The Long Haul
Janet Howard didn't start racing until her mid-30s. Now she wins races and qualifies for championships.
Janet Howard gets ready to leave the bicycle transition area after finshing the swim during the Ironman Triathlon Championships in Kona, Hawaii, last week. Howard overcame a nasty jellyfish sting to finish 22nd in her age group.
submitted photo / clackamas Review
It may be called the Ironman triathlon, but there is no doubt that Clackamas resident Janet Howard has earned the right to be called an “Ironwoman.”
In August, she won her age group at Ironman Canada to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, and in September she won a gold medal in the International Triathlon Union Duathlon World Championships in the women’s 45 to 49 age group.
Howard just returned from the championship event held in Hawaii on Oct. 10, and said she told her family it was “OK to finish 22nd out of 57” in her age group.
“It was difficult race conditions there — you have to contend with the heat and the wind; it wasn’t my best race of the year,” Howard said.
When she came out of the water, after swimming 2.4 miles, she was 55th; after biking 112 miles, she was 35th; and at the end of the 26.2-mile marathon, she had moved up to 22nd, overcoming a nasty jellyfish sting that caused her hand to swell after the swim.
“I kept getting stronger,” said Howard, who finished in 12 hours and 12 minutes.
Howard added that her time in Canada was better, at 11 hours and 14 minutes, but said that “running two Ironman [races] in six weeks takes a toll.”
Howard’s marathon time in Canada qualified her for the Boston Marathon, which she will run in April of 2010, and, as a world champion in her age group, she is eligible to run in next year’s world championships in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“Those two events are my focus next year,” she said.
A late bloomer
Howard, who is a pediatrician at Kaiser Rockwood, said she didn’t do anything competitive in high school or college, and it wasn’t until she was in her late 30s that she realized how well suited she was for a role as an athlete.
“I did my first triathlon in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1996, when I was working as a physician there. Then I was hooked. I came back to the states and joined a group of athletes in 1999, and realized this is a lifestyle I can do for life,” she said.
A man named Bryant Howard was in that group of triathletes; later the two married and now he is her coach.
“He is a brilliant coach and my training partner. [Because of him] I started to win [races in] my age group, and by 2001 I was racing professionally,” she said.
Family affair
Howard has three children, ages 23, 19 and 14; the youngest attends Clackamas High School and often bikes with his mother from their Clackamas home to Sauvie Island and the Estacada area, among other places.
“My husband is the cross country coach at Warner Pacific and I’m his assistant — so we run with the students,” Howard said, adding that she also runs on the CHS track and trains on the trails at nearby Mt. Talbert.
It takes a lot of time to train, she noted, and added that she is lucky to have the support of her family.
For those considering entering the world of triathlon competitions, Howard cited an example of a nun from Spokane who started racing in her 50s and is now 79.
She was competing in Hawaii, along with “lots of older people.”
Howard described herself as a “huge fan of promoting healthy lifestyles, both as a pediatrician and as an athlete,” and added, “My message is, it’s never too late to start.”