What success takes. -Rachel Joyce 2nd place at Ironman World championships

Who's Rachel Joyce?  Well if you are any kind of sports fan you know about the Ironman in Hawaii,  The world championships. Over the last several years she has quietly been making a name for her self.  In 2011 the only one that could beat her was the one and only Mirinda Carfrae. that's right The women who looks like she is running an all out 5k when she is half way through an Ironman was the only one even close.

   Now that I have done a few of these we can see a very distinct trend. "did you ever think you would fail?"  NO.  "whats the key to your success?" Consistency. "are you done?" Nope.

  So why are these questions all answered the same?  Winners can see the result before it happens. watching the winter Olympics they talked about how when a down hill skier is going through a gate they are all ready thinking, planning and executing the next one. They work ahead of the moment.  

  In my last interview with Dirk Friel he said you have to surround your self with people better than you. so what did Rachel do? hired the one and only Dave Scott to coach her. when I first meet Rachel someone asked her "whats working with Dave like"  there was a pause and a rye smile, "It's intense." 


What drove you to go for the goal of the podium at the Ironman world championships: The goal has never really changed since I took up triathlon. I am driven by being the best athlete I can: and so in preparing for Kona this year that was what I was aiming for .

 What challenges did you face in achieving this goal? I had a couple of injuries in the build up to Kona 2013. I tore a tendon in my foot at the start of the summer, and had to spend several weeks in a boot during July and more weeks not running. That created a mental challenge to continue to believe I could still run well despite interrupted run training plus physically rehabbing the injury. I also irritated a disc in my upper back which created some stress in my final prep but it came right at just the right time.
What were the keys to overcoming these challenges? Staying positive and making sure I didn't descend into a complete panic and do something stupid.

During the race at the world championships were there moments you thought you wouldn't make it? (on the podium)  No not really. I don’t really think like that - my focus is on going as fast as I can and then the result comes out of that.

Over all what do you think the keys are to competing at your level? Consistent training, discipline and enjoyment - it’s hard to commit as much time (well, its a way of life) if you’re not having fun doing it.
What other priorities do you have in life besides racing and triathlon?  At the moment training and racing is my main focus. Of course personal relationships and friends also feature very highly on my priority its too.
Now that you have achieved so much whats next? are you done?  No I’m not done. I’m still enjoying the sport and strongly believe I have improvements I can make in the sport. My goal is to win Kona so that is my focus for the next couple of years.