Ironman Foundation

Jill Bartholomew (00:00)
Welcome back to another episode of the Be Fierce Multisport podcast. This is episode three. I'm your host, Jill Bartholomew, and I'm with Troy Theodosio. And today we have a special guest, Audra Tassone, and we're going to be talking about ⁓ Ironman Foundation

Troy Theodosiou (00:20)
Absolutely. Audra, it's wonderful to have you with us. Thank you for joining us.

Audra Tassone (00:25)
Thank you for having me.

Troy Theodosiou (00:27)
Absolutely. Okay, well to get this party started, Jill, I'm actually going to start off with you, because I would like to know, and I'm sure our listeners do too, what was your inspiration behind becoming an Iron Man Foundation ambassador?

Jill Bartholomew (00:43)
Audra, you and I met ⁓ up in Lake Placid, you know, last year and it was after the race. ⁓ But we had kind of conversed a little bit before and, you know, we hung out at foundation tent for a little while. you know, it's one, you know, it's a

cool crew. did so much great work up there. think you got how many bikes were were built for the Lake Placid community at that event.

Audra Tassone (01:14)
We built 50 bikes for the kids.

Jill Bartholomew (01:17)
50.

All right, for some reason I had in my head like 10,000 or something, but I'm just kidding. I'm not sure there's 10,000 people who live in my closet. But anyways, know, it was a great crew. And then, you know, I went out to, you know, when I raised niece, you know, Audra, you and I spent a lot of time together. And that's when I learned about the foundation program.

Audra Tassone (01:23)
That's a goal though. I mean, that's a great goal.

I think we could find it.

Jill Bartholomew (01:44)
or the Ambassador Program with Foundation. And these races are expensive and they're big commitments. And I race a lot. I really enjoy it. And not every race is an A race, but that was kinda when we started talking about like, hey Jill, you race a lot. Maybe it makes sense for you to join the Foundation Ambassador Program and.

And that that's what we did. And it turns out that, you know, for overall cost wise, probably costs about the same, you know, by the time you kind of think it through. But the money now goes to that you spend on race registrations now goes to such a great cause, right? You know, I don't know all the ins and outs of where that goes, but I understand that it all benefits the local community, which I think is, ⁓

probably the best possible use of that money.

Troy Theodosiou (02:43)
Awesome. Well, Audra, on that note, let's, as most of you know, and for those that don't, Iron Man Foundation is primarily about community building and giving back. Audra, let's touch on that. Let's talk about Iron Man Foundation's mission, ⁓ initiatives, and impact on local communities.

Audra Tassone (02:44)
Perfect. Yeah.

Sure, no, absolutely. So our mission, the Ironman Foundation, creates positive, tangible change in the race communities through grant funding and volunteerism. So year to date, the volunteer, excuse me, the Ironman Foundation has given back over $60 million to over 10,000 nonprofit organizations. So we have a couple of different pillars. Our first pillar in our...

foremost is the volunteerism grants in our race communities. So what we do is we support all the volunteers in those race communities. And as you know, without volunteers, we wouldn't be able to have events. So each volunteer director for each race will get a budget of what they can spend on giving back grants to the volunteer groups.

So that's our first pillar. The second pillar is helping youth in sports. So we give back swim lessons year to date. We've given back over 3,000 swim lessons ⁓ to underprivileged children and also giving back bikes and getting kids involved in running events. So like our kids events.

So with the bikes, we've given back over 2000 bikes. Just recently I was in South Africa for Cape Epic, which amazing event. And we gave...

Jill Bartholomew (04:33)
was very jealous. I was watching all the social media

posts that you're between you and Ironman were putting up and I was like, dang, that sounds like fun. I do not own a mountain bike, but I would go just for what you guys were posting. It looks so cool.

Audra Tassone (04:52)
I think you should race. I need another woman to race, Jill. We can have that conversation because you would absolutely...

Jill Bartholomew (04:58)
We can talk

about that, but I'm lacking a critical piece of equipment.

Audra Tassone (05:05)
That's okay. There's a bunch of people who don't have mountain bikes, but they just started purchasing them. I can hook you up with somebody who can teach you how to mountain bike. Anyway, with that being said, we were in South Africa, so we ended up giving back close to 100 bikes and helmets to the kids. Those bikes are going to be housed out of school.

where the kids will be able to use them daily. So I committed to that team for the next two years, so a total of three years, we're going to be giving back bikes to support the efforts that they do in South Africa. So it was an amazing experience.

Troy Theodosiou (05:47)
down, Audra. I'm not biased, but that's epic. Excuse the pun. But well done.

Audra Tassone (05:51)
Yeah,

incredible. It was such an incredible experience. I'm, ⁓ yeah. So that's, I mean, that's what we do. Like our, my mission is to bring in as much as we can so we can give back as much as we can. So ⁓ I feel really honored to be on this side of the business prior to being with the foundation. I was on the operating side of the business. So I knew Ironman really well and I've been with Ironman for over 15 years.

Jill Bartholomew (06:22)
That is a long time. How much of that were you with foundation?

Troy Theodosiou (06:22)
It's awesome.

Audra Tassone (06:26)
So this is going into my fourth year with the foundation.

Jill Bartholomew (06:30)
And why do you stay with the foundation?

Audra Tassone (06:35)
I just, I love being able to give back and to see all the different charities we support and just watching, you know, racing for more, watching people cross the finish line, line, excuse me, who's never raced before, but they're racing for the foundation. So they're helping us give back and just see, seeing how emotional when they cross that finish line and just, and also, I mean, one of the greatest feelings is being able to give like a bike back to a child.

who's never had a bike before and teaching them how to ride. I mean, not just like, I say that and just, start to get like goosebumps. It's just really nice to be on this side of the business. Don't get me wrong. I love the operating side of the business and I kind of straddle it a bit, but it's really special being able to give back.

Jill Bartholomew (07:24)
So when are we going to see you racing?

Audra Tassone (07:27)
An Ironman? No, no, no, no, that, no, too much, too much triathlon for me. You can, you'll see me, my goal, I want to race Boston next year. So you'll definitely see me do a running race, but triathlon, not, not in the near future.

Jill Bartholomew (07:29)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Theodosiou (07:45)
Audra, speaking about exciting initiatives, ⁓ I believe something launched this morning. Do you wanna share with our listeners what you have going on at the moment?

Audra Tassone (07:52)
Sure.

Yeah, absolutely. So we just opened up our auction. So we're auctioning off three slots, one to the world championship in Kona, one in the world championship in Nice, and the other one, 70.3 world championship in Spain. if you're interested in going to any of those events, please jump on our website, ironmanfoundation.org, make a bid. It's tax deductible, and you're also helping a great cause.

Troy Theodosiou (08:27)
Hey, Audra, rumor has it that if you put on an ⁓ Iron Man foundation suit, you actually go faster. Is that true?

Audra Tassone (08:35)
Yeah, it is very truth.

Jill Bartholomew (08:35)
⁓ That's, I think that was, wasn't that true in the past

when they were Santini and they all just like fit too tightly. Now that there's, now that there's zoo, is that still true?

Audra Tassone (08:42)
That's it.

Troy Theodosiou (08:46)
I don't know, but.

I tell you what, ⁓ when I put on my first Iron Man foundation ⁓ suit that Audra sent me, I tell you what, it felt like I had a rocket strapped to my back. It was phenomenal.

Audra Tassone (09:01)
I love it. I love it. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (09:04)
I

don't know, the Santini suit last year when I got the first one, was like, my God. I needed the size up like two sizes. They were so small.

Troy Theodosiou (09:17)
It only makes you go faster.

Audra Tassone (09:17)
Well, this year, exactly. this year it's Zoot. Sarah, that's it.

Jill Bartholomew (09:22)
Yeah, the zoo one

Troy Theodosiou (09:22)
There you go.

Jill Bartholomew (09:23)
fits a lot nicer.

Troy Theodosiou (09:25)
There you go.

Audra Tassone (09:26)
Yeah, that's what I've been told.

Troy Theodosiou (09:29)
Well, this is really exciting because for those of you who don't know, Jill is busy prepping for Iron Man Texas, which is T minus 12 days. Jill?

Jill Bartholomew (09:43)
god, you had to throw that number out there.

Troy Theodosiou (09:46)
I was going to give you the hours, but I thought I would be kind and just go with T minus 12 days.

Jill Bartholomew (09:51)
you were, you were going to throw the hours out there. Yeah, it's 12 days away by the time this gets published. It'll be like 10 days. And, ⁓ I'm freaking out a little bit. Originally this was planned to be an A-Race for me. ⁓ it's no longer an A-Race. I think I talked about that at some point. I had some injuries back in the fall that didn't kind of still working on healing part of it. And then I got the flu, which

Troy Theodosiou (09:56)
Here you go.

Jill Bartholomew (10:19)
took me out for like, I think five weeks, like it was crazy. But I'm gonna do it like, I've been riding the Texas route on Fulgaz over the last ⁓ month or so, I've done it a few times. And ⁓ I'm looking forward to it, although it looks like the highway is like grooved, is that right? I'm like, ⁓ that's gonna be so loud.

Troy Theodosiou (10:41)
all.

Jill Bartholomew (10:45)
like the grooved highway on the tires. And like, I can already imagine the hum, but now I'm looking forward to it. I was just ⁓ a couple hours ago talking to someone about someone else who's going to Texas. like the heat is the thing that has me the most kind of nervous, aside from like, you know, my physical readiness. It's rare that I go into a race.

Being like, yeah, not really physically where I want to be, blah, blah, but, know, I, took the time off after I got injured and spent the time like healing as a result. I'm starting the season, not quite as fit as I had. I'm used to, right? You know, the winter is usually like hardcore on the trainer. And this year it was more in the pool. So my, swim times, think I've improved, but my bike and run times have come backwards, but not.

Troy Theodosiou (11:37)
You go.

When life throws

you lemons, you gotta make some lemonade.

Jill Bartholomew (11:44)
Right. And, you know, along those lines, you know, we talked in our last episode about springtime surprise and it was so hot out there. But I kind of view that as a good thing because for me personally, it's like a little bit of heat acclimation before we get out there. It's going to be hot. It's going to be a hot one. But right.

Audra Tassone (11:46)
Exactly.

you

Troy Theodosiou (11:57)
Absolutely.

Yeah, the woodlands is beautiful. I think it's

gonna be, depending on the weather, I mean, the conditions could ⁓ go either way, but I think you getting in some heat acclimation in Orlando, Florida was to your benefit.

Jill Bartholomew (12:14)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it certainly can't hurt, but I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that ⁓ we have light winds that day and not headwinds. I was looking at the ⁓ for my age group, right, I was looking at the finish times for the last five years and for the first flight for the top five in my age group. And it's so funny because like you'll see like 10 something.

Audra Tassone (12:31)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (12:49)
And then the next year will be like almost 13 and the difference is the wind.

Troy Theodosiou (12:54)
Yeah, I was there last year and the conditions were brutal. But it's 2025. Exactly. So it's a mixed bag. Audra, are you gonna be in Texas?

Jill Bartholomew (13:00)
Right, but the year before, but the year before they were setting records.

Audra Tassone (13:04)
Exactly.

It looks like I am going to be in Texas now for a couple of days. So Jill and I were actually talking about that earlier. So the last time I was at Ironman Texas was the first year it came on the calendar. So it's been a long time for me. So I'm looking forward to getting back there.

Jill Bartholomew (13:28)
Yeah.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you again in person is I don't think we've, I don't think we've seen each other. mean, we've seen like the poorly lit digital image of each other a few times, but I don't think that we've like physically sat down and had a coffee since Nice, right? Right. It's been, it's been a while. ⁓ but I'm looking forward, I'm looking forward to Texas. ⁓ I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of new people. It's

Audra Tassone (13:32)
Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, that's true. it's definitely.

Jill Bartholomew (13:57)
You know, most of the races I've, I typically do are on the East coast. And this is intentionally not on the East coast. Like I, I started this year out like, I'm going to do all these races on the West coast and we got Texas and that's it. Everything else is like the normal East coast stuff as I was thinking about doing ocean side, but like the timing of it doesn't work for me. And yeah, I'm going to be in the TriDot booth.

Audra Tassone (14:01)
Mm-hmm.

Jill Bartholomew (14:25)
as a coach, you know, I'll be in the expert coach booth, I think two shifts. like eight or yeah, like eight or 10 hours total. So I'm looking forward to that. So, to our listeners, if you're out there in Texas, find me, I'll be in the, the TriDot booth a few times, go visit them and, uh, you guys have a booth, I assume, right.

Audra Tassone (14:29)
⁓ fantastic.

Not for Texas. We're going to have a booth at, we have one in Oceanside and we're going to have one in Chattanooga at 70.3 Chattanooga, but not in Texas.

Jill Bartholomew (14:57)
Alright, well as an ambassador though, like they can come talk to me about it, right?

Troy Theodosiou (14:57)
I

Audra Tassone (15:01)
They can definitely talk to you about it. We encourage that.

Troy Theodosiou (15:01)
There you go.

For those of you

Jill Bartholomew (15:04)
Right.

Troy Theodosiou (15:07)
who don't know Jill, she struggles to sit still. And if you listen to our first episode in Lake Placid, Jill is pretty much nonstop through race day. She does not stop. ⁓ I think I saw her about 400 times before race day in Lake Placid. So you will see Jill Bartholomew and it sounds like you'll see Audra too.

Audra Tassone (15:11)
You

Jill Bartholomew (15:14)
I'm

I

don't know what you're talking about, Troy. I mean, just because I, in Lake Placid, I rode the course three times and ran around the lake every morning and...

Audra Tassone (15:42)
Okay.

Troy Theodosiou (15:43)
Okay. Yeah, I was

going to say, okay, that doesn't include the practice swims. And then that doesn't, how many hill descents did you do Jill before race day?

Jill Bartholomew (15:52)
⁓

I think it was like five, yeah.

Troy Theodosiou (15:56)
Okay.

Jill Bartholomew (15:56)
Yeah, we, we, we, became very good friends with Mount Van Hovenberg and like prior to this race, the last time I spent that much time at Mount Van Hovenberg was in like 1986 when we went cross country skiing there during the Olympics.

Troy Theodosiou (15:56)
Need I say anymore?

There you go.

She was reconnecting with her roots.

Audra Tassone (16:13)
wow.

Jill Bartholomew (16:15)
Right. There was decidedly less snow though in July.

Troy Theodosiou (16:20)
Sure. Well, let's talk about foundation at Ironman Texas, Audra. Do you have quite a large, strong contingent that's gonna be there racing?

Audra Tassone (16:22)
Hahaha.

Yeah, believe we have, and Jill, correct me if I'm wrong, I think we have six athletes that are racing Ironman Texas. I think it's six.

Jill Bartholomew (16:43)
Sounds about right. But I am not the lead for Texas. No, I'm not the lead for Texas. I am the lead for Lake Placid and for 70.3 Florida in Haines City in December, which right now we don't have a lot of athletes signed up for for Florida 70.3. It's a great way to end the year and the ⁓

Audra Tassone (16:49)
You're not the lead for Texas. Why did I think you were the lead?

Okay.

Jill Bartholomew (17:12)
The metal there is kind of cool. It's a little, you know, you take the lanyard off and it's a Christmas ornament. It's like, come race, come race, Haynes city, get your Christmas ornament.

Troy Theodosiou (17:17)
Yeah. Yeah.

Audra Tassone (17:18)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that.

Troy Theodosiou (17:22)
I

have fond memories, the marketing team put together a relay, ⁓ team Iron Heat. We had a lot of fun, it was a great way to conclude the year. So always a lot of fun at the end of the year. And then you can go and head over to Disney, Jill's second home.

Jill Bartholomew (17:40)
Hey, so it's become tradition for John and I. You know, we do Ironman, you would do the 70.3 there. And it's like really close to Disney and we're annual pass holders there. So we pack up the bike, pack up the stuff, throw it in the back of the rental car, put a blanket over it and John's collar blind. So when I asked him to buy a black blanket, he came out with a tie-dye blanket.

Troy Theodosiou (17:54)
There you go.

Audra Tassone (18:09)
That's great.

Jill Bartholomew (18:11)
I'm like, I like John, the point is to like be subtle. So it's not obvious what's under there. Yeah. Uh, and then we drove to, uh, we drive to Epcot and have dinner, you know, get some pictures in front of the ball and then have dinner. Uh, it's become our tradition to have dinner at Rose and Crown there in Epcot. So it's kind of, kind of a fun way to, to end a race weekend, right?

Troy Theodosiou (18:17)
self.

Yeah, I like the sound of that. It's a great way to end the year.

Jill Bartholomew (18:39)
And then we hop in the car and

drive back to Philadelphia, which is 18 hours.

Audra Tassone (18:45)
Oof.

Troy Theodosiou (18:46)
Brutal. Well, just on that note, I know that Iron Man Texas is sold out, but I do believe, Audra, that there are still foundation slots available for anybody wanting to jump in and join Jill. There are still foundation slots available.

Audra Tassone (19:04)
That's absolutely right. And that's for all our events. You can always ⁓ race through Ironman Foundation, which we would love for you guys to come race with us. And there's a lot of amazing benefits that come along with that. And ⁓ can I just get into that, Troy? Is that OK?

Troy Theodosiou (19:20)
I was going to ask, but you're already well on your way. So tell us, I was gonna ask, what's involved,

Jill Bartholomew (19:22)
Absolutely, please.

Troy Theodosiou (19:27)
what do you get, but take it away, Audra.

Audra Tassone (19:31)
So what you get for racing with the Ironman Foundation is you get a low bib number, which means you get to rack near the pros. ⁓ Somebody from our team, my team, will be on site. We also have a dedicated mechanic to about seven of the events this year, so we call them the signature events. ⁓ We have a separate swim corral for our team IMF athletes. We'll also do a private meet and greet with the ⁓

with the race director and then we'll give you a tour of like where swim start is when finished. you're really familiar with the whole race venue set up. ⁓ We'll do a breakfast or a happy hour just depending on the race. And then after the event, we will have a tent. We are we actually have a tent inside transition or right outside of transition where we'll take your bike and everything and we'll

how to sit there in your morning clothes bags and your gear bags. So all you have to do is come to our tent, the Ironman Foundation, and get all your stuff there. And then we'll have our bike mechanic there too. ⁓ One of the new things that we're doing this year is we're doing something called Inspiration Station. And I took this back from when Ford used to be a sponsor.

And you can come to the Ironman booth when we are on site and you can do an inspirational sign for a small donation. And then we, as the team, will put that out on the run course. So when your athlete is running by, they'll see a sign from their loved one. And that's been a lot of fun. It was really successful at 70.3 Texas this past year. So I'm looking forward to continuing that on.

And then the other thing is if we do host a breakfast at our team IMF ⁓ tent, we bring in one of our volunteer groups who has been with the foundation and volunteered for multiple years and they just talk about their experience. So we just kicked that off this year ⁓ for Ironman, Texas. I'm, excuse me, I'm sorry, for 70.3, Texas. And it was fantastic.

Jill Bartholomew (21:40)
So.

I love the sign thing. Like I love it. Um, you know, I run a lot. I'm not the fastest runner, but I'm not like the slowest either. And I love the signs out on the course. Um, just don't put out the ones that are like, you know, get your money's worth and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. At the halfway point, you've earned 50 % of your entry fee.

Audra Tassone (22:05)
Right, exactly.

Right, exactly. Or the ones that I knew ⁓ when I used to race would be like, ⁓ the finish line is close by and it's not even anywhere near. you're not, and it's just like that used to, I'm like, no.

Jill Bartholomew (22:27)
Yeah, a couple of years ago at the Philadelphia

Marathon, there was this woman out on the course and I saw her like six times and her sign was like, you're almost there. The finish line's around the corner. And the first time I saw her is at mile two.

Audra Tassone (22:42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (22:44)
out of 26.2. No, honey, it's not, not even close. So back to who's the ambassador for Ironman Texas, it is Christine Valdez.

Audra Tassone (22:50)
Right, not exactly.

⁓ fantastic. Okay, she's been an ambassador with us for, ⁓ boy, longer than I've been there, so I'm gonna say at least six years. She's been an ambassador, so she's great. ⁓

Jill Bartholomew (23:10)
Yeah, I know

this because Andrea just sent out the other day the updated toolkit with everyone's name in it.

Audra Tassone (23:16)
Okay, perfect. Good. Okay.

Jill Bartholomew (23:18)
I'm like, I know I have that. have that somewhere.

So you're talking, I'm over here like, where is it?

Audra Tassone (23:23)
⁓ I love it. ⁓ Can I just sidebar for a second? that's okay. Jill, do you want to tell like your and Troy's listeners how our experience in Nice what happen?

at the finish line.

Jill Bartholomew (23:38)
I think we've been over this so many times, but yeah, that's yeah. mean that well, so I think on episode one, we talked about it, right? You know, it was like at, at Iron Man Nice. Um, John proposed to me at the finish line, uh, which was, I'd like to say magical, but it wasn't Disney, but it was pretty cool anyways. And, you know, um, you know, there I was, you know, approaching the finish line and we had a couple, like one or two Km left

Audra Tassone (23:40)
Okay, okay.

Jill Bartholomew (24:07)
And I'm like, you know, John's gonna, I have a feeling John's gonna do this. And then as soon as I cross, like I didn't even get a chance to stop my watch and I get yanked to the side and lo and behold, there's Audra doing the yanking. So Audra, you facilitated this. So thank you. Thank you. Although

Audra Tassone (24:14)
Okay. ⁓

you

Troy Theodosiou (24:27)
gonna say there's a lot of magic

involved behind the scenes because at a World Championship event meddling is one thing but a proposal is a whole nother is a whole nother ball game

Jill Bartholomew (24:38)
And you know, on the flight home, we had people come up, Audra I mean you were on the same flight we were on the flight home. We had people come up and like, you guys are those, we heard about you.

Audra Tassone (24:38)
It's so true.

Yeah.

It was great. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (24:51)
So we

were like internet famous for 30 seconds.

Audra Tassone (24:55)
It's a lot of ⁓ fun.

Troy Theodosiou (25:00)
It's not every day that you have a proposal.

Jill Bartholomew (25:01)
Yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun and I have like some really blurry grainy video of it and no photos, but it is still memorable.

Audra Tassone (25:12)
Did I not send you photos?

Jill Bartholomew (25:15)
at blurry ones.

Audra Tassone (25:16)
Yeah, I'm not a great photographer. I can read. I'm not at all. It's so bad. It's like blur.

Jill Bartholomew (25:19)
I know that now.

But the other end of that is where the wedding has been scheduled and the down payment has been made. So it'll be at our other favorite location down in Florida in August. So that'd be cool.

Audra Tassone (25:34)
Yeah.

That was so great.

Troy Theodosiou (25:44)
Talking about memorable moments, I think this is an opportune time. Jill's obviously had a memorable moment and Audra, you spoke about South Africa. ⁓ What would you say over the past four years, is there a standout, having been with Foundation, is there a standout memorable moment? Not necessarily a race, but something that you were involved in that really is something that you hold close to your heart and something that you're proud of.

Audra Tassone (26:12)
Yeah, mean, I would go back to ⁓ our first give back for, and there's two of them that really stand out. I'm go with our first actual bike give back, and that was at 70.3 Memphis, and we worked with a local boys and girls club, and just.

the kids, none of these kids ever had a bike, nor did they know how to ride a bike. So we set up like a whole safety course and we went out there with major tailoring cycling club and taught these kids how to use their bike. And just being able to give these, we gave back over a hundred bikes and helmets and just the looks on their face and just like they were just so.

happy and the parents were so appreciative. So that is definitely one of my favorable moments and definitely very memorable. And then the other one is when we first gave back swim lessons and that was at Ironman Tulsa, ⁓ worked with a local YMCA and we had the kids write in, why would they learn? What does Ironman mean to them? And you know, they, the stories were just, they were

heart wrenching and just so like, just so passionate about, you know, anything is possible. And a lot of kids alluded to that and just being able to offer these swim lessons to the kids was really special. And my, my boss was there, so Shane, who's the COO of Ironman and also the president of the foundation was there and we were able to present to check back and big press conference. So it was really nice. It's really, it's just seeing the look on the kids faces.

And then also when somebody has never raced before and watching them cross the finish line and the tears in their eyes of like, I did this and it was, you know, that's pretty magical too. So there's so many, there's so many different pieces, but they're all equally special in their own way.

Troy Theodosiou (28:16)
So.

Jill Bartholomew (28:24)
So I'm so curious, you've been doing this for a while. Do you have any stories of kids who got those bikes and then went on to actually compete in the sport?

Audra Tassone (28:39)
Mm-hmm. Yes. So there's one girl in particular who received a bike, practiced, got into swimming, obviously got into running. Her mom is an athlete also, and she's continued on participating in 70.3, or racing 70.3. So slowly but surely, like if we can just make a...

difference of 1%. That's huge. And just being able to expose, you know, children to swim, bike, run, and just the community overall, as you both know, the triathlon community is so welcoming. And ⁓ it's a huge family. And, ⁓ you know, and I love to share that with others.

Troy Theodosiou (29:24)
Lake Placid and we've, Jill, we've touched on Lake Placid so many times, but it was obviously really special for you because that's where you qualified for the world championship. But Audra, what was really special for me was seeing our ex-pro athletes and even ⁓ current pros in action. Do you want to talk about something very special that happened at Placid from a foundation standpoint?

Jill Bartholomew (29:27)
Mm-hmm.

Audra Tassone (29:48)
Yeah, absolutely. you know what, Troy, honestly, I would like you to start it because it was your idea and you helped initiate all this. ⁓ Yeah, so Troy, please, you started off and I can end it or, you know, but this was your idea.

Jill Bartholomew (29:56)
do tell, do tell

Troy Theodosiou (30:05)
Okay,

that's fair. So I was on the marketing team at Ironman at the time and I was working closely with Audra as it was Ironman, Lake Placid and we were putting our heads together with regards to what we can do to promote foundation and with my connection with some wonderful athletes, some wonderful pro athletes, Ben Hoffman.

Heather Jackson and Andy Potts, some of the greatest athletes the sport has ever seen. Audra and I worked closely together to put together some relay teams. Well, I think Audra, we really wanted to knock it out the park and it exceeded all expectations. There was so much fun had by all. There was some really...

some competitive rivalry, which was awesome to see. The women were phenomenal. I think they taught the men a ⁓ healthy lesson. ⁓ Audra managed to get Rinny involved. She got, I think Andrea participated from foundation and started things off with a phenomenal swim. I think Seeker Henry, I was gonna say, the crazy part was,

Audra Tassone (31:18)
Yeah. Seeker Henry.

Troy Theodosiou (31:26)
If you looked at the names on paper, I kind of was leaning towards how it was gonna play out, but let me tell you, we were in for a surprise and it was just the camaraderie and what we saw take place was just very, very special, but I think it had everything to do with the people that were involved.

Audra Tassone (31:48)
It was.

Jill Bartholomew (31:48)
It's

always about the people though. It always ends up like the people eat. And it's one the I love about this sport in particular. And like we talked about this last week, Troy, with like the run Disney stuff. like, these are two sports, two forums that tend to bring together like really awesome people. And a lot of generosity in both.

Audra Tassone (31:52)
It really is.

Troy Theodosiou (32:12)
No, you're not wrong. Yeah.

And we see that from some of the ex-pro athletes and even the pro athletes today, their willingness to get involved and Audra can touch on this more because I've had a few special individuals, but I know that there's so many more. And that to me is just their contribution and giving back.

Jill Bartholomew (32:21)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Theodosiou (32:38)
⁓ That to me is just so, so special and Audra, I hope we see more of that.

Audra Tassone (32:44)
Yeah, I know it. ⁓ So for 70.3 Chattanooga, so ⁓ we're doing another pro relay and it's McKeeley Jones is racing with ⁓ Johnny O'Brien. Yeah, so he's ⁓ on our board of directors and he also is an XC athlete and lives in Chattanooga. So he's racing with McKeeley and then ⁓ it hasn't been publicly announced, but I'm going to put it out there and

Troy Theodosiou (32:57)
wow.

Audra Tassone (33:14)
If I get any backlash, that's okay. Ben Hoffman is racing ⁓ Cape Epic with us next year. So we're incredibly excited about that.

Troy Theodosiou (33:22)
Wow.

Jill Bartholomew (33:22)
Right now.

And I love that you announced it here. Unexpected ⁓ new press release just happened. So that's pretty awesome. So Audrey, you've got about 48 hours to get in front of that before this is out there. ⁓

Troy Theodosiou (33:34)
out of the press.

Audra Tassone (33:34)
Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, no, no, no, it's he's in, he's in. I'm just,

he's in. just, we were gonna, you know, do a collective announcement, but this just seemed like the perfect platform to announce it on. So yeah, so I've been talking to his wife and everything. So it will be exciting to have him. And he's racing with Tommy, Tommy Martin, Dr. Tommy, who's one of our ambassadors. He's also a huge Ironman athlete and just an incredible.

individual. So they're racing together as a team. yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (34:16)
That's fantastic.

Troy Theodosiou (34:17)
I

can't say enough good things about that incredible man, Ben Hoffman, no stranger to South Africa. One Ironman South Africa, literally fell in love with the sport. He was like a hometown favorite, came from the US, phenomenal athlete and equally as phenomenal off the course as he is on the course. And then Aldo mentioned Johnny O'Brien, huge heart. Last year, the man gets his entire family.

Audra Tassone (34:25)
Yeah

Yeah.

Amazing.

Troy Theodosiou (34:46)
the O'Brien's to race at Chattanooga, which was just absolutely fantastic. They all finished. They all had a phenomenal day. Audra, that was special.

Audra Tassone (34:48)
you

incredibly special. Johnny is, he's unbelievable and he has an amazing family as you know and yeah that was very special to see all of them cross the finish line together as a family.

Jill Bartholomew (35:14)
So, bringing us back. ⁓ So, Audra, there were some changes made to the benefits this year for some of these ⁓ foundation races. What were the changes that were made? Because some of them are like really cool, right?

Audra Tassone (35:19)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so ⁓ dedicated bike mechanic, that will come. We do a like a swim corral. So, go on.

Jill Bartholomew (35:38)
And can we,

can we talk about why the dedicated bike mechanic is such a great addition for a second?

Audra Tassone (35:47)
Yeah, I mean, it just makes sense. We're bringing in lot of athletes that are raising money for the foundation and something is always bound to happen with your bike. And instead of having that stress of where am I going to get this fixed? How am I going to get this fixed? Are they going to have the parts? We're bringing that. So ⁓ we contracted with

Jill Bartholomew (35:51)
So.

Audra Tassone (36:14)
Roland now who's ⁓ the race director for Western Mass. And yeah, so he's our bike mechanic and it was a huge hit in Kona last year. So I made the decision to roll it out this year. So we were just in 70.3 Texas and it went really well and it's just, yeah, it's been, it's been, been very well received.

Jill Bartholomew (36:37)
I'm like as

an athlete, like this is such a huge stressor, right? Is, you know, like, um, I'm pretty mechanically inclined. I mean, I'm an engineer by trade and education. Um, but still it's always nice to have a second, a second set of eyes look over your bike. And I don't know if you remember, but when we got to Nice, we got to the hotel, dropped the bike off at the hotel.

Audra Tassone (36:47)
Yeah. Right.

Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (37:03)
And first thing we, first thing I did is I opened the box and I'm like, yep, bike's still there. It appears to still be in one piece. Uh, and then, you we went out, got dinner, but then the next day, you know, after I had it put together, um, before I even did a test ride on it, I took it down to the triathlon shop, which was a couple of blocks away to have. I spent like 120 euros for them to look at it and not do anything that.

I'm not myself capable of doing, but like that peace of mind of having like someone not me look at it and be like, yes, this is good to race on was invaluable to me. ⁓ cause you know, if you're traveling in, you're taking your bike apart, you're putting it in a box, you're putting, maybe you're putting it on an airplane or you're shipping it by UPS and then you're putting it back together again. And.

Audra Tassone (38:01)
Mm-hmm.

Jill Bartholomew (38:02)
Even if you know what you're doing and have done it a million times, it's still a stressful thing because it's like one more thing in the back of your mind that could go wrong, right? Cause it's, it's now different than it was the last time you wrote it. And Troy, you you and I were talking a while back about, know, in your, your role with Ironman, like the things that you saw athletes do and say, and not know on their bikes.

Audra Tassone (38:18)
Right, right.

Jill Bartholomew (38:32)
Even in transition on race day, right? So I don't know if you want to talk about some of those or you want to keep that to yourself.

Troy Theodosiou (38:39)
No,

Audra Tassone (38:40)
Nyeh-hah-hah!

Troy Theodosiou (38:40)
mean, it's always enlightening. And to your point, I think for most athletes traveling, there's so many unforeseen, especially when you're ⁓ internationally, just in terms of being able to source extras or something that you may have forgotten. A lot of the times...

Jill Bartholomew (38:49)
Hmm.

I've learned the

hard way to carry an extra set of brake pads, an extra chain, and most importantly, an extra derailleur bracket with me.

Troy Theodosiou (39:08)
Yeah,

I was gonna say a lot of the time it's something trivial and although it might not seem like a big deal, it's a huge deal. Showing up with weeks and months under the belt in terms of training and sacrifice and then for foundation to basically take care of your needs when it comes to your bike is a it's a huge save because it allows you to focus on what's most important and it just takes all the unnecessary stress.

out of the equation. So well done. That's a great addition.

Audra Tassone (39:42)
Thanks, yeah, you know, I'm really excited to continue this program. So ⁓ some of the other things that we're doing is we'll either have a breakfast or a happy hour, but we're bringing in one of our volunteer groups ⁓ that we've given back for multiple years, and they're gonna talk about their experience with the foundation. ⁓ We also will have a dedicated like swim, ⁓

Corral area so where all our team IMF athletes will be stationed and then they can self-seed themselves wherever they want we're going to have a ⁓ We'll have a tent either inside transition or right outside transition and what we'll do is why you're racing ⁓ We'll grab your morning clothes bag your gear bags all of that your bike and we'll bring that to

our tent. So when you're done with your race, all you have to do is just come to one spot, grab your bike, grab your bags and not have to worry about, you know, anything else because we'll have it all ⁓ taken care of. And then we also have started the inspiration sign. So for a small donation, we, people can come to our tent, put an inspirational sign together for their ⁓

for their loved one or their athlete that's racing and either we can ⁓ put it out on the run course or you can take the sign. So that's also been incredibly fun.

Troy Theodosiou (41:22)
Well now you know why Jill is racing with Ironman Foundation. Not only because she has a heart to give back, but also because you're going to take care of all all her race needs.

Audra Tassone (41:34)
Exactly, exactly.

Jill Bartholomew (41:36)
You heard it here. I do have a heart. No, I said earlier, you know, I did the math and I'm like, you know, everything aside, I'm like, financially, it makes sense. And it goes to a good cause. And so far, everyone that I've met through foundation has been like just great people. And I keep seeing Michellie Jones show up with foundation and like, like, I think, is she going to be at Texas?

Audra Tassone (42:00)
Yes, yes.

Jill Bartholomew (42:05)
Or is that Lake Placid, the next one? Chattanooga.

Audra Tassone (42:06)
She's going to be in Chattanooga. So she's going to be at

70.3 Chattanooga.

So yes, she's coming to 70.3 Chattanooga. So she will be racing on a relay team with one of our ⁓ Johnny O'Brien, who's on the board of directors for the foundation.

Jill Bartholomew (42:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I'll

be back at 70.3 Chattanooga this year. It's a redemption race for me because that's the one last year that my chain broke on. like, you know, that bike course is so fun and it's fast and it's got some hills in it, well, rollers, big rollers. They're not hills. After like placid and knees, like nothing's a hill anymore.

Troy Theodosiou (42:30)
There you go.

Audra Tassone (42:37)
I love that race.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, no, of course. Or niece. I mean, that was no joke. Yeah. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (43:00)
Well, that was a mountain. was a mountain. That was a mountain. But

now, I was on a PR bike and like mile 20-ish.

I'm like freewheeling and in retrospect I'm like, wow, I was really fortunate that I didn't crash from the sudden freewheeling.

Audra Tassone (43:22)
Hahaha.

Troy Theodosiou (43:24)
Well, she dug deep, ⁓ she waited for some assistance and some support and she got it done. And I think Jill, what's really special, and Audra can speak about this and so can you, what's really special about Chattanooga is the energy from the crowd. That is one special race because you feel it. It's electric.

Jill Bartholomew (43:45)
You

do. like the bike course is really pretty. The road quality is, once you get out of the town, the road quality is pretty good. In the town, not as much. There's some railroad tracks. There were like dumpsters worth of last water bottles for those tracks, I think. You know, I have a speed concept. You know, they have like the triangular.

water bottle that fits in the frame. I saw a bunch of those on the side of the course and I was thinking in my head at the time, I'm like, how do you even lose that? Like it's like really tightly put in there. And I saw some of those, you know, loss on the ground. But the run, well, first like the swim, right? The swim was a little bit stressful because you, it's the first one that I've done where you like, you jump off of a dock.

Troy Theodosiou (44:37)
River.

Jill Bartholomew (44:43)
into the water and then get going. And we had done a practice swim, me and a couple other folks, two days before. And we were like trying to swim up river, just maybe a quarter mile, if that. And there's this video that John took of me and three other people like out in the middle of the river swimming in place.

Troy Theodosiou (45:10)
was gonna say, were you going backwards? Because if you're trying to, you were holding.

Jill Bartholomew (45:12)
No, no, I was not going

backwards. We were holding our own. And you can see closer to the shore, we were doing all right. And then as we got maybe a third of the way towards or halfway from shore to the middle, that's when the current picked up. And we're just swimming in place.

And one of the girls had a little bit of a momentary panic attack and you can see her like doing fine. then she loses all that ground. And we, ended up getting out of the water, ⁓ downstream of where we got in the water, ⁓ at a place that I guess we weren't like technically supposed to. And then we walked back to our bags. but it was, it was good because we got to feel the current before getting

getting into the swim. But the run, like the crowd, basically the whole run. Like it was crazy. some of those, I mean, the volunteers who staff the water tables are pretty great, right? But some of those, they were like decorated. Lights, smoke machines, bubble makers. I'm like,

Troy Theodosiou (46:33)
Yeah, it's a vibe.

Jill Bartholomew (46:36)
This is pretty cool. I remember like the one at the turn the turnaround at the far end of the out and back on the run. And that one was like, you know, it like, almost looked forward to it because it was like such a cool spot they had set up. Um, and then from a spectator perspective, think, uh, John saw me like 20 times on the course. There's not a lot of courses that are that spectator friendly.

Troy Theodosiou (47:05)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I can tell you if you enjoy Chattanooga, you're in for a treat in Ironman, Texas when you run through hippie hollow. That is a vibe.

Audra Tassone (47:05)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (47:06)
Yeah, he's like.

yeah. Like

I'm looking forward to it. I mean, I'm not looking forward to how my body is going to feel at that point, but yeah, I'm looking forward to the race. And, know, so you'll have to give John all the, ⁓ all the tips and tricks so that he can spectate. Cause like that one in Chattanooga, he's like, yeah, I went here and then all I to do was step over the guard rail and I could see you again, going the other direction.

Troy Theodosiou (47:23)
Yeah.

I will. For sure.

Pretty much, yeah. Very spectator-friendly, it's a fast course. It's a lot of fun. It's a sold out race, it always is. It's one of the first 70.3s to sell out. But, Audra, I'm assuming you've still got some slots.

Jill Bartholomew (47:53)
Mm-hmm.

Audra Tassone (47:57)
Yeah.

We do. We have slots. We have slots available. So all you need to do is when, you go online to register, just click the link for ironmanfoundation.org and that will bring you to us and we can get you all situated.

Jill Bartholomew (48:03)
I

Now, is there a way when they do that for them to put in like how I heard of kind of thing?

Audra Tassone (48:24)
There's not. No, there's not.

Jill Bartholomew (48:26)
So how

are we going to know that they found out about it from this podcast?

Audra Tassone (48:33)
Well, if they're going to register now, we know they found out from this podcast. We know. Yeah. We're going to give you credit anyway. ⁓

Jill Bartholomew (48:37)
We know. OK, OK. And I

have a feeling that it would take a lot for Audra to say, we can't get you in.

Audra Tassone (48:48)
Yeah, exactly.

Troy Theodosiou (48:48)
no, listen, where

there's a will, there's a way. Audra will get you in. And I think on that note, Audra, you mentioned your website. I know that you can obviously register for Foundation Races on the actual race page. You'll see a category for special entries. But how do people follow along? you on social media?

Audra Tassone (49:11)
We are on social media. But yes, so we do is ⁓ @im_foundation

Foundation, that's our Instagram and then we're also on Facebook and we're on Instagram and we are also on LinkedIn. So please, you know, please follow us.

Troy Theodosiou (49:28)
Okay, well, if you get stuck, you can also follow along with our ambassador herself. She's on Instagram. If you have any questions specifically pertaining to Foundation, how to become an ambassador, you can just send Jill Bartholomew (@TheTriMom) a direct message.

Jill Bartholomew (49:35)
Mm-hmm.

Audra Tassone (49:35)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (49:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, just send me a message. I'm @TheTriMom on Instagram or if I'm on Facebook, you know, I'm pretty all over those two platforms. I'm another, and LinkedIn. ⁓ My profile picture looks decidedly professional on LinkedIn, less sporty, less sporty. But yeah, yeah, feel free to message me on Instagram, Facebook, threads, wherever.

Audra Tassone (50:05)
Hahaha

Jill Bartholomew (50:17)
@TheTriMom So, Audra, before we say goodbye, do you have anything else about foundation that you think would be interesting for people to hear or that you want them to understand?

Audra Tassone (50:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, the other thing, first off, it's tax deductible. So, ⁓ you know, I just wanted to throw that out there. But ⁓ we also, and if I'm repeating myself, I apologize. We have slots to 70.3 World Championship. We have slots to World Championship in Nice, and we have slots to the World Championship in Kona. And this year with Kona being a women's only events, ⁓ my goal is to bring 30 women.

So if anybody has any questions about the World Championship events, please don't hesitate to email me directly. It's audra.tasone-indec at ironman.com. Or you can just go onto our website and just request additional information. But we would love to see you at any of our events.

Jill Bartholomew (51:18)
And for Kona, I assume there is at least a few slots left.

Audra Tassone (51:23)
There are, there are a few thoughts left and there's different fundraising levels, just depending on how many benefits you want. And it's really, ⁓ we put together a really nice package for Kona.

Jill Bartholomew (51:35)
Awesome. So now this is kind of in addition to the previously planned discussion. Why since Texas is coming up, you know, I kind of want to talk about race prep a little bit. So what do you what advice would you give to athletes from what you've seen over the last 12 years of observing Ironman races? We need to get you to do at least a 70.3 my friend.

Audra Tassone (51:42)
Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (52:04)
What preparation do you think they should do in?

foundation people you've seen, but looking at like people who have had successful races versus maybe less successful races, what, do you think some key things that people should, I mean, at this point, like if we're talking about like Texas or Chattanooga, your training's pretty much locked in, right? You know, Chattanooga is in a month, less than a month, you know,

Audra Tassone (52:09)
Yeah.

Sure.

Mm-hmm. Right.

Jill Bartholomew (52:31)
Any, no amount of training is going to make a material difference for that chat. You know, Texas is in a week and a half. everybody hopefully is on taper at this point. ⁓ but like race prep, what would you suggest for people that you've seen be successful?

Audra Tassone (52:40)
Yep.

To be successful, some of the things that I've seen is that celebrate your training. Just go out there and enjoy yourself. You've done all the hard work. Your race is about celebrating you and what you've accomplished. So that's first and foremost. The second thing, don't change up your nutrition.

race week or a couple of days before you race. I mean, that's a hard no. Do not do that. If it's something that you haven't trained with, don't touch it. And the other thing is don't change up your sneakers. Like going from one brand or going from a brand that you've been running and a pair of shoes that you're comfortable with to a brand new pair of shoes, even though it is the same brand, that's another thing that I would suggest. to really also be selfish.

Jill Bartholomew (53:35)
Hmm.

Audra Tassone (53:40)
you know, couple of days before your event and put your feet up. You don't have to participate in a hundred million things. Go rest, eat well, and just enjoy yourself and don't, you know, don't get yourself stressed out.

Jill Bartholomew (53:53)
I'm feeling really

attacked by the, don't need to participate in a hundred million things.

Audra Tassone (53:57)
No, no, that's not directed towards you at all. No, no, I say that like for Kona,

because we have so many things going on all the time. And the athletes, actually feel guilty that they're not coming to like if we have a cocktail hour. I said, No, no, you don't would love to see you, but you don't have to be there. But definitely make time for yourself and put your feet up and relax.

Jill Bartholomew (54:19)
I definitely struggle with that one. ⁓ and this year, I think, you know, between, like Lake Placid, think, especially probably Chattanooga too, between foundation, ⁓ which I want to be really involved with, ⁓ TriDot who, you know, I'm a coach on the TriDot platform and I'm a TriDot pool school instructor. ⁓ so I want to be involved with them.

And I'm a member of the Betty Squad, right? This year I'm on the Elite Squad. So like, I obviously want to be very involved with them. And like between the three, like I could literally be doing something from before the sun's up till after the sun's down every day,

Audra Tassone (55:02)
Yeah, true, very, very true.

Jill Bartholomew (55:04)
yeah, it's good,

good advice. Like pick your, pick your events wisely.

Audra Tassone (55:09)
Exactly, exactly. And don't change your nutrition. Don't change it.

Jill Bartholomew (55:16)
I think that falls into the nothing new on race day though.

Audra Tassone (55:20)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But I've seen it. I've seen people, athletes who, you know, they they want to try a new drink or something, but they haven't trained on it. it's it's crushed them.

Jill Bartholomew (55:22)
to.

Yeah. Well,

and last year with Iron Man changing from Gatorade Endurance to Martin, I mean that, or not Martin, Mortal Hydration, that, that kind of threw a lot of people off too, because like, I know for me, like it's one thing to train with it, but you're not training for 10 plus hours at a pop. And like, for me, like,

Audra Tassone (55:38)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Right.

Jill Bartholomew (55:59)
Once I hit like that nine or 10 hour mark, probably about 10 hours was when it started to like really make a difference. You know, was like, ⁓ I'm not used to this.

Audra Tassone (56:06)
Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. And then the other thing too is if you're not used to having like a lot of caffeine, not to start taking more things that have caffeine in it. I've seen that, you know, the other extreme with that where, you know, people's heart rates are racing and just like can bring on. Yeah.

Jill Bartholomew (56:26)
that's not where my head went. I'm like, if you take too much caffeine and you're not used

to it, you might be making a few more potty breaks than you were expecting. So Troy, do you have anything to add to that? You've been around this world for a very long time.

Audra Tassone (56:34)
It's so true.

Troy Theodosiou (56:37)
I think, yes, I think...

Audra Tassone (56:40)
Yeah.

Troy Theodosiou (56:43)
Yeah, I think two things that I wanna chime in with. One is that foundation between the staff and some of the athletes, yourself included Jill, obviously with your coaching background, there is a wealth of knowledge and experience that you can draw from, which I think is very reassuring. I think it's really helpful to have that level of support in terms of if you're a newbie or a beginner.

Or even if you're a seasoned athlete, you never know it all, but I think there's a wealth of information and there's some really good people that can give you some really good advice. Come raid, stay in training. Audra mentioned my good friend Roland, ⁓ who is the race director of 70.3 Western Mass. He just completed the Cape Epic ⁓ and he's your bike mechanic, which is super awesome.

Audra Tassone (57:25)
Yeah.

Troy Theodosiou (57:40)
So I think as far as being well looked after in terms of your biking needs, Jill talking through race strategy, talking through important things regarding nutrition, hydration, et cetera, think this is foundation as a community that you can certainly draw from expertise and knowledge. And then I think just from a coaching standpoint, I think what's super important is to...

is to keep it simple and not over complicated. I think so often we can really overthink things, hyper analyze, and I think that can be a huge fault of us all. And I think just keep it simple, stick to the way you've trained, your training simulations. And for the most part, ⁓ I wanna encourage people to ask you questions because I think people...

feel embarrassed for the questions. I think a lot of the times ⁓ people tend not to raise their hand if somebody talks about some jargon or some high-faluted terms that are not well known. And I think that's scary to a lot of the newer athletes. And I just wanna encourage people to raise their hand. I want them to ask those questions. There is no silly question because...

Audra Tassone (58:55)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Theodosiou (59:04)
If we're honest with ourselves, we've all been there, done that, got the t-shirt. And if we can help other people avoid those same mistakes and learn from our mistakes, that contributes to the benefit of the sport and the community as a whole.

Jill Bartholomew (59:19)
Yeah, as they say, the only dumb question is the one not asked. Right. It's like, and that's one of the like I noticed like, you know, I haven't been in this for as long as you guys. Yeah. But the athletes, you know, in transition, like

Troy Theodosiou (59:22)
correct.

Audra Tassone (59:23)
Exactly. Exactly.

Jill Bartholomew (59:38)
you know, in the athlete village, in whatever, most people are pretty friendly. ⁓ Everyone, I think, is kind of in their own little world at times. But like, everybody's so willing to answer questions and to give others the time. You just have to ask for it. And what might seem like a silly question might end up being the thing that changes your race. But at some, yeah, go ahead.

Audra Tassone (1:00:03)
Exactly. the other thing too ⁓

is one thing that something that works for one person doesn't necessarily mean it will work for the other person too.

Jill Bartholomew (1:00:15)
Yeah, that's why I love the tire pressure question, right? What pressure should my tires be at? Well, first, if you've made it to the race, you should probably know what works for you. And I might weigh way less or more than you. So what works for me might not work for you.

Troy Theodosiou (1:00:32)
But when in doubt, ask Roland, he's got your back. He'll be in transition. He'll be taking care of your tires. So ask Roland, he's knowledgeable. Rather ask than go in overinflated or underinflated. So Jill, to your point, raise your hand, ask the question. If you're not sure, ask. And then I think my, one thing I would like to add, Jill, and you've touched on this, is the importance of

Audra Tassone (1:00:32)
Exactly. Right?

Jill Bartholomew (1:00:35)
Yeah, yeah.

Troy Theodosiou (1:00:59)
supporting others, a high five, an inspirational sign, meeting somebody in a moment on the course ⁓ in their time of difficulty or struggle. Jill, I think we can all relate some words of wisdom, a little bit of encouragement, if you yourself are struggling, can make the world of difference in somebody else's life. Don't wait for race day.

Jill Bartholomew (1:01:01)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Troy Theodosiou (1:01:26)
to be kind and to be loving and nice towards somebody other than yourself. I think it's really important as we try and build this community to build it up, to encourage everybody, to encourage one another. Yes, on race day, some people are super competitive, but for other people, it's just showing up at race day and that in and of itself is a massive victory. And I think we need to remember that.

And that needs to be top of mind with regards to the fact that everybody who shows up at a race has a story. It may be very different to yours, but we need to celebrate that. We need to embrace that. And we need to make sure that we are hospitable towards others and we're caring. Because at the end of the day, you don't know who's showing up and what they've overcome to get there. And at the end of the day, our goals might be slightly different, but everybody crossing that finish line.

Audra Tassone (1:02:03)
Mm-hmm.

Jill Bartholomew (1:02:15)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Theodosiou (1:02:24)
That's the ultimate goal. So I want you to remember that.

Jill Bartholomew (1:02:28)
Yeah, I was going say that that's such great advice because everybody's got their own goals and you don't necessarily, we don't print on the back of our shirt what our goal is, A lot of people's goals might be just to finish and under the cutoff. Other people might be shooting for a podium and ⁓ you can.

normally tell the folks who are shooting for the podium, right? But you know, there's every everywhere in between. And you know, we don't like screen print it to the back of our shirts. So you don't know what those are. I will say, you know, I was on a race. ⁓ And it was it was like placid. I'll admit to that. And, know, you know, the three bears. I'm like placid, right? ⁓ So it was on the second go around.

Audra Tassone (1:03:18)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jill Bartholomew (1:03:23)
I had, I had to stop, ⁓ about 20 miles from the finish, 25 miles. My left cleat was like moving all over the place. It was, I actually had to tighten it of course. so I lost some time with that. And, you know, I was cranking up that hill.

And I remember what my power output was. It was pretty high, higher than it should have been given where we were in the race. And I was not feeling awesome. And this guy who he and I had been like yo-yoing for quite a while, he passed me for what ended up not being the last time. And he saw that I was kind of fatigued and he's like,

He's like, I don't know how you're hanging with me. You're so strong. that like, you know, it's like those kinds of things out on the course, like encouraging each other that, you know, helps, you know, get everyone's motivations back to where they need to be. Cause these are, these are not trivial races. They're, they're long races called Ironman for a reason. It's hard and it's meant to be hard and not everyone can do it, but you know, that doesn't mean we can't support each other along the

Audra Tassone (1:04:45)
Exactly agree. Okay.

Jill Bartholomew (1:04:47)
So

on that note, ⁓ I think we're about to wrap up, but I want to put a plug in for a couple things. ⁓ One is Ironman Foundation. If you're interested in racing with Foundation or if you want to get into your race that is sold out, contact Audra. Or I'm in Ironman Foundation Ambassador, feel free to contact me.

Um, probably the best way is to message me on Instagram @TheTriMom. Uh, also, uh, we're going to putting together a little YouTube series on some basic bike maintenance, which is hopefully useful to at least one person other than me. Uh, so, you know, keep, uh, keep an eye out for that. And you know, Troy, what made me think about this, you know, I've been wanting to do it for like a year and I'm sitting here like, you know,

for Texas, one of the things that I'm doing is I'm putting a new chain on, ⁓ which means I need to wax my chain. So the first video is probably going to be about chain waxing.

Troy Theodosiou (1:05:50)
Yeah.

Audra Tassone (1:05:51)
awesome.

Jill Bartholomew (1:05:52)
So on that note, thank you everyone for listening. Please like it, subscribe to it on whatever platform you're listening on. We do have the video version of it posted on YouTube. So like subscribe there or, you know, Apple podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever. Please subscribe.

Troy Theodosiou (1:06:17)
Awesome. Thank you, Jill. Thank you for joining us, Audra.

Jill Bartholomew (1:06:17)
All right, I'm going to.

Audra Tassone (1:06:21)
Yeah, thank you

for having me.