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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 pursue big goals while raising a family alone. The trade-offs she makes without apology. The moments she wanted to quit and didn't. The belief that carried her through both.

This is a conversation about grit, identity, and what it looks like to keep showing up for yourself when everything else is asking you not to.

The most downloaded episode on Strong Core. You'll know why the moment it starts.

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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 Worlds while she's on her bike in the kitchen. The moment she said no to Kona, and what her youngest son said when she came home. Why showing up for 15 minutes between meetings is an act of self-trust. And what her coach told her at kilometer 25 of the Ironman marathon, welcome the pain, and why she ran the last 17 kilometers faster than the first.

Marjaana's closing words to every mother who wants to start but is scared: Joy is right outside their steps.

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If this conversation resonated, follow Strong Core and share it with another mother who needs to hear this.
Connect on Instagram at @iris_strongcore for more conversations on mental and physical strength in motherhood and sport.

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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 grace she gives herself on the days that fall apart — and why playing Scrabble with her son sometimes matters more than the bike session.

She races as a pro. She comes in at the back of the field. She has made her peace with that completely, because she long ago decided that the only race worth running is the one against yesterday's version of herself.

This is a conversation about discipline, joy, and what it means to build a life where nothing has to be sacrificed — just integrated.

Support the show

If this conversation resonated, follow Strong Core and share it with another mother who needs to hear this.
Connect on Instagram at @iris_strongcore for more conversations on mental and physical strength in motherhood and sport.