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golden times
MOND A Y, A U G U ST 5 , 2 0 1 3
Age is just another number in triathlons In the last two-plus decades Helen Holmes has taken triathlons from a fly-by-your-pants family event to a serious part of her life By Mary Tatko
“We asked the lifeguard how many times that was up and down the pool and he said 10,” Holmes Helen Holmes was 43 when she recalled. “We counted different, participated in her first triathlon, the though.” Gold Nugget Triathlon in Anchorage, As it turned out, the lifeguard Alaska. meant 10 laps — across the pool In May, the Clarkston resident, and back was one lap. They pracnow 70, returned to compete again in ticed 10 lengths — half the actual the Gold Nugget for her 100th triath- distance they would be swimming lon, taking first place in her age group in the event. — for the first time ever. Since then, “Both my daughters were in she has completed two more triathbefore I was because they have lons, in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden these staggered starts. They did 250 Lake, Idaho. yards — they did half of it — and “I have never considered myself they thought they were done. And an athlete,” she said. “When I first so they both got told no, you’ve started doing them, I was like 26th got that much more to go,” Holmes out of 28 people in my age group.” said, laughing. “And I’m thinking Gradually she moved up, somethey’re gonna kill me.” times finishing in fifth or sixth place, They weren’t much better prebut it was years before she earned a pared for the cycling portion of the ribbon, she said. race. “My joke to myself was in order to “I think I had a Schwinn 3win I was going to have to outlive all speed,” Holmes recalled. “We bormy opponents,” she said, laughing. rowed motorcycle helmets so that “Seriously, that’s what’s happened.” we’d have a helmet.” Before her first Gold Nugget 27 She remembers showering, years ago, Holmes said, she had donning a new outfit and fixing never participated in anything like a her hair after the swim portion of triathlon. the event. Their strategy wasn’t “I ran, but just a couple miles for speed, but all three of them — two, three miles — that kind of finished. thing, just for exercise,” she said. “I don’t know why I got so She lived in Anchorage with her hooked on it, because honestly I two daughters, who were 13 and 15, felt like I’d been run over by a semi,” when she learned about the Gold Holmes said. “I was so sore. And Nugget, a sprint triathlon for women. my daughter, she told me it took “I said ‘OK, we’re going to go do her three days to recover.” something together that’s fun.’ ” “But I just did (get hooked on One of her daughters was on the triathlons). It was so much fun. track team, and the other did gymAnd I just decided next time I was nastics and swimming, so Holmes going to train a bit more so I didn’t figured they would be up to it. hurt so bad.” “We just decided — I decided In the years since, she’s learned — that we would do this as a family,” how to better prepare and acquired Holmes said. more conventional gear. As they began preparing, they “I have the bike, I have the racing learned they’d be swimming 500 wheels, I even have an Arrow helyards but didn’t know how to measure met,” she said. “I’ve got all the toys now. That’s been fun.” the distance. Target Publications
Tribune/Kyle Mills
Helen Holmes of Clarkston isn’t your typical senior. In her spare time she trains for and competes in triathlons throughout the region.