Speed Skating at 39: Triathlon Warmup?

Frances C. McFate, a dazzling Santa Ana speed roller skater who has won about all the speed skating titles she can, thinks that when her skating days are over, she might develop into a good triathlon competitor.

After all, she’s a proven winner, and at age 39, she’s still going strong.

“I don’t believe in doing anything that might embarrass me,” she said, during a speed skating practice session at the Skate Ranch in Santa Ana, “and losing is not acceptable to me.”

She holds the U.S. record in the masters division for 700 meter and 1,000 meter races, both set in 1985.

McFate has won the Masters Women’s National Speed Skating title five of the six times she has entered. When she did lose, “I just went out and trained harder,” said McFate, a member of the amateur Santa Ana Speed Club and operations manager for an Anaheim typesetting equipment maker.

Although she has been speed racing for 25 years, her big break came in 1980, when the American Confederation of Roller Skating established the masters division for racers 30 and older.

“I no longer had to compete against 18-year-olds,” said McFate, who has stayed trim and fit over the years.

Her daily training before and after work includes weightlifting, running, bicycle riding, skating practice and aerobics, but she feels her mental outlook, drive and desire to win are her strong points.

“I really wouldn’t mind being beat if someone was better than me,” she said.

And she’s also realistic. “It feels great to be the best,” said McFate, whose husband, Terry McFate, 39, is woman’s track coach at El Camino College in Torrance, “but it goes away so fast.”

She attributes some of her motivation to her husband. “We both have the same drive to win,” she said, “and that made it easier for me both in the racing and in training.”

But if the smooth, long-striding racer has any regrets about roller skating, it is not being able to compete in the Olympic Games.

“It would have been a great thrill just going to the Olympics as an athlete,” she said, noting that she might have tried a different sport to get there.

Although others might have the same regrets, she said roller skating remains strong in many parts of California as well as in the Midwest and Eastern states, noting that there are about 8,000 registered speed skaters.

The number might be larger, she said, but “a lot of people don’t know about speed roller skating. We don’t get a whole lot of publicity.”

Denise Householder, 31, of Mission Viejo, won a new car and a trip to Buenos Aires in a radio station license plate contest. She entered the Best Statement category.

Selected from thousands, her license reads “I H8 405,” a reflection of her distaste for traffic on the San Diego Freeway.

Although she drives a 3-year-old Mazda, Householder decided to give her new Nissan Maxima to her mother, Darlene Householder, of San Clemente.

Why? “She’s a good daughter,” said the happy mother.

The daughter kept the trip.

Perhaps it was just plain good planning by Joan Haldeman, disaster preparedness chairman for Loma Vista Elementary School in Tustin.

Or perhaps it was a premonition.

Notes were sent home with students asking their parents to send back food items for earthquake emergency supply kits in each classroom.

The 6.1 earthquake struck the next day.

Senior Doug Dill, starting quarterback at San Clemente High School, found himself battling--and finally winning--the position over two other pretty good quarterbacks who also wanted the starting job. The local newspaper wrote about his problem and headlined the story:

“Dill Proves Tough in a Pickle.”

Get this. The overall winner of Fullerton’s fourth annual Nite Lite 10K run Saturday will get a pair of super running sandals.

But race spokesman Joe Felz thinks that even losers should get something.

In fact, the last four finishers will get free copies of a pamphlet.

It’s called “The Slower Runner’s Guide.”