Onto The Scene

Triathlons combine swimming, biking and running events into one continuous challenge. You can call it crazy or brilliant, but since its 1974 origination in San Diego, the sport has cruised into the mainstream. It’s the fastest-growing Olympic sport in the United States and earned a place on the world stage at the 2000 summer Olympic Games in Sydney.

It’s not, however, an NCAA championship sport. Recently, though, the regulating authority of collegiate athletics has added women’s triathlon as an emerging one, a step in its path to becoming a title sport for colleges and universities across the country.

Until then, nearly 200 club teams support the growing interest from young racers, and Mizzou is one of those. DeLayne Hart, a 2016 laboratory science graduate and triathlete extraordinaire, has already earned several podium finishes and competed in some of the most prestigious races. It’s a push-hard, performance-driven sport, and for Hart, a lifestyle.

Hart grew up around triathlon. Her dad has raced for 30 years, but her entry into the multisport arena came about when she hit campus. The lifelong cyclist picked up running, and in the spring of her freshman year, joined the Mizzou club triathlon team.

“I built a solid base and tried to become a more well-rounded athlete rather than just being able to ride a bike,” she says. “I had never done any lap swimming or competitive swimming — but I knew how to not drown.”

She adapted to the three-sport lifestyle and also began training with the Columbia Multisport Club. Hart claimed her first age-group win at the local TriZou race in 2014.

“It’s a competitive race, and that was a big moment,” she says. “It’s important to have big goals but to not expect too much too fast. It’s a process. Am I getting faster? Am I improving? Are my races getting better?” The following year, Hart defended her TriZou age-group crown and later helped CMC win its eighth USA Triathlon Club National Championship.

 

One Mile at a Time

Triathlon’s racing scene offers a compass of events, but casual observers still most easily recognize the Ironman and its iconic course in Hawaii, first contested in 1978.

Hart’s dad asked if she wanted to compete with him. “I was pretty scared of making it through a 2.4-mile swim,” she says. “The end of the swim, that’s just the beginning.” The longest triathlon distance continues with 112 miles of cycling and a marathon to finish. Hart and her father prepared for Ironman Texas, slated for May 2015.

“It’s an early race, which means I was doing a lot of training during the winter months,” Hart says.
“In Missouri, it’s rather difficult to ride your bike when it’s sleeting with 40-mile-per-hour winds.” The solution: 3- and 4-hour rides indoors on a bike trainer, staring at a wall. But that monotony paid for itself when race day came.

“There’s something that makes you feel really good about being a 20-year-old female on a $1,200 bike
and passing 45-year-old men on $10,000 bikes,” she says with a laugh.

But the Ironman distance always carries its fair share of small defeats. Storms saturated the race course the night before, and Hart, running with tired legs, fell within the first few steps of the marathon.

“I was covered in mud. I think adrenaline got me through the first part of the run,” she says. “That effort caught up to me, and dear God, I remember thinking that I still had to move myself 12 miles.”

 

Finding Purpose

“The triathlon lifestyle is kind of like a family,” Hart says. “You don’t just go by yourself and do your thing and go home. There is a big social aspect as well.”

Hart found that camaraderie in a fellow competitor during the grueling third leg of Ironman Texas. Each passed the other back and forth until they finally matched paces. To understand the kind of exertion athletes undergo at this distance, consider that Hart consumed 2,200 to 2,500 calories during the race — an average person’s daily intake.

“Having somebody there you can shuffle along with makes the work seem not so much like work,” she says. “That was a huge saving grace for me. When I was ready to walk, he’d say ‘let’s make the next mile marker.’ I could do the same for him.”

Ironman Texas provided both a physical challenge and a community opportunity. Hart used her race as a platform to contribute to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbia, where she volunteered during her college years at Mizzou. The organization also stands for the broader values this fierce competitor holds dear.

“There were some very important people who did a lot for me when I was younger. I had been looking for a means to pay that forward.”

Specifically, she helped raise money for a new gym that might attract high schoolers, an age group where attendance drops off. “It’s always so humbling to be there and see how much potential those kids have and what the club does to keep them in a healthy, educational, safe environment.”

 

Record Accomplishments

Hart is now 22 years old and works as a medical technologist at the Veterans Administration in Columbia. “I work nights, which makes it a little difficult to train, but I’m figuring out a schedule.”
That schedule included this year’s HalfMax, a half Ironman distance event in September near St. Louis. On the second lap of the half-marathon portion,
Hart says she realized her lead. Another race participant did not.
“He was super chatty. I had to tell him to stop talking. I needed that moment to be emotional, and I took the last mile to just be in my feelings. I don’t know how to describe it other than my chest was really full — it was a monumental accomplishment.”
Hart clocked a 5:15:28 to claim the overall women’s title. Moreover, she crossed the finish line less than a minute behind the third-place overall male and a whopping half hour ahead of the next woman!

 

“It’s me against The World”

Later in the month, Hart raced the International Triathlon Union Long-Distance Triathlon World Championships, where she says a compilation of things snowballed into a pretty bad day, record wise.

But the disappointment at a premier race won’t linger because she has two more opportunities. The next race is Ironman 70.3 Austin, where she’ll connect with some of her fellow teammates on Moxie Multisport, a national competitive triathlon team with athletes across the country. Then, Hart’s final test of the year will take place at Ironman Arizona.

“There are very few 22-year-old girls who do full Ironmans,” Hart says. “I take pride in having the responsibility and discipline to prepare myself for that. It’s me against the world.”

 

Fast Facts:

Sport of choice: Cycling, by far.

Favorite post-workout snack: Chocolate milk.

Coveted post-race food: Steak, medium rare, with sweet potato fries.

Favorite piece of equipment: My hat. I don’t go anywhere without a hat. Sometimes it’s 3 a.m., and I go for a run, and I have my hat on.

Favorite training spot in Columbia: For running, I prefer the Katy Trail. I’m alone, and it’s almost like a spiritual experience when I’m out there on a long run and tapping out my own rhythm. For cycling, I like the hills southeast of Columbia, out past the airport and heading toward Holts Summit. Again, not a lot of traffic. It’s me against the world.

Photos: Travis Smith | ContentAllStars.com