TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pinellas News

Injury prompts woman to remake self

ADVERTISEMENT

By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: June 6, 2009

With less than two weeks until her next bodybuilding competition, Noelle Grinley was dreading that final training phase, which brings out that extra muscle definition. But she knows that last step makes all the difference.

Her physique was already fine-tuned. Her tall, long-limbed frame emphasized a lean but well-muscled fitness level rare at any age, let alone a 43-year-old mother of two; the kind of athleticism one would assume takes a lifetime of dedication.

On the contrary, Grinley said. A little more than three years ago, she was like a lot of women, taking care of everything and everyone but her. When she nearly lost it all, she had to rebuild her body and life and decided to make it all better than before. She's succeeded, but she isn't done yet.

"I want to take it a step further," she said. Having learned to seek and find that next step, she now wants to help other women do the same.

In 2006, she had her own event planning company, Grinley and Associates. It was successful, she said, but it took a lot of her time and attention.

The last event she organized that year was tied in with the Kentucky Derby. An ill-fated horse named Barbaro won the 2006 Run for the Roses, a bit of horseracing trivia that will forever have a curious significance for Grinley. Two weeks later, at the Preakness Stakes, Barbaro broke his leg moments into the race - the same day she broke hers in a freak accident on a hotel water slide.

"I slid on my back and my heel hit the top of the waterslide, hyper-extended back in the opposite direction and basically crushed everything in my knee," she said.

She was laid up for months. She gained weight and her business fell apart. She had to spend eight hours a day on a machine that kept the knee from stiffening. Between that and the pain medication, she had lots of time to just sit and think.

"I contemplated my life and where I was going," Grinley said. "It was sink or swim here. My marriage is falling apart, I have no work, my health is shot and my kids are depending on me. Do I just dissipate - sit here on medication all day long? Or do I pick myself up and move on and turn it all around?"

Grinley got back on her feet, in every sense. As she rebuilt her business and filed for divorce, she joined Weight Watchers and hired a personal trainer. Then something happened that inspired her to take the next step.

"It's when I started seeing my abs," Grinley said. "Seeing your definition, seeing the changes in your body and realizing you have a shot at taking your fitness to the next level."

She'd dreamed of competing in bodybuilding when she was in her 20s, before life got in the way. Now, with her entire life in rebuilding mode, the dream came back to life. Grinley took part in her first competition, the 2008 FAME North American Championships in Miami, last October.

"I didn't place but I learned quite a bit," she said. "It was important that I had a fitness goal to help get me through everything I was going through."

Her next competition will be the National Physique Committee Level III, to be held June 13 in Tampa. As she prepares, she is contemplating her next long-range goal.

While her event planning business - www.grinley.com - is her bread and butter, Grinley is seeking her fitness training certification. She wants to take what she experienced and help other women find inner strength through diet and exercise.

Maybe it isn't as sudden or pronounced a shakeup as she had, but the 40s seem to be a critical time for many women, Grinley said, with their marriages, their children, their parents and their careers. Even if they don't aspire to pose onstage, she wants to show them that the first step to rebuilding their lives is to rebuild their health through diet and exercise.

"Manage your diet first, and find an activity you enjoy," she said. "Once you feel good about yourself you're able to take steps in your life that are really going to make a difference."

The plan is still in the works, but Grinley has no doubt that just as she has been doing for the past three years, she will reach this goal, too, one step at a time.

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT