Strong Core Podcast

Send us Fan Mail This summer, Cindy Kelecic (@ citakacs ) is toeing the line at the Philadelphia Women's Triathlon with both her daughters by her side, all three of them on the course together from start to finish.  It started with her older daughter volunteering at a water aid station, watching women cross the finish line, and saying out loud: Women can do anything. That was the moment. The...

Send us Fan Mail  Eight years ago, Jennifer Sylva (@ jensylva ) stood at the start of a sprint triathlon in downtown Jacksonville with no swim training and a genuine belief that anyone who runs more than three miles during their lunch break is a little bit silly. In May 2026, she crossed the finish line of Ironman Jacksonville as the overall women's champion.  But her story is not a straight...

Send us Fan Mail Erin Song (@erinmsong) is a mindset coach, mom of four boys, and first-time Ironman finisher who trained for Lake Placid starting at nine miles per hour, unclipped, on a bike her coach wasn't sure could make it around the block. She got there anyway. This conversation goes deep on what optimism actually is, not the bumper sticker version, but the trained, practiced, daily dec...

Send us Fan Mail Jess Kelly lights up every room she walks into. You can feel it in how she talks about her athletes, her team, her boys, and the two hours on a Friday afternoon that are entirely hers. In this episode, Jess talks about what happens when you love every part of your life so much that none of it feels like it's pulling you apart. She's a mom, a coach at Sonic Endurance, a s...

Send us Fan Mail Kate Weaver (@kateweavertri) was a marathoner before she had kids, Boston qualifier and all. Then life got full, and the miles got shorter. By the time her youngest started kindergarten, she was lifting weights in the garage every day, going through the motions. Her husband could see it before she said it out loud. You're bored. Let's get you a bike. Two years later, she...

Send us Fan Mail When asked to describe herself in one word as a teacher, Jacqui Giuliano said efficient. As an athlete, she said persevere. As a mom, she said loving. Three words. Three roles. One person who has never separated who she is from what she does. She is a seventh grade math teacher in Illinois, a mom of three kids under four, a nine-time Kona qualifier, and a ROKA STNDRD Racing Triath...

Send us Fan Mail Sarah Whelan is a special ed teacher, spin instructor, mom of three, and nine-time Ironman finisher. But the through-line isn't the race count. It's the girl who walked into a Marine recruiting office as a teenager, got laughed at, walked next door to the Navy, and still ended up exactly where she was supposed to be. In this conversation, Sarah talks about how athleticis...

Send us Fan Mail She watched strangers cross a finish line in Hamburg and cried. A week later she signed up for her first 70.3 on a $200 road bike with no training plan and no idea what she was doing.  In this episode, Caitlin (@caitlin.thompson.tri) shares how losing one path led her to discover something deeper, a fire she couldn’t ignore. What began as a weight loss journey turned into a relent...

Send us Fan Mail Carly (@coach.carly on Instagram) has been coaching Ironman athletes for 12 years. She had the data, the experience, and the athletes who proved it was possible. Then she had her own babies, got cleared at six weeks, and thought: That is absolutely not happening. Everything she knew got tested in a way no coaching certification prepares you for. What she discovered confirmed what...

Send us Fan Mail Kerry Blackmer (@kl_blackmer) is a five-time full Ironman finisher and a mom. In this episode, she opens up about what it really takes to keep showing up — through injury, motherhood, and everything in between. She started running marathons at 22 because someone told her she couldn't. She came to triathlon through friendship, trained through pregnancy, and never really stoppe...

Send us Fan Mail Meg Dirito (@dirito21) has never separated who she is from what she does. She swam D1 at Bucknell, where she is now in the Hall of Fame. She became an emergency vet. She became a mother. And when triathlon found her in 2018 — she didn't know how to ride a bike — she became that too. In this conversation, Meg talks about what it looks like to hold all of it without letting any...

Send us Fan Mail Marjaana Rakai (@tiredmomruns) spent two decades raising three kids across four continents, with no village or extended family nearby and a husband who traveled the world for work. Triathlon saved her. Literally. Marjaana is an Ironman World Championship qualifier, coach, expat mother of three, and COO at Athletica.ai. In this episode, she talks about what endurance sport gives yo...

Send us Fan Mail Rachel Kippenbrock (@rachelkipp) is a single mom of three who stepped away from sport for ten years, came back on her own terms, and hasn't stopped since. She came to endurance racing not from a place of ease but from a need to rebuild — her identity, her sense of self, her belief in what was still possible. Triathlon gave her all of it. A community that knew her simply as Ra...