Join us as we follow Katelyn and Katelyn as they train for the 2019 Erlanger Chattanooga Marathon and the 2019 Little Debbie IRONMAN. Katelyn Newsome has never done a triathlon, let alone an IRONMAN and Katelyn Carlson has never participated in a marathon. Both ladies are stepping out of their comfort zones and embarking on a journey they've never experienced before. Read below to get to know them and follow along on their journey!

October 2018

Hey guys,

We are Katelyn Newsome (KN) and Katelyn Carlson (KC) and we are just stepping into the Tri sport world (and the marathon world for KC). Rookies would be an understatement but we are excited to have the opportunity to partner with the Chattanooga Sports Committee and share our journey to the Erlanger Chattanooga Marathon and Little Debbie IRONMAN Chattanooga 140.6 with you!

We became friends at the beginning of this summer through work and have shared a lot of life together since then. We are strikingly similar in many ways and polar opposites in others. This makes for quite the dramatic and lively friendship and IRONMAN journey thus far.

I (Newsome) wasn’t planning on doing a full IRONMAN or really any type of triathlon until a few months ago when hanging out with KC. KC was training for the last half IRONMAN in May and I  went with her on a couple of her training rides. We started talking about the crazy idea of trying to do the full IRONMAN, and from the get-go I was all in. Something about the idea of doing something challenging and something never done before made me want to give 140.6 IRONMAN 2019 a shot.

After watching the 2017 full IRONMAN in Chattanooga, I (Carlson) signed up for the half the following Spring. The 70.3 race was tons of fun but I had no intentions or desire to do the full… ever. I’ve never done a marathon and never thought that it would be something fun to do. That alone was enough of a deterrent for me. Fast forward a week or so after completing the 70.3 and a few people, notably KN and my good friend Luke Bowling, had me 65% convinced I wanted to do the full in 2019. The other 35% was a mix of various things like the time commitment and lifestyle changes that doing an IRONMAN requires.

Some have joined in our excitement, some have called us crazy, and others have called us stupid, but I (Newsome) never back down from a challenge and I (Carlson) caved after persistent persuasion so here we are.

A little bit about ourselves individually…

I (Newsome) spent my growing up years in Nagoya, Japan where my parents have worked for the last 30 years. I’m 28 years old, and I’ve been in Chattanooga since I graduated from Covenant College back in 2013. Shortly after graduating I got involved with Chattanooga Sports Ministries as a summer coach for one of CSM’s Eastlake girls team. Since then I’ve been working full time with CSM- first as program director and currently as director. I enjoy spending my time being active and being outdoors (the indoor training pool swims are going to be the death of me), hammocking, roller skating, surfing, making and eating Japanese food, eating my Guatemalan roommate’s Empanadas, and hanging out with crazy kids from Howard High school.

I (Carlson) am  24 years old- born and raised here in Chattanooga, TN. I graduated from UTC with a degree in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management. I work for The Chattanooga Football Club Foundation, mostly spending my time with Chattanooga Sports Ministries, a division of the foundation. I like anything outdoors, active, and with people. I have spent the last few years travelling quite a bit and have hit 6/7 continents. When I am in town I like to spend time playing soccer at Highland Park Commons, exploring new places, hanging out with people, eating good food, and drinking good beer (which I’ve given up until I can get my run pace down closer to KN’s).

We have been in training for about a month now and are not short for ridiculous and hilarious stories but we will save them for later posts. We’re here writing for a year so stay tuned for those and some pictures/videos from our journey- they won't disappoint! We are just some everyday people committed to push ourselves- body, mind, and soul- to the limit. We’re excited to share our Erlanger Chattanooga Marathon and Little Debbie IRONMAN 140.6 journey with you over the next 10 months.

- KC & KN