PowerUp Tri Podcast Episode 20: Heather & Trevor Wurtele

The PowerUp Tri Podcast is hosted by former pro triathletes Matt Lieto and Jordan Rapp, who lend their in-depth knowledge of the multisport to the Zwift Tri audience.

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Heather and Trevor Wurtele have been a force in the triathlon scene over the last decade. Recently, the power couple announced their retirement from the sport. We bring the pair in to chat about this recent life change and pick their brains on how they knew it was the time to move on. Making big changes in life or switching major goals can be challenging for anyone, but as a professional athlete, it can be even more difficult with your livelihood, ambitions, and identity all wrapped into sport.

Trevor explains how he knew it was time to retire in the middle of a race:
“At Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene, halfway through the bike I was just like, yeah, you know what? I don’t want to do this anymore.”

For Heather, she was able to set one last goal race and find contentment there:
“I really wanted to win Ironman Canada. That was a big objective especially because I just hadn’t been able to race it that many times, it was the final race in Whistler and it was a women’s only event. And [then] when I just had like the perfect day there… it was kinda like, okay, mic drop.”

With her dominant win there, I can attest it was about as classy an exit as possible.

For those of us that know the Wurteles well, it wasn’t much of a surprise that they would retire even when racing was going well for them. They’ve always been about more than just triathlon and it’s clear there are lots of adventures left on their bucket list. These two were the original #vanlifers, living and racing out of their RV for 5 years and adventuring along the way. They let us in on adventures and life plans moving forward, including a move to the Kootenays, coaching, and more.

This episode we had lots of crazy racing to cover with 2 big Ironman events since our last podcast. In Western Australia, Alistair Brownlee showed us that his lackluster performance in Kona was an outlier, while Teresa Adam showed again she’s super strong over the distance. In Cozumel, Tyler Butterfield won his first Ironman with a crazy marathon. Carrie Lester dominated the race in Mexico as well and is seemingly at a sweet spot in her career with what has been an exceptional season. Plus we find out that one of the four of us had aspirations in politics and law enforcement. Listen in to find out who!

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