Maeghan was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. As a high schooler she only cared about running, particularly running short and fast distances. Tearing her ACL/meniscus as a HS Junior, she got into swimming and biking as a means to stay in shape when she couldn’t run. As a joke, she told one of her friends who did triathlons that she should try one because of all this swimming and biking she was doing (although it was rather slow paced).
She tried her first triathlon in 2015 after graduating HS and was hooked. She quickly found many people to train with, including those part of the tri club at Iowa State University, which was where she graduated with her Bachelors of Biochemistry. She started getting serious about triathlon training, and by 2016 she was awarded the Age-Group Junior Triathlete of the Year nomination by USA Triathlon, and placed 3rd that year at the Age Group Nationals for F16-F19 and 11th overall.
In 2017, she placed 2nd in the F20-F24 division at Age Group Nationals and 4th at UST Collegiate Club Nationals in the draft legal race. Soon after starting to hit her stride in triathlon fitness, she got a call to be a walk-on for Iowa State’s track and field program. She thought this was a dream come true, but didn’t feel that a D1 running program was a good fit for her. After just a semester, she walked off the team, and hopped back on her bike, and gave her first go at road, crit, and cyclocross racing in 2018.
Despite moving from cat 5 to 2 in both road and cx, the racing bikes were hung back up while she ran to maintain fitness while she focused more on school, until a calf tear got her back on the bike in the summer of 2020. As much as she has always loved running, nothing topped how she felt while pushing herself hard on the bike. Maeghan primarily trains for gravel and road, but she got into Zwift racing while Covid canceled many outdoor races, and found that it was one more cycling discipline that she’d like to keep in her cycling endeavors.
Interesting facts about Maeghan:
She has a 2 year-old blue heeler named Moose who she always takse on runs with her, and the occasional rollerblade
A square of chocolate with her coffee is an absolute necessity
Non-recovering peanut butter addict (10/10 would recommend trying it on a sweet potato)
Favorite type of training ride is a toss-up between the long 5+ hour ride with the Casey’s General Store fuel stop and the local Tuesday Night World Championship drop ride
Had piano lessons from age 5 to 12 and still plays every once in awhile