Podcasts about dare2tri

CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE PODCAST AWARDS: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup We all have an idea of what we want our future to look like. Maybe it's very grounded, and concrete – or maybe it's just a vague idea of how we want to feel when we get there. But what happens when we're forced to adapt that vision? Something out of your control gets between you and your dream. How do we muster the strength to find another way through? In 2004, Melissa Stockwell had a clear vision for her future––a lieutenant in the U-S Army. But when a roadside bomb in Baghdad took her left leg, the door to that dream slammed shut.  Jumping ahead 20 years, on September 1st, 2024, Melissa will compete in Paris in her fourth paralympic triathlon. Her motivational speeches have inspired rooms full of people. And her non-profit, Dare2Tri, is giving other disabled athletes resources so they can run toward their dreams. What can we learn from Melissa, and her journey – from that Baghdad hospital, to the Paralympic podium?  

Adam Bleakney has served as the Head Coach of the University of Illinois Wheelchair Track and Road Racing team since 2005. In that time his athletes have won 55 medals across four Paralympic Games while setting 14 world records on the track and winning a number of major marathons. In 2017, he also established the Human Performance and Mobility Maker Lab, a lab where students with and without disabilities collaborate to design and develop assistive technology. Just last week, he was recognized by Dare2Tri for his contributions to adaptive sports and the Paralympic movement.

Episode NotesApril is National Volunteer Month and what better way to celebrate than having Coach Dan, Coach Chris, and Coach Robyn talk about the amazing benefits to volunteering at your local endurance events? They've got all the tips you need to get out there and give back! Whether it's getting free swag or gaining invaluable experience, volunteering is one of the best ways to get involved in your community. So don't miss out on this opportunity – tune in now for all the info you need to become a volunteer extraordinaire. And learn more about Dare2Tri!Check out the video version of this podcast on YouTubeConnect with Edge Athlete Lounge: @edgeathleteloungehttps://edgeathletelounge.com/Learn more about Dare2Tri: https://dare2tri.org/Connect with Coach Dan: @DanTun24Connect with Coach Robyn: @coach.robynConnect with Coach Chris: @thechrismosierEmail us podcast@edgeathletelounge.comMusic by MENDLogo by @valeriegalerieAudio mixed and edited by FermataLab  

Dare2Tri specializes in adaptive sports. They have built an inclusive community that provides training and proper tools for people living with a physical disability or visual impairment to become endurance athletes. These individuals gain the confidence to achieve personal goals through participation in para-athletics.For links to the people featured in this episode, visit milesforchangepodcast.com. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit milesforchange.substack.com

Your why can be anything, and it can shift and change.  It doesn't matter what the why is, it only matters that it's yours.   Connect with Sam: @s.schrothConnect with Dare2Tri: @dare2tri_Connect with Edge Athlete Lounge: https://edgeathletelounge.com/@edgeathleteloungeEmail us: podcast@edgeathletelounge.comMusic by MENDLogo by @valeriegalerieAudio mixed and edited by FermataLab 

Retired Army Officer Melissa Stockwell is proud to wear the United States uniform. She did so as an Army officer and, after a roadside bomb in Iraq led to her left leg being amputated above the knee, she wore the Red, White, and Blue for Team USA. Not in one Paralympic Games, not in two. But in three. The world champion and Paralympic bronze medalist in paratriathlon continues to rack up accomplishments while also continuing to serve others. She co-founded Dare2Tri, a Move United member organization based in Chicago and has launched a prosthetic company with her husband Brian. She has also written a book called The Power of Choice, so we chat with her about it.

Keri Serota has a master's degree in kinesiology, and she is a US triathlon certified coach and a member of the USAT board of directors. She's also the co-founder of Dare2Tri. Dare2tri is a nonprofit organization with the mission to enhance the lives of individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments by building confidence, community, health and wellness through swimming, biking, and running.Dare2Tri has encouraged recreation, racing, and competition in this trifecta of sports, while also cultivating a sense of community for all athletes, who are not labeled by physical ability, but rather their determination and will to succeed.Dare2Tri empowers athletes of all ability levels from beginner to elite to be physically active, engaged with their community, and set and reach goals. We transform lives by boosting individuals' self-esteem, confidence, and self-worth.We have a conversation about Keri's journey from athlete to being an expert on the training and coaching of athletes with disabilities and being co-founder of Dare2Tri.We talk about some of the aspects of training and coaching athletes with disabilities and some of the things athletes and coaches have to consider.We have a conversation about the classifications that exist in the arena of athletes with disabilities and Paralympics and the complicated math of trying to ensure fairness and equity.We talk about the Paralympics and some of the big stories out of Tokyo.Finally we talk about steps people, athletes and coaches can take to get involved and inspiring more resources for athletes with disabilities.About Dare2Trihttps://dare2tri.org/About Keri Serotahttps://dare2tri.org/staff/keri-serota/Dare2Tri Twitterhttps://twitter.com/Dare2triKeri Serotahttps://twitter.com/kerimserotaFollow Us:Facebook: https://Facebook.com/EventHorizon.TvTwitter: https://twitter.com/EventHorizonTvInstagram: https://instagram.com/eventhorizon.tvYouTube: https://youtube.com/c/EventHorizonTvSupport Us:https://Patreon.com/Endurancehttps://paypal.me/EnduranceExperience

Michael Simon was impacted by the events that happened on 9/11 twenty years ago this September. It moved him to join the Minnesota Army National Guard and was called up to Iraq about two years later and was deployed there for nearly two years. After returning stateside, a tumor was discovered that essentially ended his military service and affected his physical and mental health. Since then though, sports have made a difference. He skis and instructs with Courage Kenny (a Move United member) and did his first triathlon in 2011 and has been a Dare2Tri athlete. Service is still important to him and finds ways to give back to the adaptive sports community.

Welcome to Huddle Up with Gus, with 15 year NFL quarterback Gus Frerotte. As the United States is in full swing at the Tokyo Olympics, Gus is pleased to reprise his interview with Paralympic athlete Melissa Stockwell. Melissa is an amazing athlete, triathlete, swimmer and former U.S. Army officer. Stockwell is a co-founder of the Chicago-based Dare2tri Paratriathlon Club with Keri Serota and Dan Tun. She is a USA Triathlon Level I certified coach, and serves as a mentor and friend to her fellow Dare2tri athletes as they train and compete. She also serves on the board of directors for the Wounded Warriors Project, USA Triathlon Foundation, and the USA Triathlon Women's Committee. She is a licensed prosthetist but is currently training for triathlon full-time at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of her pre-race rituals is that she always has to eat gummy worms the night before a race. She is married to Brian Tolsma and has two children, Dallas and Millie.

Ashley Eisenmenger is considered the first NCAA triathlete with a disability that required some sport specific adaptation. As a blind triathlete, Ashley raced varsity women's triathlon her junior and senior year at North Central College. She continues to compete at the highest level at various triathlons, including the Chicago Tri which is in her back yard. Ashley was recently able to get certified as a USAT coach and is connected to Dare2Tri, a Move United member organization, where she helps out at some of their camps. Outside of sports, she works for a nonprofit in Chicago called Access Living where she consults and trains on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Colonel Patricia Collins served in the U.S. Army as a Communications Officer from 1991-2015. In 2006, after returning from Iraq, she was struck by a car while bicycling to work. Her injury left her as a below knee amputee, but did not affect her military service. Upon rehabilitation, she continued to serve, including a deployment to Afghanistan and commanding a Signal Battalion. Collins concluded her military service in Washington, D.C. Adjusting to life as an amputee was initially a challenge, but sports helped Collins regain her confidence. She still participates in all previous activities, and has found new ways to tackle wearing a prosthetic to be a relatively small price to pay to continue to be active. A former triathlete, it was important for Collins to find ways to challenge herself physically, post amputation. While she returned to full military fitness, including free fall status, bicycling initially became her preferred sport over running. Specifically, mountain biking gave Collins the same adventurous joy as trail running had previously. After negotiating the challenges of Big Bend National Park and meeting fellow warriors, Collins continued mountain biking and also returned to the triathlon racing scene, working with other physically challenged athletes through organizations like the Challenged Athletes Foundation/Operation Rebound: CAF & Dare2tri. Collins represented the U.S. as a member of the 2016 U.S. Paralympics team in the sport of Paratriathlon. She is an original member of Team 43, an effort established by former President George W. Bush.

Melissa Stockwell's road to the Paralympics began in Iraq in 2004 when a roadside bomb took her leg, making her the first female American solider in history to lose a limb in active combat. After earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for her service, she turned her attention to the Paralympics, becoming the first Iraq War veteran to qualify for the Paralympic Games. She competed in swimming at the Beijing Games in 2008, coming away without a medal but being selected to serve as the Team USA flag bearer at the Closing Ceremony. She then switched to paratriathlon, where she really found her calling. In 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, she won a bronze medal, part of a U.S. sweep of the podium. Now she is training for the Tokyo Games in hopes of besting that performance. In this conversation with SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, Stockwell discusses her journey to the Paralympics, how to prepare for a Games that will be unlike any other and how she is encouraging youth adaptive sport athletes to give triathlon a try through her Dare2Tri nonprofit. Special thanks for Stockwell’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, for helping to arrange this episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melissa Stockwell - Army Veteran, US Paralympian & CoFounder of Dare2tri Melissa Stockwell is an Army Veteran and US Paralympian. She graduated from University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002 and was commissioned in the United States Army. Just a month after deploying to Iraq, Melissa's vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. She was the first female American soldier to lose her limb in active combat. This injury didn't stop her. Melissa would say “Once an athlete always an athlete” and her journey continued. Athlete While at Walter Reed, Melissa listened to a presentation about the US Paralympic team. Previously a gymnast with dreams of being on the US Olympic team this seemed like a perfect second chance. Just four years after her accident she qualified to compete in swimming at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. After the games Melissa shifted her focus to becoming a triathlete. In 2016 Melissa competed in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, on the US paratriathlon team, earning a bronze medal. Olympic Training Melissa is currently training full time as a triathlete at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. When she's not training she is busy being a wife, mom, sharing her story with others and inspiring others to do the same. She is the co-founder of Dare2tri Paratriathlon Club. A club helping others compete in triathlons for the first time. You can find ways to follow her and her training below. And last but not least she is also a prosthetist, helping others fit and wear prosthetics. Learn More: Website: www.melissastockwell.com Twitter: @m.stockwell01 Instagram:@m.stockwell01 Facebook: @MStockwell01 VeteranCrowd Partners: Matbock:  Lighter faster warriors About Your Host Bob Louthan is a VMI Graduate, Army veteran, and executive with over 25 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions and private capital formation. He founded the VeteranCrowd Network to bring veterans and veteran-led businesses together with each other and the resources they need to prosper.  

Melissa Stockwell is an aSweatLife favorite (yes, we play favorites occasionally). We've written about Stockwell as the founder of Dare2Tri, an organization that helps athletes of all abilities take on the challenge of the swim-bike-run. We went to her to get advice for athletes who are scared to "tri" for the first time, and she appeared on our podcast in 2018 to talk through her journey to becoming a Paralympic triathlete—a title she's hoping to earn again in the Tokyo Summer Paralympics this summer, if all goes well. Now, we called on Stockwell one more time to shed her wisdom on our new podcast segment, Goals to Go, in which we bring in an expert to answer a question and give advice to a member of our community. In this episode, you'll hear Stockwell advise Sarah Foote about bike training for her first triathlon. Foote, an experienced endurance athlete who loves her pandemic Peloton, has been training on her own and with Edge Athletic Lounge; she comes to Stockwell with "a million questions." You'll hear them talk candidly and enthusiastically about selecting the right bike for your first triathlon, plus how to manage time and energy when balancing the three disciplines. And bonus: in the listener-submitted Q&A at the end, you'll hear more about Melissa's (exhausting) training + life schedule, how she recovers, how she prepares for the Paralympics, and how COVID affected her goal-setting and motivational techniques. Resources Follow Melissa's journey to Tokyo on Instagram and her personal website Get the latest updates on the 2021 Paralympics Are you scared to "tri"? Read this. Cheer Sarah on @sfootey on Instagram and at @spinnykitty_ on the Peloton leaderboard

Hey Everyone! Thanks for being here and being so awesome. I see your encouragement and am so thankful. Dan from Dare2Tri came on the podcast to talk about his organization he created with 2 friends, Karrie and Melissa. Be sure to head back to 'Episode 12: Melissa' to hear her incredible story of resilience as well. Dare2tri has granted me access to triathlon while helping me become more comfortable with adaptive sports with a disabled body. It is a life-changing organization for people with versatile abilities of all ranges that should get all the love and shout-outs! I can't wait to race more throughout my lifetime with Dare2Tri and continue to honor the legacy of my dear friend Elizabeth Gauthier who introduced it to me. Check it out! Consider being a sponsor of Dare2Tri any time during the year. Your money will go a long way. Happy Holidays. #onlinenow #adaptivesports #disability #community #paratriathlon #dare2tri #newpodcast #podernfamily #newepisode #sponsorme #lookingforsponsors #donatetoday #sports #mentalhealth #podcastproduction #podcastrelease #spotifypodcast #comingsoon #disabilityadvocate #relay #paralympian2024 #triathlon #marathon #medicine #goodness #apple #itunes #stitcher #amazon

This week’s episode is coming to you on the eve of Veteran’s Day 2020 and we are very honored to share the inspiring story of veteran-patriot-athlete-author-mother Melissa Stockwell. Melissa grew up with big dreams, she knew she wanted to serve her country from an early age and in 2002 she was commissioned into the United States Army as an officer in the Transportation Corps. In 2004, Melissa was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division. It was during this deployment on a routine convoy that her vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. Melissa became the first women to lose a limb in active combat and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for her Service and Sacrifice.  For Melissa, losing a leg, going through her rehab and recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gave her a lot of perspective, and she remembers feeling lucky that she only lost one limb. This mindset was a pillar of strength for her as she went on to represent the USA, in a different uniform, at two Paralympic Games.Inspiring us and so many on her journey, Melissa didn’t skip a beat when she and her husband decided to start a family. They had a window of time that worked for Melissa’s racing schedule and in true Army fashion, she made it happen.  She has two children who have taught her that being an athlete and a mom is about progress, not perfection. What have you done today that has been progress towards a goal?  Even the smallest acts or decisions can still get you a step towards where you want to be. For more inspiration read Melissa’s new book, The Power of Choice: My Journey from Wounded Warrior to World Champion.Melissa also co-founded Dare2Tri, an Illinois-based 501(c)3 non-for-profit organization with the mission to enhance the lives of individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments by building confidence, community, health and wellness through swimming, biking, and running.Podcast length: 49 minsHosts: Sarah Newberry Moore & Pamela Relph JonesFor more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.

This week’s episode is coming to you on the eve of Veteran’s Day 2020 and we are very honored to share the inspiring story of veteran-patriot-athlete-author-mother Melissa Stockwell. Melissa grew up with big dreams, she knew she wanted to serve her country from an early age and in 2002 she was commissioned into the United States Army as an officer in the Transportation Corps. In 2004, Melissa was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division. It was during this deployment on a routine convoy that her vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. Melissa became the first women to lose a limb in active combat and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for her Service and Sacrifice.  For Melissa, losing a leg, going through her rehab and recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gave her a lot of perspective, and she remembers feeling lucky that she only lost one limb. This mindset was a pillar of strength for her as she went on to represent the USA, in a different uniform, at two Paralympic Games. Inspiring us and so many on her journey, Melissa didn’t skip a beat when she and her husband decided to start a family. They had a window of time that worked for Melissa’s racing schedule and in true Army fashion, she made it happen.  She has two children who have taught her that being an athlete and a mom is about progress, not perfection.  What have you done today that has been progress towards a goal?  Even the smallest acts or decisions can still get you a step towards where you want to be. For more inspiration read Melissa’s new book, The Power of Choice: My Journey from Wounded Warrior to World Champion. Melissa also co-founded Dare2Tri, an Illinois-based 501(c)3 non-for-profit organization with the mission to enhance the lives of individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments by building confidence, community, health and wellness through swimming, biking, and running. Podcast length: 49 mins Hosts: Sarah Newberry Moore & Pamela Relph Jones For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.

Melissa Stockwell is an American two-time Paralympic triathlete, swimmer and former US Army officer and she joins me in the huddle this week. What an inspiring story she has and turned her tragedy into one of my favorite stories on the podcast. After graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002, Melissa Stockwell was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army’s transportation corps. One month after being deployed to Iraq, in April 2004, she became the first female American soldier in history to lose a limb in active combat after her vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. She was later honored with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for her service. Four years later, she became the first Iraq War veteran to qualify for the Paralympic Games, competing in swimming at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics. She was selected to be the flag bearer for Team USA at the Beijing closing ceremonies. After Beijing, Stockwell shifted her focus to triathlon because she enjoyed the variety that it gave her.  She made her elite ITU debut in 2009, and went on to earn three consecutive world titles from 2010-2012. In 2016, she earned a spot on the inaugural U.S. paratriathlon team for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, which featured the sport as a medal event for the first time. She earned a bronze medal in the PTS2 category, sharing the podium as part of a U.S. sweep with silver medalist Hailey Danz and gold medalist Allysa Seely. Stockwell is a co-founder of the Chicago-based Dare2tri Paratriathlon Club with Keri Serota and Dan Tun. She is a USA Triathlon Level I certified coach, and serves as a mentor and friend to her fellow Dare2tri athletes as they train and compete. She also serves on the board of directors for the Wounded Warriors Project, USA Triathlon Foundation, and the USA Triathlon Women’s Committee. She is a licensed prosthetist but is currently training for triathlon full-time at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of her pre-race rituals is that she always has to eat gummy worms the night before a race. She is married to Brian Tolsma and has two children, Dallas and Millie.    Check her website out for more information. https://melissastockwell.com   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ReWalk Robotics is an incredible company that makes exoskeletons for people who can no longer walk due to complications with their health. Hear from the guru himself, Zachary Waugh, on how he became a professional with the company and a man forever changed and inspired by it. Push Diaries Podcast thanks ReWalk for letting us borrow Zach for the duration of this episode! Many many many thanks to Zach for sharing all of his passion, insight, and time with us! It is physical therapists and engineers like him who make the accessibility and understanding of this technology readily available! Thank you! We will also be interviewing Dan with Dare2Tri, and Kelly from the Kelly Brush Foundation to learn more about their organizations; and how they are encouraging the disability community to stay active regardless of physical restrictions. Stay tuned for Jeff & Barb: Episode 20, releasing THIS weekend. These are stories you don't want to miss. Thank you so much for listening! Be sure to consider supporting the show while accessing exclusive content at patreon.com/pushdiariespodcast not found anywhere else. Check out the podcast's previous episodes, photos and the show notes on our website at pushdiariespodcast.com/episodes/zachforrewalk

Melissa Stockwell talks about giving back to her community during the pandemic, starting Dare2Tri, and of course, being a mom and an athlete. Plus, we ask what it's like to be friends with a US President. Follow Melissa: @mstockwell01 on Instagram. Follow Dare2Tri on Twitter: @dare2tri

Melissa Stockwell talks about giving back to her community during the pandemic, starting Dare2Tri, and of course, being a mom and an athlete. Plus, we ask what it's like to be friends with a US President. Follow Melissa: @mstockwell01 on Instagram. Follow Dare2Tri on Twitter: @dare2tri

If you have ever been at war with your body If you have ever been afraid of taking on a challenge because of what others might think If you were picked last in PE when you were at school If you’ve got to grips, you’re getting to grips or you’ve never got to grips with open water swimming or running, or cycling,  If you just want a bit of a feel-good giggle Then the Inside Tri Show with Reverend Kate Bottley is for you. BBC radio presenter and former Goggle Box star Rev Kate Bottley says she is evangelical about two things: Jesus and Open Water swimming. And while wild swimming has given the 45-year-old Vicar more confidence, she says she was still ‘at war with her body’ when she agreed to do Dare2Tri - three triathlons in three days for Comic Relief in March 2020 (https://www.sportrelief.com/challenges/dare2tri) . Before signing up the challenge, Kate had never run in public, ridden a bike or swum in a wetsuit. This a really uplifting interview, full of giggles, honesty about body image and reassurance that it’s ok to feel a bit sad and miserable at the moment. PLUS Hear the latest update from British professional triathlete David McNamee who is on Week 7 of lockdown in Girona, due to Coronavirus Like the show? If you liked this episode, I’d love you to consider becoming a patron, by buying me a coffee each month See below! But if you don’t do that, then please share this with a friend, get involved on social media, by following Inside Tri Show on Twitter and  subscribe and leave a review in Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/inside-tri-show/id1488560381) . Find out more about this week’s guests Rev Kate Bottley (https://www.instagram.com/revkatebottley/) David McNamee (https://www.instagram.com/davidmcnameetri/?hl=en) Skipping video If you've turned to skipping during lockdown, why not give this new skipping video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BZM2Vre5oc) a go? (www.patreon.com/insidetrishow) Thanks to all of the wonderful people who support the show, so I can continue to bring you the best interviews in triathlon every week. It means a lot to me, especially at the moment. Why not join them? Click becoming a Patron of the Inside Tri Show (www.patreon.com/insidetrishow) . Show Sponsors Huge thanks to  Sports Tours International (https://www.sportstoursinternational.co.uk/events/challenge-roth/)   (Sports Travel International if you’re in Ireland) for their on-going support, despite the challenging times at the moment. Sports Tours International are the official European travel partner for Challenge Roth, giving customers the chance of securing a sought after guaranteed entry for the iconic race through one of Sports Tours International's travel packages. Find out more about their partnership with Challenge Roth here (https://www.sportstoursinternational.co.uk/events/challenge-roth/) . Oryon Connect Visit their website to find out more (https://oryon.co.uk/connect/) . POWERED BY 33 FUEL This week's show is powered by  www.33fuel.com (www.33fuel.com) . Komfuel If you you’re struggling to get hold of gels cuase you can’t get to the shops or you are hankering after your favourite nutrition at the moment, then have you looked at Komfuel - like a pic' n mix of sports nutrition through your letterbox! Listeners can get 20% off all orders or advance sweat tests using the code: INSIDETRI at  www.komfuel.co.uk (www.komfuel.co.uk) Join Helen on the yoga mat If you want to join in with a group of listeners and other friends doing regular morning yoga via Zoom at 06.45am UK Time Mon-Fri, then just get in touch with Helen via social media or her website (helenmurray.net/contact) . Please note, it’s not a structured class. Support this podcast

More highlights from another fabulous week of the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show!

More highlights from another fabulous week of the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show!

This week, Alyssa and Haley talk to Paralympian Melissa Stockwell about her life as a 2016 bronze medalist, Dare2tri cofounder, Veteran, motivational speaker, mom, and Ironman. Melissa talks about what it's like training for the Paralympics with her two biggest competitors and what it means to represent her country as a soldier and an athlete. She shares how she keeps such an optimistic outlook on life despite her traumatic injury by using the power of choice, leading by example, and celebrating what she has instead of mourning a loss. Plus, Melissa tells us about her organization Dare2Tri that helps athletes with physical disabilities compete in triathlons. Alyssa and Haley catch up after the holidays and answer a mailbag question about what and how much to eat in your first 70.3.

Darcy and Matt talk with 2 or the 3 co-founders of Dare2Tri, our host crew for the Chicago TTB.

Uriah Steffen is a a professional para-triathlete and amputee life coach. He lost his leg in an accident and became an amputee. After the accident his focus was to get back on the bicyle and get back to running. As his cycling and running progressed he decided to try his hand at a super-sprint triathlon and fell in love. At his second tri he was introduced to Dare2Tri and progressively advanced into para-triathlon and found that he had the opportunity to pursue an elite level of para-triathlon and is now pursuing a spot on the 2024 US Paralympic team. He lays out what the next 5 years will look like in order for him to make the team. Uriah is already working with his coaches to identify which races he needs to compete in and roughly how well he'll need to perform to make the team. It requires an incredible level of focus and intensity. Uriah attributes his focus and intensity to needing to refocus his life to overcome drug abuse and alcoholism. Just two months after committing to sobriety Uriah was in an accident in which lost his leg and now in addition to battling addiction was figuring out how to live as an amputee and create a lifestyle that he finds success in. He needed to learn how to pursue his dreams, be a positive impact in his community and be a man of God.  He dives into the challenges and reality of sobriety. And ultimately boils it down making the daily decision to choose sobriety and to be driven by an internal desire to choose a lifestyle free of drugs and alcohol because the external joys of life can be taken away at any moment. Uriah is currently in the middle of a 30 Days 30 Tris challenges to benefit Dare2Tri. Dare2Tri creates opportunities for visually and physically disable athletes to pursue active lifestyles through triathlon. Rather than writing a $250 check to participate on the Dare2Tri Team, he opted to have fun with it and bring awareness to the para-athlete community.  He goes in depth about the challenge he faced on day 14 of 30 and how badly he wanted to quit. However he knew he had his girls, his wife, and his community watching and that he needed to be an example of perseverance. So he continued on. And not only did he continue he but he ran the fastest mile of his life in doing so. As a result he learned that this was a mental block and that his body is capable of so much more than he realized. What he found was most surprising is that he's actually continuing to make progress as an athlete. That he's getting stronger and his times are actually getting faster. He's been blown away by the community support he's received. Uriah now works full time as an amputee life coach and has created a well structured and emotionally sound 6 month program to help new amputees create a life they find success in. Upon becoming an amputee he kept a positive attitude and held onto the faith that Christ has his life in His control and that better days were ahead. After going through his own amputation he was approached by his provider to be a patient advocate and began developing his own amputee life skills program. He now works for Kenney Orthopedics as an Amputee Life Coach. Uriah details his Six month plan to creating a life his patients find success in. A system that we can all adopt if we're facing challenges in our lives. Uriah Steffen Cell - 575.529.4259 Facebook Uriah's #30days30tris donation page Dare2Tri  http://www.dare2tri.org/home/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fatherhoodonfire/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fatherhoodonfire/support

Dan Tun, Cofounder of Dare2tri, and EDGE member, discusses his background in team sports, his training journey the past year, and his passion for supporting the growth of adaptive sports.

Melissa Stockwell-Choose Your Own Story Freedom comes at a price.  War is known to cause physical wounds.  Something that might be slightly overlooked are other wounds.  For example, emotional, mental and other forms of invisible wounds.  In 2004, Melissa lost her left leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq, and her life was forever changed. After being medically retired from the Army in April 2005 with a Purple Heart and bronze star, all the hard work began. She found support with her Chicago-based paratriathlon club, Dare2Tri. Melissa is the first American woman to lose a limb in active combat and also competed in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. Since 2008, her primary focus has been firmly placed on the sport of Paratriathlon. Melissa has competed all around the world and has stood on top of many podiums, and is a three times World Champion. In 2016, Paratriathlon made its debut at the Paralympic Games and Melissa raced her way to bronze as part of a USA team and in 2017 Melissa went on to secure a silver medal at the Sarasota ITU Paratriathlon World Cup. Melissa has not let anything stop her and continues to inspire others.  Since 2004, Melissa has become a War Veteran · 3x World Champion - 2x Paralympian · Bronze Medalist · Triathlon Coach · Dare2tri Co-Founder · Motivational Speaker - First female amputee of Iraq - Mother · Patriot. Show Notes: Balancing family life (0:54) Speaking at CIA Headquarters (03:35) Life before the military (04:38) Why Melissa chose Army over any other service (05:40) Her reaction to 9/11 (06:00) Fateful day in her life- 13 April 2004 (06:55) Why she felt lucky when arriving to Walter Reed (10:40) Defining the word perspective (11:50) What society can do to help heal invisible wounds (13:48) Starting life after 2004 (16:54) Turing personal tragedy into triumph (17:20) Perception about Paralympians (21:39) Awkward questions Melissa receives about her leg and funny stories (23:23) Movie title about her life (27:05) Links: Connect with the Passing the Torch podcast: ---> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/passingthetorchwithmartinfoster/ ---> SUBSCRIBE on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/passing-the-torch/id1338122884?mt=2 Connect with Melissa Stockwell: Website: http://melissastockwell.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MStockwell01/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mstockwell01/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/MStockwell01?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Connect with DARE2TRI: Website: http://www.dare2tri.org Quotes:  " I learned that in life, sometimes the journey is more important than the destination." More about guest: Melissa serves on the board of directors for the Wounded Warrior Project, the USAT Foundation and is the USAT Womens Committee. As a motivational speaker, she has spoken at companies such as Accenture, Hartford, Deloitte and numerous others. She talks about overcoming obstacles and living life to its fullest. She has been featured in number significant media outlets. The most recent and notable were the cover of the Chicago Tribune and USA Triathlon magazine, CNN, Sports Illustrated, a Hartford TV commercial, People and Sports Illustrated magazines. She was also featured in a documentary called ‘From Baghdad to Beijing’ which chronicled Melissa and three other wounded warrior’s journey from the roads of Baghdad to the Paralympics in Beijing.        

Some people would view the loss of a leg as a tragedy, or at least, a significant obstacle to pursuing the path they’d painstakingly planned out for themselves. For Melissa Stockwell, my guest on this week’s episode of #WeGotGoals, losing a limb offered a second chance at a lifelong aspiration. As a young gymnast, she’d always dreamed of going to the Olympics. She practiced twice a day. Her walls were covered in Team USA posters, her entire life decorated in red, white, and blue. Her love for her country eventually took her to the Army and to Iraq, where in 2004 a roadside bomb took her leg. While recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, she learned about the U.S. Paralympics. That, she knew, was where she needed to be. “Here I was, an athlete with a physical disability, and I was being told that I could compete on the world’s biggest athletic stage and represent a country that I defended over in Iraq,” she says. “What greater honor would it be to wear that USA uniform on that stage?” Stockwell picked a sport—swimming—and trained hard. She made it to her first Games in 2008 in Beijing. The experience was incredible but the results, not what she’d hoped. So she transitioned to triathlon, stayed dedicated, and won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. Standing next to her teammates on the podium—Americans took all three medals—was the ultimate payoff for all her challenges and sacrifices, she says. And it was all the more meaningful for having come after another major feat—having her son, Dallas. “To be in Rio on that podium as a medal-winning mom was really just really one of my greatest accomplishments,” she says. “I mean, when I think of that moment, I think about everything that went into it and just how amazing it was to be there.” Her path to the medal stand offers one compelling example of the way she digs deep to find the positive in any situation. But it’s far from the only way she’s wrested control of her own narrative, turning challenges into opportunities to transcend them. Sure, balancing training, speaking gigs, her role with the Dare2Tri Paratriathlon Club (which she co-founded), and two kids under the age of 4 often proves tricky. But rather than bemoan her lack of time, she maximizes every 15 minutes, and draws a deeper motivation to push ahead from her children and the athletes who come through the Dare2Tri program. Of course, training comes with its peaks and valleys, days of exceeding your expectations interspersed with not-so-great rides, swims, and runs. Each day, she pinpoints one thing she did that drew her closer to her goal, even if was as simple as getting off the couch. And yes, she’ll be 40 by the time of the next Paralympics, in Tokyo. Her competitors are far younger, have fewer responsibilities. But age has brought her wisdom and a desire to show her children—she now has two, including eight-month-old Millie—that hard work pays off. So she’ll do everything she can to make it there. We won’t be surprised to see her on the podium again in 2020. Hear more about how Stockwell is working to involve women in the sport as chair of the USA Triathlon Women’s Committee, what tips she has for other busy moms trying to achieve big goals, and the special way she commemorates the day she lost her leg on this week’s episode. And if you like what you hear, subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts and leave us a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts.   --- Episode transcript: JAC: Welcome to #WeGotGoals, a podcast by aSweatLife.com. I'm Jeana Anderson Cohen; with me,I have Kristen Geil and Cindy Kuzma. CK: Good morning, Jeana. KG: Hi Jeana. JAC: Good morning. And Cindy, you did the interview this week with Melissa Stockwell. Isn't that right? CK:Yeah, I'm Melissa Stockwell is a Paralympic triathlete. And she's also a veteran, she started an organization called Dare2Tri that helps other athletes with disabilities get into the sport of triathlon and fall in love with it as much as she did. She's an incredible guest and I was so excited to talk with her. KG:Melissa lost her leg in Iraq and throughout it all she's remained incredibly positive. How was she able to do so with such a traumatic experience in her past? CK:Yeah. I wonder how much of that is sort of integral to her personality and how much of it she learned along the way, But she really focuses a lot on finding the silver lining in difficult experiences. In fact, there's a great story about how she kind of has turned the loss of her leg around. I don't want to give too much away because it's, um, pretty fantastic the way she's turned that into a positive for herself, but really she just focuses on finding whatever she can to kind of make the story her own out of whatever obstacles she's faced and overcome. And you know, you can't control everything in life she talks about, but you can control your reaction to it. And she has really tried to do that to make her reaction in a positive one. JAC:And along the way, going through that experience in them becoming an athlete, she adopted this sort of interesting way to set and achieve big goals. Can you talk about how she uses small steps to achieve big goals? CK:Sure. Like many of the accomplished athletes we have on the podcast, you have to have a big goal, right? Like you want to be a Paralympian, an Olympian, and you want to be the best in the world, but it's pretty hard to just set your sights on that and then wait for it to happen. Right. You have to do a lot of work along the way and she talks about how she every day just tries to do whatever she can to achieve that goal. And then at the end of the day she writes down one thing she did that took her closer to her goal. So even if things didn't go exactly the way she planned, even if she had a run that wasn't great, at least she got out there and ran or she did something she didn't want to do and that took her a step closer to our goal and then she can reflect on all of those accomplishments later on and realize how much hard work she really did and how she's prepared to achieve what she set out to achieve. KG:And her life would be easy enough if all she had to do was train for triathlons or whatever sport she's competing in. But of course, that's never the only thing you're doing with your life at one time. There's always other things that demand your attention and your time. So how is she able to manage her priorities with a family and with a career? CK:So, she definitely has a lot more responsibilities now with the family, but that actually has helped her connect to a deeper motivation to her sport so she can't always do as much training, but she is really motivated to stay active and to show her daughter and all the other women out there that you can continue to have a career and a full life and be an accomplished athlete. So I think connecting to that really helps her continue to achieve. JAC: And here’s Cindy, with Melissa. CK: All right. This is Cindy Kuzma from aSweatLife and I am here on the #WeGotGoals podcast with Melissa Stockwell, who’s a Paralympian, and the co-founder of the Dare2Tri program. Melissa, thank you so much for joining us on the #WeGotGoals podcast. MS:Thank you for having me. Excited to be here. CKNow. Melissa, you just came back from a couple of trips I know, including to Sarasota for the American Championships. Is that right? MS:I did. I, um, in my first race back kind of post having my baby Millie who is eight months old today. So yes, I was down in Sarasota doing a race and it went quite well, much better than I expected it to. CK:That's always awesome when we have those victories when we don't even expect them. Right, right. Exactly. So Melissa, I know you were an athlete from an early age, you were a gymnast growing up. Right? MS:I was. So I was a big gymnast, so it was kind of my definitely my thing growing up, you know, I think as all young aspiring gymnasts do you know, dreamt of going to the Olympics and being an Olympic gymnast and had posters all over my room and you know, red, white and blue everywhere and gymnastics before school after school. And that was definitely what I hoped to do. CK:Yeah. I often think that people who have that early experience of being an athlete that really often shapes the way you think about goals and opportunities for the rest of your life. Do you think that that was the case for you? MS:I definitely think it helped. You know, obviously when I was younger I had had two legs, I had both of my legs. I didn't really know any different, I’d always been kind of goal-driven, so wanting to dream big and reach high and my parents kind of let me do that, which I think has shaped my life kind of this many years later and as I've grown up it's kind of allowed me to do, to do just that and just to keep going with it. CK:So how did you get from those early days to Iraq? What, what led you to service and what goal did you hope to accomplish there? MS:So I realized at a young age kind of, you know, how lucky we were to live in the country that we live in and always wanting to be in the military and to be in the Army. So I made that a reality in college when I joined ROTC and then, and when I graduated in 2002, I was commissioned as an officer and two years later I ended up being deployed over to Iraq. So, you know, I joined, I joined the army, I mean pretty short and simple. I love our country. I wanted to give back. That was really my, my main reason for, for putting the uniform on CK:And I know it didn't take too long after that before you had a change of plans. I know it was April 13th, 2004 when your convoy hit an IED and, and you lost your leg and we're talking now a little bit before that day in 2018 and I know you have a special tradition for our commemorating that, which maybe we'll talk about later. But what I'd kind of love to hear about first is, is how you shifted your goals and your mindset while you were recovering. Talk to me a little bit about the moment you kind of set your sights on the Paralympics and what effect having a big, audacious goal like that had on your rehab, both physically and mentally. MS:So. So after I lost my leg, I wasn't, you know, I was 24 years old, didn't really know what my life would be and I did all my recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and being there and being surrounded by so many other soldiers who had worse injuries than my own kind of helped me realize how lucky I was. So I wanted to kind of live my life for them and that those, that no longer could and have given that ultimate sacrifice. So after I learned to walk and wear a prosthetic, I learned about the US Paralympics and you know, having dreamt to go on to the Olympics as a young child and that never happened and it was almost like I had a second chance because here I was an athlete with a physical disability and I was being told that I could compete on the world's biggest athletic stage. MS:Represent a country that I defended over in Iraq. And I mean, what greater honor would it be to wear that USA uniform on that stage. So a dream was born pretty quickly of wanting to be a Paralympian and you know, I kinda set right to it, you know, somehow, some way I want it to be a Paralympian and it was kind of a natural goal I feel, you know, I think just having been an athlete growing up, been an athlete in the past, it was just kind of something that fell into my lap and the realization that if I worked hard enough and picked a sport and dedicated myself to it, that I could actually get there. CK:and, and you made it not once but twice in two different sports and I know you took home the bronze medal in triathlon in Rio in an American sweep, which was so incredible. And those are just two of the many things you've accomplished since then. So this kind of feels like a good time to transition into the first big question we always ask on #WeGotGoals and that is what is one big goal you've achieved, why it was important to you and how you got there? MS:So definitely when I think about the past many years, the one that stands out is winning a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games in the sport of triathlon. It was— everything that came with it. Everything from losing my leg over in Iraq to competing in the 2008 Paralympic Games in swimming, but not doing as well athletically as I thought they could, and then continuing with it and turn into the sport of triathlon, having my son Dallas and then trying to come back from that to make it to Rio, kind of everything that went that moment. All the dedication, the hard work, the sacrifice of having to be away sometimes from my family for training, for racing, the team that I was with, my coaches, my, my mentors, my family, everyone that kind of believed in me to get there, to be in Rio, on that podium as a medal winning mom was really just really one of my greatest accomplishments. I mean, when I think of that moment, I think about everything that went into it and just how amazing it was to be there. CK:I'm getting chills hearing you talk about it. We've talked to several elite athletes on this podcast and I'm always so curious about how they approach goals because it seems so overwhelming to say, like, my goal is to win a Paralympic medal be a world champion or be the best in the world and it seems like most people kind of break goals down into smaller chunks and maybe make them process goals versus outcome goals. Um, what did that look like for you when you were training hard for that, for those games? How did you approach goal setting? MS:So you're right, so goals, I mean you have this huge goal, like if you have a huge goal, it doesn't, it doesn't happen overnight. You don't. I don't say, Oh I'm going to qualify for Rio in the Paralympics and then wake up the next day and do it. It takes days and months and years of training and really believing that you can. So really, yeah, kind of taking it down into, into each day. So, you know, every day I wake up, I do my training and at the end of the day I kind of look back and I say, OK, what's one thing I did today that got me closer to my goal? And some days it's something as little as, I didn't want to go on my run, but I got up off the couch or I, I, I did what I had to do to make it happen. Whether the run was a good run or not, it doesn't matter some days. MS:What matters is just that you got out there and you did it when you didn't want to do it that day. Another day you look back and you say, wow, that run was amazing. I had this time goal and not only did I make it, but I surpassed it, and then that kind of makes all those other days of training that didn't go so well worth it and it kind of pushes you for the next block of training. So goals I think have to be broken down into little chunks and little steps at the end of every day. You can look back at your day and I guarantee you that whatever it is, even if it's the smallest little thing, there's something in that day that got you closer to that goal and some days they’re hard to find, other days are easier, but at the end of the, at the end of the day, you didn't have a good day. If it's a bad day, find the positive in it, find something that got you closer to that goal because it's there. Sometimes you have to just look a little bit deeper. CK:I love that so much and I can see how if you kind of stacked those moments on top of each other, you would also really stoke your confidence. Like you say, that is such an important of it too. Not just the physical preparation but the mental preparation. MS:Exactly, and you know, I think everything in life and especially goals as well. It's not this, it's not just an upward trajectory, right? I mean there's dips and there's valleys and there's peaks and—but it's a gradual, if you stick with it and if you stick with believing in yourself, having a team surrounding yourself with people that want you to get there, want you to, you know, reach those goals. The gradual trend is up, but it might, it’s all about when it does dip down, when you do have those valleys about not getting up and keep moving forward. CK:So how do you keep track of this moment? Are you a person who has a paper training log? Do you do it online or do you have some way that you are really capturing all of this to use later on? MS:So I used to have it written down where every day or either every night before I go to bed, I would write down what I did that day or the three good things that I did. And then every morning I would write down three things that I wanted to achieve that day. Since my daughter was born eight months ago. I have yet to continue that because I was kind of busy with, you know, middle of the night feedings and not, not a lot of sleep, but something that I should definitely start now that that’s getting a little bit better. I should start again because I think having it written down and being able to go back and look at that and you know, six months down the road, going back and looking back at the things that I achieved six months prior and realizing how far I've come from them can really help. CK:Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that's what's so powerful about having those little rituals too, is that sometimes life does get crazy and you kind of move away from them. They give you something really sort of tangible to get back to, right. Like, you know, you can do that again. MS: Yeah, absolutely. CK: Let's talk a little bit now about Dare2Tri, which is an organization I know helps so many other athletes achieve their goals. What motivated you to launch it and how has it grown since? MS:Yeah, so back in 2011. Two of my friends, Dan Tun and Keri Serota and myself co founded Dare2Tri Paratriathlon Club. Obviously I'm an athlete with a physical disability and both Dan and Carrie are able-bodied athletes, but they’ve had worked with adaptive athletics all their life. So all of us were triathletes and kind of realized how much sports can impact somebody's life at all, but especially somebody with a disability. So we decided that we're going to start Dare2Tri and get however many athletes we could find that had physical disabilities and show them that they could do, not only be an athlete but they could be a triathlete. So we launched it back in 2011. It's based in the Chicago area and we had the modest goal to get eight athletes to do a triathlon that first year that had, where there was a amputation, visual impairments, spinal cord injury, and really provide the athletes with everything they needed to do a triathlon. MS:So expensive adaptive equipment, coaching, training and really helping them get to that starting line, so we started it and it grew faster than we ever could have imagined. Not only did we get eight athletes to that starting line in the first year, I think we were upwards in the, in the mid twenties, 24 athletes and then this many years later, seven years later, we have over 300 athletes on our roster. We have year round programming, we have camps, we had clinics, we have two, three-day camps, one that's for military, one that's for anybody with a physical disability and it's been really impressive and incredibly rewarding just to see how many lives we've impacted. Because you take somebody who has a disability, you know, take a youth athlete who's eight years old, they're in a wheelchair. Neither they or their families, you know, they're not sure kind of what their lives can be and how, that it doesn't matter if you’re in a wheelchair or not you can still accomplish whatever you want and you see them get to that starting line, cross the finish line and just kind of see that self confidence not only in them but in their families as well. And it, it's, it's really incredible. Our motto is one inspires many and our athletes inspire both on and off the race course. CK:Oh, that's got to give you fuel for your own accomplishments too, just seeing these athletes do things that they didn't think were possible for them. MS:Oh yeah, 100 percent. I do a lot of speaking around the nation and I get asked a lot like who inspires me and I am 100 percent inspired by our athletes. You know, anybody that doesn't think they could do something and they decide to go and try it and they realize that not only are they good at it and can they do it, but they actually enjoy it and then they continue on with it. So you know, our athletes in swear, anybody that sees them, but they help with my own goals and my own motivation as well. CK:I know that that's not the only way that you're working to help other athletes achieve their goals. You're also chair of the USA Triathlon Women's Committee. Tell me about that role and what goals do you hope to accomplish through that leadership position? MS:So USA triathlon has a good number of committees and the women's committee, which I recently the chair of, our goal is to get women into the sport of triathlon. So if any triathletes are listening, especially female triathletes, I think somebody asks you, Oh, what do you do and you say, Oh, I'm a triathlete, I swim, I bike, I run. And a lot of the response you get from women are, Oh, I could never do that. But the reality of it is actually yes, you can do that. So it's really what we hope to do as a committee is to really kind of break down those barriers. And when somebody, when a woman says, oh, I could never do that, you say, actually, yes you can. And this is why you can because there is a community of women athletes that are going to help mentor you to get there because there is a race you can go to and to start your career in triathlon. You can start out in a women's only triathlon or a women's only race and this is a uniform that, that you can wear and isn't it cool? You can pick from these colors and you know, it's not about winning the race, it's just about being out there and doing the race, so really kind of trying to break down those barriers on why women can be a triathlete and really to help them achieve it and to get to that finish line. CK:That's such an incredible goal. What does that look like in terms of like how you go about that? I mean are there conferences or is it just like individual outreach or group outreach? How, how practically speaking are. Is that committee working to make this a reality? MS:Yeah, it's kind of a combination of. So we have some partnerships with various other foundations kind of around the nation where each one of us has an athlete that we're mentoring to become a triathlete this year. We also provide grants, so grants to individuals that want to do their first triathlon to kind of help with travel or to help with coaching or to kind of help initiate the process on getting to that starting line. We also have grants that we give to women that are triathletes that are kind of looking to expand their leadership capabilities within triathlon, so if they’re a triathlon coach, but they want to take it to the next level and become a, get certified to coach athletes with disabilities or become a coach at the collegiate level to really kind of help women become advocates kind of within their own lives and kind of take that next step just so there's more females on the coaching level as well, so we provide resources on our Facebook page, it’s USA triathlon women's committee tips for women on how they can get into the sport and just hoping that women will take a liking and realize that they can do it also. CK:That's great that there's both informational and and financial support. I know that those are both really big needs for women who may be considering this kind of a sport. So that's, that's incredible. And thanks for giving the facebook page too. Because, yeah, I was going to ask how women can find out more about this. So that's perfect. The second big question that we always ask and #WeGotGoals is about a future goal you have and how you plan to get there and you've touched on some big goals that you have for the different organizations you're involved with. But I wonder what's, what's next for Melissa Stockwell? What's a goal you have personally? MS:So I have two young kids. I have an eight month old and I have a three year old and my husband Brian. And my kids motivate me to want to be, to dream even bigger and I want to kind of dream big and hopes that they see me dream big and they had big dreams of their own someday. So you know, I'm very athletically driven. I've found I have a passion behind sports and just the way it really makes me feel and just kind of proving to myself that I can still have these big goals, athletic goals, whether or not I have one leg or two. So for me, 2020 is the next Paralympic Games for triathlon and it is definitely a goal of mine in coming back from after having my daughter Millie eight months ago is not an easy thing to do, you know, a lot of my competitors are much younger than I am, no families, so the training dynamic is very different but the goal of showing them that I will be 40 years old, and as a 40 year old triathlete that has two young kids and I can still be out there on the course and not only that I can still be out there and be fast and keep up with them as well. MS:So that is definitely one of my big goals is to try and make it to Tokyo and kind of have that be my final Paralympic Games and just to do it to prove that I can and to challenge myself and just to show my kids that you put in the work and dreams can come true. CK:That's incredible to hear. And so interesting to hear too about how your motivation has changed a little bit or at least maybe expanded. I feel like often when I do talk to athletes who have long careers like you, they do find that like as life goes on, they find even more reasons to get out there and more fuel for the fire and, and more ways to stay motivated. So it's fantastic to hear that that's the case for you. MS:Yes, definitely. CK:And obviously that is like sort of a logistical challenge too, to train with the family. What are one or two of the things that have shifted for you and what advice do you give other people about fitting it all in when you have a family and, and want to train at a high level. MS:It's hard. There's never enough hours in the day, there weren’t before I had kids and now there definitely aren't. So I think fitting in what you can when you can and my coach had taught me that, that if I have 15 minutes to go on a run before kids, I would've thought that's not even worth it. Why would I even go for 15 minutes? But you go and you run a mile or a mile and a half, and instead of doing nothing that day while you've just gotten a mile in and those miles add up and they make a difference. The other things I've had to do is just kind of adjust my time so you know, instead of waking up and having breakfast and then doing whatever I do and then doing my workout, I again, I had to do what I can when I can. So in the summer when it's not cold and icy, I was known to put my kids down to bed because of course you want to spend as much time as you can with them. So I put him down to bed, 8:30 PM, put on a reflector vest, put on my headlamp and actually on my run around the neighborhood. Things that I never thought I would do that in order to make it work. It's things like that that you have to do. So get that headlamp, get that reflector vest.  Use, if you have 15 minutes, take those 15 minutes and do what you can with that much. Really just any little time that you have throughout the day, just doing what you can when you can. CK:Yeah. I think it's just like we were talking earlier about, you know, noticing your accomplishments for the day like that—all those little bits definitely add up to something much greater in the long run. MS:Yes, yes they do. CK:When you speak or give advice to others, what are, what are one or two of the key lessons you share about overcoming obstacles that come up in route to your goals? MS:When we're younger, we have, you know, you have these dreams of what you want your life to be like, right? Like you want be a doctor, you want to live in this area, you want to be married, you want to have kids, but it never happens that way. I think the older we get, the more we realize that you can't really plan your life because you can plan it to an extent, but there's so many obstacles and kind of twists and turns that happen that you're not prepared for because you don’t, there are so unexpected, but I think knowing that those things happen, that those roadblocks come up and that there's going to be diversions you know, to get to where you want to get and just the ability to really accept them and to really, to overcome them and to find a silver lining because it's hard to find a silver lining, but it is there. MS:And to really kind of dig deep and find a way to make whatever difficulties come your way, like to make them almost desirable and to make it so you end up even better. On the other side, you, you learn from your challenges and you make, in turn, they make you better in the long run. Another thing is to do that, you have to. You have to believe in yourself, but you also have to, you know when these obstacles come your way, you, you have the power to choose how you want to react to them. So that's kind of the beauty in life, right? You can choose for them to get to you and put you down or you can choose to help them make your life even better. So to try to choose to take the high road and you know, to help them make your life as good as you want it to be. So we can all choose what we want our life's path to be like. And just to try to choose to make your path to good one. CK:Those stories we tell ourselves definitely so powerful and can really shape our experiences and our future. I know. So I mean along those lines, April 13th is coming up and we mentioned this earlier, but talk to me a little bit about how you commemorate this because I think that it's such a great example of what you were just talking about. MS:Yeah. So, um, it is coming up, but I'll just a few weeks now. So every April 13th, which is a day that I lost my leg over in Iraq, every year we actually celebrate the day. So I named what’s left of my leg Little Leg and we have a birthday for Little Leg. So this year will be Little Leg’s, sounds kind of crazy to me but 14th birthday, which, I can’t believe it’s been 14 years. But it's really a celebration, so family and friends drive in or fly in. We celebrate the day. We celebrate not just Little Leg’s life or my life, but really everybody's life because in the day to day lives that we live, it's easy to get kind of caught up in everything that's going on, but when you take a moment or a day to kind of take a step back and to think about your life and it’s, we’re all very lucky to live the lives that we do. So just to take a day to celebrate that and to be with your loved ones and to celebrate, to dance, to, to eat cake, to, to share some drinks and just to kind of enjoy, enjoy life. CK:Well Melissa, that's such good advice and thank you so much for joining us on the #WeGotGoals podcast. Before I let you go, how can people find you and keep track of you and keep tabs on the celebrating that you're doing and all of the accomplishments that you have in the future? MS:Social media is obviously the best way. I do have a website that's melissastockwell.com. On Facebook, it’s Melissa StockwellUSA and then on both Twitter and Instagram it’s mstockwell01. So I encourage everyone to kind of follow along. I promise that there is never really a dull moment CK:And lots of adorable baby photos, that's for sure. Well thank you again Melissa. It's been great talking with you. Really appreciate your time. MS: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. CK:This podcast was produced by me, Cindy Kuzma and it's another thing that's better with friends, so please share it with yours. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and if you give us a rating or review while you're there, we would be so grateful. Special things to J. Mano for our theme music; to a guest this week, Melissa Stockwell; and to Tech Nexus for the recording studio.  

Dan Tun is a former teacher who fell in love with adaptive sports and now works with Dare2tri. Dare2tri is an Illinois-based 501(c)3 non-for-profit organization with the mission to positively impact the lives of athletes with physical disabilities and visual impairments by developing their skills in paratriathlon.

Dan Tun is a former teacher who fell in love with adaptive sports and now works with Dare2tri. Dare2tri is an Illinois-based 501(c)3 non-for-profit organization with the mission to positively impact the lives of athletes with physical disabilities and visual impairments by developing their skills in paratriathlon.

On today's show Iott and Zucco interview Keri Serota, the executive director of Dare2Tri about their event called, An Evening of Inspiration on 9/18.  It run's in conjunction with the ITU Chicago event.  We also discuss variability in training and racing.   

Melissa Stockwell is an American paratriathlete and former Paralympic swimmer and U.S. Army officer. A first lieutenant, she was the first female soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq War. She lost her left leg when a roadside bomb exploded when she was leading a convoy in Baghdad. For her service in Iraq she was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. She works as a prosthetist and is the co-founder of Dare2Tri, a Chicago-based paratriathlon club.

On Today's show, Iott and Zucco preview this weekend's upcoming race at Wildflower and discuss what to do when the race course changes due to weather or other unavoidable circumstances.  We also interview, DARE2TRI director Keri Serota.     

US Army Veteran, Paralympian Swimmer, 3x ITU Paratriathlon World Champion, Coach, Founder of Dare2tri.org, Motivational Speaker Melissa Stockwell joins Jim LIVE from Lubinski Furniture in Chicago, IL. Melissa details here experiences in the Army leading to her loss of her leg in Iraq which lead her to triathlon in which she has grown to become a World Champion.  This is a truly inspirational/informative/fun episode not to be missed.  Enjoy! www.MelissaStockwell.com www.Dare2Tri.org @MStockwell01