Fit To Compete

Meet Lynette Mena, SOBeFiT's Fittest Woman of the Year.

By Ken Rivadeneira; Photography by Dania Graibe

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“They don’t have superpowers, but they have super-strong hearts and minds. Lynette and Edwin have my admiration—they make health a lifestyle, not a trend, and continue to inspire me and many others with their commitment, passion and courage.”
-Marta Montenegro, SOBeFiT founder/publisher/editor-in-chief

Lynette Mena has a plan. You see it in her eyes, you read it on her face, you hear it in her voice—and you know that’s how she accomplishes everything she sets out to do.

“I hope to be doing this till I’m 90 years old,” she says. That’s her plan for her workout regimen and her participation in sports competitions like races and triathlons, with the end goal of living out a long, healthy life. The 30-year-old physical therapist from Miami says she always enjoyed being active as a child practicing ballet, and later becoming a Spinning instructor. But her passion for competition against herself mushroomed as she grew older and began to enter races. With each event she competed in, she devised a system of achieving goals that she can apply to anything in life, including helping her patients.

Recently, Lynette had the opportunity to work with an 8-year-old girl with respiratory distress who needed to build up her endurance. The child had seen Lynette in a previous issue of SOBeFiT as one of our Fittest Person of the Year Contest finalists, and became inspired by her athleticism to work harder on her therapy. “It was kind of nice that I could use the athletic side of me to motivate her,” she says, explaining that the young wheelchair- and ventilator-assisted patient advanced in her training and walked a few steps. “We had to measure her heart rate and oxygen level, and I told her, ‘This is what athletes use when we train,’ and she was very receptive to it. She really touched me.”

Lynette’s strategic series of short-term goals toward one end result have taken her to compete in elite events like the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships. She’ll continue on this track, with her eye on yet another prize. “My next goal is to hopefully expand my family and become a fit mom,” she says. “Once I get settled in that department, hopefully I’ll do another Ironman. I wanted to do one when I was single (I was engaged to my husband at the time), one when I was married—so I’ve done those two. And I would like to do one after I have kids.” Lynette explains that her sporty pursuits, at this stage, are a lifestyle. “Everyone has 24 hours in their day, and I know a lot of moms who do it… you just have to plan better.”

Read more about Lynette and why she is one of the Fittest Person winners in the November/December 2009 issue of SOBeFiT Magazine.

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