Once upon a time, one of my fellow masters swim group members found out about my background and started asking me questions about training and racing strategies for her upcoming race at the Ironman World Championships in Kona. It was her first time she qualified for this epic race and she finished in 11:27. A good start for an 30-34 age grouper but we both felt that she could do much better than that. And so we started down this path of working together on a training schedule and trying to figure out where her true limits are...

    Everything after that seems like a blur. She raced 10:46 the next year and 10:17 after that while working full time running a business with her dad. Dad started sneaking some miles in by adjusting her schedule to his level and missed a slot for Kona so far...we are working on the happy ending and want to get father and daughter racing together in Kona one of these years. 

    In the meantime our little Cinderella started winning most of her Olympic distance, 70.3 IM and IM races in her age group and lowered her PR's by 10, 20, and 70 minutes over the past 2 years. And guess what, other athletes and sponsors took notice and started asking her what happened. This is the part were we started a new chapter and I decided to help more talented and determined athletes with their athletic goals. To avoid getting slackers on board we decided that my athletes should only refer people that have the right attitude and values. That's how Coaching by Invitation Only started.

    On October 10th 2009, one of my athletes crossed the finish line on Alii Drive as the 1st American amateur in his 2nd IM race. Cinderella placed 5th in her age group after placing 34th and 12th in the years before. At this point we are in the process of writing a new chapter for them. It's called "Going Pro" and will bring new challenges and rewards...

To be continued