her on the next
corner there’s coach mark again I hear
Emily no 15 seconds I’m stuff from here
in the back of the room from the end
turns out he said I had a minute in 15
seconds
misses a minute part
yeah so I sprint my plan when I started
this race was to have a party at the
finish line
get a personal record in high fives
high-five everybody get great pictures
I’m great at getting at finish line race
photos I do this like classic double
thumbs up thing so what happened for
this race I
oh yeah there it is there is my finish
line photo that is possibly the worst
photo of media will ever see and I am
now broadcasting it to all of you but
because of the people that helped me get
where I was the people who helped me
that day everyone around me that
supported me I was able to use their
energy and their actual giving their
shoes off their feet to me to be able to
accomplish that goal that I never
thought was possible when I first saw my
aunt Linda’s posters and I now get to
so what I want to leave you all with is
a challenge for you to think about how
you perceive help not just how you
perceive asking for help but how do you
perceive giving in how do you feel when
someone else asks you for help why not
be that person that asks for the help
and then you’re opening up that that
vulnerability and that ability to ask
each other for help and then maybe you
can even achieve dreams that you believe
are impossible for you thank you [Applause]
June 10th 2018 ready to swim 2.4 miles
ready to bike 112 miles and ready to run
26.2 miles all within 17 hours what I
wasn’t ready for we’re all the things
that were about to go wrong with my day
but I had a lot of help from people that
were there for me that day and I’m gonna
tell you about that but I just want you
to know that this journey was not a
journey alone it was a journey with a
team and I could not have gotten through
it without those people I was born with
ten fingers and ten toes
obviously I’ve lost a couple along the
way but it has never slowed me down I
grew up playing sports riding horses
being very active but I remember being
at my aunt Linda’s house and seeing a
poster of an Ironman competition on her
wall and I looked at that poster and I
saw those distances that I just told you
about and I said even though I’m an
active girl there is no way but I could
ever be as badass as my Aunt Linda doing
that race whether a period of my life in
my 20s when I wasn’t very active the
most exercise I got was waiting tables
at Red Lobster which during endless
shrimp is actually a lot of exercise for
the record
so that dream that I had had was
obviously something that had gone
dormant for that period of my life I
moved to Denver in 2013 my friend
Jessica convinced me to walk a local
race with her and I did and while we
were walking I saw the runners and I
wanted to be them I wanted to be a
runner with my husband’s help he happens
to make legs for a living how convenient
is that with his help I got a running
specific prosthesis so that I could
start running I had been casually biking
so I started biking a little bit more I
started swimming
I had swam as a child but only casually
never on a team and I put those all
together and I did my first triathlon it
was a short distance triathlon it took
me under two hours but I quickly
realized that that dream that I had had
that thought about my Aunt Linda maybe
it wasn’t impossible I engaged coach
Mark Sortino
to help me in my triathlon journey we
worked together for a few years and he
helped me get to some different personal
records and doing some longer distance
races I did to half Iron Man’s which is
half the distance that I talked about
the beginning and ultimately felt like I
was ready to take that leap and believe
in myself and tackle the Ironman five
years after I started running coach Mark
helped get me to that point I showed up
to the race I was super excited my
friend Sasha was my leg handler for the
day she when I asked her to be my
handler to commit her whole day to
helping me she acted like I was doing
her a favor she was doing me a favor but
she acted as if I was doing her the
favor because she was so excited to be
part of the journey and to be helping me
through that journey that she was
ecstatic
she used to race Ironman so this was a
way for her to get back into it carrying
my legs around all day the gun went off
I started to swim the swim went great I
held back so that I would have enough
energy for the rest of the day ahead of
me I came out of the water ahead of plan
sasha helped me get out of the water I
swim without a leg so she helps me get
to my leg get my leg on get to my bike I
got on my bike everything was going
beautifully it was a beautiful morning I
could tell I was gonna get hot it wasn’t
hot yet though and everything was gonna
go perfectly
this was my day I’m on the bike
everything was going perfectly until
mile 24 when my bike decided it was no
longer going to shift gears for anyone
who’s ridden a bike with gears that’s a
big deal the gear I was stuck in was one
that would be ideal for a slight
downhill
maybe flat has anyone been to Boulder is
it flat so mile 24 I had a choice and I
asked myself Emily are you gonna quit
now just because you can’t shift gears
and it’s gonna be really hard to ride 88
more miles are you gonna do it your
friend Nicole to Boone says and make it
work and I decided then in there I was
gonna make it work it took a lot of
positive self-talk to keep me going
Emily you are badass Emily you can do
this a lot of negative talk towards my
bike you are not gonna ruin my day bike
but I got halfway through the bike so I
was at my lofty six and I saw sasha
coach mark and my friend Becky on the
sidelines and I waved them over they’re
telling me I’m doing great keep going
and I’m in tears I can’t do this anymore
I cannot ride another 56 miles without
being able to change gears just being
fueled on my strength and energy alone I
need you to tell
I can do it so coach mark yelled at me
she said Emily you can do it
think about those six our trainer rides
you did this winter you can do this I
found out later she wasn’t sure if I
could do it but he told me what I needed
to hear
so using that energy I powered through
another 56 miles at this point it was in
the high 90s people were pulled over
under trees I drank so much Gatorade I
still can’t drink Gatorade but I kept me
fueled it kept me hydrated and I got
through the bike took me longer than
expected took me more energy than
expected but I did it I then went to the
transition station and found Sasha and
she was gonna help me switch into my
running gear including my running leg my
running leg has a shoe sole on the
bottom of it so I don’t wear a left shoe
when I run but I started I wanted to
start walking because the day had been
so rough so I wanted to walk a couple of
miles before I started to run I put on
my walking leg I put on my right shoe I
realized I didn’t have a left shoe Sasha
who had been carrying my legs around all
day and taking pictures with them
realized that we wore the same shoes as
shoe size so she without even hesitating
pulls her shoes off her feet gives them
to me to wear and puts her water shoes
on so that she can walk two miles with
me in her water shoes without Sasha I
probably would have just panicked and I
don’t even know what I would have done
but Sasha was there for me she gave me
her shoes off her feet and we set off on
the run together at a walking pace Sasha
stuck with me for a while I eventually
switched over to my running leg in my
own right shoe gave her her shoes back
and the day had gotten hotter I was
really feeling like can I do this
I don’t know I already fought through
that bike ride but can i really get
through this run and then this guy Steve
and I started leapfrogging
passing each other we eventually started
running together side by side not even
talking we eventually started talking
about what tree or trashcan we were
gonna run to before we took another walk
break but that’s pretty much the extent
of my conversation with Steve Steve and
I together got to the last mile of the
race in that moment we were almost there
we’re in like the final two turns my
coach comes flying around the corner
from the other direction I like you are
not going to make it you have to sprint
do you’ve had more time to finish the
race than I did because you started
later so don’t worry about Steve leave
Steve but I took coach Mark’s energy and
I did sprint and I got her on the next
corner there’s coach mark again I hear
Emily no 15 seconds I’m stuff from here
in the back of the room from the end
turns out he said I had a minute in 15
seconds
misses a minute part
yeah so I sprint my plan when I started
this race was to have a party at the
finish line
get a personal record in high fives
high-five everybody get great pictures
I’m great at getting at finish line race
photos I do this like classic double
thumbs up thing so what happened for
this race I
oh yeah there it is there is my finish
line photo that is possibly the worst
photo of media will ever see and I am
now broadcasting it to all of you but
because of the people that helped me get
where I was the people who helped me
that day everyone around me that
supported me I was able to use their
energy and their actual giving their
shoes off their feet to me to be able to
accomplish that goal that I never
thought was possible when I first saw my
aunt Linda’s posters and I now get to
so what I want to leave you all with is
a challenge for you to think about how
you perceive help not just how you
perceive asking for help but how do you
perceive giving in how do you feel when
someone else asks you for help why not
be that person that asks for the help
and then you’re opening up that that
vulnerability and that ability to ask
each other for help and then maybe you
can even achieve dreams that you believe
are impossible for you thank you [Applause]
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