A Great
Escape
Early morning waves lap onto the foreboding rocky crags of Alcatraz
Island in the San Francisco Bay. Into the dark, frigid water plunge
more than 1,000 triathletes. Hours later, the reward at the finish
line is simply
the ‘braggin’ rights’ to say, “I escaped from Alcatraz.”
For Diane Ridgway, RN, a cardiac electrophysiology nurse at the University
of Colorado Hospital, this adventure sounds like fun.
 |
| Diane Ridgway, RN, on the bike leg of the triathlon. |
Ridgway is a self-described “runner who does triathlons.” Her
modesty belies the fact that at 58 years old she is one of the premier endurance
athletes – at any age - in the state of Colorado. She recently competed
at the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, to become
a four-time world champion triathlete in her age group.
In 2005, Ridgway competed in seven marathons and seven half Ironman
events, and she regularly competes in ultra-running (typically 50 miles
or longer) and mountain trail races throughout the United States. To compete
at such a grueling level demands an appreciation of the limits of human
performance.
At work, Ridgway shows a similar energy in the work she does coordinating
patients, procedures, and the physicians to effectively run what she
describes as a busy lab of “cardiac electricians” fitting defibrillators
and pacemaker units.
Within her petite frame beats the heart of a dedicated nurse and elite
athlete.
Ridgway has to squeeze in her exercise schedule around 45-50 hours
of work. So, during a typical week, she swims three evenings, pedals
her bike for a long ride and two short rides, and runs 18 miles to work one
early
morning, rain, snow, or shine.
A self-admitted tomboy, Ridgway’s journey towards elite athlete
began a bit later in her life. She married and had children at a young
age, and then went back to school to earn her nursing degree at San
Diego State University.
“
I realized I was thirty and had baby fat, so I started running,” she
said.
Running on her lunch hours, she began to go further and faster. During
that time, triathlons were just arriving on the scene in San Diego,
and the format was loose. She registered for her first triathlon and
then when she and her husband moved to Panama, she organized running
races and the very first triathlon there. Participants from throughout
Central America gathered to swim in the Panama Canal, supervised by
military lifeguards.
Ridgway kept the bike course clean by sweeping
it herself, and even built trophies for the winners by recycling her
old trophies.
Her Ironman triathlon career began after moving to Hawaii. She competed
in a half Ironman to qualify for the Ironman Worlds six weeks later.
The day after she secured a spot for Worlds, she swam two miles to
assure herself she could make the cutoff time for the swim.
Recalling her first full Ironman, she said, “I was hooked, I
loved it.”
After moving to Colorado, Ridgway focused on ultrarunning and stopped
triathlons for a while. Every couple of years, she gets tired of Ironman
and Escape from Alcatraz, and takes the opportunity to do other kinds
of events, as well as enjoy time off from competiton.
Escape from Alcatraz is a unique triathlon in many ways. The 1.5 mile
swim in the bay is difficult and dangerous due to the 55 degree choppy
water and strong unpredictable ebbs and currents. A wet, one mile run
to the bike transition area is followed by a technical 18 mile ride
through a hilly, winding, rutted road through Golden Gate Park. Finally,
participants run in deep sand along Baker Beach and must confront the
dreaded sand ladder, a 400 step ascent up a long cliff.
What drives Ridgway to take on a competition like Alcatraz, and how
does she prepare for the physical demands a competition like Alcatraz
places on her?
“
First of all, it has to be fun and be different,” she explained.
She chooses training times to optimize her family time, and enters
events based on ideal geographical locations. In the case of Alcatraz,
a comfortable, leisurely tour through nearby wine country offers an
ideal contrast to the event.
“
The competitions serve as our little family vacations where I can also
race,” she said.
Although she has no organized training or nutrition program, she confesses
to a high degree of self-motivation and a love of salads (she eats
two daily). She says that one of the keys to success is belief that
you can do it.
“
You can’t say ‘I’m not sure I can make it,’ “Instead,
you say out loud, ‘I want to do it, I am going to do it,’” she
said.
Nevertheless, Ridgway does prepare in unorthodox ways. Her swim training
includes time in a gravel pond adjacent to Chatfield reservoir, located
in Southwest Denver, in order to simulate open water conditions; at
home, she might sit in a bathtub filled with icy cold water to replicate
San Francisco Bay conditions, and she bikes around the foothills of
Colorado, practicing in varying sun and shade visibilities and working
through the range of gears on her bike.
Ridgway is also driven by a strong desire to measure herself up against
the competition. For her, everyone is her competition, not just those
in her age group. When looking through race results, she is keenly
aware of her swim, bike, and run split times, as well as her age group
and overall standings.
“
I wish the overall standings would be stressed a bit more, and not
just the age group breakdowns,” she said.
She is gratified at consistently wining her age group, but more so
by placing high among the twenty- and thirty-somethings.
Ridgway knows well the limitations of the human heart, both as a cardiac
care nurse and as an elite athlete stretching the boundaries of elite
competitions.
“
You’re never too old to start. ‘I don’t have time’ is
no excuse. I do what works for me,” she said. “Do what
suits you, but do something.”
It seems not even stony Alcatraz can confine Ridgway’s journey
to explore the limits of human performance.
