The triathlete next door

Three-sport endeavor growing in the Lakes Region

Nine years ago, Julie Sforza-Smith was a budding attorney, having just finished her law education with degree from Suffolk University's Law School. She got a great job in a high-profile firm in Boston, and she threw herself into the career to the extent that a 12-hour day was shorter than usual. Everything was going great, until the 26-year old woke up in the middle of the night with chest pains so strong she thought she was having a heart attack.

A trip to the hospital revealed that there was no cardiac emergency, but a battery of stress and other tests showed that her lifestyle was leading her toward that fate. "My life was my work and I didn't take care of myself." The doctors told her, "Get healthy or you won't have a long life."

The warning did not fall on deaf ears, and Sforza-Smith has joined a growing trend of Lakes Region residents who have adopted the triathlete lifestyle.

Sforza-Smith quit her job and moved to Warren. She got a chocolate Lab named Asa, and took a job as a tax attorney that allows her to work from home. The new job is "not as glamorous, but I can hike everyday with my pets."

One day, while walking Asa through the Warren fish hatchery grounds, she came across Jason, who was walking his chocolate Lab Jordie. The two found that they had more in common that pet breeds, and were married last year. Jason took a job as the supervisor for the Powder Mill Fish Hatchery in New Durham, and the two live at the hatchery.

Sforza-Smith never considered herself to be athletic beyond hiking and snowshoeing, but one of her friends convinced her to start running. On her daily walks with Asa and Jordie through the hatchery, she began to jog, just a little bit, only about fifty feet at first. She was so embarrassed that she would wait until she was in the privacy of the woods to run, and would stop when she got to the clearing. Then, one day, the workers told her that her little runs were "no secret," and she got over herself enough to run on the roads.

Running every day, she lost 50 pounds over two years, but then hit a "plateau" where she stopped losing weight even though she was exercising just as hard. "I was really frustrated because I couldn't lose any more weight, and I needed to." That's where the triathlon-style training comes into play.

Lori Oakley, co-owner of the Laconia Athletic and Swim Club, said Sforza-Smith is somewhat typical of the growing pool of triathletes in the region. One of the advantages to the three-sport pursuit is that the different exercises work different muscle groups.

Because of the variety of stresses, the sport's participants aren't as likely to suffer chronic injures associated with doing nothing but running everyday. Triathletes run some, but they also ride bicycles and swim, which reduces the stress on knees and backs. The variety also reduces the amount of boredom some athletes experience when focusing on just one activity. "It's a growing sport. Once people get into it, they're generally hooked."

The athletic and swim club started offering lessons geared toward triathletes about five years ago, and in November of last year started the Lakes Region Triathlon Club, based at the athletic club. There are already 35 members in the club, with women representing a slim majority.

The 35 members in the club are an indication that youth is not a prerequisite for this sport. Sforza-Smith, at 35, is one of the club's youngest members. Only two were born in the 1970s, eight were born in the 1960s, 12 were born in the 1950s, and one member will turn 60 this year. "It's one of those sports that you don't get beat up in," Oakley said.

Oakley, who will turn 50 this year, said the lesser impact of the sport makes veteran athletes less likely to suffer a career-ending injury, and the fact that the athletes compete against others in their age bracket keeps things interesting. As a 50th birthday present to herself, she's going to compete in the Timberman triathlon in Gilford this summer.

Oakley's club is more than happy to cater to the growth in triathletes, but she doesn't take credit for it. To her, the trend is clearly the result of the Timberman Triathlon Festival, which was started by Keith Jordan in 2001.

At the time, Jordan was working for the family business, Jordan's Ice Creamery in Belmont, and had just gotten into triathlons. He competed in one in Maryland, and was amazed by how far people came to race. He said, "I kept thinking, we live in such a beautiful place in the Lakes Region, why can't we do one here?"

The irony is that there were so few triathletes in the region at that time that Jordan had market the Timberman event — based out of Ellacoya State Park — as a national event, just so to get enough racers. That first year, they set the limit at 800 athletes, with a "sprint" triathlon for beginners or casual triathletes, and the "Half-Iron" race for the hardened athletes, named after the infamous Ironman competitions. The more serious race entails a 1.2-mile swim in Lake Winnipesaukee, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run, all in the same day.

At the time, Jordan said his only goal was "to bring a great event to the Lakes Region."

If attendance is any measure, he's succeeded in that. They sold out every spot on the first year's 800-capacity day. Since then, they've sold out every year. Both races — the Sprint and the Half-Iron — were initially held on the same day. In recent years the Sprint has been held on the Saturday of the weekend festival and the Half-Iron has been held on the Sunday. That change, and other logistical adjustments, have allowed Jordan's promotional company EndorFUN Sports to increase their capacity to 1,200 entrants in the Sprint and 2,000 for the Half-Iron. The weekend is planned for mid-August this year, and the Half-Iron was sold out as of December, with a healthy and growing waiting list.

Last year, Jordan said, the entry list for the races saw participants from every state and a dozen countries. "They're not just races, they're three-day festivals," he said, noting that music and entertainment throughout the weekend have made the Timberman a "destination race" where many participants come as part of a vacation. "A lot of people have gotten into it as a lifestyle."

Jordan has since started a half-marathon in Alton, known as the Big Lake Half-Marathon, and another triathlon event in Bristol. In the cooler months, he and his wife, Claire, and other members of the staff put on two triathlons in Texas. The business of triathlon promotion has become a full-time job, and then some, for Jordan.

For Sforza-Smith's part, she's already signed up for and paid the registration fee for the Timberman Sprint race, and one that will be run in June in Grantham. Right now, she's known as a "newbie," the technical term for a triathlete who has yet to compete in a race. Looking forward to her events over the summer, she said they have given her an incentive to keep her fitness momentum going. "I don't want to lose my conditioning."

She's stopped worrying about her overall weight and has begun to focus instead on building muscle and tone. Working with a personal trainer for the past few months, she's happy to say that she's converted ten pounds of body fat into muscle. "I'm a lot stronger now," she said. "I feel great."