It didn't take long for Claudia Cummings to slide down the slippery slope of Front Runner volunteerism.  In 1997, just one year after she had joined the club, the then-coach of FRNY Jeff Singleton gently cajoled Cummings into filling the post of race captain.  It was in that same year, fresh from her 1996 marathon debut and her inaugural triathlon, Cummings wrote Bob Nelson to ask who was organizing the triathletes for the 1998 Amsterdam Gay Games.  "You are honey!" he wrote back.  "My first thought was 'WHAT??!'" says Cummings "and my second was 'Well, why not?'"  

Little did Cummings know that that fateful e-mail would be seminal to the founding of Tritons, the multi-sport arm of Front Runners that celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.  As is still the favored protocol, Cummings chose the Saturday fun run as the forum to first gauge membership interest.  "About a dozen people showed up, which seemed pretty respectable to me," says Cummings.  "By the spring we had almost three dozen people ... 25 of us raced in Amsterdam."  Though the initial purpose of the group had ended with the closing ceremonies in Amsterdam, the triathletes decided to forge ahead, having established a sense of solidarity and camaraderie important in a sport that was then still very straight, very male and very homogenous.  The team, which officially became a part of FRNY as "Team New York Triathlon" in 1998 and adopted the name Tritons in 2002, currently boasts membership of more than 100 multi-sport athletes.   

An amazing success in and of itself, the Tritons represent just one jewel in Cummings's Front Runner crown.  She is also a former Cross-Country Athlete of the Year, Front Runner of the Year and a perennial leader of both the women's team and the triathlete contingent of the club.  "She and I were co-race captains together and were in the minority of women for a long, long time," says Audra Farrell, current women's vice-president and longtime friend of Cummings.  "She is very encouraging to people who are just getting into triathlons."  Given her long and evolving history as an athlete, Cummings brings an appreciation for the hard work and dedication required to dig deep and realize one's goals and aspirations. 

In fact, Cummings herself did not seem slated for the world of Olympic distance triathlons, Half Ironmen or even plain old vanilla marathons as a little girl growing up in Euclid, Ohio.  A self-proclaimed "tomboy weirdo" who loved playing athletics with her younger brother, Cummings had the natural chops for only one of the three triathlon sports.  "I learned to swim when I was three because my mom literally couldn't keep me out of the water," she says.  "If there was a lake, pond, river, pool or creek, I wanted to be in it."  Cycling offers an interesting counterpoint.  Her father did not take the training wheels off her bike until excessive taunting mandated their removal when Cummings hit age seven.  Always coming in last in elementary school sprinting drills, Cummings had completely forsaken runnerly ambitions until placing second in a school "Olympics" challenge showed her that she might have some distance potential. 

Though Cummings did not pursue organized track or cross-country in high school or college, she did use running as an athletic outlet and stress reducer when she moved to New York City to study film at NYU in 1987.  "I would run laps of the park at ten o'clock at night," remembers Cummings, "... fending off drug dealers who apparently thought I was out there to buy pot."  As Cummings struggled to come to terms with her sexuality during her five-year marriage to a man she'd met in film school, she sought the therapeutic solace of running more and more frequently.  "Long runs gave me a chance to get out and think," she explains, "and racing gave me a feeling of accomplishment and confidence that I really needed to move forward and take control of my life - which I finally did at 27."    

Cummings's growth as a runner continued to parallel her coming out journey.  She first poked her head out of the closet door by racing with a friend "to show support" during the 1995 Pride Run.  Then, two days after she split up with her husband in March of 1996, Cummings ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon, a debut for her at this distance.  "I saw some women in Front Runner uniforms on the boardwalk at Coney Island," she says, "but I was too intimidated to go up and talk to them."  It was not until a few weeks after the 1996 Pride Run that Cummings mustered enough moxie to attend a Saturday fun run.  "I walked into Rutgers and looked down into the gym-and there were NO women there," she remembers.  "I panicked and turned around to walk out."  Cummings credits then-president Jim Gibb for convincing her to stay for the run.  ( Note to women: It's important to represent! )  On subsequent occasions, she discovered that there were in fact active women in the club; Cummings still has the snippet of rainbow ribbon that she received as a newcomer that day.        

Cummings has paid back any debts owed to those women who so willingly welcomed her in the early days - Sue Foster, Sue Lund, Donna Checkan, Paulette Meggoe, Maryann Piamonte, Dororthy Fuscaldo and, of course, Lenore Beaky.  After the high times of the mid-90s, participation by women waned, but Cummings stuck it out even as the FRNY gender divide grew into a gaping maw.  "It seemed like for a few years it was just me and her," notes Farrell, "which led to people not being able to tell us apart."  ( Note to readers: That's about as obtuse as mistaking Mollie Ringwald for Ally Sheedy. )   

The ceaselessly egalitarian outreach embraced by Cummings, which has included both triathlon and cross-country clinics, women-focused speed workouts on Wednesday nights and five years of race captaining, engendered the tremendous and continuing growth and involvement of both FRNY women and multi-sport athletes in the club over the last five years.  Constantly eschewing the spotlight, Cummings laughs off the idea that she's a superstar or Front Runner celeb.  When recalling her proudest moments, she turns to the women's team's tenth place NYRR finish in 2005.  "Those points were scored by women of every age and ability level," Cummings says.  "Everyone was part of that success."  

Random Data

Dream Race? - "Some day I'd like to have the nerve to try to race the Ironman in Kona, Hawaii, but that's one race venue that still scares the pant off me!"

FRNY Suggestion Box? - "I'd like to see a suggestion box that every member could feel comfortable using"  (Um, did you just steal my thunder?)

Favorite Post-Workout Food? - Chocolate soy milk, apples, salt bagels, Red Bull (not all at the same time)

Tri-athlete or Runner?   "I've worked hard over the years to become a triathlete rather than a runner who is also swimming and biking."

Items to Save when Apartment in Flames - "I would rescue as many of my six bicycles as possible, starting with my tri bike."

Admired Athletes - Paula Newby-Fraser, Karen Smyers and Chris McCormick (all professional triathletes)