Two years ago Carolyn Lockmon couldn’t swim a lap, didn’t care for road biking and hadn’t run more than a few steps since she was a teenager.
Next Sunday, she’ll do all three.
The 52-year-old Bothell woman is competing in the Danskin Women’s Triathlon in Seattle, which begins at Genesee Park on Lake Washington. She’ll join 5,000 women in a half-mile swim, 12.5-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run.
It’s Lockmon’s first triathlon and the culmination of a journey that reshaped her physique and her life. Along the way she learned to handle a road bike, bought her first pair of goggles and discovered she loved swimming.
It started two years ago. Her children had left home and her husband, Jess, decided to take an 18-month job in Taiwan.
“It started me on this quest,” she said. “I had a lot of time to do anything I wanted, and I thought I should be productive and exercise.”
She began taking aerobic classes at the Northshore YMCA. At first she felt self-conscious and awkward, but the instructor encouraged her to come back. She did, twice a week. It took six months, but her clothes started to feel looser. The modest success motivated her to exercise three times a week and change her diet. The pounds began to drop.
A triathlon didn’t enter her mind until her aerobics instructor suggested it. At first the idea seemed preposterous. Lockmon talked to the instructor and signed up. Once she turned the entry form in, it hit her: Now she had to train.
She had a long way to go. She didn’t know a thing about training for a triathlon. Even more pressing, she had never swum a lap. For a novice, the cold, choppy half-mile course on Lake Washington might as well have been the English Channel.
Lockmon signed up for swimming lessons at the YMCA and found swimmers working under a volunteer coach she could swim with.
She devised her own training plan by reading triathlon books and researching online. She adopted an intense regime: She runs most mornings and after work she exercises aerobically for another hour, lift weights and then swims or attends a stationary bicycle spinning class to prepare her for the bike leg of the race.
“It’s hard because it’s very time consuming,” she said. “You have to give your evenings and weekends to train.”
Lockmon slimmed down three dress sizes, and says her body feels leaner and stronger. Exercise is important, she said, but for her the combination of healthful eating and exercise made the difference.
Her race goal next week is to finish as strong as she can. She doesn’t want to cross the line and wish she’d trained harder.
Whatever happens, she plans to do another race.
Everything about her life, she said, feels brighter and better.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com
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