Triathlon Twins

By Tara R. McKee

The Twin Advantage

There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to being a twin. On one hand, if one twin gets a new haircut or color, the other can decide if it looks good before going to the hairdresser to get the same cut or color. On the other hand, people mistake one for the other twin all the time.

For Heather McLaughlin and Heidi Bresson of Spokane, Washington, it is in races and triathlons that the differences start to emerge—or not. Of the two, Heather is the fastest on foot, yet Heidi, who teaches a spin class, is faster on the bike and in the swim portion. Heidi often can beat her sister in the sprint and Olympic distance triathlons, but for the longer distances or running races, it’s another matter. In fact, Heather is often the local women’s champion in road races. The one time that Heidi beat her, the announcer didn’t know the difference and announced the first woman through the finish line to be “Heather McLaughlin!”

See how they got started in Triathlons

Heather rides through Coeur d'Alene on the bike leg of the Ironman

How They Got Started

Both were runners first: They have been running for about 20 years. Heather says she first started running to lose weight and fell in love with the sport, and ran cross-country and 10,000 meter events in college. Both she and Heidi are marathoners now and they run them with style, usually wearing a costume. They carefully choose their costumes with a sort-of fashion show before the race. One twin puts on the race outfit and runs down the street while the other twin watches and decides if it looks good or not. They had several dress rehearsals before they did the Coeur d’Alene Ironman. Unfortunately, due to costume-miscommunication, during the Ironman, Heidi wore the decided-upon Mickey Mouse ears while Heather changed at the last minute into a pink hula skirt for the run portion because she thought it would look better for the photos.

Why costumes? “There is no better feeling than to kick somebody’s butt in a costume!” says Heather. Don’t feel too badly if she kicks your butt, her best marathon time is 2:56. As a veteran of 32 marathons, she has some basic advice for prospective marathoners: “The long-run is the most important, and you should never try to run a marathon a week after breaking out with the chicken pox.”

Heather & Heidi are ready to race as "Pirates of the Pend Oreille"!

After road races, triathlons became their next challenge. They were comfortable on the bike, but swimming was another matter. As Heather says “Swimming for me is NOT FUN! I spent my first year of triathlons ‘dog paddling’ and back-stroking. I managed to learn how to keep my head underwater and ‘free-style.’” Once they signed up for the Ironman in nearby Coeur d’Alene, they took a Masters swim class at the local YMCA and improved a lot.

Who they are off the course

Both have fulltime jobs as health/physical education teachers: Heather teaches at a high school and Heidi teaches at an elementary school. During the school-year, training for the triathlon had to be early in the morning before school, followed by another after work. Most of their Saturdays and Sundays were spent on a bike or on a run.   They live near each other and have similar schedules, so training together made sense. Heather admits she is guilty of “no shows” for some of the long rides and often gets chewed out by Heidi for not showing up. Sometimes they argued while riding bikes and one would get “huffy” and ride ahead.

About their racing

Heather admits she is less serious about the long bike rides. She says “Cycling for me is a love-hate relationship. I feel the euphoria after a long ride, but find it time-consuming and especially hard to do during Northwest winters.” As if to illustrate the point, Heidi tells this story: “There was one really long ride in the pouring rain, where she and Phil ‘disappeared’ while the rest of us rode on. We later biked back through Coeur d’Alene only to find Heather and Phil loading their bikes into a neighbor’s car to get a ride back to Spokane. Apparently, while the rest of us rode on in the rain, these two hung out at 24-Hour Fitness and called a friend from Spokane to come pick them up!”

The Spokane area has a very popular women’s only sprint-distance triathlon called the Valley Girl Tri, which they’ve done several times beginning with their first triathlon. Heidi prefers co-ed triathlons now but says, “I do think a women-only-tri is the best place for any lady to start her first triathlon experience. It is more nurturing and helpful, plus you won’t swallow as much water in the swim.” Heather elaborated, “I actually like co-ed races better. It’s really fun to “chick” guys (pass ‘em). We’re short and ‘petite’ so it’s always fun to see the reaction on a young man’s face when he’s getting passed by a 5’2” girl. I really appreciated the “women’s only” race I did as my first triathlon. It’s a little less intimidating and you don’t get kicked as much in the water. It’s funny because during the swim in a coed triathlon, I remember hearing a guy yell, ‘Watch out, @*#*!’ as he was getting bumped. I had the same experience at a women’s only triathlon and instead of profanity being yelled, it was ‘I’m so sorry!’ and ‘Excuse me!’”