- November 5, 2024
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Rachel Ryba says she hates running, but the contestants she’ll race against at the South Beach Triathlon April 6 probably wouldn’t believe it.
“Its’ the whole adrenaline rush,” she said. “It’s a whole different feeling than doing it by yourself. It’s taking your adrenaline rush and your competitiveness and trying to beat out the next person.”
Races, she said, are different than running alone. And Ryba is serious about races.
Ryba, 31 and a logistics commander at the Army Reserve Training Center in Palatka, started racing in Afghanistan. It was one of the few sports possible there, and Ryba and other Army soldiers amused themselves with half marathons and 5 Ks that involved seemingly-endless loops around short tracks.
“In Afghanistan, you’d run 60 times in a circle,” she said. “Thirteen miles in a circle is not so fun, but it’s something that’s entertaining and it fills your time.”
Back in the U.S. with her husband Chad Ryba, 30 and a former Marine sergeant, Ryba got her first taste of the South Beach Triathlon five years ago after Rachel’s aunt Colleen, who’d planned to compete, was injured and dropped out last minute. She asked Rachel to take her place.
The Rybas competed in the event together, in a shorter relay distance. Rachel did the swim portion, and Chad swam and ran.
Since then, they’ve returned for more.
“We got invited to do it the next year,” Chad Ryba said. “And I said, ‘Well if we’re going to go back, I want to do the whole thing.”
This year will be the couple’s fourth South Beach Triathlon, and the first time they’ll compete in the longer International Course distance, which involves a .93-mile swim, a 24.25-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run.
Rachel Ryba would like to complete it in under four hours. Chad said his goal is three to three-and-a-half hours.
Rachel Ryba has had some practice in creating workout routines: She developed one for overweight soldiers Iowa before she was transferred to Florida seven months ago.
As Ryba prepared for the triathlon, interested neighbors and members of Ryba’s softball team asked if they could run with her.
Now, about seven of them do, and beginning runners who couldn’t do a mile when they started are now doing a steady five miles, Ryba said.
The women have not only improved their endurance, Ryba said. They’re running faster, too.
“They started at just about a 15-minute mile, and now we’re down to about 11-minute miles,” Ryba said. “Some of the girls are looking for an eight-minute mile.”
The Rybas’ son Rece, 3, likes to tag along behind Rachel Ryba on her quarter mile of warm-up laps down the cul-de-sac at the end of the Rybas’ street.
Those workouts at home are usually about 90 minutes, and they’re only part of Rybas’ routine. The rest she does with Chad, swimming with him at the YMCA pool in St. Augustine and biking with him near his work at the World Golf Village.
Now, Rachel Ryba said, the couple is thinking of other races. Maybe a marathon.
“It’s fun, it’s motivating,” Rachel Ryba said. “It’s something to look forward to, and it’s something Chad and I get to do together. Our lives are very complicated and busy. And it’s our time.”
