After high school, Suzanne Rinehart put her athletic career aside. As she worked towards a Master’s Degree with two children, Rinehart said there were times in her life when she would not exercise at all.
But now, Rinehart, 45, will compete in Arizona’s Iron Man race on November 15.
When Rinehart decided to exercise again at age 40, she thought she would combine her love for swimming, which she did in high school, with her love for the bike and work towards a small triathlon.
“Prior to 40, I had never run before,” she said. “Running a 5K, just 3 miles was awful. I think about where I am now from that point, and it just blows my mind.”
Rinehart has prepared for the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run for the last 10 months. Her first attempt at an Iron Man competition was thwarted last fall when a storm swept through Florida, canceling the swim component of the competition because of the rip current.
Although the swim race was canceled, Rinehart still competed alongside the other Iron Man participants as they completed the bike and running parts of the race.
The next weekend, Rinehart visited the Arizona Iron Man race as a volunteer. During that time, she realized the course was fairly flat, which mimics the terrain in Illinois, so she signed up for the competition.
Although Rinehart planned to take a few months off to recoup her muscles, a friend talked her into competing in the St. Jude Marathon, where she ultimately qualified for the 2016 Boston Marathon Race by 15 minutes.
Since January, Rinehart has worked with a coach out of California to prepare for her upcoming race. With a full-time job at the University of Illinois, Rinehart trains for an hour each morning and each evening, then spends four to five hours on Saturday and Sunday putting in the longer distances she will need to complete the Iron Man race.
Rinehart also joined the Wild Card Cycling group out of Champaign over the summer. Along with meeting wonderful people, Rinehart said the group has helped her learn a lot about being a triathlete.
“It pushed my biking to a whole other level,” she said.
She also believes working with a coach has helped her understand how to maintain her strength as she completes longer courses.
“I was comfortable training at the short distance, but at this distance I knew everything could go wrong,” she said. “I thought it would be better to have someone experienced with it guide me, especially with the nutrition.”
“People overlook the nutrition side,” she continued. “It’s not just a swim, bike, run. Your nutrition is the fourth aspect. You can screw up so much if you don’t consume the right nutrition at the right times.”
After donating one of her kidneys to her husband three years ago, Rinehart said she pays close attention to making sure her body is properly hydrated.
“Having the coach has brought me to a different level as an athlete,” she said.
Rinehart started out in January taking a lactaid baseline test in Chicago. She will travel back to Chicago this week to take another lactaid test, which will tell her coach how far she can push her body through the race.
“My racing plan is based on how many watts I ride on a bike,” she said. “You don’t focus on speed, you focus on what power output you’re putting on the bike.”
On the weekends, she also trains her body to transition from the swim to the bike to the run.
“It really is hard when your muscles are going one way for five or six hours, then they have to switch,” she said. “You feel like you’ve died at first. So you have to train your body to adjust quickly.”
Rinehart has seen continued success through several races this year. Rinehart competed in the National Olympic Triathlon competition and qualified for the World Olympic Triathlon in Chicago where she finished 11th overall.She will also compete in the World Olympic Triathlon in Cozumel Mexico in 2017.
The Olympic Trialthon includes a .9 mile swim, a 25 mile bike ride and a 10K run.
Rinehart won the Elite Division for the Border Wars Half Iron Man near St. Louis this summer, and competed a week after a bike crash at an Olympic Triathlon in Michigan.
“I look back and I used to think a 25-mile ride was horrendous,” she said. “Now 25 miles feels like I’m warming up. Your whole perspective changes immediately when you start doing these long endurance things. You don’t train as hard in terms of pace. You’re not out there huffing and puffing. So it’s a little more enjoyable to me.”
“I never thought in a million years that I could train to this level, do an Iron Man race and race at the level I have been racing,” she said. “I can’t believe what the body is capable of. It seems like I keep pushing and pushing. And my body says, ‘Okay, I’ll do more.’ It adapts to all the training stress you put it under.”
At 45, Rinehart is not done competing. After the Boston Marathon, she has also been invited to “Escape from Alcatraz,” an Olympic distance triathlon, which is very selective.
Rinehart would also like to compete in the Iron Man World Championship in Kona at some point in her life.
“I probably won’t be satisfied until I reach that goal,” she said.
