This is the inspiring story of how a sedentary woman in her fifties, with no sporting background, managed an impressive triathlon first. The fact that no one could have seen this coming hope for the rest of us that we don’t have to get stuck where we are.

Sheila Isaacs of Shoreham, New York grew up in Africa, where she contracted a tropical disease that doctors were slow to diagnose and treat, making her a sickly child. Later in her childhood, while attending an all-girls school, she learned what she calls “survival swimming” and was tutored in tennis, but she never hit the ball with, say, any consistency. He did not play any sports in high school or college, nor did he have any desire to do so. As an adult, Sheila was, in her own words, “really inactive” and found that walking around New York City was “difficult” for her. He also experienced a couple of health problems serious enough to require surgery. Let’s just say Sheila Isaacs wasn’t a top candidate to become an athlete of any kind. Sheila, who describes herself as an “academic” and a mathematician by trade, had put her energies into caring for her husband, Hugh, raising their two children, and working full-time as a systems analyst. Sports and exercise were the furthest things from his mind during his first 50 years; But all that changed in 1991 when, at age 53, a co-worker challenged her to compete with him in a triathlon.

Accepting the challenge, Sheila told everyone what she was going to do. When her colleague finally decided to drop out during her training, instead of “losing face”, Sheila felt compelled to go ahead and run the race. In this first race of her life, Sheila won a medal for finishing first in her age group; It was the first thing I won and I was hooked.

In the next two years, Sheila competed in twenty more triathlons in 15 or 16 of the surrounding states. At this point, it occurred to him that by setting a goal of running a triathlon in each of the 50 states, he could combine his love of triathlons with the fun of traveling and seeing our great country.

Just over a decade later, Sheila had run 99 triathlons, ranking first in her age group 58 times and had completed one in each of the 49 states. Only Hawaii remained. He decided to go BIG by crowning his 50 triathlons in 50 states with the 2004 Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, the granddaddy of all triathlons. This was a great undertaking for the now 67-year-old because all of her previous triathlons were of the shorter varieties.

For the Hawaii Ironman, Sheila had to compete with thousands of triathletes from around the world for one of 1,500 or more coveted starts. He qualified for the 140.6 mile “great kahuna” (2.4 mile swim – 112 mile bike ride – 26.2 mile run) by winning his age group at the UK Half Ironman in Sherborne, England. Then came the months of intense training; Each week, Sheila did at least 5 miles of swimming, 150 miles of cycling, and a minimum of 15 miles of running, plus weight training and a couple of hours of yoga. That’s about 20 to 25 hours or more of training per week.

It all paid off as he crossed the finish line in Hawaii in 16 hours 54 minutes 55 seconds, beating the 17-hour time limit with 5 minutes to spare and placing second in his age group. With this amazing feat, at age 67, Sheila became the first person (male or female) to run a triathlon in each of the 50 states. With this race he also reached his other goal of completing 100 triathlons. They are not bad achievements for someone who had no athletic background, or interest in, until age 50.

Sheila Isaacs gives us hope. She has shown us that regardless of our background or where we’ve been, what really matters is where we’re going. Where are you going? Hopefully it is a place you enjoy.