EPISODE 1: JULIA SLYER

Interview by Julia Wilkins

Photograph by Nadiv Hossain

October 20, 2019

I grew up with a triathlon camp in my backyard. It’s definitely not the most conventional way to spend your summers growing up. My parents are both teachers and needed something to do when school was out, so for six weeks every summer we have 40 kids swimming in our pool, biking in our woods, and running around our fields all day. Running a family business is no easy task, but it’s completely worth it when you can come together and teach a kid how to ride their bike without training wheels or swim to the other end of the pool with their face in the water. It’s incredibly rewarding to play a part in these small moments when a kid conquers their fears.

Triathlon has always been a family pursuit for us. My dad did his first Ironman in 1999, at the first Ironman race in the continental US. Triathlon was still a relatively unknown sport back then, and most triathletes thought that Ironman athletes were nuts for tackling a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a marathon in one day. When my dad signed up, he’d never raced a triathlon, didn’t own a road bike, and had never raced further than a 10k – in which he placed last in his age group. He trained like crazy for that first race, and has now completed 17 Ironmans. My dad has always been training for something, whether it be an Ironman or a marathon, and as a kid I wanted to be an athlete just like him.

My mom has a scrapbook from my dad’s first Ironman back in ’99, with a quote from 3-year-old me at the finish line of the kids splash-and-dash: “I wanna do this when I’m 18!” My family has been to almost every Ironman Lake Placid since then, even when none of us were racing, and as a kid I remember being so inspired by my dad, and especially all the women who competed. Every year, I told my parents that I wanted to race at the minimum age of 18, but I’m honestly not sure that they believed me. I signed up for my first Ironman a year in advance when I was 17. I signed up again for the 2015 race two days before I even started the 2014 race. I ended up completely falling in love with the sport during my first Ironman. I smiled the entire day – my cheeks were honestly almost as sore as my legs – and the first thing I said to my mom at the finish line was, “That was so fun! I’m so glad I signed up for next year!”

When I showed up in Lake Placid to race in 2015, my only goals were to have fun and beat my time from the year before. I had felt great in training with my dad that summer, and I knew that I could go faster. I ended up unexpectedly winning my age group and qualifying for the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. I had watched Kona on TV for years, and while I had dreams of qualifying and competing at the World Champs someday, I never expected to go at 19 years old, as the youngest athlete that year. I decided to treat that race as a once in a lifetime experience, soak it all in, and have fun. I expected to place in the middle of my age group, around 15th. I crossed the finish line, hugged my dad, and talked to my mom on the phone. She told me, “You got 4th!” “I got 14th!! That’s awesome!” “No, you got 4th in your age group!” That conversation was a turning point for me. It taught me to never underestimate myself. It also gave me so much confidence in life that if I could be pretty good at something as hard as an Ironman, I could excel at a lot of hard things and have fun while I’m at it.

Ironman has taught me a lot. It’s given me a pretty unshakeable confidence outside of sport, but it also made me super aware that there is only so much in life that you can control. In Ironman, you can’t control your competitors or the weather, and even within your own race there will be variables outside your control. It took me a while to realize that in racing and life, it’s about rolling with the punches, creating opportunities, and making the most of it. Racing has helped me realize that whenever I come across a problem in my everyday life, I can only control my own actions and not let other people influence my mindset.

I’ve been to Kona 3 times now, and it’s really one of my favorite places in the world. There’s something about pushing yourself to the brink against the best in the world that’s addictive. I’ve had two fantastic days there, ending up in the top 5 in my age group, and one really rough day, but they were all pretty defining moments in my life. My second time at the World Champs, my dad was also competing. To be on that course with him was incredible, but I felt awful all day, from vertigo on the bike to nausea the entire marathon. My goal had been to place in the top 5 again, and finishing 11th left me super disappointed in myself. I was crushed and had a bit of a “my world is ending” moment, but moving past it and accepting that it’s ok to fail to achieve a goal was a huge learning experience for me.

I was actually supposed to do my 10th Ironman the day before orientation started in July. My training had been great, I felt like I was in the best shape of my life, and I had some big, lofty goals I was going after. But during the second half of the swim, I somehow injured my elbow, and it made holding onto my handlebars on my bike incredibly painful. Usually the bike is the most fun part of the race for me, but I was miserable. Deciding to pull myself from the race and not finish was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make in sport. I was disappointed in my performance, but the experience really helped me realize how many people I have supporting me in my triathlon community. Triathlon has given me so much: fitness, confidence, perseverance, and an incredible community to rely upon.

What are your 5 most recently played artists on Spotify?
Taylor Swift, Brynn Elliott, Lizzo, Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Moris

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
Teleportation. Could you imagine being able to go anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye?

Pick someone or something from NYMC to give a shout-out to!
Dr. Lerea, for assuring the entire M1 class that we are, in fact, in control.

If someone wanted to talk to you, they should lead with…
Anything about desserts!