Slow Fat Triathlete: Live Your Athletic Dreams in the Body You Have Now by Jayne Williams
Marlowe & Company, 2004

Review by Jennifer Sader

Even though she's about half a foot taller than me and has that tough, sporty-girl look, when I spotted celebrity author and famed triathlete, Jayne Williams, at the Chicago Triathlon this year, I had to speak up. "Listen," I said. "I have a bone to pick with you. I read your book, Slow Fat Triathlete, and I saw your race times. You're faster than me and um... you're not fat." She greeted my star struck admiration with one of her infamous grins, "Well, I'm growing into the title", she said. "I'm getting fatter and slower by the day."

Getting to know Jayne Williams through her writing is like getting to know a goofy, enthusiastic, occasionally foul-mouthed and terminally unhip ("You go girlfriend" and "Dude!" are used with alarming frequency) friend whose already done the hard work of figuring out how to do endurance sports in a regular person's body. The tag line on the back cover says it all: "Triathlon and endurance sports are not just for the skinny, the fast and the young. They're for you. You're not too slow, fat, old or klutzy. You're just fine. Start today."

Reading this book will make you believe that you can do a triathlon if you want to. It will also warn you about practical issues, like the bouncing, chafing, and self-consciousness that larger triathletes might experience. "Self consciousness is the enemy of fun," Jayne says. "It's the enemy of achievement. It's your enemy."

This book is important because it is challenging to be a larger person in a sport dominated by skinny people. The members of my triathlon club are friendly and nice, but sometimes when I walk into a meeting I feel morbidly obese. Many of them look like recent returnees from, Survivor. I'm the healthiest I've ever been in my life and I'm certainly not overweight.

Once I got past the initial embarrassment I felt at the first few meetings, I found out that many of them started out just like me. Everyone's motivations for becoming a triathlete are different. Some people use it for weight management. "I don't come from athletic stock. I come from livestock," a member told me recently. Another used triathlon training to get away from his two-pack-a-day Marlboro habit. He successfully kicked his habit and lost thirty-five pounds.

Reading Jayne's book helped me to face my fears and try out the sport for myself. She takes "the Slow, the Proud, the Possibly Fat, Wanna-be Maybe-Someday Triathlete" by the hand and shows them how to find the courage to start.

Jayne's a great cheerleader. Even though most of us are more than happy to stick to the shorter races, it's fun to read about the sport from Jayne's perspective as she chronicles her journey from "the verge of not being able to fit in the largest plus-sized clothes in the stores" to completing half an Ironwoman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) with humor and enough real-life detail to help you picture yourself at the finish line. If you have any inkling of wanting to do a triathlon, get this book. It's impossible to read her race reports without feeling inspired.

Jennifer Sader is a freelance writer, part-time doctoral student and recreational athlete. She has completed several sprint and international distance triathlons and three half-marathons. Her next goal is to do the Columbus Marathon. She is supported in all her endeavors by her wonderful husband of ten years, Jesse Squire, who inspired her to do her first competitive event, a 5K run, at the ripe old age of 20. Email Jennifer Sader: jensader@yahoo.com

Photo: András