In Focus: Triathlete Diana Lajoie

Diana Lajoie admits to having a competitive streak so fierce that she usually declines to participate in anything she knows she can't win. She's even quick to end her favorite computer game of Yahtzee when it looks like it's not going well, opting instead to start a new game.

So it surprised the 38-year-old resident of Seekonk, Mass., as much as anyone when in 2004, at the urging of a couple of triathletes in the yoga class she taught, she decided to enter her first triathlon in Ashland, Mass., an Olympic-distance event that consisted of a swim of just under a mile, a 24.8-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run.

"I was delighted just to finish, and I got the bug," Lajoie said last week over dinner in Providence.

"Bug" might be a bit of an understatement. Since then, Lajoie estimates, she has competed in 10 Olympic triathlons, 4 sprints (consisting of a half-mile swim, a 12.4-mile bike ride and a 3.1-mile run), 2 "70.3s" or half-triathlons (a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run) and 3 Ironmans, the granddaddy of all triathlons, consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run.

In her last Ironman, in Lake Placid, N.Y., on July 26, Lajoie placed 17th out of 104 in her division with a personal-best time of 12 hours, 1 minute and 21 seconds. (All of these photos, incidentally, are from the Lake Placid event.)

While happy to have posted her best time in Lake Placid, Lajoie felt she could have done better were it not for some issues that arose related to her race-day intake of food and liquids.

"Nutrition is everything," she said.

The problem began with a minor cramp in her right calf during the swim, she said. She fared very well during that portion of the event, finishing 10th in her division. The cramps escalated during the bike ride, Lajoie said, so she began drinking a lot of water at every aid station and dipping into all the nutrition she carried in her Fuel Belt, "just like in training." She managed to finish strong in the bike ride, at ninth place in her division. But her troubles were just beginning.

"By the time I got to the run, the leg cramps were gone, but my stomach was upset," she said. "Thank God for Porta Johns. It was very challenging."

When such unforeseen troubles arise on the course, Lajoie said, "It becomes more of a mental race than a physical race."

Running has always been her weakest link in the event, Lajoie said, which is why she's planning to emphasize running in her training from October through February, perhaps participating in some 5Ks and 10Ks to work on her speed. But that will be for training purposes only.

"I love triathlon," she said. "I could never see myself just swimming, biking or running."

Her goal is to be invited to the most famous of all triathlons, the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. "I think it is [the goal] for everyone," she said. Only the top three finishers in each division of an Ironman are invited to the Hawaii race, though the top 20 are kept on a list of potential invitees in case some cannot make it.

Because Lajoie finished 17th in her division at Lake Placid, she was honored to have her name on that list.

Lajoie said one of the most difficult things about running an Ironman, aside from the countless hours of training, is learning to pace herself. Being so competitive, it's hard, she said, to watch people pass her, but she has to resist the urge to try to keep up.

"The whole point is to find a pace that will be comfortable without burning yourself out," she said. "So many people leave themselves for dead on the run."

If there's one thing Lajoie hopes others will take from her story, it is that she has accomplished what she has as an ordinary woman. She did not have parents who pushed her along the way, she did not have a high-paid coach. She is truly self-motivated, having trained herself using plans downloaded from the Internet.

"I'm just a normal person," said Lajoie, who works as a CAT-scan technologist at Rhode Island Medical Imaging. "Anybody can do this, whether running their first 5K, or doing the first one-mile walk that they've never done before."

There is a price to pay for the training required for Ironmans, though. Lajoie talks almost ruefully of the pre-dawn hours spent training alone, and the fact that she can never seem to find the time to go camping under the stars on a weekend with her husband.

"So you envy other people," she said. "The only time I sit still is when I hit the wall."

I'm thankful Diana took the time to sit still with me for a couple of hours, and I didn't get the sense that there was a wall anywhere in sight.

Success stories: A casting call

I'd like to try a little experiment and occasionally run stories about people whose accomplishments can inspire us.

I plan to kick off this experiment Thursday with a profile of Diana Lajoie, a Massachusetts resident who somewhat hesitantly entered her first triathlon in 2004 and has been swimming, biking and running her way to personal achievement ever since. Last month she finished an Ironman in Lake Placid, N.Y., in just over 12 hours, a personal best.

I hope you'll enjoy Diana's story and help provide me with material for other such stories. I'd love to hear from you if you or someone you know has an inspiring story and would like to share it with me.

The accomplishments don't necessarily have to be of the athletic variety. They could be about weight loss, or finding happiness, or overcoming a physical problem. Just something that reminds us that ordinary people are capable of some pretty extraordinary things when they tap the power within.

You can e-mail me with story suggestions at rhodetofitness.gmail.com

A little light housekeeping

Just a few odds and ends today. First, a reminder that there are only three days left to cast your vote in my highly unscientific poll on exercise frequency, which can be found somewhere over on the left-hand side of this page. I'm happy to see that no one has reported that they exercise only rarely, but then I wouldn't expect to see such people at a blog that has the word fitness in its name.

Second, my partner, Marge, and I are planning to take part in a four-mile road race this Sunday, primarily as walkers/joggers, since neither of us runs regularly and we have not been training for it. The race supports a scholarship fund set up in memory of Kerri Bessette, a South Kingstown High School graduate and athlete who died of bacterial meningitis in April 2001 while in her freshman year at LaSalle University.

Although we knew neither Kerri nor her family, her story moved both of us. The course is a paved loop near Matunuck Beach, and the race starts at 9 a.m. Registration and other information can be found at www.run4kerri.com.

And in the putting-us-to-shame department is Diana Lajoie, a colleague of Marge, who finished 17th in her division in Sunday's Ford Ironman triathlon in Lake Placid, N.Y. The 38-year-old resident of Seekonk, Mass., finished the event — which consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run — in 12 hours, 1 minute and 21 seconds. It's hard for me to comprehend being able to finish it in any amount of time. Way to go, Diana!

Finally, I promised I'd report back on my progress with the deadlift, which I began doing about a month ago. I started with an easy 65 pounds to get the form right, and am now lifting 125 pounds (three sets of six reps). My short-term goal was to be able to lift my body weight, so I have another 10 pounds to go. I think I should be able to reach that, and then some, in pretty short order.

Aside from feeling like I'm building strength rapidly, I love the fact that the deadlift is a time-saver. Because it is a compound exercise that involves so many different muscles, I've been able to eliminate leg extensions and curls, and back extensions from my exercise routine. And who among us couldn't use a little more free time these days?

And a footnote to the story of my interest in the deadlift, which was sparked by seeing a video of Nia Shanks deadlifting 300 pounds: it seems Nia's mother has caught the bug, too. At 49, Nia's mother is just two years younger than I am, and she deadlifted 235 pounds in her first powerlifting competition.

Who says getting older is tough? Bring it on!