By Joe Nuss
Nicole Robertson has just escaped from Alcatraz. Not the prison, of course. She’s just finished the famous San Francisco triathlon where athletes jump from a boat into the icy cold water of the San Francisco Bay adjacent to the actual island. To finish the race, Nicole and the other 1,800 or so participants swam 1.5 miles to shore, donned their running shoes and ran another mile to the transition area, and then rode 18 hilly San Francisco miles before finally finishing up with an 8-mile run. It was a difficult challenge, especially when something popped in Nicole’s knee two miles into the run but, then again, running through pain was nothing new to the 28-year-old mother of two. She had run through pain before…
Nicole and her husband Matt Coore were married at an early age. Pregnant with their first child when Nicole was only 19 years old, she was pregnant again only three months later and the once active teenager worried less about her weight than she did about dealing with the adult-sized pressures of parenthood. While she found refuge in eating, Matt found his refuge in drugs. As his addiction grew, Nicole’s weight grew, too, reaching more than 226 pounds.
“At the time,” says Nicole, “I didn’t feel like I had time to work out. I never ever EVER thought I would do a triathlon. Then my husband went into rehab and I became severely depressed. I felt like I had to do everything on my own and my weight made me feel like I would never be attractive again.”
To make matters worse, Nicole soon lost her job.
“That’s when I discovered running,” says Nicole. “I had no idea what I was doing. I was overweight, I had the wrong type of shoe, and I ran at the hottest time of day. I didn’t run very far but, I went a little further each week. It was hard and it was painful, but it was also a way to clear my head – a means to escape.”
However, Nicole was still trapped by her eating habits. She lost weight through an unhealthy pattern of binging and fasting. As with many people who suffer eating disorders, the weight loss boosted her self-esteem. But before her eating habits could get any worse, she was confronted with the most horrific news imaginable — her husband was murdered.
“When they told me a hunter had found my husband’s body in the woods, I was devastated,” said the mother with two young girls, Natalie and Kayla. “I don’t remember much from that first month,” she added. “I remember that I took care of my daughters and cried. I cried a lot.”
Despite feeling “like a zombie at the time”, Nicole found a job as a financial representative at a local bank in Chapel Hill’s Meadowmont Village. She resumed running but was still held back by poor eating habits. It wasn’t until members of the UNC Wellness Center inspired her to join, that she finally began to escape her past and develop a new vision of herself. After tackling a few endurance races and finding a new passion in the sport of triathlon, Nicole sought a coach, Stacey Richardson, to help her improve.
“Nicole is a fascinating mix of fun and iron-will,” says Stacey. “Coaching her has been a great journey into training the thoroughbred race horse inside while helping her fitness catch up. When we first met, Nicole said, ‘My doctor says my BMI puts categorizes me as overweight but, I feel so fit and strong. Help me with this.’ So, we made weight loss a goal and really began a deep and honest discussion about eating habits.”
While Nicole’s fortitude is evident in her ability to overcome tragedy and tackle difficult races like Bandit’s Challenge and Escape from Alcatraz, Stacey knows a future goal for Nicole is to listen to her body more to help avoid injury. But Stacey also agrees, that Nicole deserves a standing ovation from the triathlon community for her determination.
“Most 28-year-old single working moms would never dream of training six days a week and racing Escape from Alcatraz,” she says. “Most people in her situation would sit on the couch and just try to get through each day but, Nicole does more than survive her life; she thrives. She lives each moment to the utmost, which makes her an inspiration to the rest of us who say we don’t have the time or energy. Take one look at her life and surely you will find the time or will to train.”
