“I became involved with sports at a very young age. I am the youngest of eight children, so playing endless hours outside in the country fields of Belleview, Wisconsin, while running and biking everywhere across God's green earth was simply a "way of life" for a little country girl that grew up next to her Grandma and Grandpa's farm.

  

My first of many organized sports began with softball at a local park, about 3 miles from my home.  Riding my bike daily to the park was nothing unusual, and today I joke that this was my first of many “long training sessions” for my racing!  As I grew, I developed my skills as a volleyball and basketball player as well - and although team sports were wonderful, my real interest lay in the physical prowess and pure beauty of gymnastics.  My first idol was Mary Lou Retton.  I can still remember watching her gold medal performance during the summer games in 1984, and I wanted to emulate everything about her.  From her leaps to her twists, to her back-handsprings, Mary Lou was America's sweetheart and I would be just like her one day!

  

As I grew up, I admired my brothers and sisters as any younger sibling would.  I noticed they all ran Cross Country and Track, and success was nothing unusual to our clan.  Even though I was many years behind in age, I knew I too would follow in their foot steps.  This decision to move towards running pleased my parents to the highest degree as running is such a relatively inexpensive sport compared to the costs of gymnastics!

 

Success quickly followed my running career in high school, and as I began looking into colleges I soon realized I wanted to run for the college of my choice as well.  I found myself actively looking into a couple schools with outstanding running programs and was in-turn pursued as well.  I found myself falling in love with the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse for not only its tradition of excellence on the sports field, but also its many degrees offered in the sports arena. 

 

Upon graduating I was commissioned as an officer in the US Army. I knew I wanted to continue running as much as possible but I also found myself wanting to do more.  In walked triathlon!  Biking was never a difficulty for me, but that swim...man, I had to learn the absolute basics at the ripe age of 24!  After finding a good coach, I entered 1 or 2 sprint triathlons, but my eyes were set on the grand-daddy of them all, the Ironman.

 

One afternoon while I was at my desk in Germany I skimmed the web pages of some of the European Ironman triathlons.  Ironman Switzerland was only 2 weeks away and still had slots available.  Doing the unthinkable I thought, “I can do this!” and pulled out the credit card…the rest is history.  Something I recommend to others?  Heavens, NO!!!

 

As the years have passed, I started to cultivate my cycling and swimming and started racing seriously in triathlon.  This has been such an incredible journey and their really is NO finish line. I’m a professional now and sometimes pinch myself because I’m truly living the dream. It’s an everyday adventure and soulful process.  Pieces of me get torn away from my core daily, but are replaced with knowledge, confidence, happiness and purpose.

 

To this day, I have entered hundreds of competitions and have seen numerous outcomes arise. My intentions in the sport of triathlon are to inspire others, race at the best physical level my body allows and believe that anything is possible.  I will race until my body tells me to stop, or it isn’t fun anymore.  I’m very committed to everything I do in my life - especially in my sport. I want to be the best in the world and it requires 100% commitment every day.”