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Earlier this month, Doug, 56, and his 22-year-old daughter, Alycia, won gold medals at the World Age Group Triathlon Championships in Beijing.
The Tacoma father-daughter duo has only been running triathlons together for five years, but the journey began long before when Doug and his wife, Cathy, decided to make it a priority to create a culture of fitness for their family.
They started their three children in swimming classes when they were 6 months old and as they grew, they joined swim teams, basketball teams and soccer teams.
“Every free minute was spent going to our children’s sporting events,” said Doug, a deputy prosecutor for Pierce County.
Alycia, an emergency room nurse in Everett, said she never felt pressure to compete or participate in activities. Her parents just created an atmosphere were she fell in love with exercise on her own.
“If you start them young enough, they make friends (who are also active), they enjoy it and they start to get mad when you go swimming and you don’t take them,” Doug said. “If they don’t like something, we didn’t make them do it. It wasn’t worth the effort. That’s always a mistake.”
The Hills made it a requirement that the children choose at least one activity.
“It was whatever we wanted, athletics or the arts,” said Alycia, who danced for several years. “We always had something to do and it kept us out of trouble. And we learned to have a passion for something.”
All of the Hill’s children grew up leading active lifestyles.
Doug’s oldest child, Miranda Harpel-McGaw, is married and living in Pullman, where she teaches Zumba and Pilates classes. His youngest child, Mason Hill, is a student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where he is a member of the cross country and swim teams.
Doug jokes that his wife, Cathy, is active but doesn’t have the genes that he and Alycia are blessed with that enable them to win races. But considering the 53-year-old won her age division at this year’s Tacoma City Half Marathon in May, that might not be entirely fair.
Cathy also teaches water aerobics classes at the Tacoma YMCAs.
Alycia says she feels fortunate that her parents modeled a healthy lifestyle for her and her brother and sister.
“It’s so important,” said Alycia, who started work as an emergency room nurse on Sept. 12. “We see it (unhealthy children) so much in the health care industry. The influence to lead a healthy lifestyle needs to come from all directions.”
Today, Doug and Alycia motivate each other.
Doug has run triathlons and marathons for decades – he ran the Ironman World Championships in 1988, the week before Alycia was born – and his daughter decided to join him in 2006 at the Fort Lewis Triple Threat Triathlon series. Doug won the men’s series and Alycia, 17 at the time, won the women’s series.
A year later, they ran at the national championships together; Alycia finished fourth in her age group and Doug finished seventh in his.
Alycia jokingly held her trophy out toward her dad and said, “My trophy says fourth, what does yours say?”
Doug smiled and replied, “I have one just like that at home, but it says third.”
Now it’s tradition at every race they run together to see who finishes highest in their age group.
“No wagers, it’s just for bragging rights,” Doug said.
Last year at the world championships in Budapest, Doug finished third and Alycia finished fourth.
“I missed by about 30 seconds so it was pretty hard to watch the award ceremony,” she said. “But I was really proud of my dad.”
In China, Doug won at the Olympic distance (0.93-mile swim, 24.8-mile bike and 6.2-mile run) while Alycia won at the spring distance (0.47-mile swim, 12.4-mile bike and 3.1-mile run). She usually competes at the Olympic distance, but had to petition to run the shorter race so she could be home in time to start her new job two days after her race.
The races were held on the same course where the 2008 Olympic triathlon was staged.
By winning, both qualified for the 2012 championships in New Zealand.
Doug Hill has won numerous ribbons, trophies and medals as a competitive athlete, but the gold medal tops them all.
“As big as getting a gold medal is,” he said, “winning one with your kid is 10 times bigger.”
Alycia agrees, but says that she doesn’t really do this for the accolades.
“It’s good for you and it’s fun,” she said. “Being active opens so many doors for people, whether its scholarships or a lifelong hobby.”
Doug will never forget this month’s performance in China, but even without it, he and his daughter would still be living the multisport lifestyle.
“Even if there was no such thing as triathlon I would be doing this,” he said. “And that’s true for my entire family.
“We love being active. The races are just frosting on top of the cake.”
Craig Hill’s fitness column runs Sundays. Submit questions and comments via craig.hill@thenewstribune.com, facebook.com/adventureguys or twitter.com/adventureguys. Get more fitness coverage at blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure or thenewstribune.com/fitness or theolympian/getfit.
