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Personal Best: Woman, 35, adds training and triathlon to working, studying and raising a son
Journal Photo by Traci White
Dianne Johnson is greeted at the finish line by teammates Deb Reubel (center) and Sherri Felton.
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» Going the Distance: Click to see photos and listen to Dianne Johnson talk about her triathlon
Published: September 12, 2008
Dianne Johnson stands on the wet tile near the edge of the pool at the Gateway YWCA, a swim cap in one hand, a half-eaten energy bar in the other.
A current of anxious energy flows through her. Unable to stand
still, the heel of her right leg bounces up and down, over and over, for several minutes.
"My nerves," she said, "are shot."
For almost 30 minutes, Johnson scans the pool, watching 40 or so women of all ages, body shapes and athletic abilities swim laps.
They are among the 400 women who showed up one morning in late August to compete in the Ramblin' Rose Triathlon, a women-only race that requires participants to swim 250 yards, bicycle nine miles and run two miles.
For many of the women, including Johnson, this is their first triathlon. Some have seen their fitness levels decay after years of juggling child care and work. For them, the triathlon is a watershed moment, a chance to achieve something that they once thought was beyond their reach.
Johnson fits that mold. But 2008 has been her year. She graduated from nursing school in May, passed her nursing-certification boards in early July and got a full-time job in the neurology intensive-care unit at Forsyth Medical Center in late July.
She did all of this in addition to working part time at a local orthopedic office and raising her son, Tevin, with the help of her husband, Dontre.
"It's like I'm a little girl who is growing up," she said.
But she is hungry for one more milestone.
At pool side, she fidgets and worries.
She has never been much of a swimmer.
As her start time approaches, her friend, Christy Walker, takes her hand and together they whisper a prayer for strength.
Johnson steps into the pool and over to her lane. Family and friends rush to her side of the pool.
"Go, Dianne!" they yell. Many of them snap pictures.
Johnson starts with a freestyle stroke then starts to feel tense.
The fear of failing in front of everyone weighs on her, and she rolls over to her back, where she feels more comfortable. Slowly but steadily, she moves through the water, reaches for the wall and begins another lap.
Less than 13 minutes later, she climbs out of the pool and scampers past her entourage, who continue to shout out words of encouragement and take more photos.
"This is history in the making," said her nephew, Travish Hicks.
Johnson is 35 and has been married to Dontre for five years. She grew up in South Carolina and moved to Winston-Salem to be closer to her sister, Schmega Hicks, and to find better schools for her son. She got tired of working dead-end jobs. Four years ago, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.
While working part time at Orthopedic Specialists, she used to overhear two co-workers, Amy Starnes and Jill Grant, recount how they did in triathlons.
"Dianne's face would kind of light up," Starnes said. "She'd say, ‘That is really cool. I would love to do one, but I haven't worked out. I couldn't do it.'"
They countered that with some effort and consistent training, Johnson could finish a triathlon.
Johnson scoffed at the thought. She played sports in high school, but beyond an occasional walk and a little bit of Tae Bo, she hadn't been fit in years.
"It was more of a stress thing," she said about her exercise bursts. "Then I slacked off."
Still, she couldn't shake the thought that maybe this was something she could do. Hard work had never scared her.
A few days after graduating from Forsyth Tech in early May, she was talking with Starnes and Grant.
"When are you doing your next triathlon?" she asked.
They told her they were signing up for the Ramblin' Rose on Aug. 24.
"OK," she told them. "I'm doing it."
Still dripping from the pool, Johnson hustles to a transition area in the YWCA parking lot where she towels off, slips into some socks and shoes, straps on a bicycle helmet and hops on her bicycle. Swimming was by far the toughest discipline for Johnson, and she is relieved to have it behind her.
She pedals onto the Salem Creek Trail and to Salem Lake, where she is greeted with a series of hills. On Salem Lake Road, a slow parade of women slog up the hill, some of them groaning in pain. Johnson arrives at the base of the hill that she has dreaded for weeks.
She has climbed the hill a few times during training and knows that it is brutal.
Her arms bearing down hard on the handlebar, Johnson digs deeply into her pedals and inches up the hill.
At times, she wants to get off the bike and walk it up the hill. The temptation becomes acute on Stadium Drive. A police officer, a woman, stands at the top of the hill, near the back entrance to Salem Academy, encouraging the riders, including Johnson.
"You're almost there," she yelled. "It's downhill from here on out."
Dontre Johnson was surprised when his wife told him her plans. She had just finished school and now needed to focus on passing the nursing boards.
He knew this wasn't just talk.
"When she sets onto something," he said, "she's going to go after it hard."
Friends, including Starnes and Grant, ran with her. Walker, a neighbor, would meet her at 5 a.m. and run hilly roads in their neighborhood. In those first few weeks, Johnson couldn't manage much more than 100 yards.
Then there was swimming. Johnson had taken a few lessons when she was 30 but had spent little time in the pool since then. Overwhelmed, she walked into Fleet Feet, a local store that specializes in gear for triathletes, looking for help.
"I shouldn't be here," she told Emily Davis, who owns the store with her husband, Keith. "I'm in the wrong place."
Johnson picked up a brochure about a training program designed to help women finish the Ramblin' Rose. Davis, fearful that the training regimen might scare her, snatched it back.
The program included group training in all three disciplines, swimming lessons, free pool time at the YWCA and coaching on how to transition from one sport to the next. Prodded by Davis, Johnson signed on.
The group started with short distances and gradually built up to the race's distances. When they weren't training together, individuals would train alone. Johnson tried to get in the pool everyday, sometimes after a 12-hour shift, for at least 20 minutes.
Besides the women in the training program, Johnson was also motivated by her son, who can't see out of his right eye and has limited vision in his left.
Throughout Tevin's life, Johnson has encouraged him not to let his disability prevent him from doing anything he wanted. With her support, he has played basketball and run track, and now he is wrestling for East Forsyth.
"I know for a fact that Tevin gets his drive from his mom," Dontre Johnson said. "You can't say, ‘Tevin, you can't do this' because Tevin is going to do it. They feed off each other."
Tevin said that the triathlon is his mother's way of setting an example for him.
"She doesn't want to be a quitter in my eyes," he said.
Johnson wheels back into the transition area and begins a slow run along the Downtown Strollway for the last leg of the triathlon.
With the end in sight, she settles into a comfortable pace, each step bringing her closer to what she once considered impossible.
From a few hundred yards away, she hears the fanfare at the finish line, the loud music, cheering and the announcer calling out the names of the women as they finish. Tears form in her eyes.
"Thank you, Jesus," she says to herself.
Dontre, Tevin and some friends crane their neck to find her on the running route.
"There she is," Dontre Johnson points to Tevin. "She's rounding the corner. Here she comes." More than one hour and 35 minutes after starting the race, she crosses under an archway that reads "Finish" and lifts her hands in victory.
Family and friends make their way toward her and swallow her in hugs.
Her sister, who good-naturedly ribbed her throughout her training, gives her one of her biggest hugs and snaps more photos. "I knew I could do it, but to really do it? It was a joy," she said.
Johnson is about 10 pounds thinner now and runs regularly, sometimes with Tevin. Her next goal is a 5-kilometer race in December.
With her newfound fitness and confidence, Johnson said she wants to spread the word to other women to get active.
A few days after the race, she returned to her job at Orthopedic Specialists, where she continues to work part time, and shared her story with some of the women who work there.
"You have a whole year to get ready," she told them.
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lo'donnell@wsjournal.com.
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