Donna rocks. Seriously.
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From 'overweight mother' to national champ
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The "fat, overweight mother of an ex-bike racer."
It wasn't much of a sales pitch, but that's how Donna Smith described herself to a prospective coach in 2000, when the then-44-year-old Cowiche woman decided she wanted to race bicycles herself.
Fast-forward five years to last Saturday, at a cycling track in Portland.
"All of a sudden I wasn't Donna Smith, that kind of funny lady who drives forever from Yakima to get to the nearest track ... but Donna Smith, national champion," Smith recalls. "And other people, as they're conversing about you, they're saying 'Ooh, that's the national champion,' instead of 'That's Donna.'
"It's so weird."
And so true. Smith, her unflattering 2000 assessment of herself notwithstanding, is a national champion. She earned that distinction Aug. 23 at an outdoor velodrome in Indianapolis, when she captured the 500-meter sprint for women's age 45-49 in the 2005 USA Cycling Masters National Track Championships.
And considering what all she has done in the last five years, the final result isn't really all that surprising.
She has, simply, put in the miles and the hours.
When she started, she had a full-time job and owned a bicycle shop — Sagebrush Cycles, which closed 18 months ago. Her son, Mike, a former national-level cyclist, had stopped competing, and her husband doesn't share her love of cycling.
Smith was essentially a recreational cyclist with what might have seemed like unrealistic dreams.
But whatever figurative dues must be paid to achieve success, Smith already knew how to foot the bill.
Having been a collegiate athlete both at Yakima Valley Community College (cross country and track) and Whitworth College (volleyball and track) more than two decades before, Smith began putting in three- and four-hour training rides. Because she goes to work for the Department of Ecology at
7 a.m., she generally finished her days while it was still light enough to hit the roads for will-testing rides.
Her husband, she said, was
understanding about all of her time away from the house. "He doesn't care if the house is spotless, so we get along that way," she says. "It's like the cycling is my thing, so he pretty much gets out of the way. But then when hunting season comes around, I get out of his way. We each have our little vices and just let the other one go off and do it, which is why it's worked for 27 years."
Smith clocked more than 1,000 hours a year training — essentially three hours every day, "and that doesn't include the windshield time I put in driving," she says. "All just to pare fractions of a second off a time."
But fractions of a second was, by this month's national championships, all that was separating her from being the best. Twice she had already finished second at nationals in her age group, in 2003 at Kenosha, Wis., and in 2004 at Colorado Springs. Twice she had flown thousands of miles to test herself against international competition (the world championships in 2001 in England, then the World Masters Games in Melbourne).
Each time she got closer to being good enough to win. "At first it almost seemed like a jinx to talk about wanting to win a national championship," she says. "So I kept groveling my way up to the podium and kept on training."
And learning. About balance, about power, about making sure bike and rider are absolutely ready so there's nothing left to chance.
"In track racing, if you pull out of a pedal, if you have a piece of equipment that isn't tightened right, if your wheel slips, you just have the one shot," she says. "If (whatever accident befalls you) is something you could have prevented, it's sorrrrrry — that was your chance."
When Smith's chance came up in Indianapolis, she was ready. Having finished second in 2004, she went off in the last twosome — starting directly across the 333-meter track from reigning champion Julia Klinger of Pottstown, Pa. The 2003 champ, Texan Ann Marie Love, had the time to beat: 41.676 seconds.
And Smith beat it. With a sensational burst of speed over the first 200 meters, she built enough momentum to carry her across the line in 41.506. Klinger was a hair slower in 41.699. Smith was still on her cool-down, slow-down lap — sprint bicycles have no brakes — when she heard over the P.A. system that she was the national champion.
As the crowd applauded, Smith fought back tears.
So ... what does that "fat, overweight mother of an ex-bike racer" call herself now?
Smith laughs.
"The lean, mean 500 machine," she says. "I have lost a lot of body fat, and I'm a lot stronger than I used to be, and physically I'm about 10 years younger than I was when I started. Unfortunately, the wrinkles are still there, but physically everything else is much better than it used to be."
Smith knows being a 49-year-old masters national champion won't make her rich. But, she says with a chuckle, she can imagine a perfect sponsor.
"I'm still waiting for the Geritol folks to call."