Lee-Ann Elliott is a Yoga instructor at Virgin Active. After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, she was told she’d never walk normally again – well, did she prove them wrong or what?!
Lee Ann believes her Yoga practise allows her to dig deep and move inwards rather than getting caught up in the internal stuff and says the first place she felt some kind of comfort was a Yoga studio.
She works with a number of athletes whose disciplines include weightlifting and triathlons and uses Yoga to improve their performance, their mental game as well as aid and reduce recovery times.
Preferring to teach from experience, she thought “what the hell” and set herself a very meaty challenge – train like a triathlete.
She chose the swim first after encountering an Instagram post from @embarktri – a triathlon training group. Her curiosity lead her to contact them about the training group and next thing you know, Lee-Ann and some of her members were preparing for the biggest challenge of her life – a 7.4km swim. We tagged along to capture her swim and spent a little bit of time getting to know Lee-Ann. Watch her story now.
After Robben Island, she signed up with Embark to do the Old Mutual Double Century 202km cycle race at the end of November. She’s doing the 7km Langebann express swim with Big Bay Events on 9 October and the Cape Town Cycle Tour on 10 October.
After the DC, she will be turning her attention to the running discipline of triathlons and is working to raise funds for Durban Iron Man. Lee-Ann is an inspiration, and we wish her all the best. We’ll be watching!
A huge thanks goes out to Derrick Frazer from @BigBayEvents for allowing our team to hop on board and film Lee Ann’s amazing achievement.
More about the Robben Island swim: https://cldsa.co.za/location/robben-island/
Follow Lee-Ann on the Gram: @leeannelliott