7 Things Chelsea Sodaro Learned From Her Historic Ironman Victory

Ironman World Champion Chelsea Sodaro doesn’t preserve her large first place trophy in a flowery glass case. It’s not on her front room mantle, or displayed wherever else that she may showcase her newest achievement to visiting family and friends. 

Sodaro, who turned the primary American girl to win the Ironman World Championships in 25 years, has her trophy hidden in a closet. Her winner’s medal is stashed in a sock drawer. Finally, she’ll transfer them each to her mother and father home, roughly 150 miles away from the place she lives. 

“I do not actually prefer to have reminders like that round,” Sodaro, 33, knowledgeable triathlete since 2017 who lives in Reno, Nevada together with her husband, Steve, and 19-month-old daughter, Skye, tells SELF. “I like to remain tremendous hungry. And I really feel like if I have been to only be taking a look at my achievements, that would not be good for my drive.”

Sodaro’s stay-hungry, stay-humble method explains, partially, how the previous pro-runner-turned-triathlete bested a discipline of 41 different elite ladies in October to win the Ironman Championships in what was solely her second-ever competitors at that distance. She completed the grueling course in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in simply 8:33:46. Extensively thought of probably the most prestigious race within the sport of triathlon, the Ironman Championships is a brutal occasion. Rivals battle ocean waves, unrelenting wind, quad-killing hills, and sometimes oppressive warmth as they swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles. 

As Sodaro appears forward towards her targets for subsequent yr, which embrace defending her title on the 2023 Ironman Championships, we requested the world-class athlete to unpack the coaching secrets and techniques that propelled her to her historic win in addition to her largest takeaways from the monumental day. Right here, her high reflections. 

1. Household comes first and their assist stays key.

Sodaro gave start to her daughter in March 2021, and Skye has been the“smartest thing that’s ever occurred” to her, she says. But it surely’s been tough balancing the position of professional athlete and mother or father, particularly since having a child has restricted the time Sodaro has to dedicate to coaching. As an illustration, previous to her being pregnant and Skye’s start, Sodaro might spend copious quantities of time executing even the smallest particulars of a coaching program, like doing half-hour of activation drills earlier than a run. However now she doesn’t at all times have the bandwidth. 

Due to the pressure of juggling each roles, Sodaro says she critically thought of quitting the game of triathlon over the previous yr. 

“It’s been actually, actually difficult to make this work,” she says. “I’ve oftentimes felt like I am failing at my job and failing at being a mother, like I might by no means be adequate in each on the similar time.” However by these durations of self-doubt, Sodaro’s husband offered unrelenting ethical assist, she says. “He simply stored on reminding me that there was nonetheless a lot to return, and that I simply wanted to get by this preliminary postpartum interval to essentially discover out what was attainable, and that it might get simpler in loads of methods.”