Mill Valley triathletes take world stage

Her own race season is over, but Jennifer Foster can focus now on her children’s postseason running pursuits.

“I love coaching,” said Foster, who is a volunteer assistant coach with Tam High’s cross country team. Her son runs for the Red-tailed Hawks, while her daughter runs cross country for St. Ignatius.

Foster’s twin teens are excelling as freshmen runners, but they have a long way to go to catch up to mom, a regular in the Dipsea, and now a world-class triathlete.

Jennifer Foster traveled to the other side of the world in October for her first attempt at the World Triathlon Championships in Wollongong, Australia. She placed 10th in a field of 59 runners in her age group (50-54) in the Sprint Distance Championships with an overall time of 1 hour, 18 minutes, 11 seconds.

“The whole experience was exciting, although it was a little nerve wracking just for a sprint,” Foster said. “It was a long way to travel for a sprint, but that’s what I qualified in and I wanted to see it through.”

Foster was 25th in her group after emerging from the waters for the swim portion of the race and leaving the first transition area. She started strong during the cycling portion, but started to fall back in the pack before making a strong comeback that set her up for a fast run to the finish.

“There was a difference with this one, I worried about this one because it was draft legal, most of the race I have been in were not draft legal,” Foster said of the cycling stage, where riders were allowed to draft off each other, much as stock car drivers do. “I never practiced drafting when I was training because it was not usually allowed. During the bike race, an American came up and said get on my wheel and we’ll work together. It clicked, it was a fun experience and it saves the legs for the run.”

Another Mill Valley triathlete, Dr. Jim Taylor, was also chasing a top-10 finish in Australia, his sixth entry to the World Championships. Taylor placed seventh in the sprint in the men’s 65-69 age group after finishing each stage in less than 10 minutes for a total of 1:16:15. His mixed relay team placed second, just 34 seconds behind the winning foursome from New Zealand.

“I didn’t realize how close we were,” Taylor said of the relay results.

Taylor, a published sports psychologist who has consulted with the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Tennis Association and USA Triathlon, met Foster at the 2024 national championships triathlon in Atlanta and encouraged her to sign up for the World Championships.

“I was impressed with her. She’s a very good athlete and she did well at nationals,” Taylor said of Foster. “She didn’t get to study the (Wollongong) course, which is pretty common for rookies. She was busy, didn’t have much time to prepare, but she did a good job.”

Foster had modest goals for her inaugural attempt at the world championships.

“As I was heading toward the finish line I had an idea of how I was doing. I told people I just didn’t want to get last,” Foster said. “When I got out of water, I heard my dad say I was 16th out of the water. When I got finished with the bike and I was in the transition area, I heard the announcer say ‘Foster is 2nd for the USA.’ I thought I didn’t crash, I didn’t drown and said ‘Oh, I might have a chance to do well.’ There was a couple we met in the airport and she was racing for New Zealand in her age group, but he was cheering for me. The run was great because there were three laps so the fans could see us more than once. It was a lot of fun.”

Taylor and Foster both trained on the ski slopes growing up. Taylor trained at Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont and became a world-ranked youth skier. Foster moved from Arizona to Colorado to pursue her passion at a ski academy in Telluride.

“Skiing was the exact opposite of endurance athlete,” said Taylor, who was also a second-degree black belt in karate before transitioning to running and then triathlons “I was never great, but I was competitive.”

After an 11-year break to raise his daughters, both of whom are competitive skiers, Taylor returned to competitive triathlons in 2019 with the Icebreaker at Lake Folsom. He’s done several triathlons around the world since then, and won five national championships.

He’s already planning a return trip to the World Championships next year. “My race season is over, but I’ve started training,” he said. “I’m more motivated than ever. I need to improve on the swim and the bike… I’d like to win a couple more national championships and medal at next year’s worlds.”

The trip to Australia, with a side trip to New Zealand, ticked off a bucket list item for Foster and her parents.

“The people there were so laid back, so friendly,” Foster said. “It’s a different pace, so pretty, it seemed like a postcard… “At my age, and at my parents’ age, yo udon’t expect to have the opportunity for a trip like that.”