2025 August VFE Featured Athlete – Jessica Brizuela. Sport: Triathlon

When people hear I’m a triathlete, salsa dancer, and professional harpist, among other things, they tend to ask, “What don’t you do?” I usually respond by joking that I like everything, which is why triathlon is my sport of choice. Honestly, I have a lot of energy. My dance instructor says I’m like a ping pong who bounces everywhere and runner friends will call me the Energizer Bunny who keeps going, but the truth is, it’s not always as easy as it looks. Life has pulled me in every direction, from concert stages to ocean swims, heartbreaks to finish lines, injuries to dance floors, but through it all, movement has been my anchor, helping me make sense of life.

I started triathlons in 2014 with Team in Training through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, when I returned home from Boston after graduating from Berklee College of Music. At the time, I was helping care for my grandma who had cancer. Training provided me with community and a needed expressive outlet that wasn’t my profession of music. When she passed later that year, triathlon became the way I grieved and healed. It reminded me I was still alive, still capable, still moving.That season taught me that sport could be sacred.

Since then, the journey hasn’t been linear, it’s been a winding, wild, and beautiful ride. In 2016, while training for Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz, I was nearly hit by a car on a descent. I swerved off the road, crashed, and was airlifted to Stanford trauma center. Recovery took time. I had a concussion, facial lacerations, and a whole lot of fear to work through. I stepped away from triathlon and into something new, dance. The Latin dances of salsa and bachata became my new sport as I recovered with team rehearsals, stage performances, traveling for festivals, and a new community. Movement found a new rhythm, eventually leading me back to triathlon with a renewed sense of self.

In 2019, I finally raced Santa Cruz 70.3, the same race I had trained for before the accident. I felt invincible and, six days later, raced 70.3 miles again for the Malibu Long Course race. I convinced myself I could do a full Ironman, so I signed up for Ironman Santa Rosa, hoping 2020 would be the year I complete a full 140.6 mile Ironman race. The year started out great, I placed first in my age group at Desert Triathlon, then I had a dance performance with my salsa team from Athletic Garage Dance Center that same evening. The now-legendary “Jessica Pose” was born after I posted a collage of me after both events, one in a race kit and the other in my dance costume doing the same sassy dance pose. That combo of strength and sparkle is me and this pose still makes appearances with my run community.

But then came the pandemic.

As a performing harpist and music therapist, I lost all my work overnight with weddings and live music events cancelled. I was self-employed and didn’t qualify for unemployment. It was a rough time. But training gave me hope. With fewer cars on the road, I found courage to cycle outside again. I did some epic rides that year including century rides from Burbank to Santa Barbara, Anaheim to San Diego, Santa Monica to Ventura and back, along with other local climbs like Mt. Baldy, Mt. Wilson, Crystal Lake and beyond. I joined Fortius Altius Citius Training (FACT) with Running Coach Armand Crespo and SilverPeak Performance Masters Swim Team. Being part of these teams gave me the accountability and community I needed to level up. That year, I got faster, stronger, and more fearless than ever.

I was introduced to Vision for Enrichment (VFE) in 2020, right before the world shut down when my legs were cooked after running the LA Marathon. I frequently saw Mayra Lopez, a popular community runner, make posts raving about VFE, so I decided to make an appointment. During the pandemic, owner Rich Lorton gave FACT athletes a discount so he started working on me and helped me recover, stay healthy, and keep showing up. From these sessions, I knew this wasn’t just a bodywork studio, it was a community.

Over the years, I’ve had my share of wins and setbacks and VFE has been there with me. I completed various 70.3 mile races including Oceanside, Santa Cruz, and Oregon where I PR’d. I made Team USA for the Aquathlon (swim/run) in 2021 and competed in Slovakia for the Multisport World Championships in 2022, treating my mom to her first trip to Europe. I also trained for Ironman California only to have it canceled an hour before the race due to a bomb cyclone of heavy winds and rain. In 2022, I faced a heart-wrenching choice: race Ironman Lake Placid or accept an invitation to perform harp in an orchestra to play for the iconic band Journey for a Las Vegas residency. I chose music, my first love. And while that came with personal struggles, it also brought full-circle joy, getting to perform for a band my parents love and treating them to a Vegas weekend after all the sacrifices they made for my music education.

The truth is, life has been a dance between my passions: triathlon, music, and dance. And VFE has supported me through every twist and turn. From Rich’s expert work, to April’s healing hands and therapist-like chats, to Steve’s ability to fix me while making me laugh, VFE has seen me at my best and worst. They’ve worked through my ankle sprains (which, Steve knows, happened way too often), helped me recover after races, and even addressed the overuse injuries I get from hours of harp playing. My right arm, the one I broke as a kid, sustained nerve damage and had 3 surgeries on, is my “moneymaker” as a harpist and Steve gets it and never forgets to treat it. Rich, April, Steve, and the rest of the VFE therapists aren’t just bodywork pros, they are a family. I’ve trusted their work enough to refer my friends (athletes and musicians) and family members including my mom and sister. VFE is the kind of place where you walk in limping or drained and leave feeling physically better, emotionally lighter, and mentally recharged. Every time I walk in, someone knows my name, like in “Cheers.”. Every time I walk out, I feel more like myself, and glad I came.

Now in 2025, I don’t train as hard or as often as I used to, but I show up. I’m still going, still racing, still dancing, still working, still dreaming. I’m a proud ambassador of Run With Us Pasadena and I’m currently training and even raced a triathlon in Miami while visiting my sister for the summer, before returning back to LA to teach another school year as a full time music educator, with triathlons still on my calendar. This December I’ll be racing Ironman 70.3 La Quinta because I won an entry in a contest after submitting an original song I wrote called “Crash Boom,” inspired by that 2016 accident that once sidelined me, tying everything together beautifully. In 2026, I hope to race the new Ironman 70.3 El Salvador in the country where both of my parents are from, taking them along with me since they have not been back since they left during the Salvadoran Civil War. And maybe one day I’ll complete a full Ironman, but for now I’ll keep dreaming, because that’s part of the fun.

So here’s what I’ve learned:
Progress isn’t linear, and being in the game doesn’t always mean going full speed, sometimes it means resting, resetting, and starting again. It’s okay to take time to recover and redefine what success looks like. There’s so much more to celebrate in life outside of races from family to work and beyond. Wins often come with a trail of losses behind them, and that doesn’t make them any less worth celebrating. You don’t have to do it all, but you do owe it to yourself to keep showing up in whatever form that looks like. Whether you’re racing, dancing, grieving, or rebuilding, there’s space for it all, just keep moving with purpose, with heart, and when possible, with joy. And remember, you don’t have to do it alone, VFE reminds me of that every single time.

This is me: harpist, triathlete, dancer, dreamer.
I fall. I rise. I race. I recover.
Harp. Hustle. Repeat.