Andy NearyI help insurance professionals turn brand awareness into business growth.

I hate to admit this, but here’s why 👆I competed in 3 Ironman races. #mentalhealth

17 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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0:35

Andy Neary describes a period he calls his "dark years" (2007–2010) during which he experienced depression and poor life choices. He explains that he completed three Ironman races in that period not out of pride but as an escape—using endurance training/racing to lean into something that made him feel good while other areas of life felt bad.

Questions this video answers

2007–2010.

Three Ironman races.

Chapters

I feel like we've all gone through our own form of depression. At one point in life, I can even look back. I call my 2007-2010 my dark years, my lost years, because I wasn't enjoying. I was in the industry, but I hated it. I wasn't making good life choices around with the people who I was surrounding myself with. And people often talk about like, I did three Ironmans at that time. I did the Ironmans because I needed to lean into something that made me feel good because everything else felt so bad. So even when I look back at those Ironman years, I don't look back at them with, like, pride because I. I realized I was doing them to hide from something else, to escape.
And that's one of the parts of.
My life I did not like.
So many people will just relate that like, oh, you're so healthy and you're so fit and you're achieving all these great things and you're like, yeah, I was masking for yeah everything else that I like you send you paid.