The Front Row with BILL BULEY August 13, 2010
Suzanne Endsley should be slowing down.
After all, she’s 44, soon to be 45. All the studies, the race results, they indicate that athletes start losing steam in their 40s. The legs don’t turnover quite as quickly, the heart doesn’t pump the blood as rapidly, the muscles can’t work as hard as they did when they were younger.
Pretty much, everyone says you will slow down as you age. Can’t be avoided. Can’t be stopped. Get used to it. Forget about winning and focus on surviving.
This Coeur d’Alene woman, though, isn’t listening.
Not only is she not slowing, in some races she’s actually swimming, biking and running even faster than ever.
“I think in the last three years I’ve seen some better times,” Endsley said.
Look no further than Saturday’s Coeur d’Alene Triathlon for proof.
Endsley won the women’s division in 2 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds. Her splits were 28:27 for the .9-mile swim, 1:09:34 for the 25-mile bike ride, and 42:53 for the 6.2-mile run.
Fortysomethings aren’t supposed to win. And guess what? Endsley didn’t expect to. Her plan wasn’t first place in the race she’s competed in for the past 14 years.
“I didn’t care about winning. My goal was to have all three of the disciplines come together and feel like I had a good race.”
Turned out to be a great one.
Down three minutes after the swim, her weakness, she cut into the leader’s advantage on the bike, and took charge on her specialty, the run, and clicked off some 6:40 miles to win by 38 seconds over 43-year-old Eve Nelson. It was her second win at the Coeur d’Alene Triathlon, the first coming in 2001.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to accomplish this,” she said.
Always a runner, Endsley competed at the University of Idaho. She moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1990, where she became friends with Bill and Carol Travis, longtime triathletes and unofficial Ironman mentors.
She recalls running French Gulch with Bill Travis, and he encouraged her to try a tri. She already did some biking and could swim OK, so she decided why not.
“He really inspired me,” Endsley said.
That inspiration took her far.
Since, she’s completed about a 100 triathlons, has an eight-year sponsor in Hammer Nutrition, based in Whitefish, Mont., finished seven Ironmans, and most recently qualified for the Ironman championship in October.
As she preps for her trip to Kona, she’s averaging about 250 miles a week on the bike, another 50 on the run, and a few miles of swimming and technique work with master’s coach Mike Hamm. She prefers slicing through lake and enjoying the sights below over the back and forth of the pool.
“I’m in the lake as much as I possibly can. I love the lake,” she said. “I’ll live in there until the weather kicks me out.”
Another coach who’s made a difference for Endsley is Matt Seeley of Polson, Mont., and a member of Team Stampede, a triathlon club.
She learned they train with one objective: to get faster.
“It’s a hard work ethic,” she said. “It’s taking your body to a high level and being able to maintain that.”
Endsley, who works in public affairs for the Forest Service in Coeur d’Alene, says her boss is great about allowing her to come in a little later some days, leave a little earlier on others so she can train.
While most were sleeping early Thursday, she was on her bike, and was rewarded when she saw a small bear on a cutoff road between Newman and Hauser lakes.
“I really enjoy the mornings,” she said.
Besides running, biking and swimming, Endsley believes there’s a fourth discipline that gets overlooked, one she focused on this year: Nutrition.
“Your body is an engine so you have to feed it the right way for it to perform,” she said.
Veggies and fruits are part of her daily diet. Avocados are on her favorite food list. Most of the time, she avoids the sugars, the fatty stuff that tastes good but is bad for you.
But not always.
She’s OK with having an occasional beer, maybe a burger, too.
“I love chocolate chip cookies,” she said, laughing.
Endsley also gets help from home. Husband Shaun Endsley is one of the area’s top triathletes and always offers advice and encouragement.
“He’s really supportive. He likes to see me do well,” she said.
When asked if there’s any friendly competition between them, Suzanne said no, then added, “but he doesn’t like to see me get out of the water and be in the transition area the same time he is,” she laughed.
Both of her children enjoy running. Daughter Erin will be a junior at Coeur d’Alene High School this year and has run track and signed on for a triathlon, while son Brett just graduated and is at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he ran a 1.5-mile time trial in 9 minutes — 6 minute per mile pace at 6,000-feet elevation.
“He did really well,” his mom said proudly.
While she’s vowed to continue fighting Father Time, Endsley isn’t quite as intense as she once was. Whereas before a missed training day would have an anxiety attack, she now occasionally takes a day off and — if you can believe it — relaxes.
“I’m a lot better than I was five years ago. Maybe with age you do get a little bit wiser,” she said.
The 5-1 1/2, 104-pound Endsley remains a slim sparkplug of enthusiasm and energy.
She loves going to local and regional races, not just to compete, but for the chance to see other athletes she’s come to know over the years.
“I’ve made some really good friends through it,” she said.
When riding or running on the North Idaho Centennial Trail, Endsley greets others with a wave and a smile, and sometimes, if she’s not in the midst of a tempo run that few could match, she’ll stop to chat.
But despite her neighborly manner, once she’s in race mode, have no doubt Endsley will beat you if she can. No letting someone win so they feel better.
She considers herself a tough, but gracious competitor.
“We’re not racing for money, and certainly not a spot in the Olympics, but I’m going to work pretty hard out there,” she said. “That’s kind of in my spirit, to just do my best.”
For as long as she can.
Bill Buley is city editor of The Press. He can be reached at bbuley@cdapress.com.