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Triathlete banks on competing
By D.A. WILKINSON
COLUMBIANA
Think you’re in good shape?
Meet Amanda Frost.
Frost, 31, of Columbiana, is a business-relationship specialist with First Place Bank.
She’s also the executive director of Leadership Columbiana County and takes part in local plays.
None of those are especially strenuous.
But she is in better physical shape than you can get with the occasional workout.
She swam while she attended Baldwin-Wallace College. Now, she regularly does laps in the pool at the Salem Community Center.
About 12 or 13 years ago, she started running. Triathlons appeared in the 1970s and are different than long-distant running events, she explained. Triathlons include swimming, bicycling and running, in that order.
In 2007, she decided to try one. She came in second .
She has had victories in Canton, Youngstown and Lake Milton. She recently won the annual Davis Triathlon in Mahoning County. Out of eight recent competitions, she said she came in first in all but one.
Frost said she had not been a runner, because she thought running was “worthless.”
But when she began to get involved in biking in 2007 and then discovered triathlons she changed her mind about running, because it completed the three sports in a triathlon.
For one event, Frost swam half a mile, rode her bike 12.2 miles and topped it off with a 3.1 mile run. In yet another event, she swam a short distance, biked more than 24.2 miles, and topped it off with a 6.2 mile run.
She won an event at Disney World on May 9, coming in first out of almost 1,200 competitors.
“I do it to keep in shape,” she said. “I have a dedication to work out.”
Her fianc , Roger Gaskins, helps with her training and serves as the “chase driver” who helps repair her bike during events.
“There are long, long hours of training,” she said, many of them solo.
“It’s not traditional,” she said. “It’s more of a way of life.”
She said her biggest fan is her father, Judge Mark Frost of Columbiana County Municipal Court.
The judge said, “She’s always been very athletic, even when she was 61/2 years old.”
The judge said he is not an athlete and attributes his daughter’s activity to his wife’s side of the family.
“It never fails to surprise me with what she can accomplish,” he said.
There are few accidents that mostly occur on roads because of bad motorists or nails that puncture tires.
She said she gets support from Cycle Sales of Boardman with bike equipment and repairs and nutritional supplements and power bars.
She plans to compete this year and next and then will evaluate her options.
“I know in my life I will compete on some level,” she added.