Meet Kelly Eid. She’s a member of the Jersey Girls Stay Strong Multisport Club, a breast cancer survivor and an all-around inspiration. Here we go!
Each month, we sit down with a DelMoSports athlete and ask them five questions. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Meet Kelly Eid. She’s a member of the Jersey Girls Stay Strong Multisport Club, a breast cancer survivor and an all-around inspiration. Here we go!
1. What are your race goals this season?
My race goals this coming season (2017) are mainly to stay fit and have fun. Since I I just completed Ironman Lake Placid in July, I want to enjoy some shorter distance races and challenge myself in new ways. In April I’ll be participating in Tour de Pink South, a 3 day 200 mile bike ride to raise funds and awareness for young women with breast cancer. In early fall, I’ll be doing Ironman Augusta 70.3 with a friend from college. It will be her first! She and I will both be doing DelMo’s Escape Lewes 3 mile swim in October. The weather had better cooperate this year!! To wrap things up, I will run the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October with Team Kevin Strive (an organization that gives disabled children the opportunity to participate in endurance events.) Sprinkle in there some training and volunteering at some different venues with my tri club, Jersey Girls StayStrong Multisport, and that fills up my year!
2. Best racing advice?
My best racing advice is to breathe it all in and enjoy every moment of your day. Every single one of us out there is blessed with the health and good fortune to be able to do this for FUN. SMILE even when it hurts. The only thing I always do is write a small quote on my arm with a sharpie. For my first 70.3 and 140.6, I wrote “Today is a gift.” This past 140.6, I wrote “Anything is Possible.” The quotes just keep me grounded and remind me how amazing it is just to be out on the course.
3. Favorite pre-race meal?
My pre race meal is iced tea that I bring from home, half a bagel and half a banana with peanut butter. I carry the other half of the bagel to transition of a tri or to the starting line of a run.
4. Do you pee on the bike?
I have never peed on the bike during a race, but I have practiced the skill during training! It didn’t go well for me!
5. Tell us something we should know about you.
I was a runner since college and have always been physically active. I was diagnosed with DCIS in 2008 at the age of 38 (my kids were 5 & 2). I was treated with lumpectomy and radiation, and started Tamoxifen. My cancer returned less than 5 months later. I had a mastectomy with immediate reconstruction using a TRAM flap (using the abdominal muscle to make a pocket which becomes the new breast, and using harvested belly fat to give it fullness.)
I was finally cancer free, but my journey back to fitness was a long road. I started with my first half marathon in 2010, which led to my first marathon and first sprint triathlon in 2011. I did my first Olympic triathlon in 2012, and my first half Ironman in 2013.
June 29, 2014 was the five year anniversary of my mastectomy. It was also the same day that DelMo teamed up with Challenge Family to offer a full distance triathlon, 140.6 miles. When Moira (Horan, director of Jersey Girls Stay Strong Multisport Club) told me about this race, my heart raced. When I would think about NOT doing it, I’d end up in tears. This is how I KNEW I HAD to do it. And I did.
June 29, 2014 changed my life forever.
Training for that race and completing that race, in the best physical shape of my life and in perfect health, was one of the best and most perfect days of my life. I was free. Free of cancer and free of any limitations I had ever set for myself. I learned that strength is not just physical and perseverance will take you places you never dreamed you could go.
My journey in triathlon continues, as does my good health. I completed an Ironman this past July. In August, I had a major 7 hour surgery for revisions to my mastectomy and my abdomen. There were still some physical issues to address.
You are never “over” breast cancer. It’s always in your life. It’s with me in everything I do. But, it doesn’t stop me or limit me. It reminds me to live each day to the fullest. It reminds me to train and race with an appreciation of the scenery and the friendship and the air in my lungs. Life is good and I am blessed. Anything that cancer could have taken from me, triathlon has given back. For that, I am very grateful!
