Miles to go
Corrales resident, 70, expects to reach 100 (races) soon
Corrales resident Carol Akright, at age 70, continues to compete in triathlons
Carol Akright remembers being out of breath and feeling a bit defeated during that first training swim 15 years ago. Within swimming 50 meters in the pool, she was out of breath.
But there was never a thought to give up.
Akright, a 70-year-old Corrales resident, has come a long way since that first attempt to train for triathlon events.
Now she typically works out six days a week. She can easily swim the length of a pool now — it becomes a bit more challenging on race days when she swims eight. But that’s the easy part of her triathlon day, which also includes a 5-kilometer run and a 20K bike ride.
Akright, in the women’s 70+ division, is set to compete in the Tax Day Triathlon Saturday at the White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, where it all began for her 15 years ago.
That was the site for her first race. This race will be her 97th triathlon.
She’s aiming to reach 100 later this year and will throw a party.
“I’m not the fastest,” Akright said. “I could aim to be fast, but my interest is really showing up, having fun and finishing the race. If I win a medal that’s gravy on top of it. The whole idea is to stay fit. The good news is 19 years after I had breast cancer, I am extremely healthy at 70. I’m just going to consistently do these kinds of things to stay fit, because you just enjoy life more.”
Fired Up
Akright possesses several motivating factors that led her to become a triathlete.
Nineteen years ago, she was left stunned when doctors diagnosed her with breast cancer. She said there is no history of cancer in her family.
Fortunately, she said, the cancer was detected early. After four months of treatment, Akright became cancer-free. But she realized she wasn’t as healthy as she believed.
She needed more activity to relieve her stress.
But working out at fitness centers bored her. Her ex-husband told her to try triathlon.
Akright wanted to stay fit and active in her older years. She was saddened by the experience of her late father, Jim Akright, an attorney for Phillips 66 in Oklahoma.
He was a smoker who suffered a stroke when he was 66 — less than a year after he retired — that left him impaired on his left side and kept him from doing all the activities he had planned in retirement.
“He wanted to duck hunt and golf,” Akright said. “He said to me, ‘If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.’ I didn’t want to ever have my life be like that. It was sad for me. He worked so hard and he deserved the years of enjoyment. And, he didn’t get them.”
Akright does her best to live happily in her father’s memory. That first race at White Sands Missile Range was challenging. She was the last person to finish the race, but she later discovered that she was a winner of a first-place medal — as the only one to compete in her 55-60 age division.
“I kind of got hooked on winning the medals and doing the races,” she said.
After completing her first triathlon, Akright’s trainer, Jimmy Santiago Moreno, challenged her to continue. Akright joked that she would complete 100 triathlons.
Moreno remembers Akright as a vivacious and energetic client 15 years ago. Nothing has changed, Moreno said.
“She always believed she could do it,” said Moreno, who in 1998 became one of the first USA Triathlon coaches to be certified at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. “She wasn’t too old to start.”
Akright’s belief in herself was the key, Moreno said. The will to compete in triathlon is the most important aspect for training, he said.
“It’s daunting in itself to do each, run, bike and swim,” he said. “It takes the right frame of mind. You have to put a lot of time into it.”
Akright put in the work. She also studied kinesiology and applied natural solutions to her training. Most people tell her she looks a decade younger than she is.
Akright is not in retirement. She continues to work.
She describes herself as a former TV journalist and financial services advisor, turned entrepreneur in health care natural solutions.
She worked as a TV news reporter in Southern California for 11 years. She was then a financial adviser for 27 years. She wrote a book: “Funding Your Dreams Generation to Generation,” and wrote a financial column for the Journal. She traveled the world on cruise ships as a guest speaker talking about finance.
Now she sells essential oils and talks about how health and fitness has changed her life.
“One of the things I do now is to encourage anyone to think they can age without pain and aches and have a long lifespan if they are willing to put in the time and effort to be fit and work out,” said Akright, who also enjoys photography.
Akright, who lives with her 14-year-old cat Clancy, has more she wants to accomplish.
She wants to take a dance class, maybe after she’s done with the remodeling of her home. There’s also the matter of the web address she owns: RaceTo100.com. She says she wants to complete 100 races and she also wants to live to be 100 years old. She might start blogging on that web address.
For now, she’ll continue to run, bike and swim.
Moreno, who now lives in the San Diego area, had told Akright that if she keeps it up, he would be there for her 100th race.
“I’ll be there,” he said. “I’m keeping my promise.”