At 41, First-Rate Triathlete Is Chasing Her Dreams

Nancy Baird has run in a total of 300 triathlons, biathlons and marathons.

Not bad for a woman who didn’t start running, swimming and bicycling until she was 30.

Now 41, the Irvine woman is ranked second in the world as a triathlete in her age group, thanks to her second-place finish in the world triathlon championship last October in Australia.

She plans to compete in next year’s world championship in Toronto.

“When I was in high school, there were no sports activities to speak of offered to girls,” said Baird, who was raised in Issaquah, Wash. “I lived so far out in the sticks that I spent most of my time with my animal friends.”

In fact, Baird believes that living in the small Washington town hindered her social and academic development.

“I also came from a dysfunctional family,” she noted. “I was a loner and became my own best friend.”

She said her early life was like the story of the tortoise and the hare. “I was the tortoise.”

At age 30, her first athletic competition was the formidable Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26-mile run.

“I just up and said, ‘I’m going to do that,’ ” she remembers. “I had a lot of persistence and lots of determination and had a lot of inner qualities that were never tapped.”

She joined a group of other triathletes to help her train.

“I trained for six months and finished sixth out of the 28 women who entered,” said Baird, who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. Before becoming an athlete, she peaked at 159 pounds.

Although she finished that first race, Baird suffered serious injuries to both legs, which required a full year to heal. Since then, she has competed in the ironman event five more times.

The one-time dental assistant recently took a month off from exercise to give her body and mind some rest and to spend more time with Mark Baird, 39, her husband of nine years.

Mark Baird, a production manager for a bicycle manufacturer, often accompanies his wife on bicycle training trips. “He wouldn’t run to save his life,” she says. “But he’s a good cyclist.”

“I work real hard the rest of the year,” said Baird, who plans to attend Irvine Valley College to become a state-certified personal trainer.

“I’m already working part-time as a trainer and need to expand on my brain power,” said Baird, who currently works full-time as a salesperson for Back Bay Runners.

Besides continuing a heavy athletic schedule--up to 25 contests a year--Baird is speaking before various groups to urge them to get involved in exercise.

“I tell other women to just get started; exercise is such a valuable asset to their lives,” said Baird, who also gives talks for the Physical Assessment and Reactivation Unit at UCI Medical Center.

But more important, she adds: “I tell people they first have to really like themselves and to focus on what is inside of them. If you dream, just keep dreaming. Something may happen. You don’t know what is around the corner.”