Empowering Women & Girls in Triathlon with She Tris Ep 108

Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food. Mm-hmm. Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined. I'll see you there. All right, welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. I am excited to have a guest today, Sarah Hayes from She Tries. Woo! So if you are a female in triathlon or thinking about triathlon, this is totally the episode for you. But even if you're not a woman and maybe the females, kids included in your life, are maybe thinking about something, uh, of a challenge, this is definitely gonna be the episode for you. If you're wanting more nutrition content, hang out until next week. But in the meantime, Sarah Hayes, I'm so excited that you're here. I know Angie couldn't make it, but you guys are having your race coming up this weekend in Chapel Hill, which is near us. So I just wanted to feature you because obviously it's not common to see other female race directors and there's true. So anyway, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be here and just exciting to stay in touch with you after meeting a couple years ago and getting to work together in this industry.

Yeah, totally. Which, speaking of full disclosure, we met at Endurance Exchange, which is the annual, um, triathlon industry conference. Yeah, triathlon industry conference. And we met through a mutual coach friend and we all went out for drinks together. That's, I think, how I met you guys. You guys were like wanting to get— go to speakeasies, which was really fun.

Listen, I don't get out too often, but when I do, we're gonna find some fun places to go.

Totally. And also, uh, we all have kids, so sometimes you got to go to the fun places that you can't take your kids either.

Yeah.

Um, and then through that, you guys only had races You had, I think, 3 races in South Carolina, right?

Mm-hmm. We did.

And then you have expanded since then, which also happened at another Endurance Exchange. That's right. So, uh, before we get into that, these conferences, they, yeah, things happen. Totally. You have to tell that story because it's kind of amazing. And then, and then we'll, we'll get deeper into other things in terms of, you know, your expanded races. But like this, how, how did that happen? I love this story.

Yeah, well, we, when it happened, the conference was in Charlotte, North Carolina, and, uh, Angie and I were attending a session specific to women in triathlon and how to make events like more encouraging and, and whatnot, which is our wheelhouse. So we were just kind of there to like give our 2 cents if anybody had questions. But in the same room was another race director who also does timing and production. Jeremy would set up events and he had for years owned the Ramblin' Rose series in North Carolina. And that was a series that inspired She Tries. Angie had participated in it, had known about it for years. A lot of the Tri It for Life, which is a nonprofit group that trains for triathlons, they trained, trained for some of these events. So there's a long history there. And Angie and I have wanted to expand beyond South Carolina, I mean, almost since I came on as a partner. And so she just kind of, in true Angie fashion, leaned over and was like, What's it going to take? Or are you married to the name Ramblin' Rose? Could you just rename and use our brand, you know, license it basically for your events? And he was like, huh, yeah, I mean, I guess I could. And then by the end of the conference, he was like, I think you guys need to take the races. Like, they need to be yours. And so we hashed out a deal and, um, In a bar, right? In a bar. Yes.

Like magic in bars.

Drinks again were involved. Jeremy's a great guy. He has a lot of passion for the, you know, triathlon and, um, just sports in general and race events. So he, you know, has a lot of great ideas and does a lot of different things in the industry and around the country. But, um, he just felt like it was time to put this group of events into some women's hands. And we still work with him. He times the events. He's a great advice giver, but we now had brought on some more race babies. Yeah.

Like, like overnight you had multiple new races.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, but at that time we had gone down to 2 events in South Carolina. We bought the 4 in North Carolina. So we went kind of overnight to 6 events. And we did all 6 last year. This year we cut one of them because the attendance was just not high enough to continue going. As you know, it's it's really expensive to put on triathlon events. And so you really need to meet a threshold to make it viable. And, you know, we just didn't have— there wasn't enough there to continue that one. So we now have 5 events. We hope to keep growing, but our focus right now is to really build these up and make them, you know, even better every year. We're always challenging ourselves to make it a better event.

Yeah. Awesome. I remember after that time that we met in Austin, You guys sent me this great, like, postcard, and like, you guys were all like— it's just like so inspiring. I just like look at the postcard, I'm like, wow, everybody looks so happy and joyous. And then you had this like wonderful— like, your like medal was like a necklace, it was gorgeous. And then like I got a sticker. I was like, I haven't even raced with these ladies.

You need to come out.

I know, I did. Well, I, I love volunteering, you know that, right? So That's my jam with you guys. So yeah, let's back up a little bit. How did you get into triathlon? And I guess Angie too, right? Because then you guys eventually met and so, yeah.

Yeah. Angie was actually part of my beginning of triathlon. At the time I was doing like a, a bootcamp group with some friends and we had trained for a half marathon and I was running a small business at the time. And I, a friend said, hey, why don't we just try a triathlon? And so I was like, well, yeah, I guess I, I can swim and I have a bike. Um, although I had to get, I had to borrow a road bike cuz I learned that it couldn't be like a cruiser, you know, and, and I, you know, I run, I can do the running part for sure. So I, you know, started training with her, but then quickly realized that I, I had no idea what I needed and like what was going on. So I walked into a store. In our town that it's not here anymore. But Angie was the manager of that store and she was so great. I was so intimidated and I walked in and I was like, I signed up for my first triathlon and I don't know what I'm doing. And she was like, oh, okay. Yeah. So try these things on and you're going to need this and this and a race belt and then this. And, you know, like, these are the bare minimum and this is like the next step up. And I think I bought every single thing she told me to buy and she just gave me all this advice. I felt so confident leaving the store. And we stayed in touch. I had told her about the business I was running at the time, and we just stayed in touch kind of through email and then through social media as that became bigger. And that's how I got into it. This was in like 2009. This was pre-kids, just me sort of in my late 20s, like finding my athletic life. We saw each other at events with triathlon and that kind of thing. So yeah, that's how I got into the sport. I loved the challenge of trying cycling and swimming. They were not my best at the time. Um, swimming is still not my best, but I like having different disciplines to improve on.

Cool. And then obviously the story of how you and Angie met, which— that story was great because I feel like I wish she were here today because she is a saleswoman.

Yeah, she's great.

She can sell you on stuff.

I mean, Angie, like, people just can't tell her no, and, um, including me. So it's very rare. Like, there have been a few ideas that she's had that I've had to be like, nope, Debbie Downer here is going to tell you we're going to halt that right now. But she is very convincing. And she, you know, when she started our series, there were people who told her it wouldn't work and that there weren't enough women to want to do these events and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And she, you know, the best way to get something done is just to tell her no, and then she's going to find a way. So yeah, she's a great salesperson and just a lot of fun to be around.

Yeah, totally. So did she get the race series off the ground and then you joined later? Like how, how did that relationship work?

Yeah, so fast forward a little bit more, Angie and I both started having kids and as you know, anyone who's going down that path knows it's like obviously life-changing. You don't feel the same in your body. You don't look the same. Your schedule for training is either out the window or totally different, and there's kind of an identity crisis that we all hit at some point of like, where am I in this? And how, you know, when does that's my self-care start? And what does my training look like anymore? If that was ever something that was important to you.

And then what's, what's like selfish, right?

Exactly. There's a lot of mom guilt and doing these things. So, um, around that time, Angie, who had been like really competitive in various sports, including soccer and triathlon, she was having these moments and she had gotten to know in her life as the manager of the triathlon store. She was also managing one in Charlotte and at, in that arena met a woman who had started Try It for Life, which was a nonprofit training and mentoring group for triathlon. So not coaches or personal trainers, but just women coming together, motivating women to get a training done. And they would train for the Rambling Rose. So she knew about both of these organizations and she decided to bring a chapter of Triathlon for Life to Charleston with like 2 months heads up. I mean, just not even, not like a year planning, whatever. She just called the, the woman who started it and said, I wanna do it. And the woman was like, okay, well when do you think? And she was like, in 2 months. So she grabbed a bunch of us that she knew that had been in triathlon and was like, let's start this chapter. And of course all of us said no, but Angie being Angie, by the end of, you know, The day we were all saying yes. And so we started that chapter, we started the group. It was really challenging but fun to get these women to agree to sign up as new athletes to do triathlon for the first time, to find mentors to work with them. So that was the first step, was bringing that organization here. And then that first year they traveled to Charlotte to do the Ramblin' Rose. And Angie said, this is silly. We need a local women's only event. And she talked to some race directors. Nobody was interested in putting it on, so they basically told her it wouldn't work. So like I said, then she decided she would make it work. So the next year she brought SheTries. I was a participant in that first year, and then after that I volunteered. Um, I even emceed one year, which, uh, I've never gotten that role again, so I don't think it's my forte. So anyway, after a couple of years, Angie and I both were involved with the nonprofit. Then we both kind of started stepping away to focus on SheTries. And I just had this moment where my home life was in a position where I could take on more. And the only thing I could think about doing was something with SheTries. Like, I could wake up and talk about it with passion before I even had a cup of coffee. And, you know, when you know something so in depth and like to your core and can like have the opportunity to do something more with it, I just felt like it was a good chance.

Yeah.

So I invited her to coffee and very like bravely asked her if she was looking for a partner or would be interested. And thankfully she said yes. And, um, so I came on as a partner at the end of 2018.

That's really cool. And you guys have been around and now it's 2025 if you're listening to this later, but that's pretty awesome.

Yeah, it's been a fun ride. Partnership is great. Entrepreneurship is challenging, um, but fun. We both have that mindset and we're very yin and yang in our partnership. So that, that's working out pretty well.

That's awesome to have that great fit. So great segue because What are some of your favorite things about being a race director?

I love working with Angie, for one. I mean, I just love that I know I'm going to talk to her almost every day. We have similar parenting lives with kids, so we can like throw out venting or ideas and whatnot with the kids. But like the, the problem solving is fun. I mean, I enjoy that side of just entrepreneurship, but race directing specifically, The finish line, like the, the moments of people crossing the finish line are the best. Like people who maybe didn't know they could do it or whose spectators didn't think they could do it, or maybe they all did, but like it all needed to come together. I just, that moment is so special. Um, we get a lot of messages following the finish line and even like the day or two before of what brought somebody to the event. There's usually. Either a friend has twisted someone's arm or someone's gone through something that's just made them decide that a triathlon is the next thing they need to do. And it's not always something traumatic, but there's often like some sort of story of challenge and overcoming. And we get, we get those messages and we get credited somehow with like helping them, you know? And so I live for those moments. Angie and I joke that we get paid in those moments and not in actual dollars because that's really like it's just the icing on the cake for everything that we do. There's also a magic to the morning, you know, when you first get there and it's dark and you're setting up and you just kind of, I don't know, there's an energy and a magic that you feel as you're getting ready and then you stand in front of everybody with a microphone to talk about the event. That's, um, that's good.

Yeah. And having been to at least one of your events, it does have a very, like, it's just kind of a loving energy. Yeah.

Right.

Sometimes you walk into certain events and it's, it's, it's can be intimidating. It can feel scary. It can feel overwhelming. And it's like, you show up there, you're like, music? And there's like coffee? And everybody's like happy and welcoming. And like, I still have the shirt, the, like, I would wear like the volunteer shirt. Yeah. Every time I put it on, I'm like, This is so brilliant how they like, it was something cool that you guys put on the back that's like, how can I—

I'll try to help you. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So great. So yeah, kudos. Kudos on that.

Thank you. Thanks for saying that. I mean, that's the whole purpose of what Angie wanted to create was an environment where it's not, I mean, triathlon's intimidating enough, just the name and the images that people conjure up when they think about it. But we want it to be like a fun environment and welcoming, almost a boutique feel where like you get pampered and you feel special and everyone's cheering everybody on. And we do give age group awards and that sort of thing, but you can do it without caring about that. Like you, you're not gonna get yelled at. I actually had somebody message me after a different local event here that's co-ed. And I went to kind of promote SheTries while at this other event. I wasn't participating and I saw someone I knew who's done our events many times and she texted me later and said, man, I miss the SheTries atmosphere. I got yelled at like 3 times by some dudes who, you know, needed to pass me and whatever. And like, it's just a different feel. Like there's a time and a place for that. And I've participated in those other kinds of events too. I'm not like We all need to support all of us, so I'm not knocking those events, but like, if you just want that atmosphere where you can just go and do something, challenge yourself, overcome something, and it's not about the time, we, we are that event.

Yeah.

If you wanna care about the time, you can do it too. We have lots of women come back who, who have a goal of like beating their times or getting on the podium, and that's, that's good too.

Yeah. Definitely love that. Okay, so here's the fun question. What are some of your least favorite parts of race directing? Or maybe, maybe the question is more, what do you wish people knew about race directing?

Yeah.

That perhaps they don't fully appreciate.

Yeah. Well, and I think obviously it, it differs like team to team. Angie and I are the two full-time people. Everyone else is either part-time or volunteer. Also part-time volunteers, like everything is us. So, you know, the week of an event, we'll get emails from participants, like literally 2 days, 1 day before the event that like they broke a toenail and they can't participate. Can they get a refund? And like, I wish that more people knew how much money we have to spend guessing how many people are going to register just so we have enough shirts and finisher awards and podium awards and all these things. And we just have to hope that our numbers are right. So when you sign up and then 2 days before you don't think you can make it, like we've already spent that money to buy these things. So it's, you know, kind of heartbreaking for us because we want you to be there. Um, and we have, we, we have a no refund situation. We do try to work with people as much as possible, but I wish that more people knew that like months in advance we're having to outlay. What we think is gonna be the case. And it's not like just magic that this stuff appears overnight. We also do a lot of very physical labor of loading and unloading our trailers with the merch, with the, all the participant stuff, all the setup stuff, the tents, the tables, like that's us. So I feel like half the job of the triathlon weekend is loading and unloading the U-Haul trailer.

Totally. I, I was, you know, of course who doesn't have in this sport, like we're both got our Garmins on, right? Yes. Um, uh-huh. Yep. So when we had our race back in August, like I, we did no exercise and then, you know, I looked at our, I looked at my step count and it was something like 16,000 steps. You know, I'm like, oh, we did the race.

Yeah.

Across the span of a couple of hours.

Yeah.

Just by literally just walk back forth, back forth, back forth, you know, set up this, do that, go over over here, go, you know, especially some of the venues can be pretty spread out, so you definitely get a lot of, a lot of steps in those mornings. Yes. Yeah, I know people are tired when they're done, but you're also like, you know, we're doing some things here too.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I wish in a perfect world everybody would sign up a little earlier, also knowing like, you know, they're supporting a women-owned company and a local business.

Yeah. You know, so yeah, and I, I think, you know, we kind of touched on this earlier. We get asked a lot to come to other cities and Angie and I would love nothing more than to be in, you know, so many cities. But it takes, you know, a few hundred people to make it viable to have the level of experience that we're trying to put out there. So not just a, you know, run of the mill paint it pink. Women's triathlon, like we want it to be a nice event, but even just things like venue fees, police fees, you know, timing is incredibly expensive. All of those things play into it. So like we can't put a, a triathlon on for just 100 women. We, like we could, we would just go under in a couple years.

Yeah.

So that's another thing, like support your local events, come out to them. You know, we're, we exist because we want people to just come as they are to do, do the thing. You know, you don't need to be in peak condition to come do our events. Just come do it. And, and the more you support this, the longer we can stick around and keep pouring back into the community.

That's awesome. What— so speaking of distances, if people are thinking about, okay, like, you know, I could get my child to do this, I could get my mom to do this, I could get my sister to do this, what are some of the distances that we're talking? Because you guys have a very unique Yeah. That and so exactly.

So triathlon tends to have about 4 main distances. You have sprint, Olympic, half Ironman, Ironman, and then there's some crazy others out there. We're on the sprint side. It's, it actually leans more to super sprint kind of depending on who's defining it. So it's usually around a 200-yard pool swim where you snake through the pool in a time trial fashion. And then there's like, which means going off one at a time.

So you're not starting in these big groups. Exactly.

About 5. 5 to 10 seconds apart. So it's not a mass start, but it, you know, you line up around the pool and everyone just starts individually. Your time starts when you start. And then the bike is usually 8 or 9 miles and the run is usually 2 miles. We have one event where it's 3. And yeah, so very doable distances. You can walk the run portion. You don't have to run it. You can hold on to the wall if you need a break. You know, you can use almost any bike. We do have cruisers every now and then. I don't recommend it, especially in the North Carolina events. There's these things called hills that we don't have here in Charleston, but that exist in North Carolina. And those are tough on a cruiser. Um, and no e-bikes, obviously. But yeah, it's just a very beginner-friendly format that can be fun for those who are not beginners as well.

That's really awesome.

And we cater to ages 10 and up. So 10 and up can do our regular events. And then at two of our events, not this one in Chapel Hill, but the one, we have one in Summerville coming up this month and one in Huntersville, north of Charlotte at the end of this month. They both have youth events. So young girls, it's still girls only, but we allow ages 4 to 14 to participate in that. And then it's even shorter. So we're talking about like one lap for the youngest age group. Um, not even a lap, one length for the youngest age group. And then, um, you know, half-mile bike and run distances. So just something to get them excited and introduced into the sport.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I bet that is the most adorable thing.

It's the cutest thing with unicorn helmets and streamers and glitter and amazing. All the fun.

That is so awesome. So if you were to give some words of wisdom to somebody who's thinking about either, you know, they're a mom and they want to get active or, you know, somebody who has a kid who's asking them about getting into sport. What would be your, your words of wisdom of how to get them to like go over the ledge and do it or try it?

I think the, the best part, the best thing to do, like an ideal scenario is to find a community that is interested in also training for these sorts of events. So in several cities there's a group called Try It for Life. Um, there's also youth training programs for kids interested in triathlon. Some of them can be super competitive, so, you know, there's that caveat. Um, but the community aspect and finding those training groups is really helpful in like getting you to stick with it and hold yourself accountable to what you wanna sign up for. But if you are just like, I don't even know that I can see myself there, like come out and volunteer. Come see one of our— we have 3 more this month. Come see it. And I think you will be like pleasantly surprised at how, how much it would make sense for you to be there as a participant. You will see women of all ages, all fitness backgrounds, just doing their thing. No one is judging you. No one is comparing you to someone else. And, and if you can see that firsthand as a volunteer, I've had several women sign up to participate after volunteering. So that's another great idea. But if you're looking for a community and you don't know where to start, you can always email me. And we have a lot of connections in the different cities where we can connect people to people like Chris, you know, and, and, and others who are active in the community and helping women in the sport.

That's so awesome. Okay, so if we head to your website, shetries.com, Mm-hmm. We're gonna find all your races, right?

Yes.

So can you, do you remember them off the top of your head? Like which events you've got?

Yeah, they're my—

how could you forget?

So in May we have one here in Mount Pleasant. That one's obviously already happened. Next year will be our 10-year anniversary, so we're gonna have a big celebration for that. In June we are in South Charlotte at the Harris YMCA. Coming up this month, we have 3 back to back. So we're in Chapel Hill this weekend on the 14th. That still has registration spots available. So if you are just feeling it and I have talked you into it, you can still sign up. You can use Team Sarah with an H for $10 off. The next weekend we're in Summerville, South Carolina. That's the one that also has a She Tries Girl event that follows the women's event. Those Both still have availability, the, although the girls, I think we have less than 15 spots available. So if you have a daughter wanting to get on that one, you should sign up now. And then Huntersville is September 28th. That is our last hurrah of the year. That one also has a girls event following the women's. There's still availability in both of those events, the women's and the girls. And, um, yeah, so come on out. Yeah. Lots of options.

I also love how You've got it really clear of like where to go, what are the dates, volunteer, register.

It's right.

It's true.

We, we try. I appreciate that you've taken a look at the website. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. So, cuz I was sending it out to all of our athletes. Don't forget, register, volunteer here, all links. Oh, thank you.

That's so kind. Yeah.

And all that stuff. Yay. So cool. All right. Sarah Hayes, anything else you want to leave us with before we head out?

Just believe in yourself and go do something fun and new, or come back to triathlon if it's been a while. We can all take breaks and like self-included and then get back on the, on the horse or on the bike and, and do it again. So Angie and I are counting on you all to, to find your triathlon moment and come join us. And, um, you can do hard things.

We totally can do hard things. I agree. Which reminds me of your, in your email you have the, um, is it the champion of confidence?

And then Angie is Angie's champion of confidence and I'm champion of enthusiasm.

Okay. Well, I think it fits.

Thanks.

Awesome. Well, Sarah Hayes from She Tries.

Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. Have a great week.

Yeah, you too.

Bye.

Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.