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AGE-GROUP PROFILE
LESLIE BATTLE
By Pete Williams


Leslie Battle is not your typical triathlete.


She’s a 45-year-old attorney in Rhode Island with more than 100 triathlons under her race belt, competing in the Athena division at a brisk enough pace to have reached the podium many times as an age-grouper.


Throw in her 100-pound weight loss, her advocacy for the Athena/ Clydesdale division at the highest levels of the sport, and her completion of 30 triathlons in 2013 alone, and she’s no doubt one of a kind.


Battle has created a 180-member Facebook group (Athena Triathletes), seeking out women who might sometimes feel disenfranchised in a sport often associated with lean physiques, petite frames and modest body fat. She also is lobbying for USA Triathlon to return to recognizing Athena and Clydesdale athletes separately at its Age Group National Championships in Wisconsin.


“Most of us aren’t looking to compete at ITU, but we’d like to be USAT national champions in the Athena or Clydesdale division,” Battle says. “I’m proud of that ‘Athena’ next to my name and to compete at the national level as an Athena, for all of us, is an acknowledgment of where we’ve been.”


For Battle, it’s been quite a journey. In 2008, she was coming off a broken leg and a bad relationship. She weighed well over 200 pounds when she set her sights on a half marathon. With little training, she finished a May event in 3 hours, 28 minutes.


She soon learned to swim, bought a bike and competed in her first triathlon early in 2009, lost 100 pounds by May of 2012 and late last year finished her 100th triathlon, the Great Lakes 100 Mile Triathlon, joining USA Triathlon’s prestigious Century Club. She’s finished events of all distances, including Ironman, and last year occasionally raced twice in a weekend to reach her goal of lining up for her 100th race at the 100 Mile Tri in October.


At 5-foot-6, Battle’s weight is not far above the 165-pound Athena minimum threshold that USA Triathlon implemented last year, after raising it from 150 pounds. She says she’s at a comfortable weight and while she’s a competitive age-grouper, she identifies more with the Athenas, high-fiving them during races. Battle seeks out Athenas, inviting them to the Facebook group, sometimes tracking them down by race photos, numbers and the results page.


“I know what it took to get out there, to train like an athlete when you’re not perceived that way,” Battle says. “We were the fat kids who sat on the bench or didn’t get picked, and for a lot of us finding fitness and this sense of community has been the best thing in our lives.”


Battle marvels at how the Internet brings the triathlete community together. She met pro triathlete Cait Snow at a race and they became Facebook friends. Several months later, Battle posted that she lost a pair of glasses during a race. Snow checked in later to ask about the glasses.


“It’s so unreal to have someone that caliber checking in with you, not just about that but about your progress,”


Battle says. Battle serves as a corporate attorney for MetLife Auto & Home, which includes USA Triathlon among its partners. The Buffalo native works long hours performing intellectual property and insurance regulatory work, but manages to juggle her training around facilities within a six-mile radius of her Warwick, R.I., office.


“Everything is very close in Rhode Island,” Battle says. “The longer you’re in this sport, the more friends you have who are triathletes. People expect you to be some place and it’s very motivational.”


She’s been encouraged by the modest increase in African-American triathletes. “Swimming and the expense of triathlon are hurdles for all athletes and I’ve had the good fortune to be able to do this,” Battle says. “Not everyone is in the same circumstance. One of my fantasy jobs is to open up a gym in an inner city area that would provide free day care to women so that they can train.”


Battle insists she’s going to dial back her event calendar in 2014 after last year’s 30-race schedule and 27 in 2012. She’s enjoyed racing occasionally with her 73-year-old mother, who has completed four sprint triathlons.


“I plan on doing fewer [but] longer races this year,” says Battle, who did six half-Iron distance races last year. “My friends laugh saying there’s no way I’ll do just 10. And they’re probably right.”
Pete Williams is a triathlete in Clearwater, Fla.


36 USA TRIATHLON SPRING 2014

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