“Kari Turkowski is not your average athlete. As a student at St. Cloud State University, she earned a spot on the
school’s volleyball, hockey and track teams. After graduation she hoped to continue that athletic lifestyle, with a goal of playing professional beach volleyball. But those California dreams took a sudden detour one day during a training run. “Something just didn’t feel right,” Kari tells us. “I couldn’t keep my normal pace.”
Thinking she was simply getting sick, Kari initially “shrugged it off” and tried training again the next day. “But I started getting that same kind of feeling,” she tells us. “I checked my pulse and I could tell it wasn’t in rhythm.”” Quoted from article on Mayo Clinic In the Loop Blog
It is believed that Kari developed myocarditis which lead to damage to her heart and she is currently in Stage 2 Heart Failure. This is not holding Kari back, she is training to pursue her lifelong dream to complete the Iron Man and she will try just that in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 10, 2017.
Learn more about Kari’s story and her journey to Iron Man on Mayo Clinic’s In the Loop blog and by watching her film, Iron Heart. You can follow Kari on instagram to stay up to date on her journey @kariturkowski
