By Julia Merulla Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Thu Aug 18, 2011, 10:37 AM EDT
The day an overweight fast food manager decided to get active by riding her bike turned out to be life changing.
The bike rides got longer and more intense. She started going for runs and worked up to competing in athletic events.
Stephany Critelli’s efforts culminated last month in Lake Placid when she completed the 2011 Ironman triathalon competition, a grueling sequence of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. She finished with a time of 14 hours, 59 minutes and 27 seconds — beating her personal goal of 15 hours and conquering one of the longest and most difficult triathalons in existence.
“I like a challenge,” Critelli, 44, said. “I always like to have something on my plate that’s going to push me.”
Since she began competing athletically within the last three to four years, Critelli, has finished multiple double-sport events. Duathlons — competitons of running, biking and more running — helped prime her for tougher challenges. She finished her first triathlon in 2008.
Critelli described training for an event of this magnitude as a “part-time job,” taking anywhere from 12 to 30 weeks, depending on one’s familiarity with endurance competitions.
The race in Lake Placid had the additional challenge of biking uphill, forcing Critelli to get creative in her Western New York training grounds. She drove to places like Escarpment Hill and Chestnut Ridge, riding the same hill repeatedly if necessary just to get used to the incline.
Swimming in open water is also a challenge. Specific drills can be done in a pool to help prepare, but there’s no substitute for training in open water, Critelli said. She participated in group swims with other members of the Buffalo Triathlon Club.
Training for three different sports at once may be taxing enough, but many competitors overlook what Critelli calls the “fourth sport” in a triathalon: nutrition.
“You don’t realize what it takes to fuel your body,” Critelli said. “Practicing swimming, biking and running is as important as practicing nutrition.”
The LaSalle native’s routine consisted of setting alarms every 15 minutes to remind her to eat or drink something. Though she taught herself a lot about training, she hired a coach, and trained and consorted with seasoned athletes in the Buffalo Triathlon Club.
Charlie Watson, president of the BTC, competed with Critelli in the Lake Placid Ironman, his fifth Ironman competition in four years.
“We’re very proud of Stefany,” he said. “It’s great to see her racing well and enjoying it. That is the best part of the Buffalo Triathlon Club, sharing in our experiences and encouraging one another in the healthy and happy lifestyle that comes as a side effect to what we do.”
Now 70 pounds lighter than she was in 2001, Critelli works as a part-time personal trainer and spinning instructor at Summit Fitness. She is also a fifth-grade teacher in the Niagara Falls School District.
Her students are kept up to speed about her competitions and upcoming challenges, bringing in medals and pictures to show them.
“I like to involve them in everything I do so they know all about my races,” she said.
Well-versed in her own training, Critelli has taken to helping others get in shape. Rina Dunlap, a first-grade teacher and colleague of Critelli’s, said Critelli motivated her to start exercising and they began working out together.
“We ran in Hyde Park and literally, I would run for a minute,” Dunlap said. “That’s what our goal was: to run for one minute.”
Dunlap, who traveled to Lake Placid to support Critelli in her competition, has since completed six half-marathons and belongs to a small women’s running group that Critelli leads.
Though she has completed what Watson calls “a major physical and mental accomplishment in the world of triathlon and endurance sports,” Critelli said she is not finished. She has multiple races planned in the upcoming weeks and just completed the Summer Sizzler triathlon on Beaver Island and a 100-mile bike ride from Buffalo to Canada and back.
“Put your sneakers on,” she said. “The hardest part is lacing up your shoes — meaning getting started.”
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