Tri Beginner‘s Luck

What if the person behind your race experience has been living inside this sport since before they could drive? This episode brings you inside the world of a man who didn't just grow up loving triathlon but grew up building it, race by race, cone by cone.

Tommy Struzzieri, USAT certified race director and founder of Alpha Win Racing, has worn nearly every hat in this sport: athlete, volunteer, age group All-American, Division I run...

Some people don't find triathlon. Triathlon finds them. It calls quietly for years until the timing, the spirit, and the courage finally align at once.

Brandon Woolfolk is a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, music artist, and founder of No Plateau Zone. This year, he said yes to a challenge that had been waiting for him since 2023. After years of distance running and obstacle course races, Brandon joined the Y Tri commun...

For over 20 years, Betty Collins led troops, mentored communities, and built others up from the inside out. So what happens when the person who is always pouring into others has to finally let others pour into her?

Betty Collins is a retired Army master sergeant, cybersecurity professional, and founder of Fit for the King, a faith-based fitness initiative she started in her church over a decade ago. She grew up in the historic Snow...

What does it take to come out of the water nearly last and choose to come back? Not once, but race after race, distance after distance, through graduate school, a pandemic, and the arrival of three children in 17 months.

Mike Nyman's triathlon story doesn't begin with a perfect swim or a podium finish. It begins with a graduation gift, a best friend, and a pool race in Lynchburg, Virginia. From that sprint in 2013, Mike has grown i...

What if the most decorated athlete you've ever seen race was doing it on stolen hours, powered by discipline she didn't know she had until the military turned it on? That's exactly the kind of story that stops you mid-scroll and reminds you why this sport is for everyone.

Michelle Christine is a competitive age-group triathlete, a Team USA athlete, and a USAT high school ambassador who balances two kids, a husband with an equally d...

Some people count down the days to their birthday. Beatriz Sampaio counted down the laps. For her first triathlon, she chose the most meaningful finish line she could think of: race day on her birthday, surrounded by the people who showed up every step of the way.

What makes Beatriz's story so refreshing is her intention. Having gone from zero to marathon in four months years ago, she made a deliberate choice to do triathlon differ...

Three weeks after writing a half-Ironman goal on his bathroom mirror, Scott Stanley got a cancer diagnosis. Forty-six days after colon surgery, he was at the starting line of a 10K.

What do you do when life hits hardest at the exact moment you decide to go bigger? For Scott Stanley, the answer was simple, if not easy: you keep showing up. A retired Air Force veteran, endurance athlete, and now a master's student in biblical studies...

A first triathlon. A breakup. A lifelong love story with endurance sports that nobody saw coming.

Before triathlon became one of the biggest endurance sports in the world, Leslie Knibb was standing on a start line in Chicago in 1990 just trying something new. She ended up finishing near the top of the race, beating the boyfriend who introduced her to the sport, and unknowingly starting a triathlon journey that would stretch across ...

Hilary Topper didn't run until she was 48. She didn't know how to turn on a treadmill. Five years later, she signed up for her first triathlon in Florida without realizing there were races in her home state of New York.

Hilary is the voice behind The Triathlete's Diary, a certified USA Triathlon coach, and author of Unlocking the Triathlon: The Beginner's Guide to Competing in a Triathlon. She proudly calls herself a non-athletic t...

What does it mean to be a triathlete? For Liz Kollar, Director of Constituent Engagement at USA Triathlon, the answer is simple: you're a triathlete the moment you cross any finish line, whether it takes you an hour or sixteen.

Liz didn't start small. Her first race was a 70.3 at Buffalo Springs Lake, unprepared and miserable in the Texas heat. She crossed the finish line swearing she'd never do it again. Then she accidentally qua...

What happens when you’re ready to quit the sport you once loved? And what if the answer isn’t more training, but more community?

Juan Pablo, known as "the People's Principal" in Plainfield, New Jersey, brings raw honesty to this conversation. He talks about the letter his family sent confronting him about buying bikes with rent money. He shares how cycling became his medicine after serving in the Navy and dealing with P...

What happens when someone tells you your idea will never work, and you build it anyway? What does it look like to create a space where trying matters more than finishing first?

Angi Klick didn't just start a triathlon event. She built a movement. After years of trying to ...

What does it look like to chase greatness without losing yourself along the way? How did Chelsea Sodaro win the Ironman World Championship just 18 months after giving birth?

In this episode, the triathlon world champion shares her powerful story of motherhood, mindset, and elite training, revealing what happens when choosing family first becomes the very thing that elevates you to the top of your sport. From early struggles with f...

What if the thing that scares you most is actually the doorway to your next chapter? And what if beginning again at 56 is exactly where your triathlon journey is meant to start?

In this episode, we meet Jini Thornton, a CPA, financial planner, and triathlon beginner who is redefining what it means to be an athlete in her 50s. As a founder who has helped over 500 women plan the transfer of more than $188 million in assets, she und...

What happens when a Division I swimmer suffers a career-ending spinal injury and decides to try triathlon anyway? Twenty-two months after spinal fusion surgery, Farrin Saba crossed the finish line of Ironman 70.3 Maine.

In this episode of Tri Beginner’s Luck, you hear the story behind that moment. After a severe back injury required a double disc replacement and spinal fusion, Farrin’s future in sport was uncertain. Wh...

Listeners meet Bianca Fernandez-Clark, a seven-time Ironman finisher, co-founder of Women in Tri UK, and a tireless advocate for inclusion in endurance sport. What begins as a conversation about one woman’s journey into triathlon quickly becomes something bigger. This is a story about learning to swim at 29, navigating start lines as a Black Latino woman, and transforming isolation into impact for hundreds of women who deserv...

Andrew Gray's triathlon journey is proof that progress does not have to take decades. In just four years, he went from finishing 18th in his first sprint triathlon, navigating rough transitions and limited gear, to becoming a New Jersey state champion in both sprint and Olympic distance racing. A 2025 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Andrew now balances elite-level training with a demanding career on Wall Street. His day...

Triathlon has a way of meeting you exactly where you are and then asking you to grow. In this episode of Tri Beginner’s Luck, Tammy Dotson shares what it looked like to start triathlon after 40 with no swim experience and no idea what she was doing. Her first sprint swim took 47 minutes in frigid conditions, with Raynaud syndrome leaving her hands and feet numb throughout the race. What could have been a one-time attempt beca...

Alignment is paramount. Mind. Body. Soul. Nutrition. This is Triathlon Zen.

In this episode of the Tri Beginner’s Luck Podcast, Stuart Shine, a Marine Corps veteran, endurance coach, and founder of Shine Collaborative Sports and Nutrition LLC, shares what it truly means to build a sustainable relationship with triathlon. His journey into the sport began during a military deployment in Australia...