Jacqui Giuliano

Being born to two Boston marathon-running parents meant it was only a matter of time before I was to set big running goals for myself as well. After an injury-filled collegiate career, my now-husband started training me and incorporating biking and running as a way to keep injury away. Eventually, we decided I might as well try a triathlon since I was doing all three sports anyway. I missed qualifying for the Ironman World Championships by 9 seconds in my first-ever 70.3 Ironman. It took a few more running heartbreaks (aka injuries) before I decided to stick with the triathlon route.

My husband and I were married on October 13, 2012, which was also the day of the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. We talked about how cool it would be to be in Kona to celebrate our one-year anniversary....that talk turned into us both attempting to qualify for the Ironman World Championships. We chose to race Eagleman 70.3 to try and qualify, which meant we would need to win our age groups. It came down to the last mile, but we both won and our Ironman Anniversary story began with my first ever Ironman in October 2013 at the World Championships.

I've experienced setbacks throughout the past five-and-a-half years of this crazy journey, but have really honed in on nutrition and recovery over the past year and feel like that has helped me stay injury free. Properly fueling my body while also allowing it to recover well keeps my muscles and mind happy and gives me the energy and excitement I need to push myself during training.

I try and document as much of my journey as I can through social media and my personal blog, jacquisjourney.com.