 Looking
for a consultant with better follow-through? How about
one who can swim 3km, bike another 180 and then run 42?
That would be Dr Julie Curwin, a 39-year-old psychiatrist
at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Nova Scotia and
an elite triathlete who never fails to reach the finish
line.
Dr Curwin got her first taste of
racing in the mid-80s, when she was an undergraduate
at Mount Allison University. A competitive swimmer since
childhood, she was looking for something to keep her
in shape in the off-season. A poster announcing an upcoming
'mini-triathlon' caught her eye, and though she wasn't
a strong runner at the time, she figured it was worth
a try. From her first race, she was hooked.
"I loved the challenge and the
variety," she says. "It's much better for your body
not to be doing the same thing all the time." Since
then, she's competed in two or three events each year
-- a number that's higher than it sounds, given
the extraordinary physical toll of a single competition.
The most dedicated professionals can manage no more
than four in a year.
THREE'S
BETTER THAN ONE
"The most challenging of competitive events," as Dr
Curwin calls the triathlon, is relatively young. The
first known bike-run-swim combo race dates back to 1921,
when a swim club in Marseille held the Course des
Trois Sports (Race of Three Sports). Comprising
a 7km bike ride, a 5km run, and a 200m swim --
a walk in the park by the standards of today's triathletes
-- the race was apparently de trop for the
Marseillais, and the first Course was also the
last.
The idea was not revived until
1974, when two challenge-starved San Diego Track Club
members named Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan created
the 'Run, Cycle, Swim Triathlon.' This time, against
the backdrop of the 70s fitness boom, the concept caught
on fast. In 1978, a triathlete named John Collins took
the idea to extremes in Hawaii, combining three major
endurance races -- the 3.8km Waikiki Rough Water
Swim, the 180-km Around-Oahu Bike Race and the 42.195km
Honolulu Marathon -- into a single event: the Ironman,
which remains the world's most prestigious triathlon.
In 1983, the word 'triathlon' entered Webster's Dictionary.
In 2000, it became an Olympic event.
ENDURANCE
MDs
International events attract competitors of all stripes,
amateur and professional, young and old. Special age
group categories range from the teens all the way to
the 80s -- so far, the oldest man ever to complete
the Ironman was 78. Interestingly, Dr Curwin has noticed
that a disproportionate number of the amateur triathletes
she's met have been MDs. "I guess doctors are the types
who tend to be attracted to this kind of competition:
highly motivated people who like to challenge ourselves,"
she says.
As an amateur competing at the
elite level, however, Dr Curwin is an exceedingly rare
specimen. The vast majority of her competitors are pros.
Her full-time medical practice doesn't seem to have
slowed her down too much, though. She came in 10th in
the 1999 US Ironman and first in the 2003 Canadian Long
Course championship. As the only Canadian participant
in the 20th annual All-Japan Strongman Triathlon in
April, she placed 5th. Dr Curwin modestly estimates
that she is among the top 15 female long course triathletes
in Canada (which, incidentally, is the  strongest-performing
country on the international long course scene) and
her successes have earned her an invitation to this
summer's International Triathlon Union Long Course World
Championships in Sater, Sweden.
THE
GLORY AND THE GAIN
To prepare for the summertime competitions, Dr Curwin
varies her fitness regimen throughout the year, using
a technique known as periodization to balance rigour
with rest. Most weeks, she tries to get in three swims,
four runs and four bike rides. In the few months leading
up to a big race, she will increase one run to 25km
and one bike ride to about five hours. With that kind
of schedule, it helps that her husband, family physician
and emergency doctor Chris Milburn, is a fellow triathlete.
It was while training for a relay at Dalhousie Medical
School that they first set each other's pulses racing,
and they continue to train together today. The natural
competitiveness between them is tempered by the fact
that they have different specialties: Dr Curwin is a
long-course racer while Dr Milburn performs best in
the shorter Olympic-distance events.
Despite the potentially enormous
payoffs in glory and in cash (first prize at a major
event can run as high as $500,000 US), Dr Curwin has
resisted the temptation to suspend her career to devote
herself to athletics full-time. "I don't think I would
enjoy it. It would make it feel like a job," she says.
"And it would be a self-centred way of life, thinking
about nothing but training and eating." She enjoys having
the inherent egocentricity of a solo sport like the
triathlon counterbalanced by a job that keeps her focused
on helping other people. The two pursuits complement
each other in more ways than one. Her knowledge of physiology
helps her to keep in optimal shape and to stay well-nourished
and hydrated during a competition. And cognitive therapy
can come in pretty handy for those moments of self-doubt
that inevitably creep up when a race doesn't go according
to plan.
Dr Curwin says she won't be racing
at elite levels for more than another year or two, but
she plans to continue casually. Just how much endurance
she'll have remains to be seen. "I often say my ultimate
dream is to make it to the over-80 event," she laughs.
"But I'll probably switch to curling when I'm 60."
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