Customer Spotlight - Lynda Rowan on Why Not?

Why not? Just say yes and work it out later....

If you were to choose a sentence to describe Lynda Rowan's life, that would be it.

This Aussie turned Atlanta resident has lived a life of adventure that most of us dream about. She credits it to her ability to say yes when opportunities come her way.

Lynda grew up in the world of tennis. From the time she was 16, she owned her own tennis coaching business in her native Australia. At 24, she decided to retire from that world and travel the country in an RV. Her travels led her to a job working at one of the big resorts in Austrailia as an events coordinator before moving into management. It was during her time at the hotel that she was introduced to triathlon. The Xerox Triathlon Series was an Australian series similar to the new Super League Triathlon. Around that time, long distance triathlon was making

Around that time, long distance triathlon was making its debut in the country but was struggling to take off. Lynda looked at her skills and connections and thought, why not bring a 70.3 to my resort. She convinced Ironman to sanction the race and knew that they would need a professional face to gain credibility. Belinda Granger had just won an ultra-distance triathlon and was incredibly popular in Austrailia. Lynda convinced her to be involved with the race and a friendship was formed.

This was also where Lynda's really learned the power of saying yes and figuring out the details later. The success of the event showed her that she could accomplish anything she wanted with enough planning and the right people.

Her friendship with Belinda led Lynda to move from organizing events to racing in them. When Belinda got into a race in Phuket Thailand, she told Lynda that she would complete if Lynda did. So she began to train and completed in her first race and to her surprise, qualified for Ironman Austrailia (at the time you had to qualify for an Ironman event). Even though it was an honor to qualify, she soon realized that her body was not ready to train at the Ironman level and did not compete because of struggles with injuries.

She began helping Belinda with her marketing efforts and when Belinda qualified for Ironman Malaysia, she again pulled Lynda in with her. It was at that race that Lynda was inspired not by the professionals but the ordinary people who were not natural athletes but working hard to reach their goals while holding jobs and managing busy family lives. For the next 3 years, Lynda was heavily involved in the sport, even racing the ITU World Championship race.

Lynda's triathlon career was sidelined with a labral tear in her hip. She took a break and met her wife, Rachel. The two of them moved to the U.S., eventually landing in California. The Malibu triathlon had been a bucket list item for her and she decided to train with no goals and no gadgets with the goal of having fun on race day. She really enjoyed the day and was surprised by a 4th place finish in her age group.

From there, Lynda had another just say yes experience. She was enjoying triathlon as a hobby with no pressure but she had met Rebecca Keet in Australia and Rebecca offered to have her partner, Siri Lindley give Lynda a training plan. Instead of asking why should I do this, Lynda thought, well why shouldn't I? With no good reason, she jumped back into training and racing.

She thought her racing days might be over after she had a heart arrhythmia in 2016, shortly after she and Rachel moved to Atlanta. Her doctor told her that she may never be able to race again. It made her realize how much she loved the sport and how much she would miss it. Fortunately, her doctor was wrong and Lynda embraced her 'why not' motto again. In 2017, she competed in six 70.3 races and in her mind, race day is 'party day'. It's all about the fun. Just perform your best and have fun doing it. She had a great season, even hitting the Podium at Augusta 70.3 (just 2 weeks after racing the 70.3 World Championship).

Lynda has noticed that most people get hung up on asking themselves, what happens if I do (make this decision, choose this race, etc) but she likes to ask, what happens if I don't.  Ending up with regrets for not doing something seems to have more consequences than worrying about what will happen if you do something.

Lynda has been a dedicated customer at Podium Multisport since the discovered the store shortly after moving to Atlanta.

Matt Wheeler was the one who answered all of my questions since I was new to the area. He spent a lot of time talking to me about where to go on rides, where to connect with clubs and what races to do in the area. I know the shop can get me whatever I need and when I bring my bike in, I'm confident that it will be fixed correctly.

We are really glad to have Lynda as a part of the Atlanta triathlon community and can't wait to see what the future holds for her as she says 'why not'!