By Olivia Jarman
Sarah Hays still remembers her first triathlon: an ocean swim that left her panicked and gasping for air. She nearly quit mid-race but pushed through, finishing near the back of the pack. That experience stayed with her. Years later, it shaped how she and co-founder Angi Klick built She Tris, an all-women’s triathlon series designed to make that first start line feel a little less intimidating.
For many women, crossing the finish line of a triathlon is more than an athletic goal. It’s an act of confidence – often the result of facing fears, juggling families and careers, and discovering strength they did not know they had.
Getting to that start line can be the hardest part. Between expensive gear, intimidating swim courses and the perception that triathlons are reserved for elite athletes, the sport can feel out of reach. Across the Carolinas, women are rewriting that narrative one event and one finish line at a time.
Among the efforts leading that shift is She Tris, an all-women sprint triathlon series based in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded by Klick and Hays in 2015, the group builds events around accessibility with short distances, pool swims instead of open water and a supportive environment that welcomes first-timers as much as seasoned competitors.
Hays and Klick balance creativity and logistics in running their small but growing series across the Carolinas, and they share one simple goal: to make triathlon something every woman can see herself doing.
“I kind of consider myself a later-in-life athlete,” Hays said.
Hays did cheerleading in high school but started running in college because her best friend did.
“It was kind of the only time I could hang out with her,” Hays said.
Years later, a friend from her gym suggested signing up for a triathlon. Confident she could handle all three legs, Hays agreed — until she found herself in the open ocean, panicking mid-swim. She pushed through and finished near the back of the pack, but the experience hooked her. The next time, she returned stronger and fell in love with the sport.
Participants smile before the start of the She Tris triathlon Sept. 14, 2025, in Chapel Hill. This women’s-only race encourages newcomers to the sport and builds community through friendly competition.
For many first-time triathletes, community is what sustains them. Klick, a longtime triathlete herself, remembers working at a triathlon store years ago and seeing how hungry women were to learn.
“The women were just like sponges,” she said. “They wanted to know all the best gear to wear, all the information I had. They just wanted it. So, it became apparent to me that the women needed more.”
When she started organizing events, Klick designed them with beginners in mind: short, doable and above all welcoming.
“Every event we do is pool-swim and very beginner-friendly,” she said.
Each registration comes with a training plan from a local coach, helping participants feel prepared before the day of the event. The concept resonated with Hays, who soon joined Klick behind the scenes.
“We’re very yin and yang,” Hays said. “Angie’s super creative and comes up with all these ideas, and I’m usually the checklist of how we get to the finished product of whatever it was.”
A participant rides down Old Chapel Hill Road as part of the biking portion of She Tris triathlon Sept. 14, 2025, in Chapel Hill. The event combines swimming, cycling and running, and challenges women of all levels of experience to test their endurance.
Together, Klick and Hays have built a model centered on inclusion. The pool swim replaces the intimidation of open water, and free clinics teach basics such as setting up a transition zone or shifting bike gears. Hays laughed that she had probably ridden her road bike for a couple of years before knowing anything about changing gears.
That sense of welcome runs through everything they do, even in how they talk about their work.
Rather than using traditional job titles, the team calls themselves things like “Champion of Enthusiasm” and “Champion of Confidence,” names that reflect the energy they try to bring to their community. They also avoid calling their triathlons “races.” Instead, they refer to them as events, emphasizing experience and camaraderie over competition. Every choice, from the language to the structure, is meant to make women feel like they belong.
For Stephanie Wheeler, a mother of four and professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, that supportive tone was what finally convinced her to give triathlon a try.
“One of my best friends is Sarah Hays, who obviously is one of the founders of She Tries, and she’d been after me for years,” Wheeler said. “I’m not really a runner or swimmer – not even a cyclist — I just try to stay fit, like anybody does. She’s like, ‘Oh, you can totally do this.’”
She signed up and surprised herself. Her first event left an impression.
“It’s all women and girls. So just the energy of being around all these amazing females who are also for-real athletes and some of them just like more people like me who just wanted to challenge themselves — the energy was just awesome,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler’s 9-year-old daughter now trains with her mom and hopes to compete one day. “I think it normalizes this idea of being active as being an important part of life,” Wheeler said. “What more can you give to your kids?
An athlete rushes into the transition zone during the She Tris triathlon to shift from cycling to running, a critical moment that could make or break their race. Known as the “fourth discipline” of triathlon, transitions demand focus and efficiency under pressure.
Virginia Ogburn, a junior double majoring in Hispanic linguistics and chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill, grew up watching her dad compete in triathlons and was drawn to the sport from an early age.
“Growing up, I was always surrounded by them, like going to watch him race all these local events,” Ogburn said. “And so then I decided I really wanted to do one.”
Her first event was the Ramblin’ Rose, a Chapel Hill triathlon series that would later become part of the She Tris series. Born with one hand, Ogburn has faced challenges, but has never let them stop her. Her entry into the national paratriathlon scene began when her UNC triathlon coach reached out to USA Triathlon, mentioning her potential and interest in para competition.
“In April I was named to the U23 team for the U.S. so that was pretty cool,” she said.
From there, she began connecting with coaches and athletes across the country, stepping into a new level of competition. Now a U.S. elite paratriathlete and vice president of UNC’s triathlon club, Ogburn trains and races at the highest levels of the sport.
The summer of 2024, after her freshman year of college she raced in the national championships and won.
“National Champion was the title I never thought I would hold,” Ogburn said.
This October, she represented Team USA at the 2025 World Triathlon Para Championships in Wollongong, Australia. Despite her demanding schedule, she still finds time to volunteer with She Tris where she first started.
Even for seasoned athletes, every triathlon remains a test of resilience. Running five events a year leaves Hays and Klick little time for their own events. Hays said that running these events with a small team is challenging and the work begins long before sunrise.
“The race director life is not glamorous,” Hays said. “We’re like loading and unloading a U-Haul over and over again, we’re up at 3 a.m. and at the event site by 3:45 a.m. and we don’t go home until you know three in the afternoon.”
Their motivation lies in what happens after the finish line.
A runner pushes toward the finish line after the 2.05-mile-long run at the She Tris triathlon Sept .14 in Chapel Hill, drawing on determination to complete the final leg of the event.
“We had a woman learn to swim because her nephew had drowned and she didn’t know how to swim and she wanted to not have anybody else in her family suffer from that,” Hays said. “So she learned to swim in order to do the She Tris event.”
Klick also recalled a woman who shared she felt so confident after tackling the She Tris event that she asked for a promotion at work.
At their events, everyone is celebrated, not just the winners.
“We don’t have a time limit and we never take the finish line down before the final participant arrives,” Hays said. “We try to make it a big deal when she arrives.”
From beginners like Wheeler to collegiate athletes like Ogburn, each story shows what happens when support replaces intimidation. Once viewed as a solitary endurance sport, triathlon has become something else entirely for women across the Carolinas — not just a race to the finish, but a movement of belonging and believing in yourself.
“When people find us, they love us and they latch on,” Hays said.
