To keep her body and brain healthy—in the fog of jet lag or the stiffness that follows air travel—Vetere turns to fitness. “When I’m exercising, I’m sharper mentally. Exercise rebalances me.” Years ago, she found what made her tick, as she puts it, and she stuck with it. It’s something she suggests everyone find, too—a moment to harness your quiet, to connect with yourself. It’s what will help push you toward new goals, milestones, and adventures.

For her, that’s the first-ever, female-only, multi-day charity event, the Serengeti Girls Run, which, this October 19 to 24, will bring awareness, funds, and fearless female runners to race across Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania, all the while supporting local female communities. Part of Singita’s new conservation initiative called Safaris With a Purpose, the run is only open to 20 women from around the world. Entrants donate $15,000 to the Singita Grumeti Fund, which goes toward fueling the next generation of female leaders through education, scholarships, building life skills, internships, and training.

Participants in the run are invited to complete either a 30 kilometer (about 18.6 miles) or 90 kilometer (55 miles) course spread over three days. The first day also includes a “fun run” (3 km) with local women and girls—the very people who will benefit from the fundraising event. In local northern Tanzanian communities, girls and women face grave issues such as genital mutilation, early marriage, unwanted pregnancies, poverty, and a lack of education—all on a daily basis.

It’s a deeply powerful and necessary cause, and one that is motivating to Vetere, who excels as both a female business leader and an athlete. Vetere regularly competes in Ironmans, triathlons, half-marathons, and marathons. The connection to the Serengeti Girls Run was a serendipitous one for her, too—and it won’t be her first run in the area. In early June, she was on a trip to various Singita Resorts in the Serengeti, celebrating her birthday. Training for an Ironman, she needed to do a few runs. After asking the resort’s manager how she could do it—and being told running the area wasn’t common practice—the manager set Vetere up with armed guards who would run alongside her in the event of an animal attack. (Remember, the Serengeti is essentially one of the world’s greatest zoos without cages.) Vetere completed two training runs on consecutive days: 11 miles one day, eight the next. Later, during a visit to a local community, she learned about the Serengeti Fund and the women’s run. She signed up almost immediately.

In October, Vetere will not only run, but also speak at the event. “I like to give back, I take being a role model seriously and I like to spread my heart,” says Vetere. It’s something she feels passionately about in the fitness world, too: encouraging more women to move. “I want women to know they can do anything,” she says.

Related: Is Running for Every Body?

But, in order to make a change and get your word across, you have to give yourself time to think—and Vetere does that by lacing up. “Exercise is where I get my quietness, mindfulness, and spirituality. I like it very quiet. That’s where I do a lot of my thinking.”

It’s part of the reason you won’t find her running with music, her phone, or a high-tech tracker. For Vetere, movement is meditative no matter where she is—the vast expanses of the Serengeti or a crowded, loud city. “I can listen to birds, I can listen to horns if I’m running in New York, people, cars whizzing by, I can listen to life. That grounds me,” she says. “I don’t want to see my emails, I don’t want to hear music or anything. I just go into my own zone.”

As for physical training that comes with a 55-mile trek through the Serengeti? While the mere thought might overwhelm most, this is what Vetere does for fun. Case in point: She ran the New York triathlon in early July in almost 100-degree F temps. To her, exercise is truly about the mental benefits. “I’m always training. That’s how much I believe in the mindfulness.”

She hopes to share that message with young girls and women all over the world this October. “I think the race is about more than running. It’s about self-esteem and wellness,” says Vetere. “I want to teach and give back. I want the girls to learn about fitness, mental strength, and spirituality—and that you can do anything you put your mind to—no matter where you are in the world.”

This special safari will take place October 19 to 24, 2018. Reduced rates for participants start at $1,413 per person sharing (two participants per tent) for five nights. Excludes flights, transportation, and the donation amount of $15,000 per person, which goes toward girl and women empowerment projects in the Serengeti. Register here!

Photography by Alex Nicks

The post A Mindful Runner Shares What Drives Her to Train for the First-Ever All-Female Run Across the Serengeti appeared first on Sonima.

While this year’s Olympics are over, the American duo’s season is still in full swing. This week they head to the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam in California, then the AVP Championships in Chicago, followed by the FIVB World Tour Finals in Toronto. After this season, Walsh Jennings, age 38, is going to take some time to figure out whether or not she’ll continue playing. While Ross may not be certain at this point who will be on the court by her side in the coming years, she is clear about one thing: “This is not my last Olympics.” Read on to hear more about Ross’s experience in Rio and what keeps her calm, focused, and performing at her peak.

What was your take on the semifinal match against Brazil? How could it have gone differently for you?

I haven’t had a ton of time to think about it yet. I haven’t watched it back. I’m not sure how it could have been different … I think we didn’t have the best match. I liked our game plan and attitude coming in. No doubt we were there to win that match. We never gave up. They played really well and it didn’t go our way.

Did you and Kerri feel connected that night?

Yeah, we worked really hard to come together and have that connectedness no matter what’s happening on the court. And we definitely felt connected. It wasn’t a case of bad communication or not being on the same page or not being solid as a team.

When you hugged at the end of that semifinals match, it appeared Kerri was consoling you. Was she?

Not necessarily consoling me, no. We’re both really accountable and hold ourselves to high expectations. So I think the main feeling we had when came together after the match was ‘I’m sorry’ that we let each other down. How did you refocus for the bronze medal match? We wanted to win and believed that we could do it. But then our coach, [Brazilian-born] coach Marcio Sicoli, gave us the most inspirational pep talk ever. His emotions and passion got us ever more riled up and ready to go. Last night [at the semifinal] didn’t even matter. We’re here. We’re 100 percent present, focused, and ready to win. There’s no particular line that he said. It was more his sentiment and the finality of “forget last night” this match being our “gold medal” match.

Do you have a spiritual practice that helps you stay calm?

Yes, I meditate for 20 minutes every night before I go to bed. On match days, I meditate before we go to the venue to start warming up. That involves prayers, visualization, and meditation. We work with sports psychologist Mike Gervais, Ph.D., and he’s really big into meditation. His biggest advice most of the time is to listen to yourself and do what you feel you need to through meditation. He’s guided us through meditation before, but I’ve never done any other kind of guided meditation. I use his advice and little snippets I’ve read about the practice and made it my own.

What does it feel like when everything comes together and you “nail it” for a win?

It’s like a trance state. I don’t think I have ever felt the way that I did in the third game of the bronze medal match. I didn’t even realize it until afterwards because people keep asking you what was going through your head. I was so ridiculously focused. The only things I was thinking about were tactical and positive. Everything just all came together. I feel like I did everything to the best of my ability. It was a combination of being super-focused. Having your back against the wall, it’s the only option you have—to play the best that you can play. It’s a euphoric feeling for sure. The flow I had with Kerri wasn’t unique to that match. We’ve been working on it for three and a half years. That has just gotten better with every tournament we’ve ever played. We’ve worked really hard for that. To me there’s never a doubt in my mind that we’re connecting and flowing.

Related: 5 Inspiring Sports Mantras of Olympic Athletes

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Until April, Jorgensen held an unprecedented 13-race winning streak that ended when she came in second at the ITU World Triathlon Series’ Gold Coast race in Australia. Three months later, in July, Jorgensen took silver again at the Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon in Germany. The two defeats blotching her near-perfect racing record isn’t even the worst of it. The elephant in the room is her Olympic debut in London. Four years ago, a flat tire on the bike resulted in a devastating 38th place finish. That’s the beauty and the curse of the Olympics: No matter how hard you’ve worked or how much you deserve a victory, the outcome is out of your hands. In this one-on-one interview with Sonima, the Oakley and Specialized athlete opens up about the unpredictability of racing, the end of her winning streak, and how she handles the stress.

Was breaking the winning streak good in a way? Did it take some pressure off?

You never want to lose, right? You’re always going for the win. I know that on race day, anything can happen. I never thought about the streak. I can’t control what happens on race day. I can only control what I do. I go into every race trying to be prepared. My coach Jamie Turner and my husband Patrick help out getting me ready for race day. I just spoke to Patrick. He’s so calm. He’s more calm than normal. I guess you can call him support staff, but he’s my husband. He’s really invested in this. He has no control over what happens on race day and I think that can sometimes be more nerve-racking for spectators or people who aren’t the actual athletes racing. It’s basically up to me on race day and he’s done everything he can to prepare me. Normally, he’s nervous, but now he’s pretty relaxed, which is nice.

Is Patrick part of your strategy for staying calm?

It’s the Olympics, right? It’s something that you’ve been preparing for four years, so you think you should be really, really nervous. I have good nerves but I’m not overly nervous. Having Patrick there is definitely part of that calming.

Are you still doing your daily affirmations?

I do still write down three affirmations every day. We’re doing nothing new. It’s just another race. It’s a big one, but we prepared for it. I’m really excited to race, which I think is good.

What did you write anything down for today?

I usually do it at the end of the day. We’ve been go, go, go. We woke up, had the Specialized bike preview, had to eat and then had to transport here. Haven’t really had time to think about it.

Tell us about what you’re expecting of the Rio Olympics race course.

We raced on this course last year, but how the race played out then isn’t necessarily how it’s going to [happen] now. Going into any race, I think that’s something that you have to be aware of and prepared for. It’s an ocean swim, which I really am looking forward to. I train in Wollongong, Australia for part of the year, and I just love swimming in the ocean [out there]. I think it’s fun. On the bike, there’s a hill that we have to go over a total of eight times that’s significant, and I think that hill could be a breaking point in the race. Then you start the run, and running off the bike like that, you’re going to have fatigued legs. I think it will be a challenging course for everyone, and I’m excited to go out and give it my everything.

How does this Olympic experience so far compare to London four years ago?

This has been a very focused four years leading up to Rio. Four years before London, I had never ridden a road bike in my life. I’ve been on this four-year build-up to Rio, and with Jamie Turner and the Wollongong Wizards, I’ve been training in this daily performance training environment. I’ve had Patrick with me, which has been a huge help. I have a huge support network, and a lot of people who have believed in me and allowed me to do this full-time, and really focus all my energy. I’m just focusing on racing and training, it’s been wonderful to have that support.

Speaking of support team, who’s out here in Rio with you, besides Patrick?

I have a ton of people here: My mom, dad, and sister, Pat’s mom, dad, and sister. I have a couple uncles who are here, and then I have a group of four high school friends and two college friends who are here with their significant others and parents. A lot of people have come out here, and I’m looking forward to seeing them after the race. Hopefully we can have a big dinner and just hang out. I haven’t seen a lot of them in nine months, and my parents I haven’t seen since Christmas. It’s been a long time. My parents actually got in today and I’m looking forward to seeing them later.

What’s next, after Rio?

I have no idea. I’m going to spend time with Patrick. That’s my only plan that’s set in stone. I don’t know where we are going. I don’t know what we’re doing. I’m a planner. I’ve been planning for four years everything that I’m doing up to this point. It’s a little weird to not have a plan after. We don’t even have a plane ticket home to Minnesota. I’m just not thinking about it. We’re not worried about it.”

The post Triathlete Gwen Jorgensen on Her Olympic Race appeared first on Sonima.

How have you and the team been handling the loss?

I think for a day or two it was really, really difficult and bitter. And I think it will be bitter for a long time. But I think it was a humbling experience because this team has such high expectations for winning and doing well historically in tournaments and being consecutive, three-time Olympic gold medalists. I think it was very devastating and heartbreaking at first. I think we will back bounce from this and come back even stronger, but it will take time. I feel like it’s a good distraction for me to be able to support the rest of team USA.

Does practicing yoga or meditation help?

Meditation has definitely helped because of the craziness and just the devastation that came along with the loss. I haven’t been able to do yoga. But when I get back home, I feel like yoga and meditation will definitely be a part of my weekly routine. So that will definitely help.

Do you practice a specific type of meditation?

I just do mindful meditation. I don’t follow any specific meditation practice [or mindfulness app] right now. I just try to clear my mind, sit still and be present in the moment.

Related: What Is Transcendental Meditation?

What’s the biggest hurdle for the national team going forward?

It’s not like we played a bad game. It’s not like the effort wasn’t there. For us, it’s more about getting over the heartbreak. I don’t think there’s a huge hurdle to get over. But I think it’s going to take time and luckily there’s three years between now and the next major tournament, so time is all we have right now.

What’s next for the team?

We have a long way to the World Cup in three years. So now, it’s just rebuilding and continuing to get back on course. We have two friendlies in September. That will be about getting the team back together and getting us thinking positively and back on the right track.

The post Soccer Star Alex Morgan on Dealing with Loss appeared first on Sonima.

What was your mental strategy going into the Rio Olympics?

It’s been really different this year, as I have been dealing with a pretty devastating injury. Mentally, I just try to be strong and rely on my love for the sport and know that the amount of work I’ve put in to this sport throughout my life will guide me.

Related: 5 Inspiring Sports Mantras from Olympic Athletes

What was your morning routine leading up to Rio? And in Rio?

I don’t wake up really early. I’m usually up by 7 or 7:30, then have a relaxed morning—catch up on tasks and errands. Mornings in Rio I usually get up, head to the track, then get some kind of massage or chiropractic work; I’ve just been getting my final preparations in!

How had your training plan changed going into these Games compared to previous Olympics or world championships?

It was definitely more intense. When I was injured my training had to be altered. I had to do a lot of rehab, spend time in the pool and on the bike, so the training definitely got more creative than ever before.

What has been your experienced in Rio so far? Any funny stories from traveling, commuting, or hanging out with other athletes in the Village?

The favorite has been opening ceremony and walking with everybody.

What are your plans to celebrate post-Olympics? 

Definitely going on a vacation. I love the Caribbean so maybe I’ll go there. And just relaxing, doing nothing, enjoying being still.

What has kept you focused in the days leading up to the track and field competitions in Rio?

Having my support system here in Rio, being able to be around them and eat with them or just hang out. That makes it feel like I have a little piece of home with me, which makes me more comfortable and relaxed.

Can you tell us about the role your mom has played in this journey?

It’s been special being a P&G Bounty athlete and taking part in their Thank You, Mom campaign because my mom is one of the greatest drivers of strength in my life. She has always pushed me to reach my best potential, so being a part of it allows me to say thank you to her for everything she has ever done for me.

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