One of the great joys of my life is having the opportunity to meet so many terrific people along this Shaping Up journey. Those who have got into shape, those who are working at it (like me!) and those who are so fit they can't help but inspire you to want to live a healthier, more active life.
Without a doubt Gerda Brault-Meyer falls into that last category.
I mean, how many people have you met who have taken up triathlons at the age of 64? And for those of you not sure what a triathlon is, it's a combination race of swimming, biking and running, done in that order. Distances range from a 750-metre swim, 20-km ride and 5-km run, right up to an Ironman, which is a 3.86-km swim, 180-km ride and a 42.2-km run).
Brault-Meyer, who is 73 (but looks at least a decade younger), has participated in more than 20 triathlons and shows absolutely no sign of slowing down - in fact, she's looking forward to signing up for even more once she has fully recovered from a serious biking accident last June.
At that time, Brault-Meyer was in training and on her way back to her South Shore home from le Perrot when the accident occurred. She was cycling at a good speed when, out of the blue, an obstacle blocked her path. She swerved abruptly and ended up hitting a concrete embankment.
"If I had just slid and sustained burns and scrapes, it would have been so much easier," she told me. "But this pain was unbelievable, indescribable, really. I couldn't move; it was excruciating."
Turns out she had fractured her pelvis and shoulder.
"For three months I could put no weight whatsoever on my left side," she explained. "I went from a wheelchair to crutches, and after 11 weeks was finally able to start walking."
Not an easy time for someone accustomed to working out seven days a week.
"It was torture," she admitted. "But eventually, I started to swim again and that helped incredibly."
Brault-Meyer, who was born in Austria, said that exercise has always been in her life.
"I loved gymnastics, I skied and cycled everywhere," she said. "It was how you lived, you didn't drive everywhere."
In 1965, she married and moved to Montreal where she had two daughters.
"I even had a bicycle brought over from Europe that had place for my two girls, one in front, one in back," she said. "People were fascinated by that bike and would stop me to find out where it was from."
As her daughters got older, Brault-Meyer, who was working in town at the time for a dentist, "got bit by the yoga bug." She practised faithfully for seven years until she moved to the South Shore.
"The commute was too far, so I decided to try other things."
In her mid to late 50s, she took up running - "not all that much at first," but she kept it up and eventually added swimming to the repertoire.
"I love how I feel after exercising," she told me enthusiastically. "I feel brand new after I work out, you have no idea the benefit you get from regular exercise," she said. "The level of energy you have, the superb feeling, the stress reduction, it's so addictive."
As she put it to me so perfectly: "Exercising intensely is not for everybody, but everybody can do something."
Her daughter Sybille is the one who asked Gerda to participate in a triathlon. "I knew my mother could do it," she told me. "I just said to her one day, 'Why don't you give it a try?' "
Forget being bitten by the yoga bug, the triathlon bug bit even harder.
"It was just so fantastic," Brault-Meyer enthused. "That fever, the adrenalin, the sense of accomplishment, I was completely hooked."
She loves to challenge herself, to push herself to the limit. "For me, there is no other way."
The two have been competing together ever since, and a few years ago Brault-Meyer did a triathlon with both of her daughters and her grandson, who was eight at the time. "That was very, very special."
Her daughters are justifiably proud of their mother.
"At an age when most people worry about their parents falling and breaking bones, we just worry that some races might be too much," Sybille said.
"We competed in a race not long ago, where the swim portion was through water with a lot of weeds, which made it difficult, and I was worried about her getting through that, since I found it tough and I'm a strong swimmer." There was no need to worry.
Last year, when Brault-Meyer was looking for a more competitive triathlon, she went to Budapest for the ITU (International Triathlon Union) for the world championships. She won first place in her division.
"That was spectacular," she said. "I was one of 180 athletes on the Canadian team and one of 4,000 athletes worldwide. What an honour."
It was her desire to compete in the nationals in 2012, but her bicycle accident has prevented that. "I've already told Sybille to start packing, we're going to London in 2013!"
Brault-Meyer says the current obesity epidemic is both very sad and very serious and something she says could be "mastered" with some very basic steps.
"If people would read labels, start cooking and eating whole natural foods, great progress could be made."
Too often, people just reach for packaged foods and sugary juices and drinks, she said. "If you can't pronounce what's on the label, don't eat it, don't fill your body with chemicals."
And eat raw vegetables and fruit as much as you can. "I love crunchy foods like raw veggies," she told me enthusiastically. "Fill your body with fresh fruit, and if you eat in season it doesn't have to be expensive, you don't have to eat mangoes, you can have pears and apples, they're cheap."
And sodium is another thing to watch out for.
"It's sneaky, it can be in everything, watch for it in canned goods especially."
Brault-Meyer said she believes strongly in honouring the body you have and taking care of it properly. "What kind of lifestyle can you expect five or 10 years from now, if you don't?"
Gerda, I figure you can expect a very good one.
Montreal Gazette
jthompson(at)montrealgazette.com
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