Cancer Survivor is Best of the U.S. National Triathlon Champion

This is great, she thought, heading out on the 6.5 mile run in seventh place. Three women can pass me and I'sll still make the podium!

Instead, Margot Hair, 28, of Diamondhead, Mississippi, found herself breaking the tape 43 minutes later as the 2008 Best of the U.S. National Champion. No easy task considering she had to run down an age group national champion, the winner of the largest triathlon in the world, and four other formidable athletes to do it.

This chapter of Margot'ss story begins in 2006. She used to swim for fitness, but Hurricane Katrina ended that in 2005, destroying virtually every pool in the area, and leaving behind so much debris as to make cycling without popping tires all but impossible. So she started to run, an enterprise she had never previously been inclined toward.

Over the months, Margot'ss gym buddies noted her progress and encouraged her to enter races. Running out of time to meet her goal of doing a race before turning 27, Margot entered a 5K run in May of 2007 -- and won it. And then entered a duathlon (run-bike-run) and finished second. Encouraged, she targeted the Heart o's Dixie Triathlon that July, finishing as the 3rd Mississippi woman. The 1st place man and woman earned the right to represent their home state at the Best of the U.S. Championship. When the first and then second-place women passed on their Championship berth, Margot eagerly embraced it.

By this time in summer of 2007, she needed something to pull her along, for it was then that her diagnosis of cervical cancer had been confirmed.

That October, she arrived at the Championship a virtual unknown, having just completed three weeks of chemotherapy. On the way, she had crocheted a red stocking cap, which she wore throughout the pre-race activities.

She had raced only one triathlon in her life. Sporting a kid'ss bike helmet festooned with strawberries, and -- in spite of high heat and humidity -- a white cap for the run, to cover her balding head, Margot finished 13th among the best female triathletes in the nation.

It changed my life, she says now, reminiscing. I needed a goal and targeting the Best of the U.S. Championship got me through the diagnosis and early chemo. I really wanted it, and I believe that mindset does wonders.

Chemotherapy ended in January 2008. Margot still works an adjusted schedule to manage fatigue, taking Wednesdays off to rest. Still, charged up by good test results delivered this May, she again entered Heart o's Dixie and, this time, won the race outright.

So Sunday, when she had counted off six women passed, she began to question her brother'ss report that she was seventh starting the run. I was convinced he was wrong; there had to be one more woman up there ahead of me. Making the turn into Tempe Beach Park, My brother told me she was 10 feet back, [she was actually more like 10 meters so I just pushed as hard as I could. I couldn'st look back; I didn'st want to see anything, my legs were like lead, but I just kept going

Just keep going. Have a goal. It'ss a mindset that has served Margot well. An astronautical engineer and civilian employee of the U.S. Navy, she had been accepted at Harvard University, but returned to her original home state of Washington to finish her undergrad work at UW. She completed her Masters at International Space University in Strasbourg, France, and took her first job in research with NASA before moving on to the Navy'ss Oceanography Command Center.

I love Mississippi. I like the heat and humidity, the fact that it'ss a little bit rural. More pools would be nice, she laughed.

Margot Hair clearly has natural physical gifts. Does she wonder what she can accomplish with good health and better training

Oh yes. I love triathlon's8230;it'ss my life. I'sd like to find a coach. I'sm motivated by anything that requires hard work. I'sd like to see how good I can be, she said.

For more information on Best of the U.S. Amateur Triathlete Competition, contact Jerry MacNeil at 651-246-5128 or visit www.bestoftheustriathletes.com.

About Best of the U.S.:

Best of the U.S. is an annual competition highlighting the accomplishments of amateur triathletes, and inspiring others to a fitness lifestyle with stories of working adults balancing family, career and fitness.

Contact:

Jerry MacNeil

Best of the U.S. LLC

651-714-1829 or 651-246-5128 cell

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