Angela Lee

Angela was a late bloomer when it came to triathlon. While living along the bike route for the Herbalife LA triathlon since 2002, for 10 years she was annoyed when Fairfax would be closed so cyclists could ride from the beach to downtown. “What is a stupid triathlon anyway?” she'd ask herself. That all changed in August 2012 while Angela was filming the documentary From Fat to Finish Line and found herself standing at the starting line of the Rev3 Triathlon in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. As the sun rose over the Atlantic, and the triathletes ran into the water, she got this feeling in her chest and an urge to join them. For the first time in her life she understood the meaning of the term "eat your heart out." She was 48 years old, didn’t really know how to swim and hadn’t been on a bike for years, but she was going to be a triathlete. 

The next month she raced her first race, a reverse mini sprint in a pool, on a rusty Gary Fisher with a kickstand she got for $50 from Craigslist. She stopped and stood up to gasp for air twice during the 200 meter pool swim. Thank goodness she was in the shallow lane! A few months later she upgraded her bike for $400, again from craigslist. She didn’t know how to properly train, but back then it was just about not drowning and not crashing.

She floundered for another year and in 2014 finally hired a swim coach after deciding to tackle her first 70.3. This started a chain of events that would lead Angela to places she never thought possible. That swim coach was the founder of One With the Ocean, the community where South Bay Squad was born. She went from having to stand up in the middle of a 50-meter pool to swimming 11 1/2 miles around Coronado Island and teetering on a $50 bike to training for her third 545 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles (still on that $400 road bike although it's had a few upgrades.) 

In 2018 she got certified as a triathlon coach and an AIDS/Lifecycle training ride leader. In 2020 she added a running coach certification and is currently working on a Women's Fitness Specialization with NASM. Her favorite thing to do is help others who don’t come from swimming or cycling backgrounds avoid some of the rookie mistakes she made. She's patient with swimmers no matter how long it takes to overcome their fear of ocean waves and can change a bike tire in 2 1/2 minutes. 

Angela wrote and oversees the First Time Sprint program with South Bay Squad and competes with Coach Jasmine for loudest cheer voice (although Jasmine is the only one with a whistle.) You can also catch Angela flying down the closed streets annoying her neighbors during the Herbalife LA Triathlon each May.