Our athlete of the week is Scott Evans! Scott has been with Endorphin Fitness for the last five years. Along with his sons Presley, Chandler, and Whitfield, Scott has been an awesome addition to our team. He and his sons are always working hard and focus on the next steps in their journey! Scott just had a huge breakthrough race at IM 70.3 Maine, going 4:44 at his first half. Since he just passed this milestone, we asked him a few questions about his journey, and enjoyed hearing some of his reflections.
Our athlete of the week is Jenna Free! Jenna is on our Youth High Performance team, and has been with Endorphin Fitness for the past four years. Her growth as an athlete has been amazing to watch. Her first results of the season were a perfectly executed race at the East Coast Triathlon festival, but her season began long before that as she worked diligently in her offseason training and preparations.
Our athlete of the week is Monica Woodward! Monica has been with us for three years now and her dedication to improvement and diligence in setting goals and training for them has been a huge inspiration for us.
Our athlete of the week is Lane Jacobs! Lane has been training with Endorphin Fitness since the fall of 2017, and we’re so happy she’s a part of our team! Her great attitude and determination to improve has made her a joy to work with!
Anna is competitive and driven, and said that when she was first trying to find a sport to focus on, she couldn’t find one that was challenging enough for her. When an acquaintance of her friend’s mom wanted to start a triathlon team and Anna heard about, she said that she was interested. After the first practice, she knew that she had found a sport that would meet her desires to be challenged and grow, and has stayed with it ever since.
Ava’s fitness journey began at age 5 when she started competitively swimming. She wanted to try something new and her dad signed her up for her firs triathlon at age 8. She enjoyed the rush and excitement of doing three sports at once and has been competing ever since. She is now a high performance youth elite athlete traveling to qualifying races. Endorphin Fitness has coached Ava for 4 years.
Annika combines competitive drive with a spunky attitude, which makes her a valuable member of our team! Even though she’s been on the team for the past few years, she continues to take the initiative to improve herself, which is critical to athletic development. Additionally, she is always cracking jokes and making the practice environment more fun! Recently, her swimming has been taking the spotlight with her qualification for the VA short course AND long course all star teams.
Tina’s fitness journey began with swimming backstroke in high school, followed by running for fun in college. She also started training for triathlons in her 20s, but always felt like there was something missing. Tina liked the community spirit of Endorphin Fitness and the fact that it felt like one big family. About 9 years ago, she decided to join Endorphin Fitness to get back into training for triathlons, but this time with a group.
Hope started swimming when she was 7 years old and completed her first triathlon when she was 8 on a beach cruiser. Her first race was IronKids in North Carolina. She did the IK series until it stopped in 2014. In 2013, she did her first USAT Nationals race, when she was 10 years old. In addition to triathlon, Hope swims, runs (XC and track), cheers, and plays soccer for her high school. Hope really is a well-around athlete, but her favorite is running.
Hattie started taking swimming lessons at NOVA when she turned 2.5 years old. It was then that she started riding her older sister Hazel’s old balance bike. When she finally started riding a pedal bike, Hattie was 3 years old. It was just a year later, when she turned 4, that Hattie completed her first triathlon. Since her first race, she has done many more and wins trophies in swimming, running, and triathlons.
Steve’s fitness journey began with 14 years of Tae Kwon Do and Go Ju Ryu. He is a black belt and a brown belt, respectively. When his school closed, he looked around for a replacement activity, and raced PowerSprint 2009 on a lark. He put the hook in and started formal triathlon training with Endorphin Fitness.
Logan started with Endorphin Fitness about a year ago with the main focus of building up her strength for the next XC season. During indoor track last year, she was coming back from a hip injury. Her school didn’t have a good distance program and the sprint and pole vault coaches were running the workouts. Logan and her mom decided it wasn’t working and it was recommended by the Albrights that we try out Endorphin Fitness. Logan decided to scratch the track season and focus on building up for the upcoming season. She was already swimming as cross training and they decided eventually work in some rides.
Walt was a baseball player all throughout high school and college. He began his running career as a form of punishment at practice. After college, Walt stumbled across a triathlon and thought to himself, “I can swim, I know how to ride a bike, I can run…” and the rest is history. He signed up for his first sprint in 2009 and has been competing in races ever since.
Isabella began her fitness journey as a swimmer. She later decided to take on triathlon to try something new, but also improve her bike and run skills. Although originally on Dominion Cycling & Triathlon Team, Isabella became part of Endorphin Fitness Price William about 4 years ago.
Colby started running when he was really little. He did road 5k’s with no training, followed by track for his middle school team. In 8th grade, he joined cross-country for Deep Run and loved it! He also did indoor track for them but had to come back to middle school level for Outdoor track season.
Matthew has been training with Endorphin Fitness for the past seven seasons. His fitness journey began at 287 pounds, relaxing on the beach when his friend’s wife suggested doing a triathlon with her. After watching an inspirational video of Rick and Dick Hoyt, a few laughs, and some encouraging words from friends, Matthew committed to triathlon
Who says there is an age limit for physical fitness success? Not Jim Fuller! This veteran U.S Marine learned that the mind plays tricks on you, that sometimes your mind is out of synch with what your body can really do. He took this insight and applied it to his fitness plan by focusing on execution and allowing his coach (Ryan Middleton) to take over the thinking/planning aspect. In the last few years, this inspiring 73 year-old has completed The Firemen’s 10K in Shockoe Bottom, the Turkey Trot 10K at Quantico, Semper Five Miler in Fredericksburg AND the Marine Corps 10k. His next major goal is to qualify for Senior Nationals, to be held in June 2019 in New Mexico, hoping to qualify to run in the Senior Olympics. Keep reading below as Jim tells his incredible story of success…….
Lucille began her early life suffering from severe and mysterious migraines stemming from an unknown cause. These migraines followed her into her adulthood, especially after the birth of her second child when the migraines increased to daily. Working, getting out of bed, going to work, and taking care of 2 young children was taking a toll on Lucille as she struggled with severe pain and the various medications and treatments that came with it.
Dawn is a great example of how to balance a busy life alongside triathlon training. Managing a home life with young children, working full time, which includes plenty of travel across the country, and managing her health (Dawn is a cancer survivor) seems like it would be a full enough plate for anyone. Not for Dawn! Never afraid of a challenge she has found that triathlon fits the bill. She loves the training as well as her EF team and feels the sport helps her be the best version of herself possible. While Dawn has been racing triathlons for only two years she has already competed in a myriad of races including Escape from Alcatraz and she is looking forward to NC 70.3 in a few short weeks. She puts a lot of emphasis on proper nutrition, getting enough sleep and recovery, and listening to her body to train effectively.
After nominating Caleb, Coach Erin Horil had this to say about Caleb- “Caleb is an extraordinary addition to our youth program. While gentle and happy in spirit, Caleb has a fierce passion for improving as an athlete and person. He is constantly striving to do things correctly, and better than before! Even more importantly, he is a team player, encourages those around him, and is humble. I enjoy each opportunity I get to coach him, especially when I get to see the dynamic of him working hard AND laughing with his friends all in the same practice as he so often does.”
