Ninety-two degrees and humid. Not what you’d call optimal conditions for the Olympic-distance Nautica New York City Triathlon held July 18. Of the 3,000 entrants, most were weekend warriors, although a select few were vying for spots on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. They were about to swim 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile), bicycle 40 kilometers (almost 25 miles) and run 10 final kilometers (about 6 miles) through Central Park in heavy, oppressive heat.
Two hours and twenty five seconds later, Rebeccah Wassner, 34, an accountant and successful triathlete, crossed the finish line, the first woman to do so. Nothing unusual there. Rebeccah is the defending champion.
It was the runner-up, with a time of 2:02:16, however, who won fans’ hearts. Laurel Wassner, Rebeccah’s twin sister—younger by five minutes—had been every bit the equal of Rebeccah until one day in 1998 when she felt three lumps on the left side of her neck. She was diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin’s lymphoma not long after.
Six months of chemotherapy followed during which Laurel doggedly kept up her workout routine, running the treadmill at her health club, trying to keep her spirits up and her life as normal as possible. But it wasn’t easy.
Rebeccah, knowing her sister was having a rough time, moved from Washington, D.C. to Laurel’s New York apartment to cheerlead her sister back to health.
“I tried to be the one who was like, ‘Okay, everything’s normal, everything’s going to turn out okay,’” she said. On days when Laurel underwent chemo, Rebeccah worked out extra hard—until she was utterly exhausted. It was her way to share her sister’s pain.
At the time, Rebeccah was strictly a marathon runner. While good, she was not great. In 2002 she decided to switch to the triathlon. A year later, at 28, she won the 2003 national amateur triathlon age group championship. The following year she turned pro and was named the USA Triathlon rookie of the year.
Meanwhile, Laurel was still struggling to regain her strength. When Rebeccah was sidelined by a pelvic stress fracture in 2005, she took over as Laurel’s trainer. She converted Laurel, a swimmer at George Washington University, to a triathlete.
The transition for Laurel was difficult; she wasn’t confident in her health. That stopped the day Laurel’s doctor told her, “You’re done, you’re free, you don’t have to go back to the hospital,” Laurel told The Times. “It was a huge weight off my shoulders,” she said.
By 2008 Laurel was good enough to turn pro, and to be named, like her sister four years earlier, USA Triathlon rookie of the year. In one of her first races, in Philadelphia, she actually pulled ahead of Rebecca in the swim portion. Rebeccah was okay with that. “It was definitely emotional,” she told The Times. “Good thing I was under water.”
This past May, Laurel had her first breakthrough, winning the Columbia (Maryland) Triathlon. “I was finally able to do something that made everyone [in my family] happy instead of really sad or stressed out,” she told The Times. “I had projectile tears at the end of the race. So did [Rebeccah].”
This July, in New York, they stood together on the victors’ podium…They’re hoping for the same result at the 2012 Olympics. –
