I was born in Boulder, Colorado where I learned early the wonders of playing outside. Besides all of the typical childhood team sports, I also spent days hiking with my family, rollerblading, and playing “kick the can” in my neighborhood. I was just an active, energetic (and loud!) kid.
Swimming had always been by favorite sport and by sophomore year of high school I had realized the only reason I was even reasonable at soccer or basketball was because I didn’t really get tired from running. My ball handling skills left a lot to be desired. So throughout high school I ran cross-country, swam and ran track.

Because I was in Boulder, I had some incredible coaches including Joanne Ernst (1985 Ironman World Champion) and Nicole Deboom (Ironman Champion and wife of 2 time Ironman World Champion Tim Deboom). As a runner and a swimmer it was probably only a matter of time before I did a triathlon, and I knew it even then, but I was committed to swimming in college and I wanted that college to be Stanford.

While I was a successful high school swimmer, I was by no means national caliber, so I walked on to the Stanford swim team in 2000. I spent 4 blissful years at Stanford and was elected captain of the team my senior year (decidedly on the basis of my loud cheering voice and not my performance; I generally got my rear handed to me, but I worked hard). I learned incredible training methods at Stanford and as a biology major was exposed to the amazing ways our bodies work. I also learned the importance of doing things for self-improvement and because you love them rather than because you win. Winning is amazing, of course, but I feel lucky that I learned early to focus on personal betterment and the joy of the sport and effort in and of itself. As I mentioned, I didn’t do a lot of winning.

After college, I joined the Peace Corps and lived in Guatemala for about 2 ½ years. It was another incredible experience and since I lived on a lake, I was introduced to the joy (and terror) of open water swimming. I only once was caught in a local fisherman’s net, luckily! Peace Corps was not the most athletic endeavor of my life and upon returning, I decided to train for a marathon to get myself back in shape with a specific athletic goal. I have always been goal oriented and I missed that part of my life. I had wanted to be a teacher since middle school, so while studying bilingual education in graduate school at Vanderbilt, I did 2 marathons. I was reasonably successful and qualified for Boston, but I was by no means a superstar. (In fact my most recent Ironman marathon was 10 minutes faster than my best stand-alone marathon).

The winter of my last year of graduate school, I finally joined the triathlon team. I had been swimming at the pool and saw a coached practice, so I asked who they were and quickly joined in. I was immediately hooked on triathlons! The people I met were amazing and I loved the focused training, but also the variety triathlon provided. I was relatively successful in my first few triathlons (despite showing up for my first one with my 1 piece kit on backwards. Oops!), but I soon graduated and moved back to Colorado. Triathlon reality check! Colorado is the big pond of triathlon and I again was getting crushed.

I loved, though, that I was getting better and I was completely and totally committed to triathlon. I have loved it more every year I’ve done it. In 2010 I did my first Ironman. I made up my workouts on my own and I finished and was thrilled, but I wanted more and knew I could do better. In 2011 I had knee surgery from a skiing crash. I was able to do multiple open water swims that summer and really learned the difference between open water and pool swimming. I also learned how much I loved and missed triathlons while I couldn’t train. I spent the summer at local triathlons even though I wasn’t racing (cheering is sometimes even more fun than racing!). That fall, once I was completely recovered, I hired Matt Smith from Mile High Multisport as my coach. It was an incredible difference to have guidance. In my own training, I had focused mainly on making the Ironman distance, but didn’t ever do any speed work other than 1 Rocky Mountain Triathlon Club track workout a week. Needless to say, to get better, I was going to have to do a little bit of intensity in my workouts.
Matt’s effect was immediate and the 2012 season was wonderful. I was 2nd amateur and 5th overall woman at Ironman Coeur d’Alene. I PRed by over an hour and was thrilled. I followed that up with an overall amateur win by 7 minutes and an age group win by 16 minutes at Ironman 70.3 Boulder where I was 5th overall.

Unfortunately I got mono the week before Kona and due to some low liver enzymes was told not to get on a plane, so I still have that “return to kona” fire in my belly. Despite the Kona setback, I decided to race professionally for the 2013 season. It was a scary and tough decision, but it allowed to do something I loved much more cheaply than I was doing it before, and I thought that in order to be the best triathlete I could, I should be racing people who would push me to be my best. I wanted to do an early Ironman because I felt like I had one left in me from skipping Kona.

I signed up to race Ironman Los Cabos in March. The race was another large PR and I placed 7th in my professional debut. I was thrilled! My original season plan was to focus on 70.3s and just practice racing, but Ironman is an experience that is really hard to top, and I wanted to do another one. Luckily, Matt agreed that we wouldn’t play the “points game” and try to line up one race after another to accumulate points to get to Kona, but rather take a long view, work on getting as fast as possible and pick races that look really fun! So, I chose to go to Lake Placid. What a great choice! It was an incredible experience and a race I would recommend to everyone. I led out of the water, which was not an unknown position, but this time I only got passed by 3 people on the bike. I felt great off the bike and was able to run my way into 2nd place in my only my 2nd professional Ironman. I also PRed again on a course that I think was harder than Cabo.
The best part of placing was they invited me back to cheer during inspiration hour (the last hour of the race) and I was allowed to high five all the racers as they came in to their finish. I have never been married or had a child, so I know people will argue this, but I am not sure there is anything better than an Ironman finish line about 11:30pm. The energy in the crowd and in the competitors, the drive and the satisfaction and power that people have at that point in the race is unparalleled.

Finally, in the fall of 2013, I raced Ironman 70.3 Austin. I work as a full time teacher and was nervous about how the school year would affect my performance. I have typically had really spectacular races at the end of July and beginning of August. I get to spend a few months training like a real professional triathlete and it really is a bonus to be able to nap between big workouts. Matt works really well with me to make sure training and working mesh well and I knew I was physically prepared for Austin.

The race ended up being a real step forward, I think. I led out of the water and turned in my best ½ marathon ever (including stand alone runs) despite a pretty hilly course. I was 7th place, but I felt it was a race where I really was within reach of some of the top athletes in the sport. To be within 5 minutes of multiple Ironman 70.3 champion Rachel McBride and within a few minutes of other consistent podium finishers really solidified my belief that I can be successful not only in improving myself in triathlon, but also in competing with some of the best people in the sport.

2014 starts off with a trip back to Ironman Cabo, the first time I’ll repeat a course at any distance. I have so many things I can improve on (namely not wimping out on the bike) and I’m excited to work to push myself harder and keep improving this year. I am loving my triathlon lifestyle I hope to be doing triathlons for many years to come!

For more information on MHM and TriBella Women’s Multisport sponsorship of Katy, please email Peter at pete@milehighmultisport.com.