Yes, it took me 13 years to get to Kona!

I guess I could have just bought a plane ticket and traveled to the 50th state at any time during my adult life, but that’s not how I wanted to get over there. I wanted to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, HI that goes on every year in October.

Let me back up a few years. Here is a brief recap of my life as a triathlete…

• 1999: Did my first sprint distance triathlon and was hooked
• 2001: Did my first ironman distance triathlon and was hooked
• 2001: Watched the airing of the Ironman World Championships on TV and wanted to BE there
• 2002: First year I trained with the ambition to earn a qualifying slot (typically top 2-3 in each age group for women)
• 2002: Placed 22nd in qualifying race
• 2003: Placed 28th in qualifying race
• 2004: Placed 45th in qualifying race
• 2005: Placed 22nd and 28th in qualifying races
• 2006: Placed 29th in qualifying race
• 2007-2009: Took a break from racing altogether
• 2010: Placed 38th in qualifying race
• 2011: Placed 31st in qualifying race
• 2012: Broke collar bone and had to forfeit qualifying race ☹

2013: Placed 3rd in qualifying race and EARNED A SLOT IN HAWAII!!!

So as you can see, it took me 12 years to earn my slot into the Ironman World Championships in Kona, HI. And what an AMAZING road it was! I’m not by nature a patient person, but it makes sense to me why it took so long.

I am naturally an average athlete. I am very active, love competing, have been in sports since I was about 6 years old, am obsessed with nutrition and exercise, and was a full time personal trainer and fitness instructor for 15 years of my adult life, but by no means did I have “natural” ability. If I did, I would have qualified at my first qualifying race like my BFF Wendy did when she was 19 and had no clue what she was doing!!

There is a NY Times best-selling book called OUTLIERS: THE STORY OF SUCCESS by Malcolm Gladwell. Throughout the book, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule”, claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.

I subscribe to this theory and have seen it work in my own life in my relationships, businesses, personal growth, and of course, athletics. I train “in season” an average of 25 hours a week, “off season” an average of 15 hours a week. This averages out to about 1,000 hours a year. This means I would hit my 10,000 hours in about 10 years. Since I took a couple years off in the middle, it makes sense it would take me a bit longer.

So 12 years after I set in motion my dream of earning a Kona qualifying slot, I finally made it. I talk in detail in my book TRAIN SMARTER FOR BETTER RESULTS (www.KirstenMcCay.com) if you want to know HOW I did it and what I learned over the years, but it really boils down to the “10,000-Hour Rule”.

So whatever you want in life, KNOW what you want, WORK toward what it is, and be PATIENT as it takes time to become a master at anything. My favorite part is that I have control over the time and energy I put into something. So although it may take me 10,000 hours to be great, I get to decide if 10,000 hours happens in 5 years or 30 years. Like I said…patience isn’t my strength.

If you want to follow my entire “Road to Kona”, check out my videos at www.YouTube.com/FitnessDivaKir

When I started Junior High, I was “HUGE”. I mean I wasn’t overweight or anything, but at 5’7”, 130 pounds, and size 9 feet, I was SO much bigger than all my 5’ nothing, size 0, no hips, size 5 feet friends. So at the ripe old age of 12, I started hating my body.

To add insult to injury, I was a swimmer. So I was ALWAYS in a swimsuit, and I think as a female athlete, there is added pressure to have less body fat as it is. I was pretty much doomed from an early age to constantly battle my disordered body issues.

Fast forward…to 1999 when I become a competitive triathlete, another sport where low body fat is favored. Every time I didn’t make my goal or get the time or place I wanted, I always blamed it on my body. “I guess I’m just too big to be a competitive athlete” or “If I lost 10 pounds I could run so much faster”. Whether these statements are actually true or not, makes no difference AT ALL because I believe they are true, and as long as I continue to accept that as truth, then it will always be true for me.

Fast forward AGAIN…to 2013 when I am 40 years old and have spent the last 28 years beating myself up for not having the body I want. And by the way, after 28 years of telling your body it’s not skinny enough or strong enough or fast enough or tight enough, it doesn’t matter what is ACTUALLY going on, your brain will never believe when you actually ARE skinny, strong, fast, tight, etc. It’s extremely heartbreaking to see this happening to so many people because I know firsthand how it feels to be living in a body that can never be what you think it should be. It’s a painful and hopeless battle you are constantly fighting with yourself, usually silently and alone.

September 15, 2013, six weeks before my 41st birthday, one week before racing my 10th Ironman distance triathlon, I was complaining to my husband (he’s a saint BTW for putting up with my eating/body issues for 18 years and counting) that I wasn’t at my goal race weight and I was such an idiot for not cutting calories during taper and I felt huge BLAH BLAH BLAH!

September 22, 2013, race day is here! Air temp at the start of the race was in the 30s…FAHRENHEIT. In my age group out of 174 women, only 103 finished. Most either took so long to warm up after the swim that they missed the bike cut off time or just couldn’t get warm enough to start the run after the bike. I had an amazing race and never got cold enough to even consider a DNF (Did Not Finish). Many of these DNFs were world class athletes and I finished! I was so proud of my amazing body and what it accomplished that day!

And if I’m being 100% honest, it would probably have a little bit to do with those “extra” pounds I didn’t lose before the race.

PS…If you are struggling with any sort of disordered eating/body image issues, PLEASE tell someone! You are NOT alone and there are so many ways to get help. You don’t have to fight this battle forever. PLEASE PLEASE reach out!!

I love telling this story…not because I like to see my Mom cry, but because for me it’s an inspiring story and it gives me ammo for people who tell me they “can’t” do something that I KNOW they can do.

The year was 2002. I had been a Personal Trainer since 1990 and always helped my friends and family with any health/fitness/nutrition related stuff, so they were used to that. In 1999 I did my first triathlon, and became instantly obsessed. I ended up not only doing an ironman distance triathlon 2 years later, but also got my triathlon coaching certification and started coaching immediately after.

Instantly I was signing all my friends and family up for triathlons, they were NOT used to that.

A bit about my mom…she is a teacher, a Mom, and an amazing Grandma. She is kind and loving and one of the most unselfish people I know. One thing she is not, however, is an athlete. As far as triathlon is concerned, she can swim to prevent drowning, she can cruise along on her fat tired, fuzzy seated monster of a bike, and she can walk, but not run, due to arthritis is both her hips and knees.

So when she opened her 50th birthday present and it was an entry into the Danskin Women’s Triathlon for the following year with all the training she would need to make it through, she was speechless, and scared to death, and that resulted in a silent but deafening cry.

I promised her I would train her enough to get her across the finish line. And I did just that.

We had 10 months to get her strong, fit, and confident enough to swim .5 mile, bike 12 miles, and run 3.1 miles. And we SUCCEEDED!

Watching my mom cross the finish line was incredible…now it was MY turn to cry! She is proof that it doesn’t matter how old you are, how out of shape you are, how inexperienced you are, or how scared you are, if you WANT something and COMMIT to getting there, you WILL succeed! Awesomeness!

My favorite part of this entire story is that BECAUSE of her, I have “convinced” hundreds of women that they too can do this. I would have never been able to get them to even consider the idea if I didn’t have my Mom’s victory to inspire and encourage them.

Because of my Mom, I have helped hundreds of women accomplish something they never would have imagined possible. Now THAT’S something to cry about!