That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula races the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

This week we talk about Paula's experience racing in Spain for 70.3 World Champs, and what it’s like to step off the course as one of the favorites. We also got to a few listener-submitted questions. This week we discussed:Dealing with disappointing race results and rediscovering motivationTips for racing Escape From Alcatraz when traveling from EuropeEric’s plans to race triathlon in the futureWhat camera to use while riding the bikeSpiritual moments while training and racingA big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive! To submit a question for the podcast and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey, everyone. Welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggersstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstone. And you've found your way into our triathlon podcast. We talk about all sorts of stuff. Paul and I are both professional athletes. Make it a professional musician, amateur triathlete. We do know a little talking about trail running lately. All sorts of different stuff, what we're into. And the book of the show, though, is made up from questions sent in by the people who listen to it. So thank you so much. much. You're keeping us going. We are, we were just discussing what we're going to do for our 200th episode, which is coming up in seven weeks. So, anyway, that's the backstory. If you're new here, because you might be, because this is a special episode, looking back at 70.3 world championships, which Paula just raced. How much is the jet lag still hitting you? Not that bad. Last night, two nights ago, so the first night that we were actually back, we woke up around 2 a.m. Paul couldn't go back to sleep. I went back to sleep a little bit. Today was fairly

normal though. I think we're give it a couple more days and we'll be completely normal. So much easier coming this direction and then going in that direction. Is it? Oh, I disagree. I think I disagree. I think it's so much easier because I think it's easier to stay up and fight the urge to sleep than it is

to try to sleep when you are not sleepy. Yeah, but I'm always sleepy when I go over. We're having it on like the back end of it. Like I was falling asleep at my parents' dinner table and then you're just awake and hungry at 2 a.m. and it's so hard to get back to sleep then.

Dude, the hunger thing, I just had three bagels for breakfast, and I'm still hungry. He bought three bagels at that place? Was it like $75? I went there, and Kathleen was like, oh, look at that cinnamon twist. I'm like, okay, we're getting the cinnamon twist. And then I got a jalapeno cheese and cream cheese bagel. And then I ate those two things, and then I was still very hungry, so I got another bagel and cream cheese.

Wow. And I'm hungry. I'm still hungry. That's good. I mean, it's off season, you know? bulk up. Oh, we're bulking. Yeah, prepped for the base miles that are coming. Because you got Oceanside, man.

First Oceanside. I think I'm doing it. I'm pretty committed to it at this point. I just haven't officially registered, but in my mind I have. By the way, for everyone who joined Team TTL, we were given this tip by the Zoot guys. If you go onto your Iron Man profile, you have to say you're part of Team TTL. Because then I think for every 20 entries that we get for Team TTL, we get a free entry.

So then we can like raffle those off or like do giveaways or whatever with some free entries or give them to Nick. But you have to make sure that you're, you know, when you look at the Iron Man Tracker and it says like a team that someone's on like in faint letters underneath their name, you can do that but you actually have to go in and do that. It doesn't automatically do it. We initially thought, you know, oh, that's just kind of like cool because everybody can see C-T-T-L, C-Team T-T-L and just, like, awareness or whatever.

But then this whole free entry perk thing is pretty exciting. So get on that. Yeah, I think, like, Zoot has so many team members. They get, like, you know, dozens of free entries every year. And they give them away or whatever they do. So fun. Yeah. What about you, Paul?

Are you going to race Oceanside? I know this is not the point. That's what we're talking about is a little soon. But do you know? Yeah, I'll probably race Oceanside. Have you pause? Oceanside, Texas. I think that's a good duo. I was talking a little bit about doing Ironman, New Zealand. But talking to people in Spain and Marbea, like everyone is doing New Zealand. It'll be like Kona. So if I'm going to like get points for the pro series and get a slot for Kona, it's not a super smart move. And also it's just so early in the year. So I feel like it could be smarter for me to start in Texas. although it's much more appealing to me

to go race than in New Zealand than the Texas course but you know you gotta make smart decisions it's your first race you can only do so many iron mans I know we were having that exact conversation even with Kat over dinner you know

everybody's like man if anything goes even slightly wrong and you're there with like three of the top five people in the world this year margin for like getting enough points and being ranked highly than a year just it becomes very small especially early season

Well, talking about points and margins, we were just altogether in Spain, as most people know. We were there supporting Paula. Paula was racing. And I don't know. I don't know where to really start with it. There's a lot of positives, and then there were a lot of difficulties as well. But I think we, from my point of view, I feel like we rode the highs and lows kind of with grace. Am I wrong? I would agree. I think the thing that made us feel really okay

or like eased some of the pain from it was just the number of people that we saw and talked to wearing TTR, representing TTR. We did the group hangout run two days before the race and there were about 70 people that showed up for that, which was mind-blowing. I figured we'd get like 20 or something since we're on the other side of the world.

connected with some of our sponsors the orca guys were there on was there you know just it was a little bit of it was like networking nirvana like we connected with a whole bunch of people and you know strengthened relationships and i just it was it felt really really nice in the ambiance we've talked a lot about that too of the whole event was incredible um just like it just kind of felt like the venue and everything it just had a great vibe right on the coast right on the beach they set up this whole insane thing with Expo on the beach, just really well done. So hats off to Iron Man for that. Paula, are you surprised at yourself for how you handled this whole situation? Um, I mean, obviously I've been injured for like five or six weeks now. So

I've come to terms that this was not going to be ideal. But when I got on the plane to go to Marbea, I was like 97% sure I could finish the race. Like I was, I knew it would be not pain-free, but I was willing to take a setback and, you know, run through some pain because of the importance of this race. And because I thought on a course like this, the bike could really make a difference and the gaps would be big and I could still have a really good result even though I hadn't done any running. so I was like pretty optimistic going there and this whole time I've had to stay optimistic otherwise you just can't do it but when we got there it was like I went for a couple of oh no just one 6K kind of test run when it was feeling good at the start of the run and by four or five K in I was like oh shit this is so bad like I have to almost walk back to

the hotel and then from that point I was like this is I don't think I can I'm going to finish Like, I need to get, I feel like I need an MRI to see what's wrong. Is this a bone thing? Hello, friend. Because if it was a bone thing, I knew I couldn't push through pain in the race. Versus if it was just like a muscular tear or something, there was less danger pushing through anything. So it was kind of like a decision maker whether I would even start or not to get an imaging thing done. And crazy thing is in Spain, we booked a MRI.

within one day, like the next day we had an MRI booked, and it was only 280 euros. So really crazy access and affordable, you know, healthcare there. Sorry, Flynn and I are just making out over here. So just fly to Spain, get an MRI, get make a vacation out of it, and it's the same amount of money as getting one in the U.S. Yeah. With less notice required. Totally. And also, so my little team I've been working with with Carmen is like the lead. There was, there's a doctor that works for EF who also came to Spain because she lives there. So she was at the race, brought her ultrasound machine, did a little bit of like, you know, imaging that way to see what she could see. So I had a lot of people around me, you know, caring and supporting and kind of giving me a strategy to get through

the race and manage the pain and, you know, do this if this, do this, do this of this. And so I had a bit of a game plan. But of course, after I, like, had the ultrasound, had the MRI, it showed a tear in my glute mead that was, you know, they say like a grade one, so not even that bad, but the pain was there. So for me, in my mind, I'm like, even if I know I'm allowed to push through something and it won't make it so much worse, if it's that painful, it's like warning bells go off and I don't want to run through it.

So, yeah, as the race came and I was, I started. sort of got all my like crying and emotional stuff out two days before because that's when things got bad and I was losing hope that I could even finish and then I was debating whether I even start and all this so like a lot of the emotions happened pre-race not post-race so that helped a little bit can confirm but still on race morning it's like if you're I made the decision to do the swim and the bike and then run until I couldn't anymore which could have been the end of the race I didn't really know what would happen but as I was running out of the water. I could feel it. And I was like, oh, this is not great. But to be honest,

having the knowledge that I was a good chance I couldn't finish was like a very freeing mindset to go into a race with because I like kind of wasn't nervous. I was, of course, the question in my mind was, okay, I start this race. I do the swim bike. That's still really freaking hard. And for what purpose? Like, what's the point in going and riding as hard as I can for two and a half hours? And then not finishing. That seems so dumb. But I'd done so much training leading in. I was really fit on the bike and in the swim. And every race is like a learning opportunity to get better at each piece of the puzzle, regardless of how the result goes. So I kind of tried to take that mindset in and have the best swim that I possibly could, get in the group. And, like,

like the, if anything didn't go well in the swim or the bike, there was not like a huge catastrophic consequence because I already knew that it probably wasn't going to end positively. So I don't know. It's kind of a fun mindset to go in, especially when I ended up actually having a great swim. I was in a great pack. I didn't get touched a single time. It felt so easy. But I could tell I was with good people because we all get colored caps in the top 10 so I could see I was around like Georgia Taylor Brown and people that are really good swimmers. So I knew I was in a good position and it felt truly effortless on the swim. It was really insane and got out with this group of like people, the main pack behind Lucy and Taylor and

Jess. So yeah, I was in a good spot and I was just riding thinking I have nothing to lose. I might as well go as hard as I can on all the climbs. By the way, my hip doesn't hurt. It's like zero out of 10 on biking. So that's what's allowed me to continue to train really hard for this race is that the bike doesn't aggravate it in any way. Do you feel like, you know, if you hadn't been injured and like, do you feel like you rode actually a faster bike split? Like, no, I would have written the same. But I rode in a way where it was like less stressful. Right. For some reason. Like it was super windy and scary on the bike. But it didn't really like, bother me that much because I was like I'm doing this kind of for fun and as a bonus and

truly it's like the best way to approach a race if you could approach every race thinking I'm not going to finish just doing the bike as hard as I can like that's actually a pretty good way to race because I I think maybe the last 10k like the last descent the knowledge that I probably wouldn't finish got to me and I was like a little bit of a baby on I wasn't that aggressive and I was like sitting up and lost touch with the people I was riding with. Had I been racing, I think I would have been much more aggressive in the last 10K. But the whole rest of it, no, I was like riding super well. As soon as we hit the steep part of the climb, which is 10K in, I passed every single person,

looked back and couldn't see a single person. Like I'm so good at climbing uphill. And what gets me is the descent. I was so scared on the descending and just tried best I could to stay in touch with Jess Leermont, who I caught by the top of the first climb. And she's just a bullet at descending, zero fear, pushing high watts, doesn't come out of arrow. So I did everything I could to try to stay in touch with her on the dissents, but she would basically drop me on the descents and I'd catch her on any incline.

So we were riding together, but not in a productive, helpful way. But it made it fun. To either one of you. Yeah, we acknowledge that after. We were like, wow, we rode together, but we didn't have, we were completely opposite. We didn't actually ride together. But if you did work together, it would have not benefited both of you. You would have been together slower.

So what's the point, really, to worry about it? Like, you could have helped her up the climbs, but then, like, ish, not really. And then you're not going to be able to stick with her on the descents, really either, right? Well, if I was a better dissender, I would have just, I could have, like, got ahead of her and stayed out of her. But she's so good at the descending. But I think even just having a carrot in front of us, I'd pass her, she'd have a carrot on the descent. She'd pass me, I'd have a carrot on the climb. So in that way, it's mentally helpful to ride with someone else.

Yeah, super engaging. Close behind us then on the big highway out and back, Kat and Siff Madsen caught us. But we then had a huge gap on everyone else. So then we were kind of a group of four working together. And same thing, I was leading the climbs, getting bit of a gap. And then we'd regroup on the descent. By the way, you were not, as per the broadcast, you weren't not getting dropped by Jess. There was times where I was super dropped, but I wasn't like surging to catch back up.

I was riding how I ride hills and that was enough to bring me back up. So, whatever, it doesn't matter. And I was a bit self-conscious of like, we've been critical in the past of athletes doing the swim bike, getting a ton of broadcast time and then dropping out. But I did think there was a chance I could finish. So I was racing. I let everybody know that I was racing against. my situation. So it wasn't like I was, you know, I just wanted everyone to be aware that I'm

going to ride really hard. And if I, almost like if I can help you, let me help you, but I might not finish the run. So it wasn't like I was being secretive about it. Just knew, cat knew. Everyone knew what was going on. So if someone finds themselves in a similar position and they've signed up for Ironman, Texas, or they've signed up for whatever it is, and they are thinking they're probably not going to be able to run. I know we've had this question before. Based on your experience,

would you recommend experiencing the race? Or, you know, doing what you did or not? In my situation, it made sense because of the course. Like, I knew it was a course that really suited me, and I wanted, there are some advantages of, like, doing the bike, being on the broadcast, showing I can climb really well to myself, even, if anything. and being a part of it because we were there anyway, I was fit, I was, you know, hopeful I could finish but didn't know.

So in my situation, yes, but I don't think necessarily, if you know for sure you can't run, it's worth even traveling to a race because obviously like the cost is super high. And I felt like the stress that I had was, oh my God, we got nothing out of this. We paid like, you know, tens of thousands of dollars to get here. you know, flying Nick over. Yeah, I think for us. But then at the end you come out with like,

no, you make no money. But it's kind of funny because like this whole, for the last four or five years, I haven't really had a bad race. I've always finished pretty well, gone home happy, felt like mission was accomplished.

So this is the first time, in a long time I've had to deal with. Oh my gosh, that was completely a waste of money. But it wasn't because there were so many positives of the weekend that we've taken in a way that are aside from the result at the finish line. And I don't do this thinking about money, but it is a thing where you're like,

shit, this was so expensive to get to. And here we are. We have to look at this stuff from a business perspective to some degree, but I agree. I don't consider it to be a waste of money at all. We're sad about the money that is lost as a result of not being able to complete, it's not being able to go to buy, but in terms of just a waste of money or not, definitely not and then I just I feel like you you nailed it with if an age group athlete is considering doing this you did still have like a cool experience being able to ride with people you were able to prove to yourself that the training that you've done has been working and you did have some sort of a you know like a thing at the end of the tunnel and it becomes less important I think if an age group or finishes or not because there's no prize money involved and we know ultimately we had a good experience the saddest thing about it all was I did come off the bike really well. Like I think I was fifth off the bike or something. And had I ran how I can always run,

I would have come third or fourth. So that sucked because that's like knowing what would have been had I had the same race and then just ran like a pretty average to me, 70.3 time, would have put me on the podium or like just off the podium. So that was the hardest part for me was what would have been if I wasn't hurt. Yeah. That sucked. And also, like, the one kilometer I did run was super fun. Like, everyone was, there was such good vibes on that course. So loud, so much cheering. I don't, I didn't ever actually ran the run course, so I didn't even know it when I was going into the run. I was like, well, if I run, I'm going to just be figuring it out as I go as I ran only 5K the whole week before the race. But yeah, the run course on camera anyway looked amazing and that I couldn't do it. But that's. That's okay. I pulled off right at our hotel. Our hotel was like on the run course and at a shower went out to cheer for everybody and then we watched the men's race the next day. Before we move on, I guess what I'm curious about like looking forward to next year and like

this course versus Nice and just what you were saying about like putting in time on the climbs and then losing time on the descents. Like how do you feel about like what were you thinking in terms of how this means anything for Nice and that's like one big climb. one bigger descent and does it like how do you are excited or thinking that niece could go well I mean it's like I guess it's lucky that next year's also a hilly 70.3 worlds because that's really what I thrive at is climbing and if anything being in this race and just like there's actually splits on the tracker of each climb and seeing how I could put minutes into people that I race against who often even beat me in like a T-100 or whatever.

On the climb and the powered away to just my ability to go uphill is a confidence booster for, yeah, Nice, I guess, or whatever other hilly race there might be. Nees obviously will require a little more skill on the descent because it's a more technical descent, but not as fast of a descent. And I think that's where I got scared a little bit on this course was just the high speed with the gusty wind. on the, not technical, but technical in some ways, because you have to keep your bike upright and not get so scared when the gusts come, hit you, and you're going 75K an hour. But there were some points where I came out of arrow and I was just kind of tucking because I was getting blown all over the road. And I was going over 70K an hour and Jess was dropping me.

I'm like, I'm not even going slow here, but just didn't, Jess is one of the best dissenders in the world, obviously. So it's like I'm comparing myself to the person. in front of me who's leaving me in the dust, but I'm still going way above my normal comfort zone for speed. Yeah. Nick and I, you know, we're chatting a little bit afterwards and just about Nice next year and everything. And it's seeing how you did on this, on this climb and thinking about Nice and what, what, knowing that niece is in the, in the future and that we've done Nice before and you know what those corners and the course is like, like being able to focus and

putting some time in in Santa Monica and the descents and stuff, just it feels like a really cool opportunity for next year. So I'm psyched. Looking forward to that. I mean, I think it's cool to have bike courses where at least on the women's side, the gaps are so enormous coming off the bike. It's like you don't have to run, you don't have to run a 115 or a 114 off the bike to a podium at these things. It's like you have to run pretty well. And if you can climb super well and descent super well and ride your bike well, you can have huge gaps coming off the bike. And the same in the men's race. It's happened as well. The people that got away really got away. Yeah. It makes it fun and cool to watch much different dynamics than a T-100 or even

than a flat or 70.3. So. Yeah. Awesome. It was awesome to watch. Very cool that they could put worlds on a course like that. This is what I kind of wanted to bring up is for people who listen to this podcast who have never been to a world championship. I mean, freaking Iron Man, write me a check, but it is worth it. As an age grouper, it is so, it was such a cool vibe, and I think there's a lot of things that contributed to that this year specifically. But, I mean, outside of Paula, your own race, Eric and Paula, what were some of the highlights for you?

I'm thinking of just how cool the precision guys were, the place itself, you know, what stuck out for you. I feel like they did such a good job at the whole weekend. Yeah, obviously you have to qualify, so it's not like anyone can just sign up. But if you do qualify for a world championship, I agree with you. I think it's a different feeling than any other 70.3 we go to throughout the year. It's so high level. Everything is, you know, done really, really well. The flow worked well. The course was cool. The precision guys, the precision was the title sponsor, really knocked it out of the park with, like actually acting. on their sponsorship. I think a lot of the time you get a title sponsor for a World Championship or a race. And it's like the logo's on everything, but you don't see any presence. These guys were like there. They brought their entire company. They had, you know, everyone was wearing their crazy outfits that are in their own way, kind of cool, even though they're so ugly. They're cool. But that's kind of their thing. It's like they've made precision stand out so much in a way that you kind of want to be part of what's going on.

Totally. It's not in a corporate way in an actually fun way. Yeah. Like the owners were there holding the finish line banner when yellow crossed the line, like that type of thing. And it's like started as this small company that made gels and nutrition powder. And now they like to see at this level what they were able to do with this race was just crazy. Yeah. I felt very much like we can identify with it because we have a small company and we've seen them grow from like literally three people working there to where they. are now. And I just, I was, I was pretty emotional for those guys, the two founders, as the alley across the line, and they were holding the banner and everything. And it was, it was freaking awesome. So. But anyway, yeah, what I do always think it's worth, uh, worth going to one of these. Marbea also had like tons of affordable accommodation and easy to get to from anywhere in Europe. I think the only thing that you could be critical of, of the entire of the tire weekend.

Yeah, was the traffic on the bike course. And we feel like, they should have said, do not ride the highway section, if possible, just drive that. Because we felt like somebody was going to get an accident with the trucks. But, I mean, from what we can tell, you know, Paula said on race day, it was great. Well, we re-read the course on Sunday when it was a quieter day. And then we tried to go out and ride it again Monday, and it was too terrifying. Just so many trucks. There was barely a shoulder.

You'd look behind you when there's like a truck barreling towards you on the highway and you're on your time trial bike. and pre-riding it was scary, but everyone was out doing it. It blew my mind that people's threshold for riding on roads like that was totally crazy to me. It was just like a group thing. You see a few people doing it. You're like, I guess we're all doing this. And then, like, is this safe? No, but those guys are doing it.

And Paula, now you, I mean, as much as you want to talk about it, do you have a mindset or some kind of trajectory or a plan? plan for how you're going to get better? Well, I was supposed to fly to Dubai, had to change my flights to come back home. I could have just gone to Dubai to fulfill my contract of attending 4T-100s to get the whatever appearance fee for that event. But I felt like in my best interest of potentially doing Qatar in five weeks or four weeks from now, it was better for me to come back and see my PT, see my PT, see.

my doctor here, you know, be in my home environment versus doing another long haul to Dubai enormous travel back a week later. There was not a situation there where I could foresee like making any progress with this injury or having any kind of positive outcome. I definitely didn't want to start that race in DNF. That was, you know, one time only is enough for doing that. So I'm still a little bit hopeful that I could do Qatar based on, you know, not running through this pain. I didn't regress. I'm like still getting better. So still four weeks. It's tough because the T-100 like everyone, if you don't 100% commit to just that and you're like kind of leaving it till the last couple of races to fill your full contract of doing four races,

you leave no room for error. And I think if anything, if I could go back in time, I would have done like the race in Spain and September or London. in the middle of the summer. Choices I made not to travel over to Europe again so I could be best prepared for Marbea. I left myself no room for a buffer if I had to miss Dubai. So that's unfortunate because now I'm only going to have three scores that count towards my year-end T-100 ranking and obviously this huge possibility that I can't even do Qatar. And if I do, it won't be in my best run fitness. So yeah, I have some regrets, but mostly my sadness is, that Marbea was my most important race of the year to me because I thought I could podium

and then proved that I actually could have podiumed, you know, if everything was going well. So that's the biggest disappointment. But if someone told me at the beginning of the year, you're going to win 470.3s, you're going to have a pretty good season. You're going to podium at a T-100. But then from Marbea onwards, you're going to be so injured you can't run, I would have been like, well, that's a fail of a year. Oh, I thought you were going to say the opposite. No, I think this year is F. I give myself an F. If I can't do Qatar, Dubai, or Marbea, that's a fail. It doesn't, no one gives us shit about who won Oceanside. We say this all the time ourselves.

It doesn't matter who won Oceanside, doesn't matter who one St. George. It matters what you do at the end of the year. So that's how I truly feel. And I've been so sad about it for the last week and a half, but it's, I can't do anything about it. it's just I'm injured now so all I can do is try to get better and if that means not racing Qatar and just getting ready for next year to do Iron Man and make that the best year I possibly can

then I'm coming to terms with that but yeah fail I feel like this is interesting to hear for age groupers who might idolize or glorify the life of a professional athlete what it must be like

what they imagine it's like and realized that Paula won 470.3s this year, got a T-100 podium and still gives herself an F for the year. And we're not, like, our brains aren't that different from Paula's. She is a different level of athlete, of course, but that lack of satisfaction that you're feeling, Paula, I think we all have that in our own ways. And we think that it's just the next thing

that's going to make us feel satisfied. And I don't know. It feels like it never comes. Like we're always striving for, something else. Yeah, I think also when you're racing, like the ultimate satisfaction comes when you beat people who are really good, like the best in the world. And no disrespect, but I won four 70.3s, but the best in the world were not at those races. So that's like me maybe being hard on myself a little, but that's the reality is like I wanted to go where

the best in the world are, 70.3 worlds and podium there. That means a lot more. more to me. So that's why I'm mostly sad. I am hoping that giving give it a little bit more time and we can arrive at a place where the season is not a fail. The decision that led to decisions that led to the injury, that's a fail. But we can say like those were still good races. We don't need to like say this as just a season fail. Like there's a C. Yeah, there were I mean, yeah. Oh, okay. Nice. There we go. We're trending positively. That was quick. Nice pep talk. I think we learn, okay, like what went wrong that led to the injury that doesn't make the rest of the season dumb. Everything was going great up until that decision was made, those decisions. And how do we

fix that for next year? And if we learn and you go freaking win in Nice next year or whatever, have a good race that you want, where you want, then we grew. And it was, you know, at least if we learned something, then it's positive. This was a bit reminiscent as I was lying in the MRI machine the day before the race. Like my MRI. That's a terrible sentence. This was a, I was, I was, So freaking tired that day and brain dead and drained and trying to decide what to do, but I was lying in the MRI machine. My appointment was at 1.30 p.m. The race was the next day. And I was like lying in there just thinking about how the fuck did I get myself to this position. And I was thinking back to 2011, which is how many years ago is that? 14 years ago. I was ranked number one in the world in the short course circuit. I just won. London, Kitsbiel, like I'd won three WTCS races in a row. And then there was a race in Edmonton, a World Cup. So like one level lower. But I was like back at home, superstar, you know, had just come off this huge streak of amazing races. And I had a pain in my hip. So the day before that World Cup, I was in an MRI machine getting an MRI. And it showed a stress fracture. So that was bad. And I didn't even start the race, obviously. But I was in tears and all my friends were there and people had like Paula T-shirts and it was in my hometown. So it's like this huge gap of time like almost, you know, a decade and a half later. And to have this flashback to what I experienced back then and like think about everything I'd done in between and the fact that I'm still racing and the fact that at 36 I'm still invited to the press conference with Lucy Charles, Taylor Nib, Kat Matthews. Like I'm one of the top five people in that race is just so crazy. And I think I'm, if anything,

a bit lucky that I haven't had more of these experiences in that big 14-year gap. But it's something that happens to everyone and everyone deals with it in different ways. You know, cat and, not cat, Lucy and Taylor had this disastrous catastrophic cona where they probably came away feeling worse than I'm currently feeling and flipped it around within four weeks. So Yeah, I feel that I'm like jealous of the people that had good races, but they had the exact experience I'm having four weeks ago. So it's so up and down and it's not foreign to me these things, but it still doesn't make it any easier at the time. Eric, did you know this thing about the MRI the day before the race 14 years ago? No.

That's a crazy story. Oh, my God. Paula, how did you not tell us as a fucking hips, dude? That's crazy. Oh, my God. That really is crazy. But in Spain, you can fully buy the rules, get an MRI within one day's notice. Well, we found out that you did that because another, we won't mention who,

but another pro athlete got the MRI the day before that. And here's what I'm confused about. They found a stress fracture, and then they still ran and did really well? Stress reaction. Okay. Okay, so it wasn't quite. Not fully gone yet. Got it.

And again, same sort of situation. This was this athlete's last. race of the season so worth it to push through that pain and if it does develop into a fracture you're going into offseason anyway and i think that you know we talked about that with paula like if the rate you know what she did in um augusta pushing through some pain there like if only that could have been this race instead yeah right you know it's worth it totally for a professional yeah at world championships yeah yeah wow okay i also want to just announce publicly that paula feels things intensely and doesn't hold back when she feels them. And I flew out there fully

expecting it to be a really hard time for the three of us emotionally. Because basically, you guys called me because your chances of finishing, you felt were dwindling and we just wanted to have a good family vibe together. And Paula, you freaking, you mentally crushed that thing. And I know you said that you grieved the loss of a good result leading up to the race, but I could have seen this still, you still being extremely upset about it now. And when you DNFed, you were upset, but you were okay. And I feel like you saw things clearly and for what they were. And then we still had a good time the rest of the day and watching the men's race the next day. I feel like you constantly chose the path of

I'm going to try to enjoy this while I'm here instead of feeling sorry for myself and I'm very proud of you for doing that. Yep. Thanks, Nick. She did have every mental breakdown after you left the hotel room. When?

He's kidding, he's kidding. Well, I think, like, yeah, the worst day was when the doctor came to my hotel room and gave me the ultrasound. Yeah. But we got through it. And by we, I mean, you guys, I was really happy to be there

and I feel very grateful that you guys invited me to come out. It was a very good time. The TTL meetup thing was pretty mind-blowing. I just love also, we've said this about T100 races, but I love that at Worlds, it's people, the people who are there, no one's there to check a box. People, well, I guess not in the same way, but people are so passionate about endurance sport there

in so many different ways. And it's fun to be there with your tribe of people that feel like you all understand each other already before you even start a conversation with a stranger. Yeah, agree. Totally agree. It was awesome. Such good feels. Okay, we're going to do questions this week, believe it or not. We do have some questions.

And I tried to put in a variety of things here, but we've been getting a lot of questions about other areas of multi-sport, and I think that's so exciting. I mean, Paula is a pure, what's it called, thoroughbred? Is that what they say? you could say one could say that she's like triathlete very good swim bike runner but eric and i like to dabble outside of things i mean who cares what i do but eric as a professional likes to dabble outside of things um so this first question here is from uh molly molly flin's on call vet

oh oh is it really molly because molly does say p.s hope flin's recovering is going well side note it is going great he had his he had his first swim this morning and it was that's probably No, it's for sure her. I know it's her. We all had a special moment as a family. I just want to put it in one more thing. Paula, you've been swimming a lot more lately because you've been not so happy with your swims and it freaking paid off. You swam really well. Good job.

I think that's just luck. Jesus. You don't think it has to do with the swimming? No, it definitely helps with the swimming, but I think I had a good start and I was beside fast people and I... Haven't you been practicing starts? Yeah, okay, fine.

Yeah, I practiced and then I went on. We're taking the win, yes. Good job. All right. All right. Question here for the pod about handling disappointment. Hmm, how apropos. Overall, I had a solid season placing on the podium at the 470.3s I raced and had escape

from Alcatraz. That's really great, Molly. My main race for the season, however, was my first Kona, in which I raced woefully mediocre. What stings the most is the fact that I went all in for this race and fell so far short of what I'd hoped and trained for it. Stop me if this sounds familiar, guys. I'm left feeling deflated, a bit embarrassed for thinking I could do more, and wondering if I'm delusional for thinking I could actually compete at this level. The question is, how do you handle falling so far short of your goals? How do you re-instill belief in yourself after you've poured everything

you have to give, only to come away wildly off the mark? I'm racing Iron Man, Arizona, this weekend as a final hurrah for the season, hoping for redemption, but still feel like my relationship with the sport took a big hit. I originally had signed up with the intent to re-qualify for Kona, but currently having a hard time wrapping my head around the whole thing, to be honest. Thanks for all you guys do for the sport. Molly. And she, by the way, the first PS was Hope Lynn's Recovery is going well. The second PS is, congrats Paul on a hell of a season. I know Marbea. Probably didn't play out the way you had dreamed of, but on behalf of us, mortals, it's still damn inspiring. Nothing but respect. Thanks, Molly.

I think that if I, it's daunting to have, you know, to do a race, feel disappointment and still be training for another Iron Man, that's hard. And it's not like it's right around the corners. You can just ride off your fitness. Like you still have to be training pretty hard along and between the two. I think the thing that occurs to me is how are you evaluating the performance at Kona? Is it based on where you placed? Is it based on power numbers? like how objective versus subjective are you being here and then also take into consideration like Kona is different. It is hot and steamy and like you're extremely stressed. This is like I think a lot of the times we see, I've seen a lot of pro athletes that the more fit they feel, the more they're like, wow, I'm destined for a good one. I'm all in on this. It raises the stress level and the expectation level to another spot and that is a new stimulus. So just comparing it to every other race you did for the year like take that into consideration and again like we were talking about with paula like what can you learn from this maybe you need to do more heat training maybe you know

whatever it is and but don't just it's not like apples to apples when you care that much about something do you think it's um is it unfair for me to say that in some way molly is lucky to have something still to work at and get better at and train for a goal to have or as an athlete do you think that does not apply as much. No, I agree. And that's kind of what I was trying to get at. If there's anything you can look at with Kona and see like, oh, here's a little thing I could improve at. That is always what gets me going back to training and excitement for the process after a disappointing result. Yeah. Yeah. Next question here is from Ours. Paula, Eric, Nick, please help all caps, especially to Eric as two-time champ. I was lucky in the draw and I'm now

registered for escape from Alcatraz 2026. Besides the crazy registration fee and travel effort from Europe, I'm looking for some experienced advice. How to train for the shark contaminated cold water swim with that initial dive and strong current, what to wear.

Which bike should I travel with? Road bike with a disc brake or T.T. Bike with a rim brake. And with or without disc wheel. Eric, you have all the answers to these questions. How to train for that run including the sand ladder, where it Stay best for a good bang for the buck.

Easy logistics. Thanks to advance you. The reason I do this, you inspire this. Without you guys, I would not have learned about that iconic race. First of all, so cool you're traveling from Europe to do this race. Eric, you are multiple time champion. So let's hit these one by one. What to wear for the cold water swim.

And is there anything you have to do specifically, any kind of training you do specifically for this swim versus another open water swim? No, I don't think so. I've said this every time, and Paul has agreed. She's done the race as well. You don't process. I have never thought diving into that water, wow, this is cold. Because you just, you dive in, it's like ripping the Band-Aid straight off and you get

into swimming, and I have not ever jumped in and be like, oh, my God, it's cold. You just get down to business, you follow all the people that are in front of you. Assuming you're not, well, even if you are the fastest swimmer, the pros are in front, and they're following a boat. So I don't think you need to worry too much about the orientering aspect of it. But if I was going to do anything specific to prepare for it, maybe do some like, you know, siding every three, you know, on like 50s freestyle or something just to get a little bit extra strength and work on your siding technique because you'll be siding

a lot and it's a long swim. Would you wear a skull cap, an aiprene skull cap? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. That's a good one. I hadn't thought of that. I never have, but a lot of people do. Yeah.

Now, how about which bike, road bike with disc brakes or TT bike with rim brakes? because it is a lot of technical, steep, fast turning. I would say unless you're, like, wanting to win the race, either in your age group or maybe overall, I would probably do a road bike for most people. It's just, it's so technical, it's so much climbing and descending. There's this little section in the Golden Gate Park where you're climbing at, like, only two or three percent,

and then you come back down two or three percent. But for the most part, the entire race is, like, up and down. This is the only course I've ever done, not the T-100 version, but the actual age group race, where I would recommend a road bike over a T-T bike for most people. Especially with disc brakes, it often rains. Because you're just sitting up on your T-T bike almost the entire time. Yeah. Except for the first, like, three miles getting to the hills. Yeah.

The other nice advantage is that then you have a road bike in the U.S. to ride around with instead of a T-T bike. Yeah. If you're staying afterwards, yeah, I guess. Yeah, I would just get arrow wheels on there, you know, something like 4-5-4 sort of depth and ride that and be comfy and yeah. But put clip-ons on so you can be arrow for the flat parts. Yeah, if your butt can do it. And what about for the run?

Would you do anything differently for that run compared to a regular triathlon run? Would you do like more hilly or stair-steppy stuff? I would actually do stare repeats. Like if there's a staircase near you somewhere that's like coming up from a river or a beach or whatever, do reps of that because I think it is a really specific muscle usage to climb stairs. And it's not just the sand ladder. You actually climb upstairs also at the start of the race to get up. Same thing as the bike. You're basically not running flat, hardly ever.

Do you think trail running would be good training? Yeah, I mean, if there was ever a race that trail running would be good training, yeah. But I think, yeah, doing hill repeats or some stair stuff, that's where it's going to, like, you're going to give or take a ton of time with the up and downs. And the final thing is, where would you stay in San Francisco or near San Francisco if you were not a pro? As close as you can to where the race is at. It's just if you can be like right next to Chrissy Field in an Airbnb or something, you can ride the course super easily. The expo is right there. you can just walk down to the start and get on the shuttle bus so, so easy.

And the other thing about it is if you're staying a little bit further away and need a car, like a rental car in San Francisco, a huge liability, absolutely pain in the ass. Try to do this without a rental car if at all possible, with parking and all that stuff. That's great. That's a great tip. Yeah. Yeah. Well, best of luck, or so cool that you're doing that race. Next question here is from Kieran. Hey, gang, hope you're well. Been doing a lot of podcasts listening, and loved hearing Eric talk about his adventure into trail running. It inspired me to go on a run I normally wouldn't because of the mud.

Thanks for a new fixation. I'm curious to hear your, Eric, plans around triathlon, and if you'll ever venture back into it along your UTMB goals over the next 12 months. I saw your post tonight about FOMO from 70.3 World Championship and wonder if you think you'll get the bug again, interested to hear more. Thanks, Kieran. So, Eric, did watching those guys, destroying themselves on that

course just to get like 15th place did it make you want to do it? A little bit, yeah. No, I, that would have been a course that I would be good at. And yeah, I do miss it. And I can't go to a race like that or go to Oceanside and not remember the times

that I did compete at World Championships or at a high level and won races and was on podiums and had good fights with other athletes. But it would kind of what would have to happen for me to make it back into like a 70.3 world championship level or even just, you know, podiuming at regional stuff would be a bit of a lifestyle change. So I'm very happy and proud of where TTL is at. I'm happy and proud of where Paul is at. And we put out our beautiful film earlier this year. And like all of those things. would need to take a hit for me to train the volume and, you know, be selfish with myself

and my athletic pursuit to get to a level where I'm proud. So I don't, I don't definitely don't want to say no, but it would just have to be a bit of a shift. And next year I would do want to take a good crack at UTMB. I want to try to go to Otila World Championships. And I actually am getting some new imaging done on my hip and so like in my mind a potential route that this could end up being is like I do this maybe I get the surgery and then I feel confident in my bike ability to train and TTL comes to a place now that we've hired Jordan where it can sustain without me putting quite as much time into it and yeah maybe I could do one last hurrah into Xtera or whatever because that I'm just it for me I need to if I'm going to go compete at anything I want to feel like I gave

it the respect that it deserves and prepared to the best of my ability for it. And, you know, we just have to, something's got to give. Yeah. It'd be fun to see you do triathlon, but I think I speak for myself and most podcast listeners is that we love watching you do these things that are related to but not directly triathlon. Yeah. I think the major thing is if I did get hip surgery and that resolved my left hip symptoms,

I would just, I have a big what if in my brain. Looking back at the last 15 years, last 10 years since I had this, got this injury of what if I'd gotten surgery immediately and stayed on the trajectory that I was on, like, where could I be? And if there was any way to, like, answer that with one last season of giving it to go, that's exciting. Yeah. A lot of ifs.

A lot of ifs. Okay, here's another if. There's a question from Fiona. What film camera or cameras would you recommend for bringing it on the bike? my if is does Fiona mean film because we know nothing about film for filming yeah I don't know

actually that's a good question she needs a digital camera obviously yeah yeah so but not film yeah not literal film that you have to get developed man there's a lot of competition out there right now so I guess I'll just say what what I use is the DJI Action 5 Pro

that it's shaped like a GoPro it's an action camera pull it out of your pocket it's very stable you think you think Fiona means for video yes i'm just i mean that's what film means for filming if not you know okay so but we can just tell you all the things that that's what i use to shoot most of the video on the bike i also have the osmo pocket from dj i that's just like a little bit more challenging to use and film with but gets better results and then for taking photos i'll either take our fuji film x100 or um sometimes i'll take my full-blown A7S3 camera out for like a picture, which kind of depends. I think the iPhone is the best for the break.

I was going to say the same thing. Unfortunately. I was going to say the same thing. But when Eric brings his digital camera, like on the ride we did with Yon, Eric brought his shoulder strap ride, shoulder strap on the right, and it was great. He got, I took photos as well, but the best photos, really, they looked way better for for Mary's camera. For sure they look better, but for 99.9% of people who are scared to take their hands off

their bars to grab their water bottle. Right, right. If you're trying to like focus and move the strap out of the way and hold the thing and get the framing right, you're a hazard. You are. But if you can do it, it, it does, it pays off, I think. Yeah, but I think the only people that can do it are like literally Eric. Right.

He's like a world-class photo well-riding person. He makes it look easy. I'll definitely say I'm one of the only ones who could do it. I can't even take the phone under my pocket sometimes because I'm like, I don't want to take my hands off the bar. But if you have your phone with you anyway and like the iPhones now have such good cameras for both filming and for pictures, it's, in my opinion, that's the only answer. Wait, this reminds me of this question that I sometimes ask my friends that we talk about is what are you the best at the world at with the least amount of quality?

of like, what do you want to call it? Qualifiers kind of like, you know, if you're the fastest 100 meter runner in the world, great. But maybe you're the fastest 100 meter runner while juggling from Arkansas. You know, that's like a few things in. And Eric, maybe you are the fastest cyclist who takes the best pictures in the world.

That's certainly what I aspire to be. Could be. Could be. Yeah. I actually think he's top five in the world at that. the most skilled at riding while taking content. Yeah. That's my whole life practicing.

And also the fact that he can say, okay, wait two minutes, I'm going to get ahead of you. I wait two minutes. He scales a cliff to get a picture from high up. And I continue to descend at my normal rate. And he catches back on. Comes down the cliff and catches you, of course. Yeah, it's great.

Zero percent interrupted the ride. But he's getting a bird's eye view. That is what I take the most. pride in is like getting a high quality shot while not interrupting paula's workout at all and sometimes i completely bury myself and probably ruin my next workout to do so but that's like fishing for me it's like when you get a good one yes it feels so good love that love that okay final question here is from tim tim tim b maybe his name is tim bits hi guys i've gained so much benefit from your podcast that i've finally become a supporter thanks tim appreciate that and with that comes a lifetime of

imbits, actually. A lot of people don't know that about being a podcast supporter. I've heard Eric a few times mention the spiritual aspect of multi-sport. Nick, can you recall a spiritual moment in your Iron Man? How often does this topic come up among high-level athletes? I wonder if I ever make it to something like that, or if it will just be a grind. I've experienced burnout before in a previous career and never want to experience it again. Multisport is not my career. I'm slow as fuck. But it is something that supports my to keep showing up for life. I was able to do an Otilo race recently. Eric planted the seed, and for me it was a spiritual experience. Seeing the sun as I lifted my arm in recovery phase in

the last swim against the current was very hard, but I felt grateful to be alive. Curious of any moments that stand out to y'all, maybe in moments of doubt, something other than pure mental strength that still carries you through. Thanks for the journey, Tim. Timbits. So you guys as pros, do you have that or has all the training and racing kind of doled the ability to feel that as much? Spiritual moments?

Yeah, no, for me. I figured. Probably Eric and you have spiritual moments all the time, but that's not my thing. That's what keeps me going. Yeah. And I think a spiritual moment

can also be going out and like having doubts about finishing a session, but then surprising yourself with how well it went. So it doesn't have to be like a kumbaya in the woods rather than that's a huge rush to be able to do that and prove that to yourself. So I have both types. It's funny you say that because when I read this question,

when I was making the podcast yesterday, I was thinking about during my Iron Man, did I really have a moment like that? And for me, there was enough you remember that moment where I made the, I threw the bottle into the garbage and then felt this surge of like, oh my God, I can do this today. But really that moment, I think for me, came not in such an acute way, but a slow onset in the months leading up to the race.

When I slowly shifted from this impossible thing that I'm somehow going to get through, and eventually I got to a place without necessarily trying to get to this place, but I did get to this place of, I can do this I've been doing these century rides and running off the bike and feeling good it's not a matter

of can I do this Iron Man it's how well will I do it and I think that was a shift that really felt good it removed the fear of the effort which is something that I usually have going into a race

which is like I'm literally scared of how much it's going to hurt to be in the race for whatever the two hours or the four hours or the 10 hours it took that fear away from me I felt like I so get that now. There's other variables, of course.

You can get injured, and I obviously could have been injured in the Iron Man as well, but the pain itself became less of a fear factor. And that felt good. It made me feel like maybe for the first time ever, like I was really an athlete instead of a musician cosplaying as an athlete. Yeah, I feel like actually Paula's moment in the MRI machine is, I would say arguably potentially a spiritual moment of that realization of the journey in the process and maybe it didn't. No, it wasn't. Maybe it's, okay. I don't have spiritual moments. Don't you dare. I don't feel

anything. Okay. Like that's honestly when I get the most emotional when I'm doing something is I have that moment of looking back on what I've been through and where I'm at now and the process and just like this huge feeling of gratitude that this is what I'm spending my life doing. And if I've had a couple of those moments, like when I led into my last 70.3 win in Santa Cruz and I drove down and camped in the van and did the whole thing. I was like, how is this real? This is so incredible. And I started the race with that feeling of like, my life is amazing. I was born to do this. And that's a, I don't know, sets a good stage. I feel like because Eric and Nick are much more artsy boys, they have more spiritual moments. Yeah, I think those are probably related.

Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Well, I also would like to say that we didn't mention this earlier, but you can submit your questions to the podcast at That TriathlonLife.com slash podcast. I have a feeling probably a lot of new listeners this episode. So we would love for you to come back and keep listening to the podcast. It's a cool community of folks out there who do listen. And we met so many of them in Marbea this week. It's so fun. We record this of three of us and we kind of forget. It's so fun to actually meet the people in person. You can become a podcast supporter, which helps us fund this podcast and continue to do cool things like Fly Nick out to Marbea, which Nick thinks is really cool, by the way. And you can do that at the same place, that triathlonlife.com slash podcast. And check out the other stuff we have on the website, too. There's a bunch of cool stuff on there. Eric's wearing a hat that you can buy. Paula, this view looks like I'm about to give you a pap smear.

We're actually both had two coffees this morning. By the way, for everyone who thought that we were really balling out by a Nick, a ticket on three hours notice, it was $600 round trip. Yeah, people thought you spent like $4,000 to fly me up. Yeah, I wasn't posting that as like a, oh my gosh, we spent so much money. It was shockingly cheap, and that's probably the main reason that we pulled the trigger. We're not crazy. And also our room happened to have a pull-out couch. There were a lot of factors that came together to make that possible.

Nick had no food on the airplane. He just fasted. It was a super saver fair. Yeah, as he was booking it, he's like, protect your trip. No. No. No, no. Not doing it.

Yeah. Ultra basic. Anyway, I loved, I loved this episode. And it was mostly because Paula, I love hearing the way your brain works and to see as one of the best triathletes in the world what it's like to face this kind of adversity. It's an honor to have a front row seat to it. And I feel like it's a privilege to share it with all the podcast. listeners as well. Thank you.

F for fail. I thought we were a C. No, F. I just, for those of you watch the YouTube, I will be spinning the YouTube slightly more positively. Great. Feref for fail.

That's the fun is going to be. That could be a great, a great title for the final video on the Iron Man. F for fail question mark. Oh boy. I'll get a lot of clicks. All right.

Well, we'll talk to you all next week. Bye everybody. Bye. Thank you.