Do your dreams inspire you into action?

Growing up with people like the A-Team and Knight Rider’s David Hasselhoff as heroes, climbing trees and jumping off the garage roof thinking she was a stuntwoman, Patricia Richardson had one desire: To be able to do what the boys do!

Now on the brink of her third Ironman, the fastest-growing sport for women but still densely occupied by men, not only has she made that dream come true, her belief in the philosophy that energy begets energy has inspired her to greater action which has seen her beat the boys at their own game.

She owes her success as a female tri-athlete, which she admits means being “a woman in a man’s world”, to...