Ashleigh Hoeta: Strength

Saturday trainings with the boys 💪

One of my goals for 2026 is to run my first marathon to support my best friend

She has been going through a lot with her health and when she said her dream is to run a marathon I said “okay I’ll do it with you”.

I went through every emotion after today’s run after deciding I’ll add in sprints 😩

When I was 21 my Dad said “I saw this guy lift some really heavy weights. I think you should look into it because I think you’d do well”

It’s not every day you get to say you were the first woman in the world to do something.

It’s not every day you get to say you are travelling around the world for a sport.

My world has changed and it’s thanks to that one comment my Dad made ❤️

It will be two years since I became the first woman in the world to bench press over 300kg when I am in Canada, so I thought I would take today to write about this.

When this first became an idea, I immediately said I’d take the challenge to it. At the time my Dad was so sick and I really wanted to get this before he passed away. I pictured it, him sitting there watching me do this bench and then running him to him hugging him. I tried in March 2023 but failed only doing 265kg.

I’d never set out to do this record for myself. Lifting was a way to deal with knowing he was going to pass away. The entire purpose was to do it for him and to give him another happy memory.

I was three weeks out from this competition and he passed away. I remember feeling so broken, wondering how the heck I am meant to pull it together and still try when I’ve just had my world turned upside down. So, I numbed it out and went back to training two days after his funeral. I didn’t want to speak about it, I just wanted to get on with it.

To this day I still don’t know how I ever pulled this off. I remember getting up from the bench and screaming and crying running to my family. The pain and sadness in those three weeks came out.

What I have learnt since this is life can throw the most horrible challenges at me, and I’ll still stand back up on it and keep going ✨