Margie Stanmeyer Shapiro of Annandale, VA, has had a short yet impressive triathlon career, and is a name to watch in the coming years. She has competed in four triathlons since May, showing steady improvement in each one. On May 19 she won the Columbia triathlon in unusually cold conditions. On June 15, Margie managed to find frigid conditions again as she traveled to Lake Placid and finished second in the 25-29 year age group at the ITU World Qualifier (gaining entry to the world age-group championships in Cancun in October). That performance was followed by another overall victory on a humid, rainy day at the Colonial Beach Triathlon on July 14. Most recently, on August 4 at the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Margie finished ninth overall, second among amateurs, once again winning her division as scorching heat and humidity slowed the entire field. While Margie's high finishes obviously show that she is one of the top triathletes in the region, she is anxious to find some pleasant race day conditions to see just how fast she can go.

Early Start

Margie's triathlon success is not necessarily a surprise--she's been swimming and/or running for nearly twenty years. Margie's first exposure to competitive swimming came at age six when she began "winter swimming" - competing with the Solotar and later Curl-Burke swim clubs year-round. Margie was in the pool up to twice a day six days a week by age fourteen. A case of pneumonia forced her to stay out of the water for several weeks and this twist of fate led her to join the high school cross country team her freshman year at Langley H.S. She continued to swim that year, but by sophomore year was a full time runner.

During high school, Margie had success at both cross country and track, earning all-state honors several times and running on three state championship 4x800 relay teams. Her next stop was just down the Potomac River, at Georgetown University. She competed in track and cross country for four years, but a long list of injuries prevented her from reaching her potential and left her feeling unsatisfied as she left college.

The transition to the post-collegiate running world is not easy for the injury prone. But Margie still wanted to compete. She saw the triathlon as the perfect fit-a sport that would force her to "cross train" and keep the pounding miles down to a manageable level. All she had to do was add biking to her already well-rounded athletic experience and she would have all the pieces. When asked if past injuries had provided her with the opportunity to practice the bike, she replied, "No, I hated biking."

Not Enough Hours in the Day

Margie's greatest challenge has always been finding time to train. Her packed schedule makes fitting in preparation for one event difficult, and three sometimes seems impossible. During the school year, Margie coaches track and cross-country at her alma mater, Langley H.S., spending at least twenty hours a week at practices and competitions. She logs another twenty hours weekly tutoring high school students in Spanish (which she taught for two years) and coaches adult runners with the Georgetown Running Club three days each week. To top off her busy schedule, Margie has to balance the responsibilities of her other full time job, raising her 20-month old son, Will.

Easier Said Than Done

In addition to the obvious need to find more time to train, Margie is working to overcome challenges in each of triathlon's disciplines.

SWIM
Margie found the transition to open-water swimming difficult. While she used her past swim workouts as a benchmark to train on her own, she struggles with maintaining a straight line in the open water. Tracking an individual in the swimming segment of a triathlon can be difficult for spectators, but Margie's patented swerve has been easy to follow. Recently, Margie began working on her swim technique (and overall training program design) with Melissa Dalio-Mierke of Fitness Concepts. She hopes this added structure will help her make measurable improvement by the world championships.

BIKE
Margie's initial challenge was the bike itself. Her first road bike was a borrowed men's touring model that had a heavy frame and lacked triathlon-specific aerobars. Even with this sub- optimal bike Margie finished seventh overall, won her age-group, and received the "rookie" award at her first triathlon--Columbia in 1999. She knew that she could perform better with better equipment, and the "Margie Bike Fund," to which family and friends contributed at holidays in lieu of gifts, was born. When Margie took a brief maternity leave in 2001 to "upgrade" her family, she upgraded her bike in the process. Recently, she has been fortunate to have technical support from Mark Smith of the Bonzai Sports Shop in Falls Church.

RUN
Though running is clearly Margie's strength - her high school and college background provided a strong base and considerable training knowledge - "it's really different running a hard 10K after you get off the bike." In addition, unlike their road racing counterparts, top triathletes rarely begin the run segment together. Margie has had few opportunities to really compete during the run, and is working to push herself harder as she runs alone. She also tends to put running on the back burner if she runs out of training time, believing she "needs more work" in the other disciplines. The tradeoff is, of course, loss of confidence in her preparedness for the run.

Pulling It All Together

A quick review of the top finishers in championship triathlons suggests that age and experience are major contributors to success. At age twenty-five with only six total competitions under her belt, Margie has high hopes of reaching the top level of the sport in the coming years as she gets stronger, refines her technique, and gains valuable race experience. This year, the Reston Triathlon in September and the World Age-Group Champs in Cancun in November are next on her schedule. She hopes that, before this season is finished, she will get the opportunity to compete on a day with normal "boring" weather. After the recent race in Wilkes-Barre, Margie even said "I think that I might like the bike segment best of all" - perhaps because it felt a bit cooler than the run did with the temperature above ninety degrees. She is putting all the pieces together. When that happens, watch out!

A Day in the Life of Margie Shapiro

5:30 a.m.	Rise, check on Will, ride bike to GRC practice 
                (weather permitting)
6:30 a.m.	Coach for Georgetown Running Club, ride home 
                 before husband leaves for work
8:00 a.m. 	Begin day with Will
9:30 a.m.	Baby swap with sister-in-law - watch 3 children 
                for 1 1/2 hours, run or swim workout for 1 1/2 hours
12:30 p.m.	Lunch with Will, tutoring/coaching planning 
                while he naps
2:15 p.m. 	Tutoring sessions
3:15 p.m.	Coach Langley team practice
5:30 p.m.	Tutoring sessions
7:30 p.m.	Return home, fit in additional workout if  
                possible, stretch
11:00 p.m.	Bed