86: Taking on Challenges and Achieving Your Goals with Ironman World Champion Derk de Korver

Derk de Korver joins The Mindful Fire podcast to share his journey to becoming a professional Ironman Triathlete, reaching the World Championships several times.

 He recalls his time in Dublin, where he and Adam Coelho, the host, bonded over side hustling and partying. 

Derk talks about his transformation to becoming a healthier person, and how his goals shifted from just wanting to finish his first marathon, to wanting to qualify for Kona, and eventually winning his age group overall. 

He also shares his decision to stop racing professionally and focus on his family and business.

Guest Bio

Derk de Korver was born in the Netherlands and moved around a lot in his youth due to his dad's work. He went to college in the Netherlands, and started working for Cargill, trading orange juice concentrate. 

He moved to Dublin to work for Google and discovered a new part of himself -- training for a marathon. He eventually signed up for his first Ironman, and after three years of training, he qualified for Kona, the world championships. 

He has done it four times and finished 8th overall and 4th in his age group in 2019. He has also won several Ironman races overall. He recently decided to stop racing professionally and focus on his family and business.

Guest Contact Information

• LinkedIn: Derk de Korver

Key Takeaways

• Derk de Korver is an entrepreneur, triathlete and Google employee.
• I met Derk in 2012 when we worked on the same global team at Google's Dublin office.
• Derk started his journey to achieve his goals by signing up for a marathon.
• He trained for an Ironman event and stopped drinking for the year because of his focus.
• After three years of Ironman, Derk managed to qualify for the Ironman World Championships In Kona, Hawaii.
• He achieved multiple successes in Ironman races and placed 8th overall in the world at Kona and 4th in his age group in his last race in Kona.
• Inspired by his success, Derk decided to go pro, and raced professionally for the next two years.

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