We’re proud to introduce the 2022 Kerrville Tri Ambassadors! These individuals are triathletes of all speeds, abilities, and experience levels, truly representing the triathlon community. They’re here to help you along your journey, answer questions, and provide advice as they prepare for the Kerrville Tri start line just like you. Ohh yeah, it pays to follow them on Instagram!
Justin Faircloth
Justin is a jack of all trades master of none “type A fun” junkie. He uses Air Traffic Control to support his triathalon habit. His family is his support network alongside all the amazing people in the fitness community of Austin. He discovered triathalon while in the military and its been love ever since. Always willing to recommend a good book or join in to try a new coffee shop he’s always trying to expand his fitness family!
Michelle Kennemer
Michelle was a runner for many years before finding triathlon, her true love. She has completed three Ironman triathlons, five half Ironman triathlons, and countless shorter triathlons. Michelle has finished the 70.3 at the Kerrville Triathlon twice, including the year of the flash flood (2016). It is a favorite race venue and she is looking forward to returning in September. She believes that local races are vital to the sport and Kerrville Triatlon is a beautiful example of that. Michelle lives in the Dallas area with her husband and fellow endurance athlete, Erik. She is a dog mom to three small pups and she works as a music therapist for a local school district.
Mark Schnur
Mark is a 60-64 yo multi-sport athlete, with over 30 years experience in running, cycling, and triathlon. he enjoys most outdoor sports and adventures, including kayaking, hunting, and fishing. He is a U.S. Army Veteran, with service in Operation Enduring Freedom. He is married to Donna, also a triathlete, and they have completed numerous Kerrville Tri’s together.
Karen Moser
Karen Moser has always been an athletic person. She was a swimmer and lifeguard through H.S. and junior college. Before moving to Richmond, TX from CA in 2011 she was mountain biking and playing soccer. Her big draw to triathlons was the community aspect of it and all the good friends she has made. She now loves the sport of triathlon and spends her free time reading and broadening her knowledge of swim, bike, run. Karen is a coach and loves sharing everything she has learned and continues to learn with those she trains with. She also helps coach her daughters, ages 7 and 9, tri team and loves cheering them on at their races.
Heather Henley
Heather lives outside of Houston and spends her time chasing adventure and two kids. Swimming, gravel biking, hiking, and trail running are her favorite hobbies. Since 2018, she has written a blog to document adventures in momming and triathlon – www.realhealthyheather.com. If it’s outside, she’s there. Mostly a sprint triathlete, she finished her very first Olympic distance at Kerrville last year, and cannot wait to be back!
Kat Tierney
Kat grew up a competitive swimmer and soccer player. After college she developed a love for road biking and decided to sign up for a triathlon with a few friends just for fun. The friendships she has made in the Tri community since moving to Texas eight years ago are some of her closest friends and cannot be beat. Kat keeps her schedule full as a wife, mom to two boys and as a pediatric Occupational Therapist. She can’t wait to be an ambassador for Kerrville and share her love of training, racing and most of all – having fun!
Fancy Flores Bernhagen
Fancy got involved in triathlons in 2014 when a friend talked her into doing a super sprint triathlon in Bastrop. From that point on she was hooked and has completed every distance between a sprint and Ironman. 2018 was her first year to participate in the Kerrville Triathlon Festival and she absolutely loved the atmosphere of an entire weekend dedicated to triathlon in the Texas Hill Country. Outside of triathlon, Fancy loves to garden, a hobby she picked up during COVID. She also works as an employee wellness manager and enjoys being able to connect work to her favorite pastime.
Jackie Bunce
Jackie completed her first open-water sprint triathlon in 2014 on her mountain bike, and has since completed many half-distance and one full Ironman. Jackie lives in the county and enjoys riding on gravel and country roads as part of her triathlon training. She is also an RRCA certified run coach, has emceed, coordinated, volunteered, and promoted many races, in all capacities from seeking approval and sponsors to handing out water. Her goal and inner peace are driven by other people’s happiness. One way she achieves this is by sharing the love of triathlons and running, and trying to continually inspire others to share the same.
Stephen Michalik
Stephen grew up as an age-group swimmer on the beautiful island of Maui. He relocated to Texas to start a family and got into running in 2019. At that time he could barely complete 3 miles without stopping. After completing his first sprint triathlon in The Woodlands in 2018, he was hooked and continued to focus and running and cycling. He joined his local running and tri group, Northside Running & Tri. Hearing about the Kerrville Triathalon, labeled as the Most Scenic Triathlon in TX, he signed up to race in 2021 and made the 5-hour drive. Hard work paid off as he finished 3rd in his age group (40-44). He hopes to complete his first full Ironman by 2023 and qualify for the Boston Marathon by 2024. He is the co-founder of an international Christian school, foodie, avid surfer, and proud parent of two beautiful children.
Maximiliano Ramirez
Maximiliano joined the triathlon world in early 2019. Although he hasn’t done many races he enjoys the process and is looking forward to add more races in the next year. Maximiliano has two kids, Maximiliano II and Victoria. He wishes to one day participate in triathlons along his kids. He is looking forward to this new season and is anxious to see if covid will have an effect this tri season.
Lauren Beato
Lauren was introduced to triathlons by one of her best friends from college. She signed Lauren up for a local Florida sprint triathlon as a graduation present and once Lauren crossed the finish line, she knew she was hooked. Since moving to Texas in 2018, Lauren has completed over 10 triathlons of various distances; one of her favorites being the Quarter Distance Kerrville Triathlon. In 2021, she reached one of her triathlon goals of completing an Ironman (Ironman Florida). The ultimate goal is Kona. She is now working on convincing her Austin running group to add cycling and swimming to their weekly workouts and complete some triathlons.
Steve Mallett
Steve has been a triathlete since the mid 1980’s. He completed his first sprint tri in Key West, Florida in 1984. Since then he’s completed well over 100 races. Now he competes in the “old man” group (55-59) where the athletes can still be fast and strong. Steve typically comes out of the water in in the top 10 swimmers overall and enjoys the chaos of open water swimming. He loves the Kerrville tri because it showcases all the reasons to love triathlon: Great competition, a wonderful course, exceptional spectators and a well run event.
Caty Broderick
Caty Broderick is a triathlete based in Austin, Texas. She has completed 5 sprint triathlons and 1 quarter distance triathlon and is working to better her time for the Kerrville Quarter distance in 2022. Caty taught and coached at the high school level for 8 years before completing her masters degree in school counseling. Caty has been a high school counselor since 2011 (Austin resident since 2014). Caty also enjoys margaritas on a sunny patio and spending time with friends and family (especially while spoiling her nieces and nephews).
Malcolm Prouty
Malcolm Prouty began competing in triathlon in 2019 with the completion of the Texas Tri Series (The Rookie Triathlon, Life Time CapTex Tri, Jack’s Generic Triathlon, and Kerrville Triathlon Festival), Ironman 70.3 Waco, and several Splash ’n Dash events. Malcolm is active in the Austin triathlon community and loves participating in local events. Malcolm is looking forward to what the 2022 season has in store and promoting the Kerrville Triathlon Festival as an ambassador.
Joanne Salaz
Joanne has been involved in triathlon since she was 17 years old, back when it was run, bike, swim. She started out as a triathlete and is now an aquabiker due to many knee issues. She started out racing mostly in California and has moved to Texas and excited to do new races here in Texas – ESPECIALLY the Kerville Tri! It is not just a race, it’s an event. She’s really looking forward to meeting many new racers over the race weekend festival.
Marlo Youde
Marlo completed her first triathlon in 2017. Since then, she’s competed in several events, but Kerrville is still her favorite race venue. Marlo finished her first half, Ironman 70.3 Waco in 2019 and is currently training for her first full, Ironman Arizona. She loves the tri community and is thrilled to serve as a Kerrville Tri Ambassador and volunteer. Connect with her on Instagram!
Debbie Wog
Debbie has competed in marathons and triathlons for over 10 years. She has completed 2 full IM distances, 6 half IM distance, multiple shorter distances triathlons and 15 full marathons. Debbie loves everything about triathlon (maybe not the swim part). She has worked in the fitness industry for 20+ years and currently teaches Pilates, Pilates Suspension Method, Yoga and Cycling.
Selina Tovar
Selina is very excited to represent the Kerrville Triathlon ambassador program this year. She transitioned from running half marathons to triathlons to try something new. She’s slowly learning to love the swimming and biking part of the sport. Selina also enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, eating cake and pasta, reading, spending time with her cats and playing Animal Crossing. She is also a gymnastics mom and loves to show her daughter that hard work and dedication can help you reach your goals. Selina is very excited for this triathlon season and can’t wait to hit the Kerrville course in September.
John Hance
John enjoys participating and training for triathlon races throughout the year. Enjoy the comrodery of training with club and helping others especially in the swimming area. John has done multiple 70.3 races and will be competing in first 140.6 Ironman this year in 2022. John looks forward to promoting Kerrville and helping others live a healthy lifestyle.
Annette Kobus
Annette got into the triathlon lifestyle in 2004. Just a few sprints at first – some of the favorites were Danskin, Splash! (Seaworld in San Antonio), Marble Falls, Burnet Tri-Hard, RiverCities near Shreveport, and when High Five Events started putting on their Tri Series, Annette either raced or volunteered at virtually every event. Although she still can’t swim very fast, completing the swim is required to get on the bike! When the Texas Tri Series grew to include the Kerrville Triathlon Festival, this became Annette’s new way of celebrating birthdays – with hundreds of triathlon buddies! Since she wore out her original knees, Annette had them replaced in 2018 and did the Sprint at Kerrville in 2019, and Quarter Aquabike in 2021. Someday, Annette wants to do the Half Distance at Kerrville, but first she needs to learn to swim faster. Annette hopes she does justice to the role of Ambassador for the Kerrville Triathlon Festival.
Joy Marpa
Joy started triathlon in 2018. Because of it, she quit smoking cold turkey, turned to social drinking and met an amazing support group with the triathlon community. Her first race was the Rookie Triathlon and after crossing the finish line she was just wanting more. After the past 3 years of racing (more participating really, and we kinda skipped 2020) she was able to complete a number of short course races all over the Austin area and a couple of half iron distance in Kerrville. If not on course racing, she will be cheering from the sidelines or volunteering as she sees this as the best way to give back. Currently, she training for her first full Ironman – Ironman Florida in November 2022!
Mary McDonald
Mary is a vintage triathlete having been in this sport for more than 35 years. She has had the opportunity in race in Kona, ‘France and many places across the USA. She loves the Kerrville triathlon because it is an athlete-friendly, well organized race in a pretty location that offers fun races for all triathletes. Over the last couple of years of pandemic craziness, she has learned to truly appreciate every opportunity to train and race and hopes to inspire others to build a healthy lifestyle through triathlon.
