Lauren Emery’s Health and Fitness Journey
Sean Finan (Any) // Crew Writer
Tin Raganit (They/Them) // Illustrator
Finding peace and joy can be like lifting a weight off the ground. As the year cascades into the winter months, a lot of students take to their toolbelt of mental health mechanisms to combat Vitamin D deficiency and early sunsets. Many people have discovered profound benefits to their mental health from participating in physical activity/sports.
Lauren Emery, a 3rd Year Motion Picture Arts (MOPA) Student, recently completed one of the most challenging endurance races in the world, The Ironman Triathlon.
Lauren has been active for as long as she can think, but her motivation waned after years in competitive rhythmic gymnastics. At that point, Lauren was exercising infrequently and she found that she “lacked energy and motivation,” and her “self-confidence had lowered significantly.” Noticing this, Lauren then began to kickbox and ski, only to tear her MCL during her Ski Instructor exam, which she still ended up passing—torn ligaments and all. When COVID hit the gyms closed, preventing her from training kickboxing
Lauren provided insight into the effect that lack of exercise had on her life.
“I started to feel a considerable lack of motivation, energy, and overall happiness. I stopped doing any form of exercise because I had no motivation to do so. Around springtime, an unexpected incident occurred and she lost a close friend. Feeling how fragile mortality was from such a close angle was difficult and she felt like she would never be able to feel normal again.
“It was hard, but I started running regularly because I knew that I had no choice but to have some sort of physical activity in order to help improve my overall mental health.”
Fast forward to Summer 2023, “I decided that I wanted to take on a challenge; doing an Ironman triathlon. My dad had already planned on racing Ironman 2024 in Penticton, so I thought I would do it as well.” A lot of people were sceptical as to why she decided to do this triathlon as her first triathlon. “They would question why I didn’t do a marathon, a shorter distance triathlon, or a half Ironman instead but the way I thought was that I had the opportunity to do something and I wanted to take it.”
Lauren eventually bought a road bike. “I had only ever biked on a road bike once years ago, so it felt like my first time using a road bike. Later in my training plan, around June, my sessions were at an all-time high, I was training 14 hours or more a week.
Lauren felt a deep sense of accomplishment from training—but accomplishment alone did not stop her from experiencing intrusive— negative thoughts.
“I would worry about being too slow to finish the race, or if I even had the level of fitness required to race, I really wanted to cross that finish line,” she said. “When race day came, I had trained so many hours, and gone through so much physical and mental strain that I really wanted to give it my all.” The Ironman took Lauren fifteen and a half hours. When asked she said that all of the work she put into the race was worth it. “Although I’m unsure if I’ll compete in another triathlon, I know that I’ll continue training for fun.”
Lauren is someone who understands the benefits of exercise, trains to improve her mental health, challenges herself, and has fun in the process. Exercise can be terrifying when you have been physically stagnant for a long time. When there are people like Lauren to show what is possible—it is tremendously inspiring—exercising can feel less scary than it normally might. Although it might get sweaty, lifting weights off the ground is guaranteed to get easier over time.