The Long Haul

Janet Howard didn't start racing until her mid-30s. Now she wins races and qualifies for championships.

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Oct 20, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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

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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.

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