Multisport: Sam Warriner, late bloomer

Sam Warriner combines full-time teaching at Whangarei Girls High with a gruelling training schedule. Picture / Northern Advocate

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The lifestyle of triathlete Sam Warriner couldn't be further removed from the world of Almost Famous, the film about the drug-addled 70s rock scene.

Almost famous fits the bill perfectly for New Zealand's latest triathlon star, however. Even in Warriner's small-city home of Whangarei, her name can draw the occasional blank stare.

And outside Northland, the Warriner name hasn't quite caught on despite her remarkable late-breaking story in which a 30-plus fitness fanatic starts to conquer the triathlon world.

She even revels in her low national profile and homespun training scene, which includes charging around an unmarked grass track at Kensington Park during winter, where she delights in being called over by young hockey players who recognise their hero.

Warriner nervously urges me to ensure she is not portrayed as big headed, and says the only buzz in being recognised is that it may provide an inspiration to others.

Yet with a bigger profile, she could attract the major sponsorship which would allow her to make a fulltime assault on the triathlon world.

Which may just arrive early next month if this transplanted Englishwoman carries her brilliant form into the world championships in Japan.

Warriner departs on Monday for a heat training camp in Cairns before the September 11 championship at Gamagori, near Nagoya.

After winning World Cup races in Japan and Germany - where Australia's world number one Anabelle Luxford competed - and finishing second in Manchester, the 34-year-old will start as the third-ranked woman in the world, having spent part of this season at number two.

As if this doesn't contain enough of a wow factor, Warriner - a PE teacher at Whangarei Girls High School - is the only world circuit competitor who works full time. And as any teacher will tell you, it is not the most relaxing of vocations.

Warriner trained fulltime leading up to the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where she was devastated at performing below her best in finishing 18th.

But that year on the "breadline" encouraged her back to school and a life of racing between the classroom and training routines.

Which is a good time to introduce a typical Warriner daily schedule, one which she has conducted for some time from her home on the outskirts of Whangarei.

Warriner maps out her daily programme each Sunday night on bits of paper that carry additional instructions reminding her to eat enough food and drink sufficient water.

Take a deep breath while digesting this, because it is tiring just thinking about it.

5am: Get up and get ready in time for a session in the Whangarei pools.

6-7.30-8am: Swimming.

8am: Motor to school, chomping breakfast along the way.

8.20am: Attend staff meeting, while grazing on rice pudding. Morning lessons.

Noon: Lunchtime weights session at nearby Kensington fitness centre (or a run) lasting 90 minutes made possible by a non-contact teaching session after the lunch break.

2-3.30pm: Afternoon lessons. The students are used to a sweaty PE teacher turning up.

After school: Two-hour cycling session.

9.30pm: Collapse into bed.

This routine goes on for five days a week, and she has another 5am start on Saturdays, then uses most Sundays for a long cycle session.

As you might expect, things don't always go to plan. This week, Warriner forgot to eat her main meal on Saturday. With training, visiting a sponsor and guest speaking at an athletics club, it slipped her mind.

Forgetting to eat is not a good idea when you are expending this much energy, and she was still paying for the mistake on Monday and needed a blood test.

While she can, at a pinch, fit in as much training as her opponents, the major difficulty is getting vital recovery time.

While the full-time competitors may get a deep massage every second day to remove lactic acid from the muscles, Warriner struggles to fit in a weekly massage. Speedy transitions between training and school mean she rushes or skips stretching exercises.

Warriner can't compensate for a bad night's sleep like the other athletes. And because she fits in a major training session at lunchtime, she often eats her main meal when others are snacking on their morning tea. Nicknamed "The Horse" because she eats so much, she always has a lunchbox on her desk.

And then there are the personal strains that arise when you are following such an exhausting schedule.

Warriner says quietly that her relationship with longtime boyfriend Nick Palmer - a policeman who came out to New Zealand with her eight years ago - is under stress because of the training demands.

She constantly swivels in her chair as we talk in the gym - you are certainly aware that this is a lean bundle of energy ... and chatty. She is also highly competitive, methodical, a fan of setting goals, and hell bent on achieving them.

Little wonder then at the euphoria of her maiden win on the world circuit in May, when she flew past Aussie star and Olympic silver medallist Loretta Harrop in Ishigaki, Japan.

"I love the training because you see the improvements," she says. "To win a World Cup race is just the best thing ever. All those sacrifices, all those other times like when I came last in a race at Geelong.

"It was like 'Oh my God, I'm in the lead'. Loretta will never get heat stroke again and I had to take my opportunity, and I did.

"When you have been training so hard and so long and you see all those other people getting these things, you think, 'I'd love to be there'.

"Then, my God, it's actually me. It just amazed me that I did it. It was just one of my dreams. And I didn't cherry pick - it was an IUT race and I was pushed all the way."

Warriner had no such dreams when she came to New Zealand, looking to pursue her teaching career.

She and her younger sister were raised in Surrey by their hairdresser mother. Warriner has not had contact with her father, whom she describes as a former county cricketer, for about 20 years.

As a teenager, she was a club runner and swimmer and won the British biathlon junior title twice and the senior title once. This was when multi sports were less famous, and the 1km swim-5km run biathlon almost unheard of.

And while keeping far fitter than most during her 20s, Warriner only competed again when she took up multi sports in Northland five years ago.

"You dream about going to the Olympics because that is the pinnacle," she says of her teenage years.

"But in those days if you didn't really make it in your early 20s, you were considered too old, especially in swimming.

"As I hadn't made it when I went to university, I thought my days of making it were over."

One of her first prizes - for winning the Kumara triathlon in Dargaville - was an air ticket so she headed to the nationals in Napier where she won the 25-29 division, was 10th overall, and qualified for the worlds.

"I thought, 'Ooooh, that sounds good'," she says.

She found her first coach - bike specialist Murray Healey - worked a training programme, and began her methodical and unlikely rise by finishing second in her age group at the 2001 world event in Edmonton.

Three races still cause her to wince: The 2001 Geelong race where officials tried to get her off the course so the men could be announced as she struggled home last among the 20 women who completed the race. Then there was the dismal 28th place at the world championships in Queenstown, when she "cracked" under the pressure of an Olympic qualifier.

And she blames overtraining, pressure and soaking up too much atmosphere for failing to meet her goals in Athens.

This year, however, the hours of toil and more specialised training are paying remarkable dividends.

Old friends and acquaintances were stunned to see the girl they had known as a decent club runner and battling swimmer fly into second place at last month's World Cup event in Manchester.

"Especially with my friends because I think a lot of themare married with babies," shesays.

"I never thought in a million years when I came to New Zealand that I would end up doing this. I'm living my dream.

"Who would ever think of a person starting their sporting career at 29 ... to be competing in the age grade one year then the elite division the next was amazing.

"The kids at school say, 'Miss, you're our teacher and No 3 in the world'.

"It's only now that women are realising they can achieve things in sport later in life. It's about commitment and believing you can get there. I've never been a natural at anything. I knew from a young age I could only achieve things by working very hard.

"Having to work as well is tough, but it does help your appreciation of life and its opportunities.

"My fellow athletes will say to me after a race, 'Where are you off to next then?'

"I say, 'Actually, I'm back at school on Thursday.' They can't believe it. They ask how I cope. The answer is, you just get on with it."

* Late bloomer Sam is Ranked number three in the world after two wins and a second. Her best World Cup result before this season was third at the Edmonton race in 2004, when she finished the season ranked 25th.