This summer, Brandi Estey completed her first IRONMAN competition, an achievement that seemed impossible years ago when she was recovering from major surgery and learning to walk again.
Her determination was shaped early. Raised in foster care from the age of seven, Brandi learned quickly to rely on her own strength, while holding on to the influence of mentors and role models who helped guide her path. That resilience would become essential throughout her journey.
Brandi has been a member of the YMCA for more than a decade. She joined after her son was born, wanting to build a healthier life. Not long after, she received a life-changing diagnosis: Osteosarcoma, the same cancer Terry Fox faced. Surgeons removed half her pelvis, and she was told she might never walk again.
“I thought my life was over,” Brandi explained on a sunny summer afternoon in the lobby of the Saint John Regional Y. “When I came home from the hospital, I walked within a week. Then I did my first Terry Fox Run with a walker and my newborn baby. That’s really when my fitness journey began.”
Over the years, the YMCA became more than a gym. It was the place where she rebuilt her strength and found a community that believed in her.
Brandi Estey Trains for IRONMAN Race
“I’ve been to every gym in the city, and the Y has become my preferred place to workout,” she said. “There’s such a sense of community. I feel comfortable and supported.”
That support proved essential when Brandi set her sights on an IRONMAN. She admits she barely knew how to swim when she started. But it was in the Saint John Regional Y’s pool, she met member Doug Gallant, who offered to coach her.
“Doug started meeting me at 5:30 in the morning,” Brandi recalled. “He broke down every movement of the swim, and also taught me how to cycle properly, even helped me with clipping into pedals. I owe so much of my race to him.”
Training was grueling. Along with full-time work and raising her 13-year-old son, Brandi dedicated 15 to 20 hours a week to preparation. She shared how Sherry Fitzgerald, Fitness Supervisor at the YMCA of Southwestern New Brunswick also provided her with a detailed 16-week training plan.
“I followed that plan faithfully and Sherry was so helpful throughout my journey.”
“I don’t work out for how I look, I work out for how I feel,” she said. “Fitness is my medicine, as Todd MacQueen at the Irving Oil Field House likes to say. It balances me and makes me a better person.”
Race day tested her like never before. With temperatures reaching 36 degrees and heavy humidity, she had to stop at every aid station to cool her body. At the final kilometer of the half-marathon run, emotions took over.
“I broke down. I couldn’t believe I had finished. I had never raced before, I just started with the Iron Man.”
Her son, who has since taken up running himself, was there to celebrate with her at the finish line.
Brandi’s drive doesn’t stop there. She is now working toward becoming a police officer, inspired by the mentors and officers who once made a difference in her own life. “I want to be that positive change for somebody else,” she said.
For Brandi, the YMCA has been a constant through challenges and triumphs.
“This is my gym home,” she said. “It’s part of my everyday life, and it gave me the support and space I needed to believe in myself.”