Juneau woman pushes on to Arctic Muscle Fest, despite trauma

Typically at this hour, 32-year-old Lacey Godkin will have worked up a heavy sweat. Not today though; she’s taking it easy on the cycling and weights. Instead, as part of her preparation for the Arctic Muscle Fest, a bodybuilding competition in Anchorage just days out, Godkin’s working on her “posing” with a trainer.

Her trainer, Jamie Troxel, walks her through a front pose. While smiling into the wall-sized studio mirror, Godkin brings her feet together and hips back. Leaning forward slightly, she raises her shoulders to suspend her arms, revealing her pronounced biceps and triceps.

Godkin has worked out almost every day for the past five months to get to this point. The physical transformation has come at an especially trying point in her life. Earlier this year, she said she was sexually assaulted.

“I’ve always felt really tough, I’ve always thought I could take care of myself and I was assaulted in March,” Godkin said. “I’ve learned to come back to the gym after taking that week off and find that confidence again. I think that’s why I really want to hit the stage because I deserve that. I could have just sat down and … let him take the power away.”

A night out

After a family dinner in March, Godkin went to the Imperial Bar in downtown Juneau with some friends.

“My mom dropped me off, it was just gonna be a drink or two with my friends and then I was going to catch a cab home to be home with my boys and I woke up out Thane at 6 or something (in the morning),” Godkin said.

According to Godkin’s court petition for a sexual assault protective order, she woke up in a stranger’s car that reeked of marijuana. Extremely startled and distressed, Godkin asked the stranger — a man she said she had never met before — to be dropped off back at her car downtown. Godkin drove to her sister’s house, and the two went to the hospital, where Godkin eventually received a rape kit.

“I could tell that he had raped me,” Godkin said. “I went straight to the hospital after that and they found bruises and hip contusions. That’s why I had to take the week off, because my hip was thrown out.”

Godkin has since filed criminal charges and the case is pending at the district attorney’s office.

The alleged attack happened a month after she started training for the muscle competition in Anchorage. Godkin still had approximately 15 weeks of intense training before the competition. She was tempted to give up and move on from her goal.

“I was really distracted on the fact: ‘Did I do something wrong?’ Should I be putting myself on stage in this little bikini? Did I deserve that because I looked good that night, because my body had changed so much?’” Godkin recalled thinking to herself. “I had to get over that blaming myself for what had happened. I had to place the blame on him.”

Godkin decided she would continue with her training. Getting into shape for the competition helped her heal from the trauma.

“That’s where I go right now — the gym,” Godkin said. “Most people in my situation and the people I’ve talked to that have been assaulted … turn to drugs or alcohol or they are a slug at home because they don’t want to leave.”

The sidekick

Troxel, 37, has been Godkin’s trainer and dietitian throughout her body makeover. The women are small business owners, mothers and as luck would have it, neighbors. They chatted whenever their kids played in the street at the same time. In the fall of 2016, Troxel encouraged Godkin to enroll in her boot camp, a four-week fitness program she hosts at the Alaska Club.

Worried she wouldn’t have the time to take on a new obligation, Godkin obliged anyway. She could do “maybe three” push ups before the first boot camp. Now, Godkin can pull off at least 30. Instead of leaving the gym tired and stressed for time, she left full of energy and motivated, ready to take on the day.

“I was up and ready to go to the gym once I started seeing results,” Godkin said.

Godkin got serious about eating healthy, too. For three one-week periods, Godkin cut out all artificial sugar, grain, gluten and dairy from her diet through Troxel-designed “raw food cleanses.” It hooked her, and with Troxel by her side, Godkin stopped eating processed foods altogether.

“I’d go to her house and I actually physically showed her how to cook clean,” Troxel said. “And then she would show me what she eats for the day and I’d be like, ‘Yes, that looks good, but where’s your protein?’”

One of the dishes she began preparing at home frequently was spaghetti squash, a healthy alternative to traditional pasta. The most important part? Godkin’s 4-year-old son, Ryker, eats it up.

“At first it was like, ‘How am I going to tie this all in to family life?’” Godkin said of the healthier diet. “I just have more snacks than they do now, mostly protein snacks, hard-boiled eggs, chicken, things like that.”

Whitney Parks, 26, is one of two full-time baristas who works at Godkin’s popular drive-thru coffee shop, Capital Brew Pump and Grind. She’s seen Godkin’s progression first hand.

“I can’t get over the progress that she has gone through,” Parks said. “I’m kind of following behind her in her footsteps because it’s something I also want to do.”

Parks’ statement is music to Troxel’s ears. The 37-year-old bodybuilder and owner of Grumpy’s Delicatessen is eager to start a club of women who attend bodybuilding competitions in the state and beyond.

In October of 2016, Troxel won first place in the figure division at a competition known as the IronMan in Bothell, Washington. She’d won a competition before in Alaska, but said winning in the Lower 48 gave her an “on top of the world” feeling she couldn’t help but want to share with others.

“I try to inspire these bootcampers to do a contest,” Troxel said. “I challenge them every time and I’m like, ‘Hey, you’ve got a great physique, would you be interested in training for a contest?’ … Lacey was one of those gals.”

Under the bright lights

Some three days after Godkin posed in the privacy of the Alaska Club, the 32-year-old took the stage at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium for the Arctic Muscle Fest. As a pop song played in the background, four women contestants walked out from behind a tall black curtain.

“Let me bring out, Lacey Godkin,” said a man in a deep voice.

Godkin, wearing a white bikini, lipstick and the Ellie stilettos, takes eight steps out from the curtain, stops, faces the audience, and continues forward. “Go sister!” one hears on the cellphone video posted to Facebook. Godkin makes two more stops, making a backwards “L” on the bright-lit stage, before taking her place behind the lineup of women stage left.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been on stage like that — ever,” Godkin said several days after the competition. “I did the wearable arts show but you’re not by yourself, you’re with whoever made the outfit. … I ended up having to go out and pose by myself, it was a little bit different than we had practiced but it’s OK.”

Godkin placed fourth in the Class B figure division.

“It was just the posing that is crucial when it comes down to it,” she said. “I got enough compliments from the judges that it was like, ‘OK, they said (this sport) was in my genetics and in my body build,’ and you could tell they wanted to see more.’”

And that’s what they’ll get, too. Godkin is already preparing for another bodybuilding competition in late October.

She’ll undoubtedly be stronger this time around, both inside and out.

“I’m more than happy to share my story,” Godkin said. “It almost makes me feel like I’m not alone.”

 

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• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.

 

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