So my current personality obsession is Chrissie Wellington. Silly, non-triathlete me didn’t really know who she was before I ordered her book! I knew she was an award winning triathlete but I didn’t know she was THE triathlete — the one you know, the one that is unbeatable.

I ordered “A Life Without Limits” in a book binge last week. I was out of books and needed to stock up. It was pretty cheap on Kindle and I had it in the back of my mind for at least a year now.

I knew it was an autobiography about the unlikely winner of the Iron Man (x4) but I didn’t know I’d have plenty of other things in common with Chrissie as well.

For starters, she struggled with an eating disorder for part of her life so I could relate there. But she’s also got a huge heart for humanitarian issues and traveling to exotic places around the world. She’s way more fearless and hardworking than I (also needs less sleep and definitely adapts better to tough situations) but I most certainly felt that we could be fast friends!

Her story really is amazing because she was such an unlikely candidate to WIN the Iron Man. No one knew who she was, she had trained and raced in borrowed clothes, on borrowed bikes, with little formal training and not a lot of long term vision. It seemed she just kept winning races “on accident” and had NO idea she would win the Iron Man going into it.

In the book, she says she dreamed she came in 4th place and was very happy with that so winning first was completely out of her mind. She’s clearly super humble, friendly and has a pretty intense, very competitive personality. You’d have to train that ways he does now, to win a freaking Iron Man! She ran the marathon split in 2:59!!

Well that split continued to go down as she broke world record after world record. Despite her championships, Chrissie comes off as nothing but humble in the book. The dept of her hard work and ability to never give up (or should I say, her CHOICE to never give up) is awe-inspiring.

She also seems to have a wonderment of life — noticing how one thing followed another. Had I not made this decision, perhaps I would have never gotten here and then I  never would have been there. Most of all, she respects each race she runs, coming at it with a fresh perspective.

You’d think once you’ve broke your own world record a couple times over — that’s good enough — right? Not for Chrissie. It’s about constantly being better, challenging yourself, pulling out each win from the depths of your soul. It’s nearly unbelievable how she battles injury, illness and doubt and still comes out winning nearly every race she does.

This book is truly uplifting and inspiring. If you are like me, you’ll walk away wanting to be friends with Chrissie and searching for YouTube clips of her winning races, doing interviews and doling out wisdom. A wonderful read!