Sara Fix on Kona, Entrepreneurship, Humanitarian Work & Family

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Living a life in full is a conversation you always want to have with that person who gave an amazing TED Talk or the author of one of your favorite books, or that inspirational Olympian you always wanted to know more about. It's graduate level conversations with those making a difference in the world and in the lives of others. This show brings you new ideas and approaches so that you can live a life in full. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Stout and I hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to another episode of Living a Life in full. I'm Dr. Chris Stout, your host. Today's episode is brought to you by ATI Physical Therapy's Women's Health Program. They offer an innovative approach that's designed by women for women. This specialized care can offer life changing results. The physical therapists at ATI Women's Health provide expert treatment for pelvic floor dysfunction and obstetrical care. 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The goal is to provide you with expert care in a comfortable atmosphere with plenty of patient education so you're at ease right at the start. To learn more, please visit atipt.com this was a very exciting episode for me to do today and to interview with Sarah Fix. She is sort of hard to compartmentalize. She's an endurance athlete, quite accomplished. She is a multiple top finisher at Kona, the sort of the Olympics of Ironman distance triathlons in Hawaii. She is a coach, she is a super mom. She is an entrepreneur with her company Endure it. And she is also a person that gives back. She's a humanitarian. I had the opportunity to meet her about a year ago and we get into that in the interview and kept in touch periodically in between. But she's really just kind of a who's who of being able to live a life in full. She really kind of walks the talk and she is a very giving person. She's a very accomplished person and she's just done it, I think by virtue of having such a big heart. So sit back. I think you'll enjoy this. If you're triathlon interested or curious, I think you'll certainly want to hear this. But also if you just want to hear who I think is a very inspirational person, hear about Sarah's story and how she's been able to do and balance and integrate and synthesize all the things that she's done and to be successful in so many different realms is just really terrific and really inspirational. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Sit back and take a listen. So welcome to another episode of A Life in Full. I'm very excited today to have Sarah Fix with us. Going to get our morning fix, I guess, which I think is really, really cool. So a little bit of background. Sarah is sort of just an amazing person in a variety of ways. She's a humanitarian. She's a multiple time top finisher at Kona. She's also a triathlon coach and entrepreneur and very excited actually just from on a personal side that you know her involvement with her family. She's going to be mother to a homecoming queen today, which is also very, very cool. We'll talk about that. Of how to combine all these kinds of things in a very full life or a life in full. So I guess maybe where to start? One of the things you and I met by virtue of your kindness when we were doing a race packet pickup, I think for the Beat the Bird Turkey trot last year, which was really fun and I was just really blown away by your shop and, and by the bikes and then you shared with me your Kona experience. I'm going to get to what kind of Kona is. But before we start into that, maybe just kind of deconstruct for some listeners that maybe are triathlon curious. What are the different distances? What's the difference? What's an Ironman versus an Olympic versus a sprint? And maybe just kind of deconstruct for folks that are wanting to get involved in triathlons of how they would start and, and what's the math behind the different kinds of triathlons?

Okay, so typically what we see is people come to endure it or people ask me they want to get involved with triathlon. So they say what would be the right place to start? And typically the right place to start would be something like a sprint distance. So a sprint distance can be any distance underneath the Olympic distance. So Olympic distance, which is the race that's in the actual Olympics is 0.9 kilometer swim, 25 mile bike and a 6.1 mile run. So then companies, all different kinds of companies, whether it be a shop like Endura or a local guy, put on sprint distances and they do them in all different narratives. It could be a 400 meter swim, a 12 mile bike and a 3 mile run. You see some of the local ones around here, they're typically a 700 meter, 4 to 700 meter swim, the 12 to 13 mile bike, and then anywhere between a 2 and 4 mile run. So that's usually where people kind of jump off into the sport of triathlon. And, and as they do that, they typically don't start with all the gear and all the specialty items that you really need as you progress into your hopeful triathlon career. And then Olympic distance, like I said, is the race in the Olympics. So it is the 0.9, the 25 and then the 6 and then from there there's a race called a half Ironman and that is a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. And there was a period probably 10 years ago where they had derivatives and they still may a little bit here and there of distances somewhere between the Olympic and the half Ironman. But that's really not common anymore because the sport has gotten so big and so commercialized and big, big companies own these races so want to be everything sanctioned and everything under set guidelines and distances so Olympic, if they, you know, qualified as an Olympic, it's a sanctioned race. And same with the half Ironman, just because they get more obviously visibility and all that stuff. Keep that straight, right? And then people get points and they get, you know, to build their own repertoire by being at a specific, you know, 70.3 race and then the Ironman is two and a half mile swim, 112 mile bike and then a 26.2 mile run. And so and that's, you know, the big deal. And typically Endure it has kind of come to be the endurance shop and endurance club. And a lot of our athletes do race the 70.3 and Ironman distance races.

So for Endure it, we'll probably go back and forth because we can't just keep in one little specific area. But with your company, with Endure It, I know that you coach, I know that you coach virtually do you are most people, I would presume around the Chicago, Naperville area, but you also have people nationally or tell us a little bit about how the coaching works.

Great question. So I could branch off on that into a lot of different directions as far as for me as a coach. There's lots of coaches in the neighborhood. There's lots of coaches in this area. There's lots of coaches even it's clubs like Lifetime and that that coach for triathlon. I got my coaching certificate back. Let's see, that must have been in 2002. I started the process and I was a stay at home mom and thought I would want to coach online and absolutely did not like it. Sending workouts into the great abyss and not really knowing the people. Endure it was actually, it was 2005 and endure it was just coming into fruition and that was sort of my way of being part of Endure It. But I couldn't physically be there because I had three kids under the age of three.

Wow.

So I, I really bagged that. I really didn't enjoy it. And then as the kids got older, I started this program called it's the Joy of running Run Club. And it started out with local moms and a lot of endured athletes as well. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is it. This is what I love. I love being with people. I love watching their eyes. I love watching, you know, them get these goals and do them and then talk about it afterwards. I love the coffee talk on Sundays. And I thought this is what I can do. I can coach like this.

So really having that face to face and the camaraderie and companionship. Yeah, yeah.

It was like eye opening to me. So then I thought, okay, I'm gonna try again. So I would say that was in 2010. I started again and I took on a few athletes that were training inside of Endura they were doing computrainer classes, they were going to run club, they were swimming with us and I thought, okay, I can, I'm going to try this. And I started coaching them for events and it was perfect, it worked great. And I've built my business over the last seven years to. I have lots and lots of coached athletes and some of them have moved on and aren't here anymore. But they kind of know the Serra language as we all like to joke and tease me about. And they live in different parts of the country and it works out fine because I have that connection and I have that base with them and I have friends that are coaches and they say they would have no interest at all in having that kind of interaction with their athletes. They love the long emails, they love all the training peaks interaction. I just find I'm much better at. Of course I have to do emails and texts and I pride myself on being very available to them in that regard. But I enjoy that process and I think that's sort of why endure it from there. Has sort of stepped into this big club spotlight because Eric as well enjoys that. And we do a lot of in house coaching and training and clubs and club events and all of a sudden we started our club just started to build and build and build and grow.

I remember when I was at the. What is it? Is it Hinsdale or Westmont?

Where's the Westmont?

That just seeing the bikes that were there and then learning kind of the method that you have of how people can train year round and you know, there'll be specific times of the day they come in, they pull their bikes off, they don't even have to schlep them there. They can have the camaraderie and almost in a like, almost a quasi team spirit. I mean, in a sense they're probably competing against each other, you know, when there's actual races. But to be able to have that kind of community together and share ideas, share resources, motivate each other, that kind of a thing I think is really rare. I mean the triathletes, a lot of the ones that I know just. There's a real solitary aspect to it. They're not part of a club. They run by themselves, they ride by themselves, they're on a, you know, trainer in their basement. And you know, it just. That sounds like, you know, just takes all the fun and excitement out of it versus like what you guys have developed with endure it of being able to coach, being able to provide a space and being able to you know, provide that face to face which is different and a niche for you rather than just all the long emails and things like that that you're talking about.

Right.

Help me also and listeners understand like what do you have any involvements with Duathalons and, and how does a duathlon or are there different flavors of duathlons versus triathlons?

So duathlon really is, I hate to say it, but it's kind of a diminishing sport. They still throw in some duathlons at some specific triathlons and they also do have duathlons and they do have the championships and they're trying to keep it alive. It's a run, bike, run race. So you run a distance, bike a distance and then run again. And any athlete at Endura, they can enjoy cycling and do computrainer, which is our indoor cycling program where you, as you were just mentioning where they keep their bike at the store for seven months out of the year. We maintain it for them. They use the locations as their training facility. They take classes, they can ride on their own, they can do whatever they want. But just because you're at Endura doesn't mean and you're using the cycling program or the running program or the swimming program, it doesn't mean you're a triathlete. We have a guy that loves to do his cycling. He loves the camaraderie of the class. He wants to be on a bike of his own, but he's a swimmer and he just does our swim program and that's what he competes in. Then we have people that do cycling for cross training but they're marathon runners so they do our run club and they do a lot of our running.

That's great.

But they are only utilizing the CompuTrainer on their road bike or kind of like a cross bike as a cross training.

That's fantastic.

It's not that they have to be a triathlete. So yes, we have athletes. I have one in particular. Her name is Annette Kaptor and she's gone to worlds and she's a die hard duo athlete and we'll never get her in the water. So it doesn't endure, it doesn't care. We want you, if you want to be active in those three sports, we want you with us. And another thing that a lot of my athletes have come to say is, you know, Sarah, if we're injured or we have, you know, everybody gets injured, then we're kind of off the, you know, we can't be swimming with you. And biking and running. So Northwestern has been working with me over the last three months to come up with a program that will keep those athletes involved and endure it in another aspect, which is going to be kind of a general fitness from head to toe that's specific to run and cycling. So drills, stretching, plyometrics, things that are going to be really specific to our sport. So even though they're injured, they can still be with endure it three days a week doing something else. And even we're hoping that the place we're picking is the place that we swim and we're hoping that we'll be able to use their dry land area so that while the endurant athletes are swimming, these guys can be doing.

And is that something that would be structured like a class so there'd be like a specific time for those folks to come in and do a specific kind of regimen that's really brilliant.

Or when Run Club takes off and we leave at 5 in the morning, these guys will work with this gentleman, Jim Betzel. And you know, then when we all come back from Run Club, they'll still be with them, but there's. So they still feel part of the group, but they're not. Yeah, because I think that's one part where, you know, if you aren't swimming, biking and running, you do kind of feel a little bit left out.

Right, Right. And then I want to go down this rabbit hole. But just to say too, there's also like winter duathlon. Is that like cross country and shooting

or something like that? Oh yeah, there's all sorts of. Right. All different things.

I did a crazy one years ago that was a 5k and I would run a mile and then I would shoot standing or no, I forget if it's pro understanding five shots with like a 22, you know, this high tech, goofy looking rifle thing and that every miss I had like a five second penalty and then if I hit whatever then that was fine. I'd go to shoot the next thing and run another mile. I think it was, it was standing and then run a mile and then prone and shoot. And I joked that, you know, if there's any kind of race that I can be a part of where I can lay down during part of it, then I'm all for it. But I just thought, my gosh, you know, you think about races and liability and things like that and you know, just people with like 22 rifles, you know, it's like, okay, this probably isn't a great idea. I don't Know that if they ever had any after that as well either.

Oh, that's hilarious.

That was really kind of a crazy kind of thing. So let's go back, let's take a little bit of deeper, dive back in with you. So you, if memory serves, with what I know about your history, you married a triathlete, your husband, and he was really kind of a very, very strong swimmer. Is that right? So. And then swimming was not one of your strong suits. So you've been able to overcome that, that take your running and your cycling and really be able to become literally a world class triathlete too. So tell us about that and step us through then what the world Is it the world championships? Is that what Kona is all about? So take us through to Kona, through your journey.

Okay, so I basically I went on a date with David and he had just come home from the Ironman World Championship. So he'd just been in Hawaii and this was in, hang on, 96, October of 96. So. And he was explaining to me what he did. And I'd gotten into marathon running and I loved it. So I totally got the idea of the high and physical fitness and all of that kind of good stuff. So he explained to me what he did and I could not, I couldn't swallow it. I thought, there's no way this guy, you swim in the ocean two and a half miles, you bike. I mean, I can remember being like, well, what did you eat and how'd you get your shoes on? What kind of clothes did you wear? I mean, I just couldn't even imagine. And then, you know, run the marathon. So that following year, 1997, he qualified again and I went and watched and he signed me up for a volunteer position. And so it was fun to work with the athletes. My job was handing them their bikes and I got when they crossed the finish line, which now if you went to an Ironman, like we were in Madison last weekend for Ironman Wisconsin, they're all shapes and sizes. There's a spectrum of finishing times from 8:30 all the way to 17 hours. I mean we've got a big gap.

A lot of interest.

When you're looking at in that particular time frame, the 90s when people made it to Hawaii, it was a really small group. And then that group was really, really good. So these guys were finishing in eight. Unless they had the worst day, like 12 hours, there wasn't very many stragglers. Even in the 70 and 80 year olds, they were moving along quite quickly. So I had this Vision, because everybody was the sculptures of David from Italy, not my husband. I thought, oh my God, they're going to cross and morph into something. This was not physical. I couldn't grasp it. So I, you know, I was like touching him.

Is this real? I'm like, are you okay?

And then it took us that. And then I. I think after that I was sort of like, I want to ask him if he could teach me to swim. So I. I can't remember exactly the progression, but he did try to teach me to swim. And he knows this. He's not a great swim coach for beginners. I think he's great for people that know how to swim. And I kind of talked about this in that other podcast was just that his empathy for not understanding how to feel the water. He didn't have that. So it didn't really go so well. Our swim lessons. But my swimming never really took off. Since then, I've done tons of swim lessons, had lots of different swim coaches and just learning swimming late in life because I literally couldn't swim. It just. It's been.

But you've done more than compensate for that. Then. So then you what?

I can't for sure now.

What was your first triathlon? Distance.

Same thing. I did sprints. So I got in my first year I did 17 sprints. So I would do, you know, Saturday, Sunday sprints.

This is pre kids.

Yeah, this is pre kids. So this was 1998.

Okay.

So now we've been dating a few years and actually that was the year we were getting married, I think. Yeah, that was the year we were getting married. And I did lots of sprints. Sprints, Sprint, sprint, sprints. And he kind of took that year off. He had done Kona like three years in a row and was kind of done with it. And then I finished that summer and it was 1999. I said, okay, I want to do an Ironman. So I did Ironman Canada and I did Ironman Florida. Six weeks apart.

Was Canada cold water?

It was. No, it was in a beautiful lake. It was West Canada. It was in Penticton. And it was a great race. It was a great, great race.

Would you recommend that as a starter race? Do they still do that one?

They actually don't. Starter iron.

Okay.

There are now other Ironmans in Canada, but the Penticton one is no longer there. That was one of their first real Iron Man's ever put on the map. And then Iron Man Florida. And when I finished iron man Florida, 1999, that was November of 1999. And I was, I don't know, gosh old, like 34. And I thought, okay, well, I better. If I'm going to have babies, we better get started. So November 99, I finished in August 16th. Olivia Fix came into the world on 2000 and I loved that. So you can see I'm a little bit obsessive. I loved that. I thought, oh, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. I gotta have another. Three months later, I was pregnant with Charlie. So I had two kids a year apart. And then. So that was 2000 and 2001. 2002, I took those two little rascals. They weren't even. Charlie wasn't even one. I took them to Ironman, Wisconsin, and I was 15th woman overall qualified for Kona. So Charlie and Livy crossed the finish line the next year with me in Kona.

So to get to Kona, is it like getting to Boston? Do you have to have a certain time in a certain race to qualify?

So you go to an Ironman and you have to finish. Depending on the amount of athletes in your age group, they give a percentage of the spot. So typically, because there's less women in the sport, they usually get about one spot per age group where some of the men will get three, four, and five spots.

So, yeah, so for Kona, because I can't keep numbers straight in my head enough to say this, I don't want to misquote it, but. So what's your pedigree with Kona of finishes?

Okay, so I just. The last. I've gone to Kona five times in the last two years. I finished seventh.

That's amazing. Amazing. Gosh, congratulations.

I did back to back years and I. After last year, which was the 16th, 2016 I took officially, because that was my 24th Ironman.

Gosh.

And I said, okay, now I'm taking a break. So took a break and I took this whole year off.

I have to say though, when you do an Ironman, you're like doing hardcore Ironman. You know, it's not like just, you know, just doing it or whatever. I mean, you've got a field of competition that's, you know, that's. That's stellar. I mean, it doesn't get any, you know, better than that. So what? I don't know enough of the history behind Kona too. Why, why is it in. Why Kona is just. That's. That's the evolution of the sport or just because it's beautiful there or do you know what the.

Okay, so I don't want to mess the story up, but basically there was three guys, I think in the military

getting a little off mic coaching from Brian. Go ahead, Brian, if you know the difference.

And they went to. They were in, they were on the big island and they basically said what?

It's a combination of three separate races. So it was the around forgot the name of it. But it's basically a marathon swim around an island from Hawaii and then a different race which was circumnavigating the island of Oahu on a bike and then the Hawaiian marathon.

Okay.

So they combined all three of those together and whoever

won. And it was maybe. And it was. And what was the guy's name?

Oh gosh, Colonel John.

Well, we'll, we'll research that, get it in the show notes.

Yeah. So he. So they started it with that and then by slowly but surely then it became a race. But not very many people did it, I would imagine. And then do you remember, I can't remember what year it was with Julie Allen not too long after that, she was the year. Remember when they had the. She went to the bathroom in her pants, crawling across the finish line and then it was like, oh, what are these people doing over in Kona? It's so crazy.

And she was doing skater and bicyclist. I can't remember her history enough, but we'll look at it for the next day.

And she was writing a paper and she did it for her thesis and she ended up marrying the Iron Seven Mark Allen, the man that went to Kona seven years in a row and won it. And they were married. But after, I would say it was pretty much after she sort of put it on the map with that crazy episode. It just continued to grow and grow and grow.

Gotcha. Got. Yeah, that's just amazing. So quickly I want to get to some other things, but I just also have to ask you like what's. Can you differentiate for us? Because you have a business, you have a family, you have three kids. And prior to this current retirement, we'll see how long this lasts. But what's your on season or in season and off season training look like? I mean step us through. Maybe just an abbreviated. Like what's a week like for you? You get. I know that you're an early bird. You get up and get at it and do some things at home with the family and then tell steps to sleep.

So basically I'm so lucky. I mean I know it gets crazy and I do when I have days where I can Sleep in, which are very rare. But we have like a block of a week where we don't have run club or something. And I actually sleep in and I think, how in the world do I do this year round? How do I do it? I do it in January and February, but somehow it just is fine. But we, between Eric and myself and we have about six other coaches that coach Computrainer. So in season starting October 1st through the end of April, we have 32 classes of Computrainer a week. So we have a whole gamut of coaches, some, you know, Hawaii guys and then all the way down to, you know, wonderful stories of women who, you know, had an issue with obesity and lost all this weight and has gone on to do Ironman. And there are coaches too. So we have this real depth.

So no one needs to feel intimidated. No one to endure it and say, no, I'm not good enough or not worthy.

You can be the slowest. And people say, I can't join your run club. And I go, why? Oh, well, I'm not very fast at running. Everybody that says that, they always show up and they go, oh, you guys aren't really that fast. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we got it all here. 15 minute milers, walkers, joggers, that's great. No runner left behind is my motto. No runner left behind. So everybody is in the nest. But anyway, so basically I don't really have a choice but to train because we teach. I teach computrainer classes and I teach coach run club and then we have our swim team. So no matter what, I'm forced by my job to be active. So I'm lucky in that regard in that it's always going to keep me physically on the move.

Gotcha. So it's a win. Win. You can coach while you're running as well too. You can see how other people are doing. It's not like you're doing it from afar. The email version as you're talking about.

So I'm right there with them. I'm seeing all the problems and when they're injured, I can go to them, appointments with them, I can everything. So it's, I'm right in the, in the mix with them. But now if I'm not training, fine, I can do the workouts. If I'm run club, if I need to ride a bike because I'm tired or whatever, I can do all that on the track, I can stand. If I want to do a little bit more because I've been lazy for a Couple weeks, whatever. I can do a little more computrainer. I can do the workout or not do the workout. So that would be kind of the. During the period of time where I'm not really training, once I decide to train, once I decide that I'm gonna race, I put a schedule together, I put a program together and then those workouts become my workouts.

I see.

And I used to try and do my workouts with athletes, you know, try and kind of do my thing while I was trying. It doesn't work and it's. You lose focus, you lose focus. And you know, the one thing I preach is that honestly when it comes to Ironman and 70.3 that's a lot of mental focus. And so if you're letting yourself get distracted all the time, you're training your brain to get distracted, you're training your brain to quit, you're training your brain to make another option. When you get on that race course, you can't have another option. So if you start repeating the cycle of oh well, you know what, they're going to run eight minute miles. So I'll run eight. You're making another decision. No, you're supposed to be running seven. That's the way it's supposed to be. So the more you pattern that your brain into your training, it happens on race day. So I have completely just stopped doing that. I stopped that in 2015. Now having said that, I have a big base, right, because I'm always busy and active and whatever. So it doesn't take me a whole year to get ready for Ironman. If I write a really solid 12 or 14 week program yet even 12 because I'm typically doing Ironmans like 6 months apart, I'm fine. I do a big solid thing. It's all about my, you know, I hunker down, do my thing on my own. Eric helps me a lot. He does different parts of my workouts with me to kind of help me and stay focused. But that's really how it goes.

So you mentioned all levels of taking all comers, so to speak. So if someone's triathlon curious they give endure it a call and then what happens? What do they say? What's said to.

Well, typically either they can go on our website or they can call and they may call for lots of different reasons.

Sorry, Is it endure it.com or what is that? Okay, enduranceports.com. okay, we'll have that in the show notes too.

And that's a great question too because that's the thing is first and foremost, I'm as accessible as I can be. I mean, I am completely available. So if anybody hears this and they have any issue, they go to the website, they make a phone call and something doesn't happen. They then you look on the website and find my cell phone number or my email and call me directly. And I think you and I have had a lot of correspondence. I don't let it go more than 60 seconds. I will get back to you. I will help you through the process. Because it isn't a cookie cutter thing. It isn't a cookie cutter shop. So people call for lots of reasons. They may want a pro bike fit. Eric is one of the best bike fitters probably in the country. He's definitely in the Midwest. He does all the pros locally. He's built a phenomenal fit business for Endura where people come and have this professional fit done. Just if, like, if you're a golfer, getting your clubs fit properly, all equipment needs to be fit properly. So we use machinery that helps us get contact points to provide the most powerful and the most effective, efficient bike position for you. And then next tier to our business is we sell you bikes. We carry Cervelo, we carry Scott, and we carry Trek. So then we sell you a bike. That's another option. People may call because they just want to do CompuTrainer. That's fine, too. Someone may call because they want to be part of the Endurit Club. And being part of the Endure it club is really simple. All you have to do is I want to be part of the club. You buy the Endure it kit, get

the secret handshake, you get the secret

handshake, you get the Endure it kit, and you are part of the club. You don't pay any money, we don't ask you for anything. And then you utilize. Endure it for whatever you want. You can utilize the run club, you can utilize the swim program, you can utilize computrainer, you can do packages, you can get a bike fit. You can have your bike serviced at Endurit. And we have wonderful sponsors who Northwestern Achieve that provide services to our athletes to help them with their therapy needs and et cetera. So surgeries. I mean, athletes have lots of problems. They fall, they hurt their shoulders, they. All sorts of stuff happens. So basically, you know, it's kind of. It's a place you can make it what you want. And then in closing on that, the way I feel personally is that when you come into Endure it, even if it's for a bike and you may live kind of far away. A lot of people travel for Eric's work to get the bike fit and that kind of thing, or just to purchase the bike. But I want everybody that comes into Endura to then feel like they're part of the family and then utilize us. Even if it's. We have people that have little babies and they can't come from Geneva or whatever, but they can still be part of the club.

That's great.

You don't have to live in Naperville or Willowbrook. And you would also just quickly. You had mentioned that earlier about nationally and internationally. And I think that's one of the coolest things about Endure it right now is the club system is now a huge thing. When you go to any race, there's clubs and clubs are, you know, what are filling up these races and the races. The directors, Ironman 70.3, are keeping track of all the points that the clubs are getting by the finishes. And most clubs in Division one and two are international or national clubs, meaning they interview their athletes, they bring the athletes in, the athletes pay to be part of the club, that kind of thing. And they have a national visibility. Endure it is a neighborhood. And we are in one of the. We are in this division, too, which is one of the top divisions. There's five divisions. So a little neighborhood club is now moved into division two. And we're ranked 13th in the world there.

Wow.

As of last Friday.

Congratulations.

And that world. And we just. Madison Ironman, we got fifth. So I think our ranking might have even jumped up a little notch.

Wow. Well, we are scooping this in this podcast, so that's awesome. Oh, congratulations, you guys.

So that's kind of the wave of the world of transcon. Right?

Well, that makes a perfect transition because one of the things I wanted to then talk about and touch on was that Chicago business in 2016 had you in the 2016 class of top women influencers as well, too, because of this work and success that you've been able to do with Endure it. So can you tell us a little bit about then, the business aspects? And I mean, I guess a lot of it is, you said in terms of, you know, the community, the family, the acceptance. But, you know, there's got to be, you know, a lot of challenges to that and, you know, different kinds of things that you've had to overcome. So. And tell us a little bit more about endurance. Start and then kind of, you know, what's led up to the successes as of this world ranking, you know, I

think it's a long story, but my husband essentially came up with the idea of having a bike shop, and that was back in 2005. And he opened Endurrett Naperville, and then from there he went on to open a clothing store. He opened another cycling shop that was mountain biking, cross bike. He opened, like, a little training place where you would lift weights. And he was kind of all over the board. Our kids were getting older, and there was not an income. I mean, he evolved in durit and developed it into different places with not a lot of focus in the worst economy of all time. In 2007-2010, he was doing that. So I thought, oh, gee, we need an income, like a real income, so maybe you should go back into the finance world, which is what he was good at. He had worked for William Blair, and so he went back and he's with Northern Trust. And I thought, I can help here. So I think it was the most helpful for me as I hired a business consultant and they just spent a lot of time with me, like both in the clothing stores in Dura, coaching in all the different places. And they said, sarah, you could do any of these things. You just have to pick one. So you pick. Do you want to sell Patagonia and Horny Toad and dresses and clothes? Keep your clothing business. Do you want to coach? Do you want to sell bikes? What do you want to do?

You're too spread out, too diverse.

So I said, I know what I want to do. I live and breathe for this sport. I love it. I believe so wholeheartedly in being active. I think, you know, there's some judgment occasionally I feel on me from other parents. So, you know, she's so busy with this sport, you know, her kids, you know what I'm saying? Role model through and through, of health and fitness and staying active. And I can run around with my kids, and I'm not spending time in other places that are distracting me from my role as a mom. So I'm like this to me on so many levels, from helping people find their finish line, achieve their goals, have their dreams of me being the best person I can be and being the best role model to my kids. The sport just is what I believe in.

That's great.

So we blocked everything out. So we sold all. We shut all the doors and closed this clothing shop, and we went specifically to one thing. So you say, okay, fine, this is the sport you love the sport you love coaching, you love helping, love role modeling. So what in that definition, what can endure it, actually provide. And that's when Eric and I decided the club. Because once you have the club, then you can do all the other little pedals, you can do all the other

little things under it, triplicate overhead and all the other kinds of running around. It's all consolidated and integrated. Right?

So we say you're in the club, okay? Now you're in the club. You buy the bike here, we service your bike, we train you, we coach you, we're your, we help you, we come to your races with you. And that to me felt the most real and right. And Eric would agree, even though he's a great bike salesman and can sell bikes all day long and he's been in the business for, you know, 15, 16 years. He's worked for all different bike companies. Waiting for people in that economy and that time in our life to come in. Yeah, a lot of kicking tires and hundreds of thousands of dollars of inventory on your walls. Okay, they're going to come in. And it just, that wasn't really where I wasn't, didn't want to sit and wait to sell a bike. I wanted to help you ride that bike. And I think it was just the perfect storm. The economy made it okay to not be a true bike shop and be more of a custom bike shop.

Well, in a sense, you're really kind of a niche too. I mean, there's bike shops all over the place and people oftentimes, you know, see bikes as a commodity and you know, just, you know, there's sticker shock, especially if you want to get into a high end bike. And, and I just think it's brilliant the way that you guys then did what you did and especially during the time that you did it, in my gosh. And the outcomes, the result of now being ranked so highly on the world stage with the kinds of outcomes has really proved it. And the kind of relationships that you've developed with the people that you've worked with. And just also being kind of an uber mom as well too, I think kind of shows people that are maybe kind of pooping, poohing it or whatever in your past that, you know, proofs in the outcome, proofs in the results.

Right.

So let's take that and segue because one of the other things I want to talk about was your humanitarian efforts and again, to kind of circle back how we started about how we met with the beat the bird kind of thing. So you do a lot of like the races and things are fundraisers really in effect. So people can have a reason to get out and, you know, do something healthy for themselves, but then also do something for someone else. And I know you've been involved in a variety Chicago Hope Academy and Hinsdale Community House. And you have, I believe, a nephew that has cystic fibrosis. You've worked in that area. Can you tell us a little bit about your passions around that humanitarian aspect?

Yeah, I think back when Endure it was started, but I was still really at home with the kids. I did an Ironman in 2010. This is where right before the Run Club started. And, yes, I do have a nephew with cystic fibrosis. And I did Ironman Wisconsin for him and raised $40,000 for cystic fibrosis. And that was just a community that was in Duret, that was family friends, that was my nieces, my nephews, aunts and uncles, sisters. They all supported me in that effort. And the community House, Hinsdale has reached out to me several times and asked for help on different programs. You know, just motion programs, just keeping kids active or the town active and that kind of thing. So I've always given my time to help coach little programs that one of them, I thought was really, I feel, is super important. It's their therapy. So there's a place in the community where people can go that are sad and depressed. And I think, you know, there's a lot of that, no matter what town you live in. And I just. The fact that they had this wonderful outreach program, I wanted to support that. That was the beginning of it. But when I started Run Club, we had a, you know, fun run on Thanksgiving, and one of the fathers came of the wives that was in Run Club, and he said, you should do this next year. You know, he had Run Club and some of their kids and what, 40 people? And he said, you should do this next year as a raise. And I said, I don't know how to put on a raise. And his name is Brian Liston, and his company is Tinsilian Liston. It's a law firm. And he said, and I'll give you some money to start. And I said, oh, okay. And he said, I'll sponsor you. And I said, oh, okay. And I said, well, how much would you give? And he said, something like $300. And I was like, okay. I didn't know anything about starting a race, so I thought, oh, $300 sounded really great. And he said, but if I give you this $300, you have to give all the proceeds to Chicago Hope Academy. Okay, well, $300 doesn't even pay for the porta potties. But it got me started. It got a fire lit underneath my butt. And the great thing about it was that I met this amazing man, Bob Musikowski, who is the founder of Chicago Hope Academy, and a. Will you say, kind of a love affair started. I couldn't believe what he's done. I mean, what he has accomplished for inner city kids has been to see it is incredible. And to be in his presence is incredible. And to be. To have met him and spent time with him and gotten to share his energy, and that was it. That's all I needed. Then I said, okay, I get it. And then Chicago Hope Academy became my thing. And I thought, you know, he said, it's a time when everybody's running from the city and we can't run from the city. We have to stand tall and we have to take back our city, and we have to help these kids. So not that we're doing a little bit with every race that we can. We are now to $350,000 we've raised for Chicago Hope over the last. We're on our fourth year, so amazing. Beat the Bird that first year started, you know, maybe with 150, 200 runners. And this year we had 650 runners. It's a beautiful run. If anybody hears this before Thanksgiving, sign up, Sign up. It's a really great run.

My son and daughter and I will be there again.

So, yeah, it's beautiful. Through Fullersburg. And the proceeds of go to Hope, and then we do indoor cycling races throughout the winter. And then Eric was the brainchild of this fourth race that will start this spring. It's the Mile. And we did it as a club kind of kickoff this year to see how it felt. But it's different renditions of the mile. So you can run it with, you know, we'll have true masters mile, but then you can run it with a girlfriend. So it's the couple mile. You can run it with your kids. It's the kids mile. So all different renditions of the mile, and you pay for it the way you do, like at the racetrack. And then the final One is the 10k will be the grand finale of the day. It's you pick a partner and you switch laps until you've run the 10K.

Is it on a track?

On a track? It'll all be on the track. Okay, so that will probably be North Central College, and that will be in April. So that will be our fourth race for the year.

So at The North Central track. Great. And they have a women's triathlon team. Right. That's a fairly rare kind of thing, especially even in the Chicago area, I think. So.

Yes. This is their second year for the college. They were granted a lot of money for the women's tri team. And this year they were in, I think, the NC. What were they?

Division 3. They won the Division 3 title last year.

Is that right? Wow.

And then they also host the.

They host the Midwest regional qualifier for ncaa.

So we had a bunch of the Cornell and asu. ASU won at Endura last week, you know, getting their bikes put together and that sort of stuff. So it's really cool.

That's fantastic. Yeah, I didn't realize. I mean, I'm just kind of new to Naperville and just. I think there's, what, three triathlons or something that Naperville has and all this, so.

And in my husband. Yeah, he did. He. That was one of his things. The demographic, the median income, and the fact that there are three triathlons a year is basically why he picked Naperville. Because I was like, why are we opening shop?

Little Venn Diagram, all those things. And there it is. Well, this has really just been fantastic. Sarah and Brian. I just. I really liked one of the things you said about helping people get to their finish line. I mean, that's just. I mean, it's, I think, a really inspirational kind of thing because everybody has a different kind of finish line. Everybody has a different starting line. So I think the fact that the work that you guys do, be it, you know, through. Endure it through the club, which is kind of a. Also a family, I think, really makes it less intimidating for people to get involved and to get active in whatever. As you said, you know, it's not. Doesn't necessarily have to be triathloning, but it can be any variations and parts of that, helping people get back into, you know, if they've had an injury or something to whatever their sport was. But then also the whole humanitarian aspect. I mean, it's sort of like the whole package to, you know, just really help. Help people get to their finish line. So I want to thank you for being a guest today. If you'd mentioned. We'll put this in the show notes, the website, but people. Are you on Twitter? Are you on any other social media? Are there other ways that people can reach out and get in touch with you?

So Instagram, Endure. It's on Instagram. Endure. It's on Twitter, and it's also on Facebook. And then Sarah fix. Just personally I'm also on those as well

and yeah, well, people reach out

and I hope so.

Yeah, be getting in touch. Thanks for being here today, Sarah. Thanks for having me. Living a Life in Full is a production of Stout Media, a subsidiary of Gordian Knott llc. Assistant Producer Gracie Wong Music Dan o' Brien Post Production Sam Rude Graphics Larry Newberry Executive producer and host Dr. Chris Stout to learn more, stop by our website alifeinfull.org for show notes and please recommend us to your friends and leave us a review on itunes. Thanks.

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