A chat with Timex athlete, Phaedra Cote

Do your kids, job, community obligations and daily life duties keep you from a rockin, endorphine-producing, sweat-poppin workout? Did you moan about your 30 minute pilates session at the YMCA, thinking drowning yourself in the past 3 shows of Grey’s Anatomy on Tivo was a better idea?

Well, meet Phaedra Cote. A high-spirited, constantly smiling, delightfully approachable, Timex sponsored multisport athlete and role model to her two young kids [as a single mom].  We caught up with her at the Timex MultiSport Training Camp in NJ this past February and asked her a few questions about her life as a single mom, her achievements in triathlon and running, and how she thinks about women’s growth in the endurance sports community.

Phaedra says “Yes! YOU sit on MY lap” – All six feet of Tanya didn’t scare Phaedra.

Five years ago, when Phaedra was just really getting into running and triathlon, she was diagnosed with lupus, a systemic autoimmune disease.  But Phaedre isn’t someone who’s deterred easily. She forged on and now, here she is, a Timex sponsored athlete.

She’s one of our favz as she’s a girl that we think about when we see our alarm go off at 4:30 am and we think we’re too tired to get out of bed….to do something we have the privilege of doing; going for a run, swim or bike ride (even if it IS on a trainer).

When we asked her about her athletic background pre-triathlon, Phaedra laughs and says with a giant smile, “I didn't do anything!!”  Okay, she fibbed a bit. She logged a few miles on an elliptical once in a while and played gym rat too. But it was a group of neighbors – triathletes – that infected her with the bug to give multisport a go. And not knowing how to swim didn’t prevent her from trying.

Phaedra’s first sprint triathlon got her a second place in her age group – so despite doing breaststroke the entire swim, she clearly dove deep into her other talents to overtake the field.  And because standing atop the podium with some well-earned hardware is the main cause for amnesia when it comes to remembering the pain that got you there, Phaedra proceeded to sign up for her first half ironman shortly thereafter. Like 7 weeks later.

In that half ironman 7 weeks later, Phaedra confronted one of the more common, wide-spread fears of every triathlete:  getting a flat tire during a race. It wasn't even ON the course that it happened, but right as she rolled out of her transition area to start the bike. Her first flat ever, she was encouraged by the screaming crowd and got it changed in a record 12 minutes (for her at least!). And if you think finishing the race would be glory in and of itself, you’d be right.  But Phaedra did something a bit more unconventional – she did it fast enough to qualify, in her first attempt, for the World Championships in the 70.3 distance.

If you hadn’t guessed already, Phaedra loves to run. It makes her feel empowered, strong and healthy. You are in complete control of your destiny while on the road, treadmill, trail or hill. “It’s all YOU,” she says. 
In the summer of 2008 though, Phaedra was feeling really tired during her runs. Unusually and inexplicably tired. A doctor diagnosed pleurisy, and then quickly thereafter, lupus.   This was an untimely bit of news as she was also going through a rather painful divorce. Oh, and did we mention she was raising two little kids, one with special needs, as a single mom, too?

We love Phaedra because she epitomizes the spirit that courses through the veins of women who take on endurance sports lifestyles. She didn’t do it for sponsorship from Timex, or the glory of standing atop the podium. She does it for the fun of it, the killer strength she’s gotten from running, the healthy living she models for her kids, and the incredibly vibrant people she now call her friends and family in the multisport community. “I did it for me, it empowered me,” she gleams.

The winning was just a nice bit of shoog on the top of an already tasty piece of cake.

Before we left her, we asked Phaedra for her thoughts on women in endurance sports. As a woman who is resetting the boundaries for what busy, working professional moms can do in endurance sports, we figured she’d have some good thoughts on the subject:

“Running, triathlon and other endurance sports are such empowering experiences. It really comes down to YOU. You are responsible for what you do, or don’t do. I think that’s why it’s grown so much. It’s been incredibly empowering for me and why I decided to go back to school at age 33!

I think compared to other sports, in endurance sports you have to have the drive and commitment to get out there, work out and just move. When you do though, you also reap the rewards from that commitment…and that is exhilarating! Makes you want more!”