TriDot Podcast .199

The Toughest Race: Triathletes Overcoming Cancer

Intro:This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile,combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize yourtraining, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Ourpodcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all thingstriathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation andlet’s improve together.

 

Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot podcast! We have almost 200 episodes of our showout there in the wild, and we've had a lot of great conversations over thattime. But today's will be a little bit more meaningful a conversation thannormal. We are joined by two triathletes whose endurance sport journeys havebeen affected by cancer. And both now have ways of giving back to othersimpacted by this disease. Our first athlete joining us for this is JaysonWilliams. Jayson is the founder of the Fxck Cancer Endurance Club, with amission to fight cancer by raising awareness and educate about early cancerdetection. Jayson is a biomedical engineer who works full-time in the medicalfield. He raced his first Ironman in 2015 with an Fxck Cancer logo all over hisbike, and ever since he's been participating in endurance sports on behalf ofthe Fxck Cancer Foundation. Jayson, very honored to have you on this show forthis episode. How's it going today?

 

Jayson Williams: Thank you so much for having me, by the way,I'm super honored to be here. Everything's great. I'm in Lake Tahoe, I can'tcomplain.

 

Andrew:Also with us, but probably not in Lake Tahoe, is TriDot coach and Pool Schoolcoach, Brandy Ramirez. Brandy's passion is to empower women and young girls,and as such, she's the president and CEO of SheStrong Inc. She's the founderand race director of the Monarch Triathlon Super Half, which funds scholarshipsfor girls whose primary caregiver faced cancer. Brandy is a cancer survivorherself, and has been coaching with TriDot since 2018. Brandy welcome back tothe show!

 

Brandy Ramirez: Thank you so much, Andrew! I love being herewith you guys, so thank you for having me!

 

Andrew:Last time you were here we were talking about yoga, so this is a very differentepisode, but still a very good one here today. Well, I'm Andrew the AverageTriathlete, Voice of the People and Captain of the Middle of the Pack. Asalways, we'll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main setconversation, and then wind things down with Vanessa interviewing a TriDotcoach for our cooldown tip of the week.

 

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Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

 

Andrew:The more you race, the more opportunity your friends, family, and tri communityhas to support you out on the course. That support can be as simple as cheeringfor you as you run by, or it can be as elaborate as their creativity can makeit. For our warmup question today, what is the most memorable thing one of yourrace supporters has done for you while racing? Coach Brandy?

 

Brandy:Back in 2008 when I started my triathlon journey, I never had anything specialon the race course. Time and time again I'd go out and race, and I'd see allthese awesome signs. When I raced Oceanside, a woman had a sign that said,"Don't worry, if you pass out, I'll pause your Garmin." I thoughtthat was hilarious. Years and years go by, and I had nothing. Then I attemptedAlaska, and I had my oldest daughter who was 22, and my youngest who was 8, andthey surprised me with big signs, "Go Mom!", "My mom's anIronman", all this stuff. And that was actually my first DNF, so maybe Ididn't need the signs.

 

Andrew:I'm glad, Brandy, that you can look back and kind of giggle at the humor ofthat, the one time your supporters pull out all the stops and give you thosewonderful "Go Mom!" signs, and it's the one race you weren't quiteable to reach that finish line. So next time they'll have to double up and makethe signs even bigger. Jayson, what is this answer for you?

 

Jayson:That's a good question. So I have a very, very amazing and loving wife thatlets me go out on long runs and training bike rides, and I will have to saythat there was a race that I thought I was going to be doing by myself. I droveup here and did – well, it wasn't called Santa Rosa at the time, it was calledVineman before Ironman purchased it – and I was racing, and I got off the bike.It was a long bike, I had three flats, I was just struggling. I come around thefirst corner, and there was my daughter and my wife with a big sign – I had noidea they were in Northern California – and it said, "We love you Daddy,you've got this!" because this was my first 140.3. I was just over themoon, and it gave me that strength or a second wind, and I ended up finishingfine. But I was just down in the dumps, and then I came around that bend andit's like, "Oh my gosh, my wife!" Oh, and my dad was there too, so itwas really cool. That was my favorite one.

 

Andrew:There, the gesture sounds fairly simple, but it seems like the unexpectednessof them even being there when you weren't expecting that is what gave you thatlift.

 

Jayson:Oh it was amazing. I was in shock, and I just hugged him and kissed him and Iwas like, "Okay dad, I'll be back in four and a half hours."

 

Brandy:That's wonderful.

 

Andrew:The one story I'll say here, it was a little bit extra special. So my firstIronman, Ironman Waco, people in our audience have heard about me doing thatrace before. But what they might not have heard is, I had a new kit. TriDot hadjust put out a bright red race kit. Before that, all of our tri kits wereusually black-based with a couple of red accents. But I like being bright andloud and having a splash of color in my stuff. So the company at the time thatwas producing our kits, mailed me one specifically that I could do Ironman Wacoin, because they knew I wanted that bright red kit. But it did not make it toour doorstep before I had to leave for Waco. Shout out to TriDot athlete TroyTalley, he lives in Oklahoma, and he was racing the half-Ironman the day afterthe full. So on his way down from Oklahoma, he swung by my front stoop inFlatland, Texas, got back on the highway, and brought it to our rental house inWaco so that I could race in that bright red, really sharp-looking TriDot kit.Thank you so much, Troy. That is not a mid-race way, but a different way that somebodyreally supported me along the way. Guys, we're going to throw this question outto you, our audience, like we always do. Make sure you're a part of the I AM TriDot Facebook group.Every single Monday, when our new show comes out, I post the warmup questionout to you, our audience. I love reading the responses, and I'm excited to see,of all the races you've done, what was the most meaningful thing that someonehas done to support you?

 

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

 

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Simplyput, cancer is a horrible disease that affects far too many people. In theendurance sports community, we certainly have training partners and race-daycompetitors who have fought or are fighting cancer currently. So today, Iwanted to have a chat about the intersection between the battle against cancer,and the triathlon community. If you are an athlete in our audience and you areliving in that intersection right now, we see you, we love you, and we're goingto learn from Jayson and Coach Brandy how we can support you today. Jayson, Iwant to start today with your story, with the creation of the Fxck CancerEndurance Club. Your first triathlon was a half-Ironman, and you didn't evensign yourself up for it. Tell us how you ended up on the start line of yourfirst tri.

 

Jayson:Just a little backstory, I'm a college athlete, grew up playing sports my wholelife. But when I went into the medical field, it was wining and dining all thetime, seven days a week. So I'd gotten up to a healthy 200, 225 pounds. I wentfrom 130 to about 225 real quick, and my boss came up to me and said,"You're in the medical profession. We need to tone this down a little bit,and get a little healthier." She's like, "I'm going to sign you upfor something, you've got to trust me." I was like, "Okay." So Iwent home that night, and I had an email from Ironman that I was signed up forHonu 70.3. I called her and I said, "What the heck is this? I've neverswum a lap in my whole life!"

 

Andrew:"What have you done to me?"

 

Jayson:"What have you done?" Like Brandy, I grew up surfing, I skateboarded.I've been on bikes, but I'd never been on a road bike, and I never ran morethan I had to in soccer. So she's like, "I got you."

 

Brandy:And Honu for the first!

 

Jayson:Well, I didn't even know what an Ironman was. So she started training me, andin three months I lost 80 pounds, because I cut out all the junk. I startedeating right. One of the biggest things I did was I stopped drinking soda. Ijust started drinking water instead. Because I learned from my medical stuffthat when you feel hungry, you're actually thirsty, you're dehydrated. So Ijust filled up with water instead, and I lost a bunch of weight just from that.So I crossed the finish line at Honu, and my time was like 5:30 or somethinglike that.

 

Andrew:Yeah, not bad, not too shabby!

 

Jayson:I was happy, it was a great race. I caught the bug. My boss did it too. She wasthere with me, because she's an Ironman, and she looked at me and goes,"What's next?" "I want to do a full!" She goes, "Okay,which full do you want to do?" I was like, "I think Ironman Tahoe isin a couple months." I think everybody remembers the 2013 Ironman Tahoe.

 

Andrew:I've heard of it. Wasn't it horrendously difficult?

 

Jayson:It snowed the night before I think, and it was very, very cold. So leading upto it, my boss stopped showing up for training days, and it was one of thosethings like, "Oh okay, she's not feeling well." Her daughter had justbeen diagnosed with throat cancer. I was like, "Oh, I'm going to race forher." Orange County, where I lived at the time, I got a Fxck Cancersticker and just threw it on my bike. My boss wasn't feeling well, so I went tothe race by myself. I did the race – it was a very, very long 16½-hour day, Ihave a huge respect for all those athletes that are out finishing at the veryend – I crossed the finish line, and my wife, who was my girlfriend at thetime, came up and said, "You need to take this call". It was myboss's spouse, and he said, "She's so proud of you, she watched you crossthe finish line." I said, "Awesome, can I talk to her?" He said,"She died five minutes ago."

 

Brandy:Oh my gosh.

 

Jayson:And I'm like, "What do you mean?" And he said, "She's beenfighting cancer, Jayson. She didn't want to freak you out and bother you withwork and triathlon training, so she watched you cross the finish line and oneof her last words were, 'Tell Jayson I'm proud.'"

 

Brandy:Oh jeez.

 

Jayson:So when I came home, I started emailing. I went to the www.fuckcancer.org website, and I started emailing and emailing,"Please, I want to be part of this, what can I do?" I started raisingmoney by myself and just sending it to them. Then in 2016 they finally reachedback out to me, because they get millions of emails a day, and the founderfinally said, "I'm so sorry we didn't see this earlier, let's see what wecan do." I don't know, I'm this little triathlete, I just thought maybetwenty people. So I reached out to Wattie Ink and told them what had happened.Sean English had just been diagnosed with cancer at that time, and Wattie goes,"I want to be part of this, we're going to help you out, Jayson." Sohe threw Heather Jackson a pink camo kit, like a running outfit, that said,"Fxck Cancer" on it, and within 24 hours we had 900 people signed upfor the team. That was all thanks to Wattie and Heather Jackson. So now we'reat year five. Covid hurt, everybody knows, it hurt the whole triathloncommunity. So we're right now about 700, and about eleven countries, so we'redoing pretty well.

 

Andrew:If your coach could see you now, and she could see the impact that working withyou, and helping you reach your own first finish line, and lighting thattriathlon fire in you – the way you've given that back over and over again toyour community, the cancer community, and the Fxck Cancer community – if shewas that proud of you for finish line number one, there's no words for howproud I'm sure she would be. I just want to express that. Brandy, I know at theraces, I'm sure you've seen the Fxck Cancer kits out on course. Did you knowany of that origin story behind the group?

 

Brandy:No, I had no idea. You know, cancer is one of those things that, unless itdirectly affects you, it's just something you don't really see. For me, racing,things like that, the Fxck Cancer kits, that was nothing that I ever saw. Butthe second you get that diagnosis, or the second you have somebody in yourfamily that gets that diagnosis, all of a sudden you really start seeing it,and seeing it everywhere. I do know Steve Irvine, we were in St. Georgetogether, and he rocks one of those. We were in the same house together, sothat sparked a good conversation for us.

 

Andrew:How has the group evolved from there? What does the Fxck Cancer athletecommunity do to support one another at the races?

 

Jayson:That's a great question, because we've become like a family almost. We have aprivate team page that a lot of people, when they or a family member getdiagnosed, we have a spot for them to do a video. We had a girl once justscream the F word for five minutes, because she was diagnosed with breastcancer. We had a wife of one of our athletes just get diagnosed after he wasdiagnosed, so they did a video together, talking about having cancer, and theirchemo, and their medical treatments together. We've become a family, a placewhere people just feel safe, and they can come together. You go out in therace, and I can't tell you how many times we're at a race and someone goes,"Where can I get that shirt?" or that hat, or a sticker, or whatever.I tell everybody, "If you just go to fuckcancer.org, you can order whatever you want."Everything's a hundred percent donation. I donate, I think I do 700 hours ayear. There's a lot of people that donate time. Our athletes, when you join theteam – it's not mandatory, but we ask you to try to raise as much money as youcan. We've been in the $100,000 to $150,000 range the last couple of years.

 

Brandy:Wow, that's impressive.

 

Andrew:That's really cool. Where are those donations going towards?

 

Jayson:It goes towards the Fxck Cancer Foundation. So what we do is we do experiences.We call it our "Dying to Live Dreams VIP Experiences". On theendurance side, we take a cancer fighter and their entire family to Kona for afull VIP experience for a week. So you get to experience the whole week beforeKona. You get to go to some of the pre-parties. You get to go to the"Thank God I'm Not Racing" party put on by Bob Babbitt. Athletes areavailable, pro athletes will do meet and greets. We give you a kit to wear thewhole week. The person that goes, they actually get to reveal the next year'skit. So people walk around and go, "Wait, what kit is that, I haven't seenthat one before?" It's like, "Of course you haven't, because it wasjust revealed today." And we have a videographer and a photographer thatdoes a full shoot with them. If they want to bring their bike, they can, sothey'll have swim, bike, run photos for themselves that they never thought thatthey would get. Also we have the Disneylands, the concerts. We go to a lot ofthe big rock concerts, and we have people go on stage, get to the backstage,they get to meet a lot of the big artists. One of our biggest supporters isFive Finger Death Punch, and Rob Zombie. We have a lot of people like that whosupport us and give us these experiences for people.

 

Andrew:Brandy, I want people to hear – you've been on the show before wearing yourcoaching hat. Now we're going to get into your story just a little bit. Yourfight against cancer started when you were diagnosed with breast cancer towardthe end of 2017. Tell us about your experience, from diagnosis to now beingcancer-free.

 

Brandy:Okay. So in October of 2017, I went in for my annual checkup with my gyno.Going into it, I kind of knew – I have a bachelors in science and health. I'mnot a doctor, but I know a little bit about a little bit. I definitely know mybody, and I know when my body is trying to tell me something. Probably about amonth prior to that, I was supposed to race Boulder in August of that year, andI just knew that I was super tired. So I went to my primary and I was like,"Hey, I want a CBC done. I'm super tired, I don't know what's going onwith me. Nothing's out of the ordinary." We do the CBC, there's somemarkers that are not right, but my white blood cells aren't really elevated. SoI just go on about my life, training and doing what I'm doing. So two daysafter I turn 42, I go in for my annual checkup. I'm just talking to my doctor,and she's asking questions. I had been running a low-grade fever for about amonth, and I was just treating it symptomatically, which means if it spiked andgot higher, I would take some Tylenol and reduce it. I didn't have a loss ofappetite, nothing else associated with it. I didn't have allergies, I wasn'tcongested. So she asked me about my fever, and I explained what had been doingon. Then as she started the breast exam – now mind you, I had just turned 42. Ihad four kids, I nursed all my children – she goes to touch my right breast,and she looks at me and says, "Do you feel that?" I said, "I donow." Then she said, "Have you been doing your breast exams?"And I said, "No, I just turned 42 years old." I was very young. Thenshe goes into my armpit and she was like, "We need to send you over for amammogram." I was like, "Okay." I remember walking out of thatoffice – and at the time, I was married – I went home, and I just told myhusband straight-out, "She found something, and I'm pretty sure I havebreast cancer." I instantly knew, right then and there, that something wasgoing on. So I went through the mammogram, and they couldn't find it. When itwas revealed, the lump in my breast was only 1.02 centimeters, very small, andvery high up by the chest wall, very far back. It was just a miracle she evenfound it on that exam. I met with my oncologist, who tells me, "Oh, you'rejust Stage 1, it's really super small. We can just go in there, scoop it out,and you're going to be okay." I kind of knew there was more to it thanthat. So then they sent me in, they put a marker in, and did a PET scan. ThePET scan comes back, and I have a 3.23-centimeter in my lymph node in my rightarm. So I went from a Stage 1 to a Stage 3.

 

Andrew:Wow.

 

Brandy:Yeah. Thankfully, because I knew a little bit about my body, I instantly toldhim, "I want to do aggressive chemotherapy, I want to do radiation, and Iwant a bilateral mastectomy." For me – I was 42, my youngest was onlythree years old – I didn't want to have to come back. I didn't want to have tofight this again, so I just wanted to hit it as hard as I possibly could. Iknew I was in good shape, I was just going to race a 70.3 a couple monthsbefore this. I just wanted to attack it, so that's pretty much what I did. Ican tell you, it was extremely hard for me, because my now-ex-husband at thetime, his father had just passed away in August from cancer, and his mother hadpassed away in '97 from cancer. So after we had buried his father in August, mythen-husband was in this, "I'm going to get cancer. I'm going to die fromcancer. My parents died from cancer." Then two months later I'm like,"Hey, your wife has Stage 3 cancer." My children – I've always beenvery involved with my children. They're all very athletic, and I've always beenthe primary caregiver for them, I’ve been to anything and everything they'veever done, I was there. I was lucky enough to be running my own business so Icould be with my children all the time. So there was a lot of stress andpressure where – I'm probably going to cry – I didn't feel at liberty to besick. I wasn't going to scare my kids, and at the time my husband was alreadyterrified. So in my home, I never came home and was like, "I'm sick, Idon't feel good," because it would scare the rest of my family. I rememberthe first day I did chemo, my son had just got the starting point guard on hiseighth grade basketball team. So I finished chemo at 3 o'clock, and I wascourtside at his game at 4:00 p.m. It was just very hard, not allowing yourselfto realize you're sick, because I had to protect my family.

 

Andrew:Yeah, it's almost a parallel between you expressing that sentiment, and thesimilar sentiment with Jayson – your original coach, who didn't want to botheryou, didn't want to bog you down, didn't want to weigh down your life with herbattle. Was that your first emotion when you first left that office and knew,"Okay, I probably have cancer"? Was your first emotion, "Let'sgo fight it," or was there an emotion that preceded that as you wrestledwith that news?

 

Brandy: No,it was instantly, "Let's fight." For me, I never gave myself theoption to just be like, "Oh, I'm not going to make it." That wasnever even a moment in my head. I knew I had cancer before my radiologist evencalled me. And I'm in a very small community, so of course my friends, thepeople in the hospital, I know them, and so everybody was just like, "OhBrandy!" And I was just like, "It's cancer, it's okay. I know it'scancer, I'm going to be fine." I told my children too, like, "Mommyhas cancer, but I'm not going to die. I may not go to all your games, I may bea little tired, I may be home. But don't worry, I'm not going to die. We'regoing to get through this." So it was instantly the fight mode.

 

Andrew:Jayson, I see you a little moved, hearing Brandy share her story. With theorganization you work with, and with the endurance club that you lead – youpersonally have not had cancer, but you've rubbed shoulders, and haverelationships with a tremendous amount of people who do – is every story uniqueto you? Does every story you come across move you that way? What is it like toconstantly be meeting people that are newly affected with that disease?

 

Jayson:You know, it's really hard, listening to Brandy's story. I was gettingemotional, because I hear them all the time. You probably know or have heard ofSean English, the race announcer. When he was diagnosed, we made him ourspokesperson. He was at every Kona with us, just saying it loud and proud, anddoing interviews with cancer fighters that were there racing. He was an amazingperson, and he became like a brother to me. I only knew him for four years, andI was there when he passed away. I went to his bedside, and I was there untilthey pulled the plug on him. It was just the hardest thing, and his family wasjust amazing to let me be there. Then there was another couple, Janeann Taubel,who was a huge Wattie Ink athlete -

 

Andrew:She's a TriDot athlete.

 

Jayson:Yeah. So I was supposed to take her and her wife and their kids to Kona, andshe passed away before we could take her. So I get close to these familiesbecause I love them all. I'm fighting this with them, I want to help them. If Ican put a smile on a cancer fighter's face for even a day, that's my job.That's my passion project, and that's why I love this team, and that's why Ilove this community. The tri community is just amazing. I didn't know itexisted until I did my first race, and I'm just proud to be part of it.

 

Andrew:I want to commend both of you – and Brandy, we'll get a little bit to what yourorganization does here in a minute – both of you sit in spots where you takethe time day after day, month after month, to sit with other people in theirgrief, and to more or less walk alongside other people while they're in themidst of their own struggles. Obviously sometimes the story doesn't go the waywe want it to. The journey ends with cancer more or less winning, and theathlete losing. But there are many times, thankfully, where we do beat cancer,and Brandy, you were one of those. What was the end result for you? When youwere officially declared to be cancer-free?

 

Brandy:Let's see, officially I was declared July 3rd of 2018. It was when I hadfinished my chemo, and finished my radiation. My surgery had already been done,and so at that time, I was told that I had no evidence of disease. Of coursethey tell you that you have to wait the first five years, so I actually justcelebrated my first five years this July 3rd.

 

Andrew:Awesome, that's so cool. At the time we're recording this, for peoplelistening, that is a week or so ago, that is very fresh. Congratulations,Brandy. I'm curious, Brandy, for you in that journey, at what point did youhave the idea of SheStrong Inc., and the SheStrong community that you've formedto give back to other people fighting cancer?

 

Brandy:When I met with my oncologist, he was really just a great guy. I remember himlooking at me and telling me he was going to have me BRCA tested. ThankfullyI'm BRCA negative, which means I did not pass that gene on to any of my kids.So I was like, "Okay, I'm going to be an example for my kids." I lostmy hair, I lost my boobs, but I remember telling my doctor, "Those are notwhat make me the woman that I am, so I don't care about that." I proudlyjust went around town with these little scraggly hairs on my head. I didn'tcover my head because I wasn't ashamed. This was my version of my journey. Ididn't feel like I needed to hide what I was going through, because I didn't doanything wrong. I tried to just be a strong example for my children. I rememberI was almost done with my radiation, and my energy levels started coming backup. I'm a triathlete, we have an off-season, so those energy levels startcoming back up, and I'm like, "I'm going to go for a run! I'm starting tofeel good!" So I went home, put on my shoes, and attempted to do just aone-mile run. It was a disaster. No joke, it was horrible. I didn't know whatmy body really had endured up to that point, because I think I was so focusedon fighting, and getting it done, and getting through it, that I wasn't reallypaying attention to how much my body was deteriorating. So I attempted thatrun, came home, had this huge, dramatic cry in the shower, like I could havewon an Oscar for it. When I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I just told myself,"Okay, I know how to start from the bottom. I know how to build myendurance, build my muscle, how to get myself back." So that is what I haddecided. "Okay, we're going to start at the bottom, we're going to startbuilding." That moment was when I had an epiphany, and I thought tomyself, "How many other women have done this?” Done exactly what I justdid - fought it, beat it, decided “Hey, I want to get strong again, and I wantto be healthy again,” went to whatever version of sport they went to – whetherit's yoga, or running, or whatever it is – and how many of them failed? Howmany of them don't know what I know, so they just gave up and decided, “This isme after cancer, so this is who I'm going to be.”? Right then in that moment Iwas like, "This is what my cancer journey is about.” It's about teachingthese women that you don't have to be your diagnosis. You don't have to be whoyou are when you're done with cancer. You can be better, you can be stronger,you can be faster, you can be anything you want to be. How many of them justneed somebody to tell them that? And that was when I created SheStrong.

 

Andrew:What impact have you seen that community have since you started it?

 

Joanna:I have had so many women – it started as just a private Facebook page, just twoor three women. It's up to 4,000 women now worldwide, and that's just from wordof mouth from these women, talking to each other. It's not just focused on thephysicalities of getting back and getting stronger. We target the emotion thatis there, the emotion that you need to talk about, you need to get it off yourchest. These women laugh and they're just like, "This is better thantherapy." There is one woman who I love to death, her first name is Mary.She's in her 60s, and she was in that group for a very long time. She wouldjust be like, "You guys are so motivating, you're so great, I lovethat." But this woman decided to finally start riding a bike, and sheposted in there, "I have never done anything athletically. All of youwomen have inspired me. I'm going to get on a bike." She started riding abike, a mile a day. She started increasing it, and she posts every day withevery training she does. She just competed in the Senior Olympics, a womanwho's never done sports her whole life. So for her to have that, and just belike, "You guys just motivated me so much, I just decided to get up andget on a bike." She was very nervous, she was posting, "I'm so scaredto go and do this, but I'm going to go do it!" She loves it! To see thatkind of impact on a woman who is a cancer survivor, that melts my heart, andthat's what this whole group is about.

 

Andrew:I absolutely love what you're doing, and the other thing that you do everysingle year now that I wanted to talk to you about – and it's fairly new,because in 2022 you started this – you are the race director for the MonarchSuper Half Triathlon, and that race is returning in September of this year.What special touches did you add to make this race unique, and what cause dothe proceeds go towards?

 

Joanna:Thank you for asking about this. This is something that's very near and dear tomy heart. That day that I decided to create SheStrong, I also saw myselfstanding in front of a bunch of women, doing a triathlon. I thought about it,pondered around it for a while, and last year I finally just pulled thetrigger. I was like, "I want to create the first ever all-female racethat's based around cancer." You can either race for yourself, or you canrace in honor of someone who's either battling, or has lost their battle tocancer. I created a special distance. They swim a mile in the river, and thenthey bike from Bullhead City to Kingman, Arizona, which is 47 miles, then theydo a seven-mile run. It's the first distance of its kind, and last year was thefirst time ever in the history of that highway that anyone's ever raced on abike from Bullhead City to Kingman, so that was very special for me. Coming upwith the name of the race was special. Every part is special, but coming upwith the name of it, I really was thinking about how I could show how my canceraffected me. For me, going through losing my hair, having a bilateralmastectomy, being thrown into menopause at the age of 42, I very much was thisugly duckling. That's really how I felt. I used to joke that I looked like an80-year-old man, it was not a pretty picture. Since then of course my hair hascome back, my eyebrows and eyelashes have come back, and I did doreconstruction surgery. So I kind of felt like I went through thismetamorphosis, and that's what I want these women to feel, that they can becomewho they want to become, and put their emotion and heart into it, and either doit for themselves, or do it for someone who can't do it. At the end of the day,I want them to feel like they're a queen, which is also the other meaning ofthe word monarch, it means sovereign or queen. So one of the really importantaspects of the Monarch race is the registration. For me, when I was diagnosed,my oldest was a senior in high school. My second child was a freshman, and ofcourse my son was in junior high. I saw first-hand how it affected my kids, andthat was the hardest. My oldest is very smart, she was in the gifted program,but she started going downhill real quick. So she tested out of her threeclasses that she needed to graduate, so she essentially graduated in January,and then came back and walked in May. My second daughter failed the last partof her freshman year, and she failed the beginning of her sophomore year. Shewas a very gifted athlete, and she did all kinds of sports in high school –volleyball, basketball, varsity cheerleading, all these things. When I gotbetter, of course I got on her about her grades. We got a plan together, andshe did college classes in the summertime. She not only graduated on time, butshe graduated with a half-day as a senior, like the rest of the gifted kids inher school. She should have been commended for not giving up, and graduating ontime like she was supposed to. The worst part was that even though she was agifted athlete, when it came time to apply for colleges or scholarships, shehad to have a 3.0 GPA or higher. Obviously her GPA was like a 2.4, because shefailed the end of her freshman year and beginning of her sophomore year. I feltlike she was punished for what I essentially forced her to go through, what mydisease forced her to go through. So a portion of our scholarships go to younggirls. Because if they've had to battle that, they've had to see it, they'vehad to be a part of it, and they graduate on time and they want to go tocollege, they should be commended for it. They shouldn't be penalized becausethey didn't have the 3.0 GPA or whatever. So it's very huge to me. Last year weraised $1,000 to give here locally to girls who have been affected by cancer.That's a dream of mine, to let those girls keep going, and getting theeducation that they want, because they deserve it.

 

Andrew:I absolutely love what you're doing, and at the end of the show, we'll talk alittle bit more about how people can sign up for that race and get themselveson the start line so they're helping with those proceeds. I know you started itlast year, and we wanted to get you on the show to talk about it last year, andwe just couldn't pull it off in time. So I'm super glad to have you get to talkabout it here. You are a TriDot coach, and you went through that battle, thatjourney yourself. What does training look like for a triathlete with cancerwho's trying to do a little training, trying to get to a starting line?

 

Brandy:I would definitely say that every cancer journey is individualized to thatperson. You can't say what's going to work for Person A is going to work forPerson B, because every cancer diagnosis and every cancer treatment iscompletely different, in and of itself. For me, I really couldn't do a lot oftraining, because I was doing two chemos at one time. I was doing the RedDevil, and the other one I can't remember what it was. So I did those for sixmonths, then I switched over and I was doing a different kind of chemo once aweek for twelve weeks. We owned our own business, I had four kids, my youngestwas three. So at the end of the day, I didn't really have a lot of energy. Ialways went out though, and I walked. I made sure I was going to go out for me.Another part of it too, the mental part that Jayson was talking about, it wasalmost impossible for me to sit in a chair and allow this chemo to be put intomy body. It was very mentally challenging thing for me to do. I love my body, Ilove to stay strong. So knowing I was putting this toxin into my bodywillingly, I actually had to take medication every time I had to go in for mychemo, because it made me so anxious, just seeing this bag of stuff connectedto my port. It was really, really hard for me. I tell my ladies that are comingto SheStrong – she's like, "I was just diagnosed, this is what mydiagnosis is, blah blah blah." I'm always just like, "If you can't doanything else, walk." Allow the body to create some kind of sweat. You'redoing these treatments, and your heart rate can go really super high justbecause of the treatments, so you do have to be very careful that you're notpushing too hard. So like I said, every single person is different. Differentcancer medications affect the body in different ways, so you really have to payattention to that. But if you can only walk, walk. Get outside. Don't sitinside and let it take you over, because it can. It can become very mentallychallenging, where you just become instantly depressed and you don't want to goanywhere, and you don't want to do anything, then it can be game over. Get upand move. For me, because I was so tired and I had so much going on, I wasn'table to train. My port really freaked me out thinking about getting into apool, and the bacteria, that was also another very mental thing for me. So forme, knowing that I was going to be stronger – because I never gave myself anopportunity to think that I was not going to be stronger – knowing that I wasgoing to be stronger, knowing that my energy was going to come back, and that Iwas going to go race again, that's what got me through my treatment. The firsttime that I went to race, it was huge. I remember getting off the plane andjust thinking, "Am I really here? Am I really about to go race Eagleman?"Race morning, I was just like, "I hope this isn't a dream. I hope I don'twake up and this is still Arizona." It was so emotional, because that'sall I kept thinking about through all of it, "I can't wait to train again.I can't wait to get up and feel strong enough to go for a run. I can't wait toget on my bike." Swimming is an escape for me, and I couldn't wait to getin the water and hear nothing but just the "whoosh whoosh" of thewater as it went past my ears. That was magic for me. So you just have to knowthat every single diagnosis is different, every treatment is different, justmove your body as much as you can.

 

Andrew:Jayson, for the athletes that you rub shoulders with, that you raceshoulder-to-shoulder with, and that are in the Fxck Cancer Endurance Team, whathave you seen, just in the athletes in the club, on how the role that endurancesports can play in their battle with cancer?

 

Jayson:I wasn't diagnosed with cancer, but I was obese. I had high blood pressure, andI had high cholesterol because of my life that I had. I will say that triathlonsaved my life. I got healthy again, and I was able to start my life over. Nowwith cancer, I know from cancer athletes that are on our team – kind of likewhat Brandy was saying, that "whoosh whoosh" of the water – the"whoosh whoosh" of your disc behind you as you're riding your bike, Ican't even imagine the feeling of crossing that finish line. When I do it, I amin tears for them. I mean, I would love to hear what Brandy says about thefirst time she crossed the finish line after she finished all her treatments,because that's just something they'll never forget. That's a core memory forlife. People like Brandy are just amazing to me. All I can say is I know thecommunity is behind them and supporting them, and that's what I'm here for. Ifa cancer fighter wants to get into triathlon, that's what I'm here for. I canhelp you, I’m there for you. I can connect you with other athletes who arefighting cancer so they can help you out. They've been training through chemo.I can imagine SheStrong is amazing. I'm just hearing about it today, which I'mreally excited to learn about, so I can send athletes your way. That's what Iwould say, is that euphoric feeling of getting back in the water, on the bike,and on the run.

 

Andrew:Yeah, Brandy, tell us about that first finish line. It's not a question that Iwould have thought to ask, but as Jayson rubs shoulders with so many athletesimpacted by cancer, it's a moment that he's seen, I'm sure, many, many times.I'm sure it's an extra emotional one at that finish line for an athlete. Whatwas that first finish line back for you?

 

Brandy:That first finish line back for me took a little bit of time, because eventhough I was better and I was stronger and I was able to train, Covid hit. Thatwas just the very beginning of Covid. Things got put off, and put off. ThenUSAT gave me a grant to create the first-ever SheStrong Tri Team. So I get thisgrant, and I reach out to my SheStrong ladies, and I'm like, "Hey, howmany of you here would like to be part of this team? Do a quick little essay,and I'll pay your entry fee." So I do that, and all of a sudden I have tenladies racing with me. I knew at that moment that the old-fashioned way ofIronman training was not for me. I would not have made it through that. I wouldhave gotten overwhelmed, I would have gotten tired, I would have skipped. Itjust was not going to work. So I remember at that time I went onto theCertified Ironman Coaches platform, and I was asking them, "What platformsare you guys using?" because I needed something different. Kurt Maddenresponded, "Look into TriDot." I'd never had a coach, and I don'tknow what possessed me, but I asked Kurt Madden, "Would you considercoaching me?" That's where my TriDot journey began. So I'm stepping offthe plane, and I was just so excited, I was so happy. I get to my house, whichis right outside of transition, Ironman Village is starting to go up, and itwas just like a dream. I'm not even kidding. I just kept thinking to myself,"Am I really here? Do I really get to do this again? I going to strap on awetsuit, get in the water, and I'm going to race!" I was so excited. Racemorning comes, and I remember I go down, we're getting shuttled down likesardines getting ready to get in that water, and all of a sudden I was justlike, "Oh my gosh, what if I didn't train enough?" That was the firstthing that pops into my head. Now I'm a TriDot athlete. I haven't swam a 1.2swim, I haven't done 56 miles on a bike, I haven't run 13.1 miles. I wasdoubting everything. I was like, "Oh, what if I do horrible? What if everybodyon the team finishes, and I don't finish?" It was just so much stress. ButI was like, "No, just put it aside. Put it aside." I got in thatwater, and I think my swim took me like 40, 41 minutes. I got on my bike, andit was a road bike, not even a time trial, and I just remember being on thatbike thinking to myself, "Don't blow up on the bike. You're going to sithere and just get through it." And there are pictures, I was just smilingand looking at the people as I was passing by, and I was just like, "Hey!Hi! How are you?"

 

Andrew:"We're doing an Ironman, yay!"

 

Brandy:"We're doing an Ironman!" It was so silly. I had a PR on my bike forthe first time ever. I did that bike course in 2013. Not even trying, I wasjust like, "La de da, just don't go too fast, too hard, too crazy. Youstill have to run." Then I came into transition, I went out for my run,and I finished with a PR, I think it was a 6:20 or something like that. Andwhen I crossed that finish line, it was that moment where I was just like,"Please let this be real. This is not a dream. I'm not going to wake up,and I still have to get on a plane and still get all the way to Maryland."One, I was sold on TriDot. My body felt good, I felt strong. All of the ladiesin my team finished, so we all celebrated. It was the first time that they hada tri club in Maryland, so we got these little crawdad hammers or whatever,with the little logos on it, because we were a tri team. It was the bestexperience, and I can honestly say that TriDot saved me as an athlete, becauseif I would have trained the other way, I probably wouldn't have crossed thatfinish line, or even made it to race day. TriDot allowed my body to heal, toget stronger, and to have an amazing race.

 

Andrew:Well it's like Jayson said, that's a core memory for you. That’s literally theword he used, on that first finish line back. So Jayson, a huge goal for theFxck Cancer Foundation that your endurance club represents is to spread theword about early detection. So for people who have listened to thisconversation, they've heard the stories, they've heard the emotion, they'veseen a different perspective on the sport that they wouldn't have hadotherwise, what should we be doing to proactively get screened, or get checked?What are the warning signs of cancer that an unsuspecting athlete should be onthe lookout for?

 

Jayson:I'm actually really glad you asked this question. So we're triathletes. We allthink that we're in the best shape in the world. We're not, because deepinside, there's something going on. Like the swimmer that had a heart attackduring the swim, and he was totally fine before, but he probably never had hischolesterol checked. It's the same with cancer. Go in for your yearly checkups,every single year, both men and women. Women, you go in for your OB/GYN checks,and also your bloodwork checks with your regular physician. Bloodwork shows alot. Coming from a medical professional, get your bloodwork done. Geteverything done, every single year, and Stage 4 won't show up. I know we're allscared of the doctor. I'm scared of the dentist, I'm scared of the doctor too.I see doctors every day all day, that's who I work with every day. And they canbe scary, but what's scary is walking into a doctor's office, like Brandyknows, and walking out with a diagnosis. But if you can catch it early, likeBrandy did, you can survive this. If you sit at home and you're like, "Oh,I'm fine, I'm fine," And three or four years later you get sent to the ERand you find out you have a Stage 4 diagnosis, that could have been prevented.So all I can say is, go get your yearly checkups, every single year. Don't missone, especially with women. There's a lot going on with your OB/GYN and yourbreast cancers, and HPV's a huge thing now, causing Stage 4 cancer. So makesure your teenagers get your shots. I know a lot of people are againstvaccinations, and I totally get it, but just make sure that everybody getschecked up. That's the most important thing, that's the only advice I can give.

 

Andrew:That's great advice. And I'm curious, for those of us in the community thatdon't have cancer, but maybe we know another endurance athlete, or just afriend or family member who is battling cancer right now – thoughts and prayersare great, they're a good thing, but what are genuine actions that we can taketo be helpful to people in our circle that are battling cancer right now? We'llgo Brandy on this, and then Jayson.

 

Brandy:For me, I'm part of Soroptimist, which is a 501(c)(3). SheStrong is also a501(c)(3). My Soroptimist ladies started doing a food train for my family. Ihad four kids and a husband, so they just stepped up to the plate, to the pointwhere there was so much food that I was like, "There's only six of ushere, you're feeding fifteen!" That was always super, super helpful. Forwomen who are doing it – me, I was a mother, I was the head of my household –it was extremely hard for me to just watch my house go to crap. So I hold a 5Kevery year that we can do virtually, and with that I raise monies to have ahousecleaning service go to a family here locally to clean a house for a womanwho is battling. So if you can, help somebody out by cleaning, by taking themsome food. Those go a real long way. If you have somebody that's close to you,and you don't know how to approach it, just be honest, that's the biggest thingI can tell you, too. I had some people tell me some really weird things, andI'm a straightforward kind of person, so I was like, "Why don't we just behonest, you heard I had cancer." They were like, "Okay, I'm sorry, Ididn't know what to say." I'm just like, "Just say the truth."So that's really big too, just be honest with whoever's going through it, andask them, "How can I help you? I want to do something for you, what can Ido for you?"

 

Jayson:One hundred percent agree with what Brandy just said. If you know they have atough time driving, offer them a ride to their medical appointments. I know alot of my athletes, some of them are single, they don't have families. So ifyou're a friend, just reach out like, "Hey, can I take you to yourdoctor's appointment?" Don’t treat it like it's not there, hit it head on.Say, "Hey, I know you have cancer, what can I do? What can we do as afamily?" Do what you can, do your part, and also just be there for thememotionally, if they just need someone to talk to. On our page, I tellathletes, "Just go on there and scream if you want to, for four minutes,just to get it out.” Because I know emotionally, this is not the easiest thingto go through, but you have support and love."

 

Andrew:Wonderful.

 

Brandy:If I could follow up to that too, try not to take things personally. For me,all of my friends were like, "I want to come and sit with you atchemo." I never let anyone sit with me. I'm a very strong-willed person,and for me – one, I didn't want people seeing me like that, and two, I was ableto keep it together if nobody was there. I kind of felt like if somebody wassitting there, I would just bawl and cry. I did have a couple people that werejust like, "Well, she won't let me even go." You just have tounderstand, whatever they're doing, wherever they're at in their life –

 

Andrew:"Don't center yourself in my cancer story!"

 

Brandy:Exactly! And don't take it personally! We all deal with it differently, so justunderstand whatever it is that your friend, your family, whoever's goingthrough it, just understand what they tell you.

 

Andrew:That's great, super helpful, Brandy. Obviously, to close on this episode, youboth are working with wonderful organizations, doing wonderful things throughthem, so I would be remiss to shut down the main set and transition us to thecooldown without finding out how we can support the work that you're doing. SoBrandy, for the race that you put on, how can people find information aboutthat, how can they get involved with SheStrong and support what you guys aredoing?

 

Brandy: Therace has its own website, and it's monarchtriathlon.com. You can go in there, you can watch the videos,you can see some photos from last year, you can sign up, you can donate.There's also a link in there – because being a cancer survivor, I understandhow hard it is to race – so for athletes that want to race but can't afford todo it themselves, there are applications in there that they can take tosponsors, and with that, because we're a 501(c), we can write a letter to thosesponsors as a tax credit, so that the lady can race, or whoever wants to race.For SheStrong, that one is shestronginc.com, and if you go onto Facebook and you're a womanwanting to join this group, just type in there, "SheStrong'' and it willpop up. It is a private Facebook group for only women, so we can just be asopen and honest about whatever we want. Just request, and of course I'll acceptyou.

 

Andrew:Awesome, thanks Brandy. To shut us down here, Jayson, for the Fxck CancerEndurance Club, and the foundation itself, how can people support?

 

Jayson:The biggest thing to support is to go onto www.fuckcancer.org. Buy hats, T-shirts, donate. A hundred percentof those proceeds go to our foundation. It's to give experiences for thosefighting cancer, and also teach about early detection. You can also find us at @fxckcancerenduranceclub on Instagram, and if you want to write me youwant to join the team, I'll send you your application immediately. Then justword of mouth is huge, making our team bigger, making sure that we can all bethere for each other. On Facebook, we're Fxck Cancer Endurance Club as well. So just join the team, or just referto us as many people as you can. I'm definitely going to be sending people toBrandy. I have a bunch of female athletes that would probably love to be a partof that community as well.

 

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

 

Vanessa Ronksley: It's Coach Cooldown Tip Time, and I'm Vanessa,your Average Triathlete with Elite Level Enthusiasm! Today, we are joined byLouise Strydom. Louise is a rock star on multiple levels, and she's joining meall the way from Pretoria, South Africa, where she lives with her husband andher 3½ year-old daughter, who is affectionately known by her athletes as “CoachJr.” Louise is the owner and head coach at Infinitude Multisport Coaching, andincorporated TriDot into her business in 2019. She was a provincial age-groupwinner, and was also the first South African female triathlete to get selectedto take on Patagonman Extreme Triathlon in Chile. She specializes in beginnerand intermediate athletes, and has had great success with helping athletesreduce training and racing anxiety. Welcome to the show, Louise!

 

Louise Strydom: Thanks so much! It's really amazing to be here,and I'm very excited to share some tips!

 

Vanessa:Excellent. But before we get to the tips, you told me about a little secret,I'd like to know how you can actually accomplish this little task. Soapparently, you can down a 500-milliliter beer in ten seconds. How did youfigure that out?

 

Louise:So, I was a very dedicated student at university. I was very well balanced – Istudied really hard, but obviously I also partied quite hard. Obviously therewere beer-drinking contests. I honestly am not sure how the whole throat workswhen you swallow or whatever, but all the men are having these drinkingcontests, and I was like, "If you can do it, I can probably do it as well,and I can probably do it better." So the challenge was set up, and Idecided, "Now you need to perform." And it just went down. I can'tremember if I took a deep breath before, I don't know what happened, but it wasten seconds, and I just slammed it down on the table, and that's it. So yeah, Ican do that in ten seconds. I had a couple of repeat performances in later years,and we have an upcoming beer mile, where there's beer involved, multiple beers,you have to drink four beers in a mile. So we'll see if I have to do a repeatperformance again next week.

 

Vanessa:Yeah, right! That's hilarious! I think that little anecdote says a lot aboutyour personality right there. A, nobody's going to beat you. B, when you setyour mind to something, it's going to get accomplished. And C, you're a rockstar on multiple levels, just like I said in the intro.

 

Louise:Well done, exactly! Work hard, party hard. Although now that I'm getting older,the recovery from the party is just as hard, for sure.

 

Vanessa:Yeah, you've got to take it more seriously. Well, I'm excited to hear what tipyou have for us today, Louise, so hit it!

 

Louise:My coaching tip is specifically for new athletes. If you have seen triathlonson TV, or if you've seen it on social media, or if you're feeling inspiredafter attending a race and you're like, "Okay, I think I can dothis!" My biggest tip is, "Do not be afraid to ask questions." Alot of new athletes would come to me, and somewhere along the conversation thefollowing phrases pop up. "This might be a dumb question”, “Sorry tobother you with this”, “You must have heard this a thousand times." Forgetthat. I believe there's no such thing as a dumb question. It's just knowledgethat you have not gained yet, because you're new at the sport. This isn't onlyapplicable to triathlon. It can be running, it can be cycling, it can beswimming. You're new to the field, so obviously you don't know everything. Allof us started somewhere, and we all asked the dumb questions. No one knew fromthe get-go how to change your flat, if you're on the cycle and, "Oh no, Ihave a flat." Don't be afraid to ask a question, and if you do invest in acoach, don't feel bad for asking a question. I also think that's one of thereasons why beginner triathletes struggle, and have so much training and racinganxiety. Because there's so much information that you need to process and workwith, but you're too afraid to ask questions because this person must haveheard it a thousand times. Or, "That's such a dumb question, should Iactually ask it?" Ask your question! Usually, coaches that work withbeginner athletes will love answering the questions, even if we are answeringit for the thousandth time. The answer's never going to be the same, becauseit's applicable to each specific athlete, or the athlete's unique situation. Sothat's the biggest tip, never be afraid to ask a question.

 

Vanessa:I love that tip so much. I think that something that beginner athletes – andanyone that's involved with triathlon – needs to know about triathletes is thatif you know a triathlete, they love talking about triathlon. So if you asksomeone a question, they're going to be so excited that someone is asinterested in triathlon as they are, and they're going to be so happy to helpand willing to offer suggestions over suggestions, and they might get moreinformation than they were requesting in the first place.

 

Louise:Exactly! And the other thing is, there's so much information overload. Firsttime triathlon – you're doing an Ironman, because everyone wants to do anIronman event or 70.3 – you start getting these emails, and this race guide,that is just with the rules, and the red cards, and you can't litter, so yourfirst thought is, "What if I drop my bottle?!" You get informationoverload from the race information, and then you have your training program.That's where the anxiety comes in. So it really doesn't matter how dumb youthink the question is. It's probably not dumb, and it probably has been askedbefore, even by professionals, because they all started somewhere. They've allasked the dumb questions. So ask it!

 

Outro:Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast withyour triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with uson Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head totridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automaticchoice for triathlon training.

 

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