Kona bound: Susan Clavin

Nothing seems to hold back lottery winner Susan Clavin, Matthew Dale reports

Like thousands of other Ford Ironman Hawaii lottery entrants, Susan Clavin logged onto her email account one day last April with a mixture of nervousness, hope and curiosity.

It being her first year entering the lottery, she figured she didn't have a chance. But she'd start entering now, in her mid-40s, and figured if she were lucky, maybe by the time she reached 50, her ticket to Kona would be punched.

So imagine her reaction when she saw the email from the World Triathlon Corporation, congratulating her, letting her know her wish had come true.

“I was floored,” says Clavin, 47, who lives in Onset, Mass., about 45 minutes outside Boston.

As for her exact words, she says they were more like, “Oh, (bleep). How am I going to be able to do this?”

An understandable reaction, given that until two months ago, Clavin had never raced a triathlon longer than a sprint distance. That she has asthma. That she sometimes suffers from vertigo, courtesy of a bike accident last year.

“That was my biggest question, can I do it physically,” says Clavin. “Mentally, I'm there. Mentally, I'm already at the finish line.”

Memo to those who think dnf will be typed next to Clavin's name when the 2008 Ironman Hawaii results are posted: Don't bet on it.

This is one tough woman. She was a single parent for six years, supporting herself and her son, Anthony, as a waitress. She went to college at 25 and earned an associates degree in electronic engineering. When her son wanted to take karate lessons, Clavin decided to study, too, and earned a black belt.

At 5-foot-6, 134 pounds, Clavin now works as a corrections officer in a state prison that houses nearly 1,000 inmates, many of them behind bars for being convicted of murder and rape.

When Clavin said during a telephone conversation that she doesn't think of herself as being tough, Anthony, now 26, chimed in from the background, “Mom, you're mentally tough.”

That grit no doubt is rooted in a youth that Clavin admits was “troubled.”

She was one of six children growing up in Bridgewater, Mass. Her father left the family when she was in second grade.

“Back then there wasn't a lot of divorce,” says Clavin, who also has a 19-year-old daughter, Renae-Marial. “It was embarrassing not to have money. I remember when we'd go back to school, we'd get one pair of shoes, a shirt, a pair of pants and that was it.”

“I was a very troubled teenager,” she says. “I didn't go to school a lot. I didn't do well in school. I never went to prom.”

She said she got into the corrections field 11 years ago because of the job benefits. She worked as an officer for nine years and has worked at Old Colony Correction Center for nearly two.

The worst thing that's ever happened to her was getting tangled up while breaking up a brawl and coming away with some bruises. She has had to demonstrate restraint, like the time a male inmate called a vulgar name.

“I wanted to kick him down the stairs. I wanted to slap his face,” she says. “Nobody talks to me like that. But I couldn't do that. I'm the one that has to set the example. I have to be better than them. That's why I'm a corrections officer and they're inmates.”

As for her triathlon career, the seeds were planted in 2004 when she went with her husband, Bob, to watch a friend compete in a sprint-distance race.

Bob dropped $150 on a used Fuji road bike and told her, “Now you have to do one.”

She tackled a sprint race the next year, tacked on a couple more in 2006, then was planning to step up to the Olympic distance in 2007 when she was struck from behind less than three miles from her home by a guy driving a pickup. She was wearing a helmet, which broke into three pieces.

She suffered a concussion, couldn't remember her home phone number for more than a week, was out of work for seven weeks and still suffers occasional bouts of vertigo. Witnesses told Clavin that the man who struck her got out of his truck, looked at her, then fled from the scene. Witnesses spotted his license-plate number and gave a physical description.

He was later caught, arrested and found guilty on multiple offenses.

His punishment: probation.

Of the crash, Clavin says, “It felt like somebody took my brain and rattled it really, really hard for a while. When I couldn't remember my phone number, I just cried.”

During her convalescence she bought the book “The Triathlete's Training Bible.” She began logging onto beginnertriathlete.com.

And in September of last year, she completed a sprint-distance race. Now, she's bound for Kona.

She validated her Hawaii spot by completing Ironman 70.3 Florida 70.3 in May, finishing in 7 hours, 14 minutes.

For motivation, Clavin thinks of Johnny Blais, the Blazeman, who in 2005 became the first person with ALS to finish Ironman Hawaii. Blais grew up in Seekonk, Mass., about 45 minutes from Onset.

“He was such an inspiration,” says Clavin. “He made you believe you can do anything.”

As part of her Ironman Hawaii journey, Clavin is raising money for Operation Rebound, which provides post-rehab support to American soldiers and veterans who suffered traumatic injuries in Afghanistan or Iraq that resulted in a permanent physical disability. With numerous family members having served in the armed forces, she feels a bond with the military.

“To show them they can do anything they set their mind to, it doesn't matter if they're missing a limb, they can do it ... getting them the training and equipment is so important,” she says.

Clavin’s husband has no doubt Susan will be up to the Hawaii challenge come Oct. 13.

“When she sets her sights on doing something,” says Bob, “she's going to get it done.”