Sport Speed Austin
Kristen Turner is a Coach and Personal Trainer for Sport Speed Austin, a fitness business owned and coached with her husband Nate. For over two decades, Kristen has coached athletes of all ages in swimming, running, and triathlons. Currently, Kristen leads women’s running and weight training groups, as well as children’s and high school swimming and running programs. She has three children, Austin, 11, Autumn, 9 and Landon, 5. Kristen and her husband were recently named one of Austin’s 10 fittest couples.
Philosophy
Passionate to infuse a love for fitness into her athletes, Kristen intentionally brings a spirit of play, relationship building, and inter-group accountability to her workouts. The most gratifying part of her coaching is guiding and encouraging others to accomplish things they never dreamed they could achieve. Believing that fitness is a vehicle through which children develop confidence, self-discipline, courage, sportsmanship, ambition, and purpose, Kristen and her husband work with families to make sports an experience beyond just physical activity. Carrying on a tradition of family fitness that began in her own childhood, she believes fitness should be a family affair. Her coaching operates out of a philosophy that by inspiring children to love fitness, a ripple effect is created that engages parents to place value on activity in their own lives and vise versa. Since becoming a mother in 2000, she has specialized in motivating women to prioritize fitness as part of their own wholeness, developing confidence and renewed energy, with great benefit for their families. Kristen and Nate model an enjoyment of family fitness with their own children, frequently traversing Lady Bird Lake trails on bikes/runs, competiting in local running races, hiking, and outdoor play. Last year, for her father’s 70’s birthday the whole family ran a 5k together.
Athletic Accomplishments
Kristen’s athletic accomplishments span over 30 years of being a competitive athlete. Beginning a swimming career at the age of seven, Kristen progressed into doing triathlons by the time she was 12. In 1983, her parents moved their family to Hawaii so they could train and compete in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. Watching her parents’ passion for triathlon (including her mother’s two age-group world championships in the Hawaii Ironman), Kristen and her brother Mike, committed to a family goal of someday competiting in the Ironman together with their parents. In 1998, fifteen years after articulating their goal, they became the first family of four to every qualify and finish the Hawaii Ironman. Kristen’s parents still compete in running and triathlon races at the ages of 69 and 71! Her father, Pat McCary has written two books about their family’s Ironman pursuits called The Road to Kona Never Ends and Return to the Kona Road.
