"I didn’t know how to ride a bike at the time, I didn't know how to swim more than a Marco Polo-swimmer, and I really didn’t know how to run farther than a 100-meter dash. I just figured, if this guy is on a prosthetic and figured it out, I could figure it out, too. The clincher, which really sealed the deal, [was that] he said, I don’t know of any girls on a prothetic who could do an Iron Man. I would've been incredulous at any age, but when you’re a feisty teenager, I was like, What?! Are you kidding? You do know the girl, it’s me. I took it as a bit of a throw down. I had that athlete’s mindset, and I'm a very goal-driven type of person anyway. I wanted to prove that a girl could do it too, and that started my mission. I just started building my endurance to be able to tackle this thing."