Originally published at: A Second Shot at Worlds: Rachel Zilinskas - Slowtwitch News
Kona is a brutal race for anyone, amateur or pro. Arguably, though, the pros taking the start line feel even more pressure than the age groupers. There are sponsor obligations to meet, meticulous race strategies to execute, and often, the desire to prove that you as a pro “deserve” to be out on the Queen K.
New-ish pro Rachel Zilinskas, who turned pro in late 2021, knows these feelings all too well. Zilinskas, who trains in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, competed in her first-ever IRONMAN World Championship last year in Kona where she finished 25th in the pro field with a time of 9 hours and 10 minutes.
While many of us regardless of gender aspire to such a fantastic finish time, Zilinskas was disappointed in her World Championship debut; she was sick with a head cold during the race and battling the self-imposed pressure of acing her first time in Kona.
Now, a year and a fourth place finish at IRONMAN Lake Placid later, Zilinskas is once again ready to take on the IRONMAN World Championship, but this time in Nice.
We caught up with Zilinskas ahead of her departure to France.
Rachel Zilinskas’ Journey to Nice
ST: Despite your podiums at IRONMAN Mt. Tremblant and IRONMAN Lake Placid, yours may still be a name that folks are unfamiliar with. Give us a little bit of background as to how you got into triathlon and how and when you turned pro.
RZ: I grew up as a competitive swimmer and that was my life for almost 20 years. I swam for the University of Georgia and had an amazing career there. Unfortunately, I had a shoulder injury that kind of derailed my original dream, which was to aim for the Olympics. I had actually come quite close to qualifying before I tore my rotator cuff; I finished seventh in the 10-kilometer open water trials in 2012 and ninth in the 800-meter free in the pool, so I wasn’t too far off from qualifying.
It’s pretty hard to come back to competitive swimming after a torn rotator cuff and I was really struggling with the transition from competitive swimming to not really having any athletic goals. I grew up watching my mom do some triathlons as a kid, but then she took a break from competing when we were young. In 2018, we signed up for a 70.3 together and that’s how I got started in triathlon.
I started working with my coach, Andrew Yoder, who is still my coach today. I fully intended to just see if I even liked triathlon after that first 70.3 – I only had the intention of it being a hobby. But…I fell in love with the sport after that first 70.3 in 2018 and kept progressing very naturally. After a couple of years of racing as an age grouper and getting good results, I made the decision to turn professional in 2021.
ST: Not only have you qualified for the IRONMAN World Championships twice as a professional, but you also work a full-time corporate job. Do you feel that this helps or hinders you in your professional triathlon journey?
RZ: I work full-time in procurement for Clark Associates, a wholesale food service supplier. I was working full-time as a statistician on clinical trials before I came to Clark Associates and that was a great job but it was extremely high-pressure. It was too much for me to balance both professional triathlon and the statistician job, to be quite honest. Last year, I decided to take a step back and try to find something different that could fit into my life a little bit better, which brought me to Clark Associates.
I’m still working full time and it still is difficult to balance. But I think that the big thing for me is that now, when I leave the office for the day, I can leave work behind me and fully “log off.”
I would be lying if I said that my schedule is not extremely challenging. I wake up at 4:00 or 4:15 every single morning and get in a morning swim or a morning session and then I go to work. I’m in the office two days a week but even when I’m working from home, I am working standard office hours all day. After I wrap up my work day I head back out for another training session and then I finish up by about 7:00 at night, eat a quick dinner and try to get to bed by 8:00. It’s a huge grind for sure.
However, I do feel like there are some benefits to this lifestyle, as well. Having a stable salary and health insurance are the biggest benefits, especially the health insurance. And then it is kind of how when I’m at work, especially when I’m in the office, I kind of forget about triathlon for a few hours. I love the sport very much, but it definitely takes some of the pressure off when I’m in the office because I’m surrounded by people who don’t honestly know too much about triathlon and I can be known just for “me,” which takes a little bit of pressure off of results and racing.
ST: On top of work, last year was also your first-ever IRONMAN World Championship, regardless of being pro or amateur. Your day didn’t go exactly as planned – walk us through your day in Kona in 2023.
RZ: I first qualified for Kona as an age grouper, but then it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, my coach and I planned that I would race as an age grouper in 2021 and then turn professional after Kona in 2021.
But then, Kona got postponed again and I decided to turn pro without waiting for Kona. I fortunately qualified in 2022 for 2023 Kona at IRONMAN Mt. Tremblant.
Going into Kona in 2023, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I was extremely busy leading into the race with my full time job and trying to balance the demands of training for a world championship. It was stressful trying to tie it all together mentally and physically.
When I got to Kona, I started feeling a little bit under the weather. And the whole week ahead of the race I was trying to convince myself that it was allergies .I was like, “No, this cannot happen. This has to be allergies. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.”
In hindsight, I probably should have shut it down and rested that week before the race. Mentally, though, I just could not handle that at the time and I kept pushing through trying to do my race prep. You know it’s bad when I sleep like a baby the night before the race – usually, I’m the type of person who has a hard time falling asleep before a race. But the night before Kona, which is, like, the biggest race in my life, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
I was definitely ill – I was able to kind of make it through the race but I think I ran myself down too much. I was obviously extremely disappointed. But, I like to come out of every single race and have a period of reflection. It was not a performance that I was super happy with, but I was really happy with all the lessons that I learned from it, just in terms of learning to take care of myself and put a bit less pressure on myself. It was honestly kind of a privilege to be unhappy with a race – much better than to have zero races to be happy or unhappy about.
ST: How has your 2024 season been so far with the IRONMAN Pro Series?
RZ: Unfortunately, I had an injury at the beginning of the season. I had a really strong off season and was really excited to race in the IRONMAN Pro Series, but I moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania earlier this year and was under a lot of stress and suffered an injury, which delayed the start of my season. I was very frustrated and didn’t even think I’d be able to race IRONMAN Lake Placid a few weeks from race day.
Fortunately, things started to fall into place before the race. My run training was extremely limited heading into the race, but my swimming and biking were going really well. My coach and I decided to roll the dice and try it out and I was able to finish with a good result – fourth place female pro.
I was super excited with that result and the Nice qualification and, yeah, again, I’m bummed that I didn’t get to take part in more of the IRONMAN Pro Series. However, being able to qualify for Nice and hopefully have a strong second half of the year is exciting to me.
ST: You’ve raced in Kona, which is of course an iconic location in our sport. What are your thoughts about now racing an IRONMAN World Championship in Nice?
RZ: I’m honestly super excited about it. When I initially heard the news about Kona and Nice, I was a little bit disappointed just because everyone wants to race in iconic Kona. After watching the men’s IRONMAN World Championship last year and talking to people that raced the course, and looking at my own progression in the sport, I think Nice is actually going to be a fun course for me. I like courses with a lot of climbing. I like horses that are kind of challenging and engaging.
It’s also exciting for me because I’ve never been to Europe. It’s a good excuse to take two-and-a-half weeks off from work and go to Europe. It’ll be unlike anything I’ve ever done before.
ST: Who are your sponsors this year?
RZ: Varlo Apparel and DeBoer Wetsuits have both been supporting me since the beginning of my career, and they’ve been awesome to work with. Another sponsor that’s been absolutely amazing for me and new this year is Certified Piedmontese. They’ve provided great support in the nutrition space and are just fantastic people to know in the triathlon space.