You're standing at the starting line
but behind the starting line, it's not just me, it's like my family.
And the horn goes off, and you have 2,000 swimmers
where this has been their life dream.
I dive into the water, and above water, it's absolute chaos.
It's a shark frenzy
and your adrenaline goes to your advantage because
you want to get in front, and stay in front.
My name's Cammie, I'm an engineer for the United States Marine Corps
and ranked #1 in my age bracket going into the Ironman World Championship race in Kona, Hawaii.
It's a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and then a 26.2 mile run.
It actually takes more mental toughness than physical strength.
About six months out, you are meticulously hitting
the right nutrient ratios at certain times of the day. Before your workout, after your workout
Recovery, rest, having my brain in the right place. It's a very holistic process.
The thing that gets me up in the morning is that every day has a reason.
A part of my day is health. It's being with the people that I love
and having something that I'm working towards, something that I love
I work at Quantico Marine Corps base, as a Mechnical Engineer.
I work on vehicles like the medium tactical vehicle replacement.
We were working on like getting a new type of blast protection to keep Marines' bones from breaking ultimately.
It's a really cool dynamic to be working at Quantico because I'm surrounded by very fit marines
who encourage an active lifestyle.
Going to the gym, I kind of like, just fit right in,
but I still love to just like really challenge myself.
Thomas Jefferson said that education was a lifelong pursuit, we never stop learning.
I got into the MBA program at Yale, as well as the PhD program in engineering
I'll be studying business and engineering and so specifically environmental engineering to study sanitation.
So using things like human excrement and sanitation technology to create energy;
It sounds kind of silly, but it's a huge problem in the world of not only sanitation, but energy development.
There's a Greek word called Arete,
absolute fulfillment of function
and UVA students tend to step out into that. You're not going to find
out what you love, like Ironmans, unless you're just trying it.
UVA is filled with people who have a lot of courage.
It was that culture that helped me step into my fulfillment of function,
into where I really belonged