Jul 20, 2022
Ronnie Fields Jr. is one of the younger athletes that you will find in a typical triathlon race. A star athlete in his school days, Ronnie found himself becoming a couch potato after leaving college and was inspired to start racing triathlons after watching the Ironman World Championship in Kona. Having played football, basketball, baseball, ran track, and was on the swim team, in school, Ronnie figured that the triathlons couldn’t be too hard and signed up without really training.. The challenge of placing dead last in his category inspired him to train and we join him on his journey to one day finish first in his age group.
Episode Highlights:
- Who is Ronnie Fields Jr.
- Ronnie’s early life
- How Ironman World Championship inspired Ronnie to make a change
- How he started his triathlon journey
- Trial and error and how he is learning to become a better athlete
- Ronnie’s goals for his upcoming races
Guest Bio:
Ronnie Fields Jr. is from Haynesville, Louisiana, but currently is living in Nashville Tennessee. Throughout his childhood and high school, he was very active in sports (football, basketball, baseball, track, summer swim team). HIs team actually won State in football his senior year
Ronnie graduated high school in 2010, and attended Louisiana Tech University; majoring in Construction Engineering Technology. He still had the urge to play sports so he ended up walking on the football team. He graduated with a degree in construction engineering technology in May, 2014
After college, he began working for a company that builds manufacturing plants all over the United States. Once Ronnie entered the real world, he wasn’t working out like he had done his entire life and ended up gaining weight. One day in 2015, he was sitting on his couch watching TV, and the Ironman World Championships came on. He thought to himself, “I can do that”. So, he bought a cheap bike from Walmart and entered his first sprint triathlon without doing any training. He had no idea it would be so hard. He loved it because it challenged him.
This was a way that he could continue to compete in sports like he had done his entire life.
After that race, his job relocated him a couple times which made training a little bit difficult, so he wasn’t able to do any races the year of 2016.
2017 was the year Ronnie became dedicated to triathlon. He bought a road bike, and even ended up qualifying for Nationals somehow. Nationals had to be one of the worst races of his career. It was his first Olympic distance and he barely made it through the swim. Ronnie completed the race but finished dead last of all the finishers in his age group. But this was motivation for him to get better. The ultimate goal for him is to one day win his age group at Nationals!!
Since then, he has competed in countless sprints and Olympic distance triathlons; along with one 70.3, and one Full Distance Ironman.
Ronnie does this sport for the following reasons:
-It keeps him active and healthy.
-It gives him something to look forward to.
-His family has terrible health histories (cancer, heart attacks, diabetes, etc) He’s trying to break that chain.
-He loves competing.
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