News Anchor To Race NYC Tri For A Cause

She had no idea what she’d signed up for. She had run the 2005 New York City Marathon, but would never call herself an athlete. When she discovered it was an Olympic-distance triathlon, “I went into a full-blown panic,” she says. “But I had too much pride to say, ‘No way, I can’t do this.’”

Training for the triathlon was no easy feat—she gets to work at 9 a.m., at which point her day is filled with meetings, phone calls and interviews before she’s on air from 3 to 5 p.m., she travels a lot during the year for business, all while raising two children under the age of 10 with her husband in Edgewater, N.J.

She called up Peter K (Peterkfitness.com), who had helped her train for the marathon: “I called him up and said, ‘You’ve gotta get me over this finish line. And by the way, I have a very challenging schedule and two little kids—good luck with that.’”

The only time she found she could train was at 5 a.m. every morning, so Peter K put together a whole training schedule for her. And when it came time to race, she loved the experience.

“To me, [racing] in New York City is such an emotional high and an amazing experience,” she says. “It’s really important for me to stress the words ‘Liz Claman’ and ‘athlete’ should never go together. … I was born with scoliosis, curvature of the spine, and was told I’d never be able to run long distances. And then I completed a marathon. So it’s all in your mind—your limitations are only what you allow them to be.”

After racing the triathlon the last two years, Claman’s outlook on life has changed.

“I feel that having accomplished it, and continuing to take this on, aside from the physical benefits of it, the mental benefits of completing a triathlon are so valuable, it makes you feel like you’re in this game of life and you’re winning it,” she says. “Just completing it and crossing that finish line translates to every other aspect of your life. … That makes you realize that there’s nothing you can’t do in life.”

Next weekend, Claman will be swimming, biking and running in New York City, all the while thinking about the soldiers she’s raising money for. “You don’t need to be for any war—I mean who’s “for” war?—it doesn’t matter. You’re for these guys who went there to fight and have come back with severe disabilities, and how can we not help them? It’s the least we can do,” Claman says. “When I think about running and swimming and biking, and oh I’m gonna hurt … I think, ‘What about those guys? That’s a really serious issue. This? What I’m doing? That’s nothing.’”

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FILED UNDER: Features TAGS: celebrity triathlete / Liz Claman

Bethany Mavis

Bethany Mavis is the associate editor for Triathlete and Inside Triathlon magazines. She received her B.A. in journalism from Point Loma Nazarene University and is a two-time half-marathon finisher.

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