Overcoming Race Day Obstacles on the Way to the Podium with Grace Alexander
Photo Credit: LGM Photos
On paper, it looks like pro triathlete, Grace Alexander, has had a dream start to the 2025 season.
She won St. Anthony’s Olympic Triathlon, earning a $10,000 payday in the process. A few weeks later, she headed to 70.3 Chattanooga where she won that race in impressive fashion.
But if you’re privy to the behind-the-scenes, you’ll know that Grace’s journey to the podium wasn’t without difficulty.
From a stingray swim to a surprise duathlon, Grace shares her tips for controlling your response to unexpected challenges.
We also discuss her beginnings in the sport and “old school” training philosophy. We chat about cultivating mental toughness and adaptability, and she explains how to recover well between races.
We also meet her cat, Gizmo! Let’s get started.
From IRONKID to IRONMAN Champion
Not many people know that Grace did an IRONKIDS race when she was just 10 years old. But it wasn’t until 2017 that she started getting serious in the sport of triathlon.
Grace ran cross-country and track in high school and swam in college. During the summer, she’d sign up for a random triathlon here and there with her brothers (that she admits not really training for).
During college, her swim team got together and created a triathlon club. Once they finished their swim season in February, they’d head to Miami for a triathlon in April. “We were all super fit in swimming, so we would go crush the swim and just get demolished on the bike and the run, but it was really fun!” she says.
After college, Grace took a break from her sports-centric lifestyle for a few years. She gained 30 pounds and started partying on the weekends.
“I was going out every week to the bars. It wasn’t a good lifestyle,” she says. “One Sunday, I woke up not hungover, and I decided to go on a run. And here we are.”
Making IRONMAN History: The First Age-Grouper to Win the Overall Race
In 2020, 70.3 Gulf Coast was one of the first races back after COVID. Grace was still an age-grouper then as she lined up for a staggered start on the white sands of Panama City Beach. When she crossed the finish line, she learned that she’d won the entire race (both male and female). It was the first time that had happened in IRONMAN history.
“Because of the staggered start, I had no idea where I was. People kept telling me I was in the lead, and I had a motorcycle with me for a while on the bike. But on the run, I was just running blind. I felt like I had no idea where I was,” she says.
Photo: Grace Alexander winning 2020 70.3 Gulf Coast as an age-grouper.
“Even when I crossed the finish line and grabbed the tape, I wasn't super excited, because I thought somebody could’ve started behind me and still beat me. But after about five minutes, they confirmed that I not only won the women’s race, but the whole thing.”
She remembers feeling shocked, confused, and very tired- a total mix of emotions. “They let me keep the finishing banner, and that's definitely one I'll hold on to forever. When you're the first person to do something, that's going be there forever in history,” she says.
Grace had actually qualified for her pro card prior to this race, but had decided not to take it. She felt there was still a lot of growth to be had before making that leap. But after winning 70.3 Gulf Coast, it solidified her decision. She turned pro in 2021 and won her first pro race at 70.3 Augusta in 2022.
Around that time, she’d also applied to grad school, and the flexibility it offered merged well with training. “Little did I know I would be in grad school doing a research partnership and working two part-time jobs. I was like, ‘this is not that much more flexible really.’ But it worked out. Grad school was about two years, and then I was done in 2023.”
An “Old School” Training Philosophy
Not only does Grace have a Masters degree in Health & Exercise Science, she also runs her own coaching business, Tri With Grace. She describes her coaching style as a bit more “old school” when compared to the metric-heavy focus of the Norwegians.
“I would say I’m more of an old school coach, and I prefer that as an athlete myself,” she says. “I trust that my coach is looking at the data, but I don't really talk to him much about it because I trust my feel.”
In fact, that was the topic of a recent post last week- the difference between age-groupers and pros- feel.
Race Like a Pro: THE Biggest Difference Between Pros and Age Groupers
It’s a hard thing to learn and takes a lot of practice. The paces you run or power numbers you see can be highly dependent upon how well you fueled the day before and how well you recovered in between sessions. They can also be affected by the weather.
“An eight-minute mile can feel really easy when it's 40 degrees outside, but it might not feel very easy when it's 90 degrees,” she says. “I think it takes time. It requires being honest with yourself about feel and not getting caught up with looking good on Strava, or whatever apps people use, which is hard not to do.”
Grace recommends checking in with yourself during a workout to assess whether you’re expending the appropriate amount of effort. This can be hard for athletes just getting into the sport, so she has a few suggestions.
“If someone doesn’t have a big athletic background, a lot of times what we see is their brain doesn't sync up with their body. They think they're going easy, but their body isn’t. So for athletes like that, I like to use a heart rate monitor and give them a range of heart rate zones to work off of until they get a better feel for training.”
Another great tip to help keep your easy runs easy is to run with a friend and carry on a conversation, which guarantees the effort level has to stay low.
“Actually, my little trick to keep easy runs easy is to run a very technical trail, because you have to go slow or else you trip and fall!” she laughs.
Rebounding From Injuries
Like many athletes, Grace is no stranger to injuries. In fact, broken bones kept her out of much of the 2019 race season. But after each injury, she learned more about her body and how to better take care of it.
Still, it’s not easy being an injured athlete. Because sport is so tied up with identity, when you can’t do the activities you love, it’s hard to see a path forward. Grace’s advice is two-fold.
#1- Focus on what you can do. instead of what you can’t.
“If you can't run, you can usually bike or swim. If you can't bike or run, then get really good at swimming. Go to the gym and work on strengthening. not only the swim, bike, and run muscles, but all the other accessory stabilizer muscles so you can mitigate those issues down the road.”
#2- Have something else in your life besides triathlon (or your sport).
“This is good, even for professional athletes. Sometimes I talk to people who want to go pro, and they're about to drop their job or school and go pro full-time. That’s a lot of pressure, and if you do get injured, then you're sitting there like, now what?”
“If you have a family, that's something you can put a lot of love and focus into, or your job, or another hobby. I think it’s really valuable for the ups and downs that come with sports.”
Speaking of injury-prevention, Grace is a big proponent of strength work. But strength for triathletes is more than just about lifting heavy. The exercise regime should be sport-specific, with the goal to mobilize, stabilize, activate, and strengthen appropriate muscles that make it easier for you to swim, bike, and run.
Typically, Grace does one heavy strength session a week, as well as two to three 15-20 minute activation workouts. Her favorites focus on hips and core.
Overcoming Race Day Obstacles- A Stingray Swim at St. Anthony’s
Photo Credit: St. Anthony’s Triathlon
At the first big race of the year, St. Anthony’s Olympic Triathlon, Grace walked to the waters edge for a swim warm-up. One of her fellow athletes thought she’d stepped on a stingray, and Grace immediately felt a sharp pain.
“At first, I thought a crab had pinched me, but I took my foot out of the water and you could see where the stinger had gone through. There was some blood and pain,” she says.
This was about 10 minutes before the race start, and Grace, unsure what to do, asked a volunteer if being stung by a stingray was particularly dangerous. They told her it would be painful, but wasn’t anything life-threatening, so she decided to give it a go.
On the bike, she experienced horrible cramping in her foot. When she got to T2, her foot was so swollen that it was hard to get her shoe on, but the pain decreased a bit on the run. As soon as she broke the tape at the finish line, she immediately went to the medical tent.
“At that point, it was 9 out of 10 pain. I think the adrenaline had worn off and the venom had stopped circulating. It got pretty bad,” she says.
Obviously, this was a very unusual situation, but the unexpected often happens at races. Whether your goggles fill up with water during the swim, you lose a bottle on the bike, or cramp on the run, athletes who have the ability to adapt and respond calmly when things go wrong have a higher likelihood of success.
“You can’t predict what might happen, but you can control how you respond to it.”
- Grace Alexander
“I told myself that I was going to constantly evaluate how I was feeling, and if I needed to pull out of the race for my health, that's fine,” she says. “I didn’t know how bad the pain would get, but if it stayed at the level it was at, I would be fine.”
When her own athletes encounter obstacles mid-race, she advises them to think about what they can do in the moment to make the rest of the race go better.
“A lot of the time, it's a nutrition issue, like they slacked on the bike, so they bonked on the run. So what can they do now to be more present and better prepare for the next part of the race?”
“If something does happen, know that you have the ability to overcome it and trust that there’s a way through.”
For example, if you’re not able to hit race pace on the bike, can you go 10-20 watts lower? Can you give just 10% more on the run?
“Just do whatever you can to get through,” she says. “I think there's a lot of regret, and a lot more of a sting that comes with the DNF. Even if you do it slowly, that just meant you had more obstacles to overcome. Along with that, it's so important to never give up in training, because the first time you allow yourself to do that, it becomes easier and easier.”
A Cancelled Swim at 70.3 Chattanooga
A few weeks later, Grace headed to 70.3 Chattanooga. With her swim background, she was excited for a fast, downriver start to the race, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Due to the large amount of rain they’d had in the area, the current was moving too fast for the safety support to stay in place, so the swim was cancelled. “I was definitely not prepared for that. Obviously, I come from a swim background, so having the swim cut was kind of a bummer for sure,” she says.
Photo Credit: LGM Photos
The last-minute change in plans meant Grace had to alter her race strategy a bit. “My friend, Jodie Stimpson, was there and typically we always swim together and we can also ride together. The day before we’d been scheming a little bit, like we’d swim together and then hammer the bike together. So that changed our plans!”
What to Do (and NOT Do) When the Swim is Cancelled in a Triathlon
A time trial start on the bike complicates matters a bit more for professional triathletes, who need to be aware of their position on course as it relates to fellow competitors. Grace drew slot #2 to start the bike, so that meant she’d be riding blind at the front with no idea what the competitors behind her were doing.
“I ended up passing the first girl at mile five, and then I dropped a bottle. Luckily, it flew right next to me, so I stopped to get it. After that, it was a complete solo effort for me. I had no idea where I was for the entire bike ride,” she says. “There weren’t any motorcycles either, so I was just hoping I was riding harder than the other girls.”
Once Grace got off the bike, she started receiving information and knew she had a small lead, but she needed to move.
“Coming off the bike, they said I had six seconds on second place,” she says. “By mile 3-4, the gap had gone to 45 seconds. Then, by the first loop, it had gotten to two minutes and then quickly was three minutes, so I could cruise it in at that point.”
Given the hot and humid conditions, and the fact that she has several races planned this summer, Grace decided to moderate her effort on the run to secure a finish and ensure she would recover well for her next race.
Recovering Well Between Back-to-Back Races
Coming up this weekend, Grace will compete at 70.3 Eagleman, followed by 70.3 Happy Valley the next weekend. Then, she has a little break headed into 70.3 Boise, 70.3 Santa Cruz, 70.3 Louisville, and 70.3 Augusta.
With a full line-up of races throughout the summer and into the fall, we wondered what she does to recover in between events that are spaced close together.
“I would say it’s easier for pros who don't have full-time jobs,” she says. “It’s easier for us to recover, because we can get 9-10 hours of sleep, eat well, and just recover throughout the day.”
When she’s racing frequently, Grace often treats the race as her high intensity workout. That means the supplemental workouts surrounding the race are pretty easy, aerobic, steady efforts to maintain and recover.
“Typically, I'll take the next day or two as swimming only. Then, the third day will be a light brick. On the fourth day, I might hit a little race effort for a short amount of time, just to remind the body what it feels like,” she says. “But it depends on how I'm feeling. If I tell my coach I feel nuked, we'll just keep it easy until the next race.”
Now for the fun Stuff- Gizmo, the cat!
When Grace isn’t swimming, cycling, or running, you can find her cooking and coaching her athletes at Tri With Grace. She enjoys hanging out with friends in her new home of Greenville, SC., and during the off-season, she goes camping with her family.
Grace and her fiancé also have a cat named Gizmo, who has “brought so much light” into their lives. It’s been almost one year to the day they adopted Gizmo, who was found on the side of the road when he was four weeks old.
“His personality just merges so well with us, because he's a crazy kitten, but then he's also chill,” she says. “He's just a good thing to smile about.”
Grace worked with Varlo Apparel to design her 2025 race kit, and they put a small portrait of Gizmo on the back.
“Obviously, I can't see him because it’s on the back, but I like knowing he's there. Actually at Chattanooga, an age-grouper saw me go by and shouted, ‘Do it for Gizmo!’ It just made my run so much better, at least for a few minutes.”
“It kind of humbles you, because dogs and cats don’t care how fast you go. They're just happy to see you no, matter what.”
Speed Round Fun!
How many bikes do you own? Two
What’s a triathlon you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t done yet? IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun
Favorite post-workout meal? A protein shake
What’s your go-to running shoe right now? Saucony Kinvara
Favorite race you’ve ever done? Western Australia. It was flat, which I love, and it was beautiful. Although that was the first time in a pro briefing they told us- if you hear this alarm that means there’s a shark- so swim back to shore!
When you aren’t swimming, cycling, or running, you’re doing this. Mobility or eating.
What’s a secret, maybe scary, goal you haven’t told anyone? I really want to break a 1:20 half marathon.
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