Triple Threat

SHE WAS SO PROUD OF HERSELF. KAREN SMYERS, 18-YEAR-OLD FRESHMAN AT PRINCETON University, walked up to the school's track coach and told him she wanted to join the team. And why not? As a high schooler back in Connecticut, she had starred in tennis, gymnastics, and swimming, so how hard could running be? "I said I could run 3 miles -- without stopping," Smyers says now, laughing at her naive boldness. "The coach smiled and said, 'When you can run for an hour, come back.'"

An hour, she thought. Who runs for an hour straight?

With that challenge was born the career of one of this country's greatest female endurance athletes. Smyers, who lives with her triathlete husband, Michael King, and two children in Lincoln, would eventually build up to that hour -- after the first time, she recalls, "my body was screaming in agony" -- and then she just kept right on going, mixing running with her favorite sport, swimming, and her least favorite, biking, to become a world-class professional triathlete.

There have been plenty of bumps along the way, from a bike crash that broke her collarbone to a brush with a semi that left her with broken ribs and a lung bruise, to a sliced hamstring caused by a shattered window, to a bout with thyroid cancer. But she's used each not as an excuse to slow down but as motivation to speed up. Now Smyers is 44 and training daily for what will be her 10th Ironman World Championship in Hawaii this October. She won the event in the women's professional category back in 1995 and finished fifth in 2001. Last year, her ninth-place finish earned her $7,500 in prize money; she completed the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run in 9 hours, 30 minutes, 47 seconds (the winner took home $110,000).

In her other roles -- as mom to 2-year-old Casey and 7-year-old Jenna and as a motivator -- she coached a team of runners for tomorrow's Boston Marathon, and she will lead a few hundred children, including her daughter, in the third annual Lincoln Kids Triathlon this July 4 weekend.

So most kids dream of playing baseball or soccer or football or basketball professionally, but triathlons for a living?

I loved sports. I remember days in the summer when I would have swim-team practice in the morning, then gymnastics, then I'd ride my bike home for lunch, and then bike back to do tennis.

That's the swim-flip-pedal-whack. How about your first swim-bike-run? It was 1984.

I came to Boston after college to do computer consulting and joined the Irish American Track Club. A roommate told me about this event, the Harvard Women's Sprint Triathlon. It was an 800-meter swim, 8-mile bike, and 3-mile run. I loved the idea of a challenge. I was in good swim shape and run shape. I won it.

You won your first triathlon? There's an omen.

I decided to try an Olympic distance -- 1,500-meter swim, 10k run, and 25-mile bike. I did one in Upton, and that's when I realized there are people here who have been doing this awhile. After that I did the Bay State Triathlon, which was a 1-mile swim, 40-mile bike, and 10-mile run. I came off the bike in third place and caught [1981 Boston Marathon winner] Allison Roe in the run. That's when people came up to me and said I should do this professionally.

So did you start training harder?

Most days I would bike to work, about 4 miles, then I'd ride to MIT to swim on my lunch break, and then I'd run after work. I remember heading off to jog and everyone else was heading off to happy hour. But I started combining socializing with working out. It makes it more fun to combine working out with going out.

When did you decide to make this a career?

In 1989, my company went half time in the summer. I trained a lot more. I worked on my weakness -- biking. I'd go out for a 2-hour ride in the morning. Then my company went bankrupt. I finally had time to train.

Not many people celebrate when their company collapses.

[Laughing.] It was the best thing that could have happened to me.

For those of us whose companies don't seem to be in danger, what advice do you have if we want to exercise vigorously?

Figure out what time slots you can commit to training. For most people, that means getting up early. Some people can get in a lunchtime workout. But I also tell people there are no absolutes. Some days it might be better for you to sleep in. You need sleep, too. And there are going to be times when a spouse might be irritated that your workout is eating into family time. You have to recognize that. But it's also part of your quality of life, it's not something you should feel guilty about -- well, maybe a three-hour bike ride. It's a good role model for kids. If they see you working out, they'll want to do that, too. And stay-at-home moms need time to themselves, to feel good about themselves.

What do you remember about your first Ironman, in 1993?

I went to Hawaii to watch it one year, and I remember being surprised that it wasn't just a suffer-fest. They were really racing it, not just surviving it. The switch was turned on for me then. I remember doing my first 100-mile bike ride and collapsing afterward and thinking there was no way I could run a marathon now. I couldn't take another step. But eventually I worked my way up. In the [1993] race, I was fine in the swim, but I couldn't wait to get off the bike. In the run, by mile 8, my legs were jelly. I stopped at a water station and took a Coke, and it was like a shot of adrenaline. I grabbed a Coke at almost every stop after that.

That was 13 years and a score of Ironmans ago, and in the meantime you've had two kids and recovered from thyroid cancer. How did those things affect your training?

When I hurt my hamstring, I can feel that, I know what's wrong: The muscles have torn apart, and they need time to fuse together. But I couldn't feel my cancer. That made it hard. Getting back to exercising was a way of building my confidence in my body again. It was a real boost to my attitude. Even when I couldn't bike or run, I would still go out and walk.

And getting sideswiped on your bike by a tractor-trailer near your home -- that had to change how you train.

I've always been a cautious rider. He was trying to pass me in a no-passing zone and knocked me off the road. After that, I changed the roads I ride on and changed the times I go out. During commuting time, you notice drivers are a little more impatient. I try and go out when drivers have a little more patience. Also, I'm even more defensive, assuming drivers will do the worst. And if I didn't have my helmet on, it would have been much worse.

But it has to be hard to get motivated after so much time off.

Exercise is not something I view as a luxury or a chore. Exercise is part of my life. It's not a question of if I can run again, but when. There are two types of personalities: Those who have to get motivated to get out the door and others who go out even when they're injured. That's probably not smart. I take advantage of the extra time I have at home to spend more time with my kids.

Over the years, have you noticed that new people have started training and racing?

I definitely see more older people jogging. The older age groups at races are filling up a lot more and getting more competitive.

That's true of the road races, but lots of people hate jogging.

Pick another sport. Indoor soccer. Some people like games instead of individual sports. A game is still exercise. Or do a bike tour -- make it more than just grueling exercise. There are so many things you can do as a family, even as simple as a family bike ride. Personally, I like the grueling exercise.

And yet you've never done the Boston Marathon. You afraid of a little 26-mile run?

It's always conflicted with my spring triathlons, when I can kick off the season earning some prize money. But as I get older, I am starting to do events more for pure enjoyment. That's on my list.