About Racheal
I am an ordinary person that has had the opportunity
to do extraordinary things. I started
competing in triathlons and running road races as a
graduate assistant and student in the Exercise
Science Department at Florida Atlantic University.
Like many athletes, after my first race I was
absolutely hooked. I loved the training and it was a
great way to become physically fit. Through a
lot of determination and hard work, I went from
being an middle of the pack age grouper to racing in the Elite
divisions. I also took up mountain
biking and off road running.
After a few years I turned my sights to longer
distance racing, qualifying for Kona by winning my
age group in my first Ironman. I finished the 2000 IM Florida with a
10:09:15 finish, good enough for 9th overall
including the pro women. I went on to compete
in 4 more IM's, all of which I was in the top 5 in
my age group, with my best being a 2002 Age Group
and overall Female Masters win at the World Championships
in Hawaii.
In 2004, I decided to take a break from serious
training to spend more time with my family;
daughter Ellen aged 10 and my husband of 20
years Brian. I also had a
strong desire to do more mountain biking. My
dream has always been to do the AA Hawaiian double;
to compete in the IM World Championships in Kona and
than a week later go to Maui and do the XTERRA World
Championships. I joined the Ford Team and
focused on improving my mountain bike skills.
At the same time I wanted to give back to the
Triathlon community in our area and did so by
starting a new Triathlon Club; The Gold Coast
Triathletes. I also wanted to focus more on
coaching along with teaching health and physical
education at a K-9 school.
In
2005, my coaching really took off and I opted
to pursue it full time. I gave up my teaching
and athletic director job. My husband became
quite the mountain bike racer and I focused
more on my athletes. I started coached
training groups (open water swims, running drills
and speed sessions with instruction, brick and
transition workouts along with various clinics
related to bike skills, transitions, open water
swimming, etc.). I also continued to do a
little more mountain bike racing.
2006 proved to be a very busy year. I took
on being President of the Triathlon Club The Gold
Coast Triathletes. I had many of my athletes
helping me out with the club. We worked very
hard and accomplished a great deal over the course
of the year. At the same time my coaching
really took off and my training groups doubled in
size. I was able to compete in a couple
mountain bike races, 2 Florida XTERRA races and
raced for fun with a bunch of my athletes at The
Escape to Miami at the end of the year. I had
hoped to race IM Florida, but could not find the
time I needed to train properly for the event.
Instead I went to the race as a Coach and supported
the athletes. I was so inspired, I signed up
for IM Florida in 2007!
In 2007....I returned back to training for triathlon
and continued to coach full time. It was a
tough year trying to just build a base back after
being out of the sport for 4 years. Plus I had
some great athletes I was coaching and training
groups! I was only able to
complete in 6 races in 2007, but it was a good start
in trying to get back to racing and in shape.
I had a rough start of the year having a difficult
time with races at Florida Great Escape and IM 70.3,
did fairly well at XTERRA in Miami, had a pretty
decent race (all things considered) in the Cancun
70.3, did the Tradewinds race as a C practice race
for IM. I was able to complete IM FL and do
well enough to qualify for Kona for 2008!
However it was a tough day out there....and I
learned a lot about what it was like to do an
Ironman without having the huge fitness I had back
in 2000-2003. I think in the end it made
me able to relate so much more to the average
athlete. It was a great experience and just
GREAT being back out there again!
Very motivating!
2008 has been a super big year filled with
so much adventure! It proved to be an
exciting and overly busy year. I attempted to
get back into racing competing quite a few events
including mountain bike racings, XTERRA races and
some tri's including Ironman Hawaii and XTERRA
World's in Maui. I accomplished my goal of
completing the Double....but did it more for fun
then to be competitive.
The majority of my energy really was put into
coaching and providing valuable learning and group
opportunities for my coached athletes as well as
athletes in the community. My training groups
really took off and grew quite a bit with the
Coached Ocean Swim groups being a super huge hit as
well as the Run Group. It did not leave
me much time to train myself...but my athletes'
successes were much more important than my own.
I also worked quite hard at providing socials and
opportunities for the Gold Coast
Triathletes to continue to grow and
prosper. We ended the year with about 100
members, all decked out with new shirts and several
sponsors. We had a social every few
months that included an educational portion to it
and some socials training and gathers at restaurants
as well as a couple socials at the big races with
food for the racers and their families. We had
a huge turnout at the Miami Man...which was a great
way to end the season.
The 2008 Season was really amazing for me...all
my athletes did really well with all their races.
I had many IM athletes succeed beyond their dreams,
others with consistent PR's and one that made it to
XTERRA Worlds as her first year mountain biking (and
kicked my butt by the way...which was great).
I was overwhelmed with responsibilities and pretty
exhausted by year end....BUT as a coach, I could not
have asked for a nicer year.
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