Daily Sun Rookies: 2023 Grandparents edition

They both lived in Florida before moving to the Lakes Region, and they both became grandparents within the past year. There’s one more important detail that Lauren Howard and Jeremy Hart share: They both aspire to become triathletes in 2023.

Howard and Hart are the 2023 participants in The Laconia Daily Sun Rookies Academy, a program that asks the question "Could a local person complete their first triathlon with less than a year of training, if they had support from a handful of local businesses that play in the arena of fitness?"

The Rookie program was inspired by a similar program that the Laconia Citizen, a newspaper no longer in business, operated during the Timberman triathlon’s heyday. The Daily Sun picked up the program last year, since IRONMAN had revived the Timberman. Though that revival lasted only two years, the Rookie program will continue, this time focused on The Wolf, a triathlon taking place in Wolfeboro on Saturday, July 29.

Prospective Rookies must live in the Lakes Region, and must have never completed a triathlon before.

For both Howard and Hart, a triathlon represents something new; an athletic challenge that they can use to improve their wellbeing while also proving they can continue to improve their fitness abilities as they move through the middle stages of life.

Howard, 50, is a Laconia resident, a single mother of four and a registered nurse who is well on her way to becoming a nurse practitioner. She said she has seen in the health care field how lifestyle patterns can affect a person. She also watched first hand, from a volunteer station at last year’s Timberman, how people of a broad range of ages and shapes can complete a triathlon.

Hart, 43, is a software engineer and has lived in Gilford for about a year, having relocated from Jacksonville, Florida. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a seasoned runner, and is married to Julie Hirshan Hart, The Daily Sun's editor. He’s run many 5ks, and four marathons, but is a beginner when it comes to swimming and bicycling, at least from an endurance standpoint.

Neither are what might be considered couch potatoes, as Hart runs 3 or 4 miles at a time several times per week, and Howard has been spinning the pedals on a stationary bike since June and training with a swim coach in a pool as she works to improve her fitness. But they both have a challenging six-and-a-half months ahead of them.

Last year’s Rookies were challenged with a 70.3-mile triathlon that took place in September. This year’s class has a more approachable race — the Olympic course of The Wolf includes a 0.9-mile swim, a 19.5-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run — but they’ll have less time to prepare.

Helping them get ready are several local businesses. The Wellness Complex is providing access to its pool so the Rookies don’t have to wait until ice out to work on their swimming technique. MC Cycle and Sport will provide them with a bicycle to use for both training and race day. Bootlegger’s provides a pair of running shoes. Tri Tek Events, which organizes The Wolf as well as several other multisport events, is granting free registration to the race. And Colin Cook, of Northeast Multisport and himself an elite triathlete, will give the Rookies a training plan.

Howard and Hart recognize they’re in for a challenge — and it’s a challenge they each are seeking.

“I love triathlons, I’ve wanted to do one forever,” Hart said. He isn’t worried about the final leg, “but I’ve never done anything with swimming and biking. I wanted to put all that together.”

Hart said he got a wake-up call in 2020, when he hurt his back while installing a fence at his home in Jacksonville. In an instant, his concept of himself went from unstoppable to fallible. He had been letting other priorities get in front of exercise, and it caught up to him.

“I had a thousand excuses,” Hart said.

“I had other things to do besides working out.”

He said he had been inspired in his first marathon, when a woman in her 70s gave him an encouraging word as she passed him in the home stretch, and when a man in his 60s was conquering obstacles beside him in a Spartan Race. He wanted to be like them someday, but after the fence fiasco, he wondered what his future capabilities would be. So, once he was healed, he started prioritizing his health.

“If I stop for too long, I may not get it back,” Hart said.

“I need to keep pushing myself.”

Howard wasn’t as much of a runner as Hart was in her younger years, but she used to try to run regularly, a couple of miles at a time. In 2009, when she was pregnant with her youngest child, she developed a small fracture in her foot, followed by knee problems that ultimately resulted in surgery in 2015. After that, she figured that running was a sport best left to others.

In June of last year, though, Howard’s gaze landed on an exercise bike that had been gathering dust in her home, and she found that she enjoyed the workout. In September, she volunteered to help pass out food to athletes beginning the running portion of the Timberman, and it was a moving experience for her.

“I watched all these people running through, it was so inspiring. They were all different ages, different body types,” she said, and she wanted to follow in their footsteps. She started taking swim lessons — “I was like a giant toddler,” she joked — and completed two 5k road races this fall.

“I started loving fitness again,” Howard said.

Her children think she’s either out of her mind, or fearless. To her, though, the craziest choice would be to stay stationary.

“As a nurse, I see these people who are older and have these physical problems,” Howard said.

“I don’t want to be that. What am I doing to myself by just sitting around?”

Hart said his children have come to expect such strange behavior from him.

“I always throw myself into situations,” Hart said. “As I get older, I want to prove to myself that I can complete something that requires multiple aspects: Swim, bike and run. Prove to myself that I still have it, especially with being a grandfather now.”

Rookies abound

If Howard and Hart have first-timer jitters at the starting line, they’ll be in good company, said Vince Vaccaro, race director for Tri Tek Events. About a quarter of the participants at the multisport events he hosts are doing it for the first time. No matter their age or athletic background, he said they should all feel welcome to give the sport a try.

“People are getting into triathlon at every age,” Vaccaro said. Many people in middle age and older are drawn to triathlon as a way to increase their fitness, he said, and those unsure of themselves in all three disciplines will sign up for the sprint distance or join a relay team to dip their toe in the waters. There are also run-bike options for those uncomfortable with the swim, and an aquabike event for people who don’t want to run.

Once they join, they tend to stick with it until they are physically unable to any longer, he said, noting that he had to add a new age group to recognize triathletes 75 and older.

“It’s a very inclusive sport, it’s very easy to join,” Vaccaro said.

“There will be people on the $200 Huffy and the $10,000 race bike. It will be a wide range of equipment, and everybody will be fine. You can get in there and have some fun, it doesn’t matter what kind of equipment you’ll be using.”

For those running in The Wolf as their first triathlon, Vaccaro strongly suggests marking their calendars on Monday, July 24, at 6:45 p.m. for a virtual conference to go over everything athletes will need to know about their first event, including a period for questions and answers.

“I want people to be included, I want people to have fun,” Vaccaro said, adding that the best way to have fun on race day is to get serious about training.

“It’s just like everything else. The more they practice, the better off they’ll be.”