The year my body quit
About thirteen years ago, my body stopped cooperating. I was sick in ways no one could explain — a rotating cast of doctors, a stack of inconclusive tests, and symptoms that kept quietly stealing pieces of my life. Eventually I spent the better part of a year bedridden, waiting for an answer that wouldn't come. When it finally did, it had a name: an autoimmune disease.
I could have let that diagnosis become the whole story. For a while, it nearly was.
Building back, one inch at a time
But somewhere in there I made a quiet decision: this was not going to be the end of me. I started small — embarrassingly small. A few low-mileage rides on a bike, going nowhere fast. Then a little walking. Then, on good days, a slow jog. Then, eventually, running. Progress came in inches, not miles. Some weeks I moved backward. I kept going anyway.
In 2016, I lined up for my first sprint triathlon. I had no real idea what I was doing, and I crossed the line anyway — and something clicked. That finish cracked open a door I didn't know was there. A sprint became an Olympic-distance race. Olympic became a half Ironman. And the half became the thing I once would have laughed off as impossible: a full Ironman. 140.6 miles, start to finish, under my own power.
I still can't quite believe it. A body that had been too weak to leave a bed carried me across an Ironman finish line — more than once. I fell in love with this sport, and not just the racing. I fell for the staggering truth it kept proving to me: what we're capable of is almost always more than we think.
Why Triathlon Universe exists
Triathlon Universe was born out of everything I couldn't find on the way up.
When I was learning, the information I needed was scattered, contradictory, or buried behind jargon that assumed you were already an athlete. As a beginner clawing my way up from the couch, I just wanted honest answers: what gear actually matters, how to train without breaking down, what race day is really like, and how to keep going when your body and your brain both want to quit. I had to piece it together the hard way.
So I built the place I wish I'd had. Triathlon Universe is where beginners, age-groupers, and everyone chasing a finish line can find clear, practical, honest guidance — the swim, the bike, the run, and all the messy, human stuff in between. No gatekeeping. No pretending it's easy. Just real help for real athletes, wherever you are on the road from "I could never" to "I did."
Who's behind this
Right now, that's me — Eric, founder of Triathlon Universe and a multi-time Ironman finisher who started at the very bottom. This is a growing project, and every guide here is written to serve you, not to sell to you.
If you're at the start of your own climb: welcome. You're in the right place.
Suffer beautifully.
— Eric