Surfacing: From the Depths of Self-Doubt to Winning Big and Living Fearlessly

From a young age, Siri Lindley dreamed of becoming a champion. To get there, she would face fierce competitors and grueling workouts. She would be forced to stare down her inner demons, defeat her deep-seated insecurities, and fully embrace her sexuality.

"In some sessions, there were moments when I wasn't sure if I would be alive or dead the next minute. Is my heart going to jump out of my chest? Am I going to be sick? Pure, unadulterated pain pulsed through every cell in my body.

But on the other side, I was rewarded with the most incredible feeling of accomplishment. It was euphoria. Bliss."

In Surfacing, Siri Lindley opens up about her unique celebrity-dappled early life. When an NFL superstar notices her beautiful mother, her idyllic childhood is upended. Glitzy dinner parties and world travel pull her mother away, and Lindley grows up feeling alone and out of place. As her intense loneliness grows into anger, she lashes out against her New England life of privilege.

Shy and painfully self-aware, Lindley finds solace in sports, playing field hockey, lacrosse, and ice hockey at Brown University. But when she misses the cut for the US lacrosse team after college, she is left directionless-until a friend invites her to watch a triathlon. Lindley's dream is reignited, and she never looks back.

Success doesn't come easily. Lindley fails early and often-brutal swim starts, bike equipment failures at key races, grueling workouts-but it's debilitating anxiety that still haunts her. She turns to unconventional Australian coach Brett Sutton, who helps her tear up her script of self-doubt and transforms her into a world champion.

Lindley retires from the sport at the peak of her success, intent on helping athletes realize their own dreams, and finally finds the courage to step into her true self and find love as a gay woman.

Surfacing is a breathtakingly honest book that shares Lindley's daring journey. She is proof that it's never too late to rewrite your own story and change the thoughts, habits, and behaviors that hold you back. Surfacing will inspire you as it shows how to stop being your own worst enemy and start uncovering your potential.

SIRI LINDLEY is a world champion triathlete and one of the sport's most accomplished coaches. She dominated short-course racing as the no. 1-ranked triathlete in the ITU World Cup series in 2001 and 2002 and won the 2001 world championship. She has coached her athletes, including Ironman champion Mirinda Carfrae, to Olympic medals and world championships in both long- and short-course racing. Lindley lives with her wife, triathlete Rebekah Keat, in Boulder, Colorado, where she trains Team Sirius, her elite squad of pro and amateur athletes.

JULIA BEESON POLLORENO is an award-winning writer and former editor-in-chief of Triathlete magazine. She is a competitive triathlete and has finished both Ironman and Challenge races. She is a founding member of the board of directors for Women for Tri and a graduate of Stanford University. She lives in southern California with her husband and two children.