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Nothing Slows Margie Down
Ritchie Takes 2nd World Title in 3 Weeks
As Reported By the Edmonton Journal |
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| Sep 30, 2009 |
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As Margie Ritchie bikes around the University of Alberta campus, on her way to or from work, she's probably often mistaken for one of the thousands of students. Petite, her head covered with a helmet, backpack over her shoulders, Ritchie may look like a student, but is anything but.
The early-50s woman is a microbiologist, a mother of three sons, a breast-cancer survivor and a double International Triathlon Union world champion. Having won the world triathlon championship in her 50-54 age group earlier this month, she added the age group world duathlon title to her resume on Saturday.
Chatting over coffee and a muffin last week, Ritchie is equally at ease, and candid, talking about her athletic success and her frightening battle with breast cancer.
She started triathlons in 2003 but was sidetracked a year later when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her husband, Bruce, an associate professor of medicine at the U of A, had melanoma back in 1990 so they were already aware of the importance of living life to its fullest every day. And both being doctors, they understood the disease and what was happening to her.
"Initially we were told it was early stage, non-invasive so that was a good prognosis," she said. "Everyone said it would be a good outcome. What happened though, which typically happens when a medical doctor goes into medical care, is Murphy's Law--something will go wrong."
She had "very aggressive surgery" to ensure all the cancerous tissue was removed, but the pathologist said "we can't find clear margins. When you take out cancer you want a layer of clear tissue around it so they get it all. They couldn't say that."
A second surgery produced the same non-conclusive results, leading to a third visit to the operating table, all within months in the summer of 2004. Finally she got the positive result.
Losing a breast can be devastating to a woman, no matter how good the replacement prosthesis may be. Ritchie took her loss in stride and hasn't let it seriously interfere with her life.
"To me breasts have not been a big issue and I thought this will really determine, let me know how much a breast means to me," she explained. "For women, fashion and all the rest of it is often predicated on the breast. Bruce has been extremely supportive, saying, 'It doesn't mean anything to me, I'll love you just the same... a breast doesn't determine who you are.' I do sometimes wish I could wear things that are lower cut than I can. I often wear things that disguise the fact, but I'm not big anyway, that I have a prosthesis."
Then she laughs while talking about working in her garden, getting all sweaty and having the prosthesis fall out.
"I've lost it all over the place. I'm pretty nonchalant about it. When I go to the swimming pool and change I don't hide it. The more people who see women have had their breasts removed the better. No matter what it looks like
I'm a normal person, I'm functioning normally, I'm in swimming, I'm doing OK."
The Ritchies have three sons:Nic, 23, Rob, 20, and Scott, 18.Knowing the boys had to deal with the issue, Margie and Bruce kept them well informed all along the way about what was happening, why and what the various options were.
"I think we joked a lot about it," she said. "It was right in their faces and they had to help at various times because I couldn't do things.
"We were going through a time in the fashion world when boobs were becoming very prominent, and the exposure of boobs and the mid-drifts. My husband wanted to desensitize them to the fact boobs aren't the be all and end all of life for a man. I know it made them more worldly people from the point of view of health, from the point of view of being a woman. I like to think they have a healthy attitude toward it."
Now just past the five-year point where the patient is considered free of the cancer, Ritchie took direct aim at winning the triathlon world championship this month in Australia. A runner by nature, she took up triathlon after watching the ITU Edmonton event that went past her house.
"I was running and had just started swimming as cross-training for running and injuries. I felt anybody can ride a bike. I had a 20-year-old 10 speed and actually qualified for worlds that first year."
The worlds were in her home country of New Zealand, but she couldn't go because she wasn't a member of a provincial triathlon association. So she joined the Alberta group, wondering if she could qualify for worlds without any real training, how well would she do if she actually started training?
How well she did was 12th in the worlds two years ago, 16th last year and the top of the podium this year. She was also second in last year's duathlon worlds.
As part of her training for this year's worlds, she challenged her sons to compete as a team to try to beat her times.
Quite a challenge for her, considering Nic is co-captain of the University of Alberta track team(although he's a sprinter), Rob is an elite snowboard racer who competed in the world junior boardercross in March and had hoped to make Canada's team for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and Scott is an avid squash player. All three have been active athletes all their lives.
As a team they finished third in the St. Albert Triathlon, but she beat them in all three disciplines.
Having won the Canadian championship in her age group in August, she went to Australia thinking she would be happy to finish in the top 10.
"Other people were telling me,'We think you're going to podium.'I was going, 'Why are you saying that?' "
Turns out they were right. Competing against 70 women from 10 countries, Ritchie was 19th after the swim, fourth after the bike and used her running background to overtake her three remaining opponents to finish first. Although she had no idea at the time that she had won.
"I didn't even find out until two or three hours after the race. There wasn't an obvious place to go for results. I actually found out through a text...the husband of a friend from New Zealand texted her and said, 'She got first.' "
The triathlon was like a bonus victory. She had increased her training and was using coaches in an effort to improve her second-place finish in last year's duathlon to a gold medal this time. She works with Kevin Masters in town and via the Internet with world-renowned coach Paul Regensburg of Victoria's LifeSport coaching centre. "When I took on coaching, my main goal was: 'I was second last year. Can I be first this year?' "
She answered her own question on Saturday, running and biking around the Lowe's Motor Speedway at Concord, N.C., to win her second world title in less than a month.
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