Nothing Could Stop Me From Finishing!
Written by GE Athlete Maya Stosic
It might sound cliché, but triathlon taught me not to give up and showed me that I can do anything I want! I was never an athlete. I played some basketball in high school, but nothing serious to be invested in. I learned about triathlons and Ironman when I was still living in Europe in 2006 when I met a few guys who completed an Ironman. I was impressed and thought WOW, but it never came to my mind that I can do it too.
When I moved to the US, I joined a biking club in Houston and cycled a lot. I did a lot of rides, races, MS 150. Then I moved to Chicago in 2016 and was struggling to find a cycling team, and when I eventually did, I completed a few crits and many rides. Also, I biked around the city a lot. So biking is all that I did, not taking it serious and just biking for fun.
After a car accident in 2018 I badly hurt my right knee and developed shin splints on the right leg. I gained a lot of weight, and I just wasn’t feeling good. During PT sessions I met another patient who was an Ironman, and after we talked, he told me about his triathlon group and his coach, and I decided to call them. When the coach asked me what my time was for a mile, I said I don’t know, I never ran a mile! I joined that group and I liked it a lot. I was still biking and started running a lot, but swimming was the worst. I didn’t know how to do laps, breath under water, I just wasn’t comfortable in the water. Jim joined this group in 2019, and that’s how I met him. By the summer of 2019, I was ready for my first Chicago Triathlon. I learned how to swim, bought a wetsuit, was still biking a lot and finally was able to run below 10 mins for a mile. I was in the best shape of my life. Sadly, 2 weeks before the Chicago Triathlon, my dad passed away and I had to cancel all my triathlon plans. Then covid hit in 2020, and when I started to feel like myself again, I went to a ski trip to Breckenridge in 2021, hit the very last slope of the ski holiday, fell and hurt my shoulder so badly that once again I had to cancel my plans of officially becoming a triathlete. Life had other plans for me in upcoming years, so in 2022 I was going through IVF, 2023 I was 8 months pregnant and finally in 2024 I became a triathlete. It took me 5 years to hang that medal around my neck, I patiently waited and had faith in myself, and I showed myself that I CAN do anything I want with hard work and dedication (speaking of which, imagine that with a baby in the house).
This year I had no doubts that I can do it again, I was training as much as I could, and I joined Jim’s group in the summer again, just to get that feeling back of training with all the bad ass triathletes out there. I was ready to break my 2024 record and enjoy the race. But NOTHING went like I planned. The swim was the worst; I had to stop multiple times to rest on kayaks, and I swam almost double the distance because I wasn’t going in a straight line!
But when I was finally out of the water, I felt tired but very positive, and I was thinking nothing can stop me now. I went through transitions fast and when I mounted and started biking on the ramp, I didn’t even reach LSD when I heard a loud pop and my bike stopped. Luckily, I was able to unclip fast and prevented a major fall. I looked at my bike, the chain was off, but the whole derailleur broke and was hanging. The officials on motorbikes told me “Go back you’re done, no one can fix this, you are finished!” I didn’t want to accept, that as I already survived the swim, so I walked down the ramp carrying my bike back to transition and was thinking of an idea to find someone to ask to give me the bike. BFFs and Gillian told me my bike is totally broken, even the frame is cracked, but as I cried like a baby that I needed to finish, Gillian took me to the Unlimited Biking tent to rent a bike. Luckily someone just returned the bike of my size so I could rent one. Then they had to switch the pedals, and when I finally had a bike ready, officials didn’t want to let me go. They closed the transition, and no more bikes were going on LSD. I begged and explained, and after making a few calls, they told me OK, we will let you go, but you’re the last one on the bike, just so you know. You better finish in 1h and 5min. I was completely ALONE on LSD, had a police car riding behind me for some time, but then I started passing bikers and finished before the cut off time! Then again, I had to spend so much time in transition switching the pedals and returning the bike.
On the run, I felt great. The crowd was gone, only a few people cheering, they already started packing up everything. I did pass a bunch of runners (or at this point walkers) and I felt great! I had to cheer myself on as I couldn’t believe what had just happened and that I will actually finish! I finished strong and crossed the finish completely alone, I had the finish line all to myself. Everyone was gone, but my friends waited for me at the finish line and my sister showed up unplanned, so I was so happy. Even now when I see that medal, I start to cry!!!
Looking back, I just can’t believe what had happened to me, and how did I handle this unplanned situation? Ok, I cried a lot, and begged a bit, but at the end I overcame ALL OBSTACLES that were thrown at me and finished with a smile!! I showed myself again that if you really want something, you can do it, there is nothing stopping you to make your dreams come true! Now see you all in 2026 with another medal and hopefully a PR!