By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer
Maine people are discovering the benefits of training for and competing in triathlons.

BETHEL – Claire Hafner has run in – and finished – two marathons.

She has also run a marathon distance during training.

Hafner has traveled the world, seeing sights in Denmark and Kenya, among other exotic venues, and is a classically trained opera singer planning on taking up residence in Montreal later this year to work on her master’s degree and “take the European opera scene by storm.”

Hafner is only 28 years old, and intends to compete in today’s triathlon in Bethel. After all that she has been through, that might sound like a piece of cake. Her only problem?

“I only learned to swim for real about 10 days ago,” said Hafner, before plunging into North Pond in Woodstock for a training swim. “I didn’t know how to swim, so I figured I might as well sign up for a triathlon. That should teach me how to swim. Having run marathons, I got kind of bored with just running. I got lazy. I’d go out and do 10 miles and I wasn’t even out of breath, so I thought I needed to shake it up a little bit.”

Hafner is part of a quickly growing number of people across the country who are discovering triathlons as a means to exercise multiple muscle groups and stay fit year-round. In Bethel this morning, 257 men and women and 26 teams – ranging from teenagers to sexagenarians – will prove how popular the events have become as they take to the lake, streets and trails in the 16th annual Maine State Triathlon.

For the old(er)…

The national statistics, compiled by USA Triathlon, are staggering.

In 1994, USAT had 15,194 members nationwide – 19 percent of whom were women. Ten years later, in December of 2004, 53,254 people in the United States were registered triathletes in at least one sanctioned race. Of that number, 34 percent – more than 16,000 members – were women.

Perhaps even more stunning than the record growth, which saw overall numbers jump by more than 23,000 members since 2001 alone, is the age demographics associated with the spike in membership. While no age-related information is available for years prior to 2004, last year alone 64 percent of all registered triathletes were between the ages of 30 and 50.

Locally, organizers are starting to see the same trend.

“My personal opinion is that these folks are better able to train as their children’s needs get less,” said Julia Reuter of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce. “And, as people start to age, they don’t like it and start getting fit after perhaps slacking off after school years and the years where they raised smaller children.”

Of the 258 entrants at last year’s Maine State Triathlon in Bethel, 115 were more than 30 years old, including 43 women.

“I think it is that the people always did a lot of jogging in the ’70s and the ’80s and bicycling, too, more for their own good,” said Leslie Gamble, 58, of Bethel. “Now, it’s turned into a more success-driven kind of thing where people are showing off. That’s why, I think, some of the people have taken it up. Not, certainly, a lot of them, but some of them.”

Gamble and his wife, Linda, have helped Hafner train for six weeks leading up to today’s competition.

Meanwhile, in Leeds, Betsy McGrail and Tom Page have also trained for this year’s Bethel triathlon. Page is a hill-climb racer who recently started training for the race up the Mt. Washington Auto Road in New Hampshire, while McGrail has been competitive in several triathlons in recent years.

“Our age group, it’s really competitive,” said Page, who is post-40. “It’s a division loaded with people that have been doing it for a while, that started when (triathlons) started getting more popular. The older racers know what to expect a lot of times, and are in better condition to do these races. You see some great times from the younger racers, but there are always a lot of great times in our group, too.”

…and the young(er)

The over-40 crowd isn’t the only demographic getting in on the sport’s growing popularity.

Mandy Ivey of Oxford is an accomplished runner and a more-than-accomplished cross country skier. Now, she’s also a triathlete.

Last year, the senior-to-be at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School had the fastest women’s time in the 5-kilometer run at the Maine State Triathlon regardless of age. Her bicycling time was also the best in her age group, and she won the 19-and-under age group by more than four minutes.

“I originally got involved last year because I saw that a lot of Nordic skiers were doing triathlons,” said Ivey. You use a lot of different muscles in triathlons, and those same muscles you use in cross country skiing. It helped being a good runner, I think, because that’s usually the hardest event for most people.”

This year, after winning two state titles at the Maine Principal’s Association Class A skiing championships and qualifying for several top-notch races at the Junior Olympic level, Ivey is back for more.

“This is going to sound really bad, but I want to win overall this year at Bethel,” said Ivey. “I won the bike and the run in my group last year, and I think I can get better to win overall. The transitions (where competitors quickly change equipment from swim to bike to run) are where I need to be focused. I ran two already this year, and came in second at Unity, so hopefully I can keep improving.”

Getting her feet wet

Many first-time racers, like Hafner, are strong in at least one area of the event to begin with.

“I’ve run marathons before,” said Hafner, “Being a non-athletic athlete, which is what I call myself, there’s something attractive to me about doing endurance events. That’s why I am trying a triathlon, that’s why I do marathons. I’m never going to be fast. In the triathlons, the fact that I can do all three events right in a row and finish in a great time, that’s the reward.”

But not many start from scratch in another discipline, as Hafner has done with swimming. She is a quick study.

Three days ago, in her last long swim before today’s triathlon, Hafner led Gamble the entire way out to a small rock island and back on North Pond. Emerging from the water when he got back to shore, Gamble looked at Hafner and nodded in approval.

“You did well there,” said Gamble.

“And I stayed pretty straight,” added Hafner, who had developed a tendency to stray to her right while she swims.

Hafner also noted her singing career as a reason to compete in triathlons.

“All three events, they really work all of my muscles,” said Hafner. “The better shape I am in, the better I sing, too, and the better everything happens. Athletics is like music that way. It takes that intense focus.”

The right environment’

Don’t expect Gamble to win the event today. He won’t because he “doesn’t like to run all that much.”

“Some people will say this, and it’s a bit exaggerated, said Gamble, “but I’m happy to finish and not cough up a lung.”

Hafner, meanwhile, isn’t likely to take home gold, either. Finishing the race would likely be its own reward.

McGrail and Page are likely to do well in all three events this morning, and may even place. But that’s not what is important.

“It’s nice to win, but we don’t go into these things looking to do that,” said Page, 44. “Betsy, she got third place in a time trial at Bethel recently. She’s a good enough athlete that she can do that. I got skunked, but, oh well. I like to do it.”

These and hundreds of other local athletes, semi-athletes and curious recreational athletes have discovered that “triathlon” and “horrible pain and extreme agony” are not synonymous. In fact, the casual recreational athlete seems more and more likely these days to venture into the world of triathlons, a realm formerly reserved, at least to some, for the incredibly fit and for the world’s best-conditioned athletes. And for many new competitors, such as the opera-singing, world-traveling Hafner (who leaves for Kenya to join her husband Monday), events like that in Bethel are the perfect place to start.

“I think it’s good that you have triathlons like the Bethel triathlon that make it more accessible to people,” said Gamble. “People, after doing a little bit of bicycling or swimming think Oh, I can try that,’ and they can. You have friends that will do it and it doesn’t have more of the elite-level athletes there. There are some great athletes there, but not as many. This event is a very community-oriented event and is well-run, and that’s why it’s so attractive to so many people.”