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Triathlete Smith Entering Life's Transition Area

By BILL WARD The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 9, 2007

PALM HARBOR - There was a time when Spencer Smith's life could be summed up by three things: training, racing and winning. And considering this chiseled Englishman seemed to capture about every triathlon title in sight - including back-to-back senior world championships - it was easy to understand why he was so focused on this demanding sport.

But that was before losing his father to a brain tumor in 1998, before he spent more than two years and $100,000 fighting to clear his name of a doping charge, and before a horrific bike crash in 2005 that nearly took his life and, just last week, a less serious but still frightening run-in with a car that knocked him to the pavement.

"The intensity is still there and I'm still very, very focused, but I don't get up every morning dreaming about winning a world title like maybe I did when I was 18, 19 or 20," Smith said. "Once my dad passed away, a lot of things seemed to change, and change quickly. Once he was gone, I had to grow up a lot.

"But I don't want to sound like a sob story. That's just life. Everyone has to go through transitions like that."

Indeed, the Spencer Smith who will line up for Saturday morning's Ford Ironman World Championship 70.3 on Clearwater Beach is noticeably different from the guy who came to the Tampa Bay area during the 1990s with his vivacious father, Bill, and twice won the St. Anthony's Triathlon.

Yes, despite splitting time between homes in Palm Harbor and Tucson, Ariz., Smith still owns his trademark working-class London accent.

Despite all the ups and downs he has endured the past several years, he still has that sly smile and gregarious personality he has always been known for. Without hesitation, he even admits he still has "a big ego and an appetite, both of which must be constantly fed."

But Smith, whose professional career in this grueling sport spans a mind-boggling 17 years, says he enters Saturday's race without major expectations of himself.

Now 34, he says he is "semi-retired" and has so many other things in his life of equal or greater importance as triathlons. Among them are his wife Melissa, his mother Barbara and the start of business ventures in coaching and a signature line of sports apparel.

Smith says he still is looking for what he describes as a "good result" in Saturday's half-Ironman distance (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run). But those close to Smith say he no longer defines himself with wins and losses.

"He's still a very driven, goal-oriented person," said friend and training partner Philip LaHaye, who is the bike course director of Saturday's event and race director of the St. Anthony's Triathlon. "But I think he's at the point in his career where he has raced for so long and accomplished so much that he doesn't need to prove something every time he lines up to race."

Through nine years of marriage, Melissa, a fitness instructor, has witnessed the changes in her husband. She admits it took her several years to fully grasp all Smith had accomplished in the sport. But as a fitness instructor, she says she did understand the commitment it required her husband to make in order to be among the world's best, as well as what it takes now to make a transition to the next phase of his life.

"When I first met Spencer, he was the center of attention - and I don't mean that in a bad way," Melissa said. "At the time, we were living in San Diego, which is like the triathlon capital of the world, and everywhere we went, people knew him and what he had done in the sport.

"But over the years, anything and everything that could go wrong in a race has happened, and that's led us to appreciate what he has done and just appreciating a good day."

One of their first tests as a couple came early - during their honeymoon in 1998 when they were notified of Smith's positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone. They were dumbfounded.

They spent $10,000 just on testing Smith's nutritional supplements, as well as the meat cooked at restaurants they frequented. The biggest expense, however, came from the top-level law firm that defended Smith. One and a half years later - after two hearings that ruled in Smith's favor - the Court of Arbitration for Sport called into question "the reliability of the tests" and ruled that a "definitive case of doping has not been established against Spencer Smith."

Smith said he was mentally exhausted by the protracted legal process. But once he was cleared and he returned to competition, all of his sponsors returned without hesitation, he says. He came back with a vengeance in 2000 to earn his second top-10 showing at Ironman Hawaii, win the 2001 Ironman Florida (in a record time that stood until last weekend) and win Ironman Brazil in 2002 with a record that still stands.

But on an afternoon bike ride in June 2005, Smith's career was not only sidetracked, but also his life was threatened.

He was T-boned by a Jeep Cherokee and found himself pinned under the vehicle. After the driver reversed off him, Smith discovered he had broken a collarbone, a shoulder blade and eight ribs. While under the motor, he received third-degree burns bad enough to partially erase two of his tattoos. A gash in his hamstring required dozens of stitches.

Not one piece of the bike, Smith says, was useable after the crash.

The recovery took nearly six months. But he bounced back again in 2006 to take third at the Oceanside (Calif.) Ironman 70.3 and second at the full Ironman Arizona.

While he says he still feels the occasional aches and pains from effects of the accident, he says his fitness and confidence are high entering Saturday's half Ironman. And no matter what changes he has experienced, he says he's still Spencer Smith.

"It's not going to be my last race. It's not the be-all, end-all race and, of course, I want to put on a good show because I have a lot of friends here," Smith said. "But to be honest, I'm still a very competitive person and a bit of a perfectionist. I don't turn up to races to lose."

Reporter Bill Ward can be reached at (813) 259-7456 or wward@tampatrib.com.