Jen Done didn’t grow up sporty. She swam a bit as a youngster, tagging along to galas beside a sister who was the ‘sporty one of the family’, and other than a handful of pre-baby marathons, a life in sport was never really part of her master plan.
Seven years ago, after the birth of her daughter, she found herself in a very different kind of race, a race against postnatal depression so severe she couldn’t get out the front door, convinced her husband and daughter would be better off without her.
Dismissed as “baby blues” by three separate doctors before a female GP finally gave her the diagnosis and help she needed. Somewhere in the middle of it all, her husband suggested she try running again; she managed 30 seconds out the door and back. It was enough to change everything.
That 30 seconds became a habit, and the habit snowballed; an IRONMAN 70.3 in Weymouth, her first full IRONMAN in Hamburg, the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona in 2023 racing with the IRONMAN Foundation. She launched her own podcast, ‘The Toughest Finish Line’, to share other people’s stories of using sport to fight through trauma and mental health struggles and she is also a triathlon coach.
A little over three weeks ago, Jen took on her biggest challenge yet: two full IRONMAN races, on consecutive days, in two different countries. IRONMAN Kalmar in Sweden on Saturday and IRONMAN Copenhagen in Denmark 24 hours later.
In this episode Jen recalls and shares insight into her Viking IRONMAN adventure, the highs and the lows, the chaos to the calmness, from lost luggage, to the hectic hours before the race weekend even started and the nausea that almost derailed her ambitious racing plans which saw her become an eight time IRONMAN.
Jen talks openly about her postnatal depression, the transformational journey she has been on since that 30 second run seven years ago. She reflects on what she’s learned about her own capacity to cope, how strong she is and how far removed this version of herself is from the woman who once couldn’t leave the house.
This is a lovely episode centred on courage, resilience, self-belief and the importance of a loving support crew to help you take one small step at a time, even when that small step seems impossible.
