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I was never an athlete, life threw a curve ball and on Jan 2024 decided to make a lifestyle change. I laced up my shoes and fast forward 2,154 miles later to May 16th 2026, I competed in the Jacksonville IronMan and finished at 14:32 hours!

A race that less than 0.01% of the world population has ever completed! Our city was electric, the downtown backdrop was jaw dropping and I once again fell in love with Jacksonville.

The Race… 3am wake up for a 7:30am race start. My first thought the moment my body hit the water was “WTF am I doing!?” But I knew there was no turning back at that point.

1:43 hours later I exited the St. John’s river and hopped on my bike for the grueling 112 mile trek from downtown Jacksonville to Nocattee and back!

Improper calculations on my race day fueling plan left me with low reserves heading into the Marathon 26.2 miles that was staring me down. Never the less the run started and during mile 8 I was at my lowest low, I was at my breaking point and wanted to give up! 

That’s when my girlfriend came and encouraged me to not give up and to continue taking one step after another. She ran by my side for a solid 5 minutes and gave me the energy I needed, she settled my mind and I continued on🩵

Mile 18 it hit me again but rather than wanting to give up, I turned into a zombie. I was running while my eyes were shutting down. They became heavy and that’s when I heard my name and a familiar face also racing came by my side. He too was battling his own war but we both stuck by each other and pushed one another. When I was down he revitalized me and when he was down I didn’t leave his side, Boyd and I battled together till mile 26.2!

The finish line finally came, I never imaged doing it in my life. Truly the hardest thing I’ve ever done and accomplished but I’ll tell you, while I was the one racing, the reason why I even lasted to the end was because of my support system. My family, friends and team behind the cameras, truly you all were instrumental.

Thank you all for encouraging me and helping me from mile one to mile 140.6, I love you all, I’ll never forget this day because of you…
📸 @kendrickecheverria ‼️🙏🏼
#ironmanjax #ilovejax
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