Strong Core Podcast
Strong Core is a podcast for mother-athletes who are figuring out who they are beyond the roles they play. Through honest conversations, we explore what it takes to pursue big goals while staying grounded in who you are at your core.
Jennifer Sylva: She Let Go of First Place to Finally Earn It
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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 line from there to here.
It runs through years of bulimia she kept secret from everyone around her, through a divorce, th...
This Summer She's Racing With Both Her Daughters. Cindy Kelecic on What Sport Looks Like When It Becomes a Family Language.
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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 younger one has been waiting for her turn ever since. This is her year.
After her second daughter was born, Cindy f...
"Today Is the Best Day of My Life." Erin Song on Optimism, Motherhood, and Going After Big Goals.
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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 decision to believe that something good is coming even when you're at mile 85 with a flat tire and a 10-mile run scheduled for the next morning...
"I Want to Be This Busy." Jess Kelly on Building a Life You Actually Love.
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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 studio director leading 60 people at Lifetime, and a competitive athlete. Not in spite of each other. All at...
From Bored in the Garage Gym to Kona: Kate Weaver on What Keeps Pulling Her Back to the Start Line.
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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 was on the start line in Kona.
In this conversation, Kate talks about what that journey actually looked like. Training on downloaded plans until...
She Shows Up the Same Way for Her Students, Her Kids, and Herself. Jacqui Giuliano on Training, Teaching, and Never Losing the Thread.
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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 Triathlon Team athlete coached by her husband Ryan, who races alongside her and shares the weight of everything it takes to make...
Sarah Whelan: She Almost Joined the Navy SEALs. Then She Became an Ironman.
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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 athleticism became the thread connecting every role she plays, why giving back isn't something she does on the side but the engine that runs everything, and what it...
When "Just Finishing" Isn't Enough: Caitlin Thompson on Competing, Belief, and Going After More.
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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 relentless pursuit of what she’s truly capable of.
We talk about the moment everything shifted, from simply wanti...
The Moms Juggling the Most Are Often Hitting Their Best Performances. Coach Carly on Why.
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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 she'd been seeing for years. The moms juggling the most, the least sleep, the tightest windows, the heaviest mental load, were often the ones hitting their best performances...
"It's Just a Hill, Get Over It" — Kerry Blackmer on Kindness, Adaptive Racing, and the Art of Showing Up
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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 stopped. Then one afternoon at her daughter's elementary school, racing a group of kids, her hamstring snapped off the bone. Just like that, the goal changed.
What happened next says everything ab...
Me Versus Me: Pro Triathlete Meg Dirito on Racing, Motherhood, and Never Choosing Between Them.
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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 of it go. Three workouts on her days off. Training during her two-hour lunch break between ER shifts. The grac...
Queen of Pain: Marjaana Rakai on Joy, Grit, and What Endurance Sport Gives You That Nothing Else Does.
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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 you that nothing else does — the kind of thing you can only find when life has made everything else almost impossible.
We talk about training for the Ironman Wo...
From “I’m Too Far Gone” to World Championships, Rachel Kippenbrock’s Comeback Story
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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 Rachel. A finish line that was entirely hers.
In this conversation, she talks about what it really takes to pu...
