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Surviving, Racing, and Living Again: Laura Brezin Kern’s Amazing Journey

Laura Kern Recovery Story: Overcoming a Brain Aneurysm at 41 Run Tri Bike Kristin Jenny

“I’m so grateful to have a second life” – Ironman World Championship finisher Laura Kern on overcoming a brain aneurysm at age 41 and able to share her recovery story.

Multi-time marathoner and Ironman triathlon finisher Laura Kern never imagined having a life-altering medical event and has worked tirelessly to return to the racecourse in the years since.


Endurance athletes are often the picture of health with their lean muscle mass, high aerobic capacities, and carefully crafted diet. 

But even the most fit people can be at risk for medical challenges that cannot be warded off by an active lifestyle. 

Californian Laura Brezin Kern was one such person. Kern is a multi-time marathoner and three-time Ironman triathlon finisher, including a finish at the Ironman World Championship in Nice, France in September of this year. 

Despite Kern’s dedication to living a life focused on health and wellness, the endurance athlete suffered an unexpected brian aneurysm in 2022 at just 41 years old. 

Kern’s story packs in the lowest of lows and highest of highs – but most important is that Kern never stopped believing she could return to doing the sports she loves. Sure, there would be the Laura Kern recovery story but it would be more than just that.

The Day That Changed Everything

In 2022, Kern was training for a marathon in her home state of California. 

“I was in great, top-of-the-line fitness right before I had the brain aneurysm,” Kern says. “To this day, I’m not sure if this was related to the aneurysm, but I ended up not finishing the marathon because I had intense heart palpitations during the race.”

As a result of her DNF (did not finish) at the marathon, Kern returned to workouts sooner than she may have had she been able to run as hard as she wanted to for the full 26.2 miles. 

She opted for a light TRX-style strength workout in her home gym a few weeks after the marathon attempt in March, and it was during that workout that her life changed forever. 

“All of the sudden, I started to feel incredibly dizzy during the workout,” Kern says. “I tried to get to the door of my home gym to leave the room and I didn’t make it – I passed out.”

Kern says she awoke a brief time later in a pool of sweat and with the worst headache she’d ever had. Using her Apple Watch, she was able to send her husband a nonsensical text, which cued him into the fact that something was very wrong. He ran back home from walking the dogs, and in this time, Kern called 911 and had trouble articulating her situation.

“My life changed in a split second from me finishing my workout and planning to take a shower and join my first meeting of the day, to being pretty much incapacitated, home alone, laying on the floor,” Kern says. “I laid on the floor of my home gym for about 10 minutes wondering if I would make it out of this situation alive.” 


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The Road to Recovery

While nearly one in 50 people in the U.S. have an unruptured brain aneurysm – which is basically a bulge in one of the arteries in your brain – the amount that experience a ruptured brain aneurysm is far lower, approximately 10 in 100,000 people.

Kern and her medical team remain unable to point to any one factor that caused her brain aneurysm to rupture and the young age of 41, but it’s likely her age and physical fitness contributed to her relatively quick and successful recovery. 

“Although no doctor can pinpoint this specifically, I have to believe that my level of physical fitness came into play with my recovery,” Kern says. “I had a really low resting heart rate and blood pressure, which I have to imagine helped when I was actively bleeding in my brain.

Fortunately, Kern’s medical team told her it was a “when” not an “if” she would be able to return to sport. 

After spending two weeks post-brain aneurysm in the hospital, Kern was cleared to return home, where she gingerly began working her way up to a combination of walking and jogging for one mile. 

From there, Kern progressed so much that she was able to run the Los Angeles Marathon the following year, and complete Ironman Sacramento that year, too, where she qualified for the 2024 Ironman World Championship. 

A Second Life

Kern says that despite the hardships that came from experiencing a ruptured brain aneurysm, she is grateful for this second lease on life.

“I’m so grateful to have this second life,” Kern says. “All of the things I went through during the brain aneurysm recovery have made me appreciate things like my family and sports so much more. Just to be able to get out on a race course and compete again, I realize how lucky I am to be able to do any of this.”

Kern says that while it may come across as cheesy, she truly believes anything is possible.

“I am living proof of that,” Kern says.

And while Kern isn’t entirely sure of the races she’ll tackle in 2025, she is targeting an Ultraman triathlon in 2026, savoring every moment this second life is giving her. When they talk about the Laura Kern recovery story, they will have to include the fact that she not only came back but thrived.

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Kristin Jenny Run Tri Bike Magazine Contributor

Kristin Jenny is an eight-time Ironman finisher and multi-time Kona qualifier. She is based in Boulder, CO where she enjoys spending as much time outdoors as possible with her husband and dog. Kristin is passionate about helping others enter the world of endurance sports and to experience all the triathlon community has to offer.