I am a 36-year-old mother of 4 who, after 10 years at home with my children, has found my own passion, my own sport that captivates me and drives me forward – triathlon!
In my youth I did horse riding, athletics and dance, but I wasn't very competitive, and life took me more towards the beauty industry.
Still, I have done sports on and off my whole life – alongside the kids I went running and built up energy at the gym, but fairly minimally.
Until the moment I discovered Ironman. Up to that point I had been completely devoted to my children, but now that I knew they were all of kindergarten and school age, I knew I would start to have more free time, and I was brave enough to make the decision to start training for Ironman.
The first goal was exciting – to become an Ironman! And I achieved it, to my own surprise finishing 5th in my age group and 2nd Estonian woman overall in my first year, with a time of 10.32.
Because this kind of training and schedule suited me so well, and I sincerely enjoyed every day more and more, feeling so much better in my body and being so much better a mother to my children, I wanted to continue my Ironman journey. This time my goal was to see where my limits are. I wanted to see what I am capable of. And at the same time show my children that if you dedicate yourself to something, anything is possible!
In my second year of training I had to change my main race plan a little due to injuries, but my coach and I decided to race as a team at Ironman Tallinn (the doctor didn't allow me to run yet at the time, so my coach did that part for me).
We took 2nd place, which gave me a huge boost, and soon after, due to changes in plans, I won 1st place in my age group at Ironman 70.3 Venice-Jesolo, chosen as a new race in the autumn, which in turn secured me a spot at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Lahti next August. With that, I could declare my second training year a success.
And now I am in my 3rd training year, with plans to compete at the Ironman 140.6 European Championship in Hamburg at the start of summer and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Lahti at the end of summer.
To sum up, triathlon and being active in general is my passion, and I am incredibly happy that I found it. It is something that makes me so happy, makes me more responsible, gives me better health, makes me a better mother, gives me a stronger body to be proud of, builds my self-confidence and courage to stand up for myself, and with all of this I can be a role model for my children and for many others,
If a 36-year-old mother of 4 can become an Ironman in her first year of training and be on the start list of the European and World Championships in her third year of training, then truly EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE in this life!:)
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