Women Tri It Better in Alaska

Women of all ages gear up for today's Gold Nugget Triathlon
GROWING: Record 1,100 expected to race.

By Beth Bragg
Anchorage Daily News
(Published May 20, 2001) 

Claudette Hixon was 56 years old when she became a triathlete by watching a triathlon. 

It wasn't just any triathlon. It was the 1996 Alaska Women's Gold Nugget Triathlon, and the camaraderie and just-do-it spirit she witnessed at the women's-only event inspired her to take swimming lessons and sign up for the next year's race. 

She's been coming back ever since. 

Women like Hixon, now 61, have helped the triathlon grow in numbers every year since the inaugural race 18 years ago. Women go to the race as spectators one year and return as racers the next. 

Today's race will boast a record 1,100 participants. That's almost 1,000 more than the field of 166 that competed in the first race in 1984. 

Alice Godfred, one of the state's most accomplished triathletes, won the first race and made a prophetic observation afterward. 

"It's a real breakthrough," she said. "I think it's going to get a lot of people into it." 

Count Hixon as one of the converts. 

"I went to see some friends doing it," Hixon said, "and there was a lady there timing. She looked me up and down and said, 'Why aren't you doing this race?' And I said, 'Because I can't swim well.' And she said, 'You can walk.' " 

That kind of encouragement made the difference for Hixon. "All of the women are so supportive of each other, it just spurs you on," she said. "It just makes you feel really good about yourself." 

Lisa Keller, a past champion and the organizer of this year's race, thinks the women's-only aspect of the race is the chief appeal -- that and the relatively short distances, which include a 500-yard swim, an 11.5-mile bike, and a 3.3-mile run. 

"Women in this state are really supportive of only-women's events," Keller said. "They're real friend-oriented things." 

The three major all-women sports events in Anchorage are among the city's biggest races. The Gold Nugget is the biggest triathlon in the state; the Run for Women is the city's second-biggest road race, behind the Heart Run; and the Ski for Women is the city's second-biggest ski race, a close second to the Tour of Anchorage. 

Hixon, a veteran of all three of those events, thinks the women's-only aspect is an appealing part of the today's triathlon. 

"I think it's real important that it's women only," she said. "There's a different feeling with just women than when it's mixed. ... I think it would lose a lot of its flavor if it was mixed." 

The Gold Nugget is the oldest all-women triathlon in the country, and Keller said it is one of biggest, too. The biggest are races in the Danskin triathlon series, a nationwide series that has the backing of a corporate sponsor. The biggest two Danskin races last year were held in Seattle (2,300 participants) and Denver (1,800 participants). 

"So you have all those corporate sponsors and series, and here we are in Alaska and we have one of the biggest ones," Keller said. 

When a man from a sports marketing firm in Berkeley, Calif., called to ask how many samples of a high-energy sports food it should send for racers, Keller told him how many women had registered. 

"He just had a hard time believing there's more than a thousand women triathletes in Alaska," Keller said. 

And now those triathletes are benefactors of other female athletes in Alaska. 

Last year, Keller established the Women's Sports Fund with money raised by auctioning off early start times in the Gold Nugget. 

Today's race begins at 9 a.m., but because the pool can hold just 32 swimmers at a time, there is a staggered start that goes on for a couple of hours. Most racers like to start early, Keller said, so she auctioned off 40 early start-positions. 

The windfall allowed the Women's Sports Fund to distribute $2,500 in grants last year. The recipients were cross-country skier Erin Hamilton, biathlete Jenny Naylor, dog musher Jennifer Payne, triathlete Lori Staats-Cahill, mountain biker Sheryl Loan and Alaska Olympic Gymnastics, Inc. 

The auction for this year's race brought in $3,000, with a high bid of $300. The Gold Nugget will also contribute a portion of race proceeds to the fund, and organizers for the Run for Women and Ski for Women have said they will also make contributions, Keller said. 

Nugget notes 

Because of road construction on Elmendorf Air Force Base, triathletes should be prepared for a 3/4-mile unpaved section of road on the bicycle leg. Race director Lisa Keller said the unpaved portion is in good condition, but advises racers to exercise caution when traveling over that section. 

Executive sports editor Beth Bragg can be reached at bbragg@adn.com. 

The Alaska Women's Gold Nugget Triathlon begins today at 9 a.m. at the Bartlett High pool. The finish line is in the Bartlett parking lot. The bike-to-run transition is near the Buckner Physical Fitness Center on Fort Richardson.