Maker Proud: How this former pro soccer player kept a Kona dream, all while keeping DC Rainmaker and a busy family going

Three kids, three countries and three jobs later, Roberta “Bobbie” Maker stepped back onto the start line. In the course of her twelve years away from the sport, the former professional soccer player turned triathlete had moved to France, opened a wildly successful “Cupcakery” in the heart of Paris, moved to Amsterdam and became a mother to three girls. But her venture away from triathlon had nothing to do with any of those milestones.

The dream

Maker, a native of Portugal Cove, Newfoundland, moved to the US for college on a full-ride soccer scholarship. With dreams of playing pro, with posters of Mia Hamm on the wall to prove it, Maker had earned herself the opportunity to compete in Division 1 NCAA, the highest level of soccer for women at the time.

“There was no dreamboat from Seventeen magazine on my wall. It was the American women’s national soccer team,” she remembers. “I have high school photos in Mia Hamm’s national jersey. I was 100 per cent going to name all my children, Mia. Mia one, Mia two, Mia three.”

“Division 1 NCAA soccer was the dream,” she says. “I played four years of university soccer and I still, 20 years later, hold most of the records at that university for goals, which is kind of cool.”

A few years later, the women’s professional league, the WSL, started. Even though Maker was playing at the semi-professional level beyond college, rules limiting international players and competition with fresh talent meant Maker, at 24, didn’t make the cut.

“It was a tough pill to swallow,” she says. “When the last 10 years of my life were all about ‘make that next team, make that next provincial team, get invited to that tournament,’ it was my identity. Then someone says there’s literally no other game for you to play. I didn’t even know how to make friends without a soccer team. Like, who do you date if it’s not a soccer player? Where do you go? But that’s how I actually fell into triathlon.”

A new love

Maker transitioned into teaching but, longing for sport, she joined a local running club. One guy in the group was training for Ironman Canada. Maker had no idea what an ironman was, but she figured she could do one.

“The guy” training for Ironman turned out to be Ray Maker, or, to the rest of the world, DC Rainmaker. While his triathlon and tech review website is now notorious, back then it was just a blog about his preparation for Ironman. Whether he wrote about it on the blog or not, his training included a partner. The two would train together after work, drive out to the mountains on weekends for long bike rides, run together with the club and, eventually, they fell in love.

A new dream

The two spent years working their day jobs, training and racing, and while Maker didn’t end up doing an Ironman herself, she became obsessed with Olympic-distance racing. With her background in pro soccer, her experience coaching high school sports and her natural drive to excel as an athlete, Maker found success right away—but not quite enough. Unable to turn two years of consistent top-five results into a winning performance, Maker could’t get to the Olympic qualifying level she craved.

“Sometimes it comes down to luck,” she says. “If you hook in with the right coach, the right little group, you get the right person, in the right circumstance—and I didn’t. And that’s totally fine. I don’t have any regrets about my younger triathlon self.”

But then her coach dangled a new carrot for Maker to chase: the half Ironman.

“I switched over to the 70. 3 distance,” she says. “And I did want to go pro there. And I did want to go to the world championships.”

Make or break

Maker went all in on trying to qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.

“I took an entire year and put everything I could into 70.3 Boise,” she says. “I had eight or nine months on the schedule and my goal was to qualify for the world championship.”

“I lost the race on the swim,” she remembers. “I clawed my way back on the bike and then I outran everyone.”

But it wasn’t enough. Struggling in freezing water temperatures, Maker’s already weaker swim left her with too much of a deficit.

“I came in third place at Boise,” she says. “Only the top two got a slot to the world championship. I think that was the moment that, I don’t want to say it broke me, but I had been doing competitive sports with all of my heart since 10 years old. Everything, my identity, my self efficacy, was always based on my performance. You lay your whole life down on the line to try to try and make the world championship, and when you stop and look around when the race is over…I definitely had a moment of what are you doing?”

Maker was ready for a change and she still stands by that decision, but time has also given her perspective.

“I look back on it and I wish I could have a chat with that self and tell her: you did good,” she says.

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New adventures

Maker’s pro sporting dreams might have been over, but her life only accelerated. She and Ray were married and they moved to Paris. Maker opened an internationally acclaimed “Cupcakery” 300 m from Notre Dame and then the Cake Studio. They became parents to three little girls and then, after the DC Rainmaker site became a full time job for both of them, they relocated to Amsterdam. They had fun documenting it all on their website.

Maker was ready to move on from her pro sport aspirations, but in the midst of the COVID lockdown with three kids and their business, she realized she had left a big piece of herself behind.

“I hadn’t done physical activity other than literally carrying babies around,” she says. “I hit such a hard wall that I was like, I’m not doing this, I’m not living like this. I had given up everything. My whole identity was gone. I’m not a competitor anymore. I’m always last: the kids are first, DC Rainmaker is next, Ray is next, the dog, and then there’s me.”

“I got to a point where I said something has to change. I don’t want to be that kind of mom. I think if you have three little girls, you have a responsibility to not only encourage them to do things, but to show them moms can be other things too.”

Moms can be Ironman athletes

Maker got a coach, reactivated her TrainingPeaks account, and signed up for an Ironman.

NASA-level scheduling, delegating and asking for help was how they made it work as a family. And, after 12 years, Maker found her way to the start line.

After her first race back, a warm up half-distance race in Gran Canaria, Maker stood on the start line of ironman Klagenfurt.

Despite being at the back end of an illness, feeling terrible the entire day and facing all the challenges an Ironman guarantees, Maker made it to the magic carpet.

“The feeling of crossing your first Ironman finish line and knowing all of the years you just put behind you … I know that it sounds cheesy, but it was the accomplishment of a lifetime,” she says.

“As an adult accomplishment and knowing what I came back from, I don’t think I’ll ever replicate that feeling of pride,” she says. “It was the whole encompassing moment of, ‘Good job, kid. You’ve still got grit.’”

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Getting the Win

Her performance earned her a Kona slot and, with her girls watching, she reached her goal of competing at the world championship level. While she says seeing her girls experience the races and watch her compete is the real prize, a year later at Challenge Gran Canaria, Maker went on to finally get her first age group win.

Sarah Bonner is a regular contributor to Triathlon Magazine. She lives in Lanzarote, Spain.

This story originally appeared in the July issue of Triathlon Magazine Canada.