It was 2009. She found herself 60 pounds overweight and battling chronic bouts of depression and anxiety.
That year was a turning point for Melanie Bocock. She connected with a psychologist and the depression began to clear. As the healing began to flow into her heart and soul, it also began to influence her physically.
What began with walks turned into short runs and over the next year evolved into a passion for triathlon.
Since then, Melanie not only has lost the 60 pounds, going from a size 16 to a size 2, but has also completed over a dozen triathlons - including a full Ironman on her 40th birthday.
But that’s only part of the story.
As Melanie shares in Daring and Inspiring Souls, “During my journey I was meeting more and more female athletes who all seemed to have mastered a ton of control over this mental muscle, and inspired me to keep working at it myself. This led me to begin feeling I wanted to share this concept with my family and my friends. I felt I needed to spread the word to get people off the couch to start living better healthier lifestyles. I wanted to send a message that you can believe in yourself, and accomplish anything you set your mind to do.”
Out of this passion was born the Endurance Sisterhood, an online community created “to inspire women of all fitness levels to challenge their perception of their own physical and mental limitations.”
For women in triathlons it truly has become a sisterhood. In 2012, the Board of Directors was formed for the non-profit, and the Endurance Sisterhood registered with USA Triathlon as an all-woman triathlon club.
Melanie states, “I wanted this group to be a place for women of all shapes, sizes, and athletic backgrounds to meet, share stories, train, and encourage one another. […] I started creating pictorial vignettes called ‘Sister Stories’ each of them portraying a sister who had overcome some extraordinary challenge or had made an amazing transformation in her own life. It was interesting to find out many of them started from a sedentary lifestyle to then become endurance athletes and/or physical fitness enthusiasts.”
Community, passion, dedication. It’s all part of the race – and the sisterhood.
Source: “Melanie Bocock and the Endurance Sisterhood” http://www.daringandinspiringsouls.com/melanie-bocock-and-the-endurance-sisterhood/
