Dexter Yeats finished the Ironman Coeur d’Alene 70.3 in June. In September, she traveled to Australia for the world championship where she placed fourth in her age group with a finish time of seven hours and 55 minutes.

The 71-year-old has been doing Ironman triathlons for 23 years. She grew up in Los Angeles, where her parents had a riding stable. She competed in many equestrian events, including endurance riding when she got older.

When her horse retired, she started running and eventually got into triathlons, taking many races on while working as a truck driver.

Yeats preferred the night shifts so she could sleep in, train for triathlons and then go to work. When her schedule changed so she had to work during the day, she had to stop competing.

She retired in 2010 and moved to Hayden, where she and her husband have a house that looks over Hayden Lake. She found out Ironman was in Coeur d’Alene and decided to start racing again.

On any given day during the spring, summer or fall, Yeats can be found riding the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, running the long dirt roads near her house, or swimming in Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Yeats sat down with The Press to talk about what being a full-time triathlete means.

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When did you switch from riding horses to doing triathlons?

When I still had horses I did a sport called Ride and Tie, where there’s one horse and two people, and you start out with one person running and one person riding. And the rider gets ahead of the runner and ties the horse up and takes off running.

When the runner gets to the horse, they get on the horse and catch up to the runner. So you leap frog through the race. Doing that it was a multisport event and that was when triathlon was basically starting in the 1980s. So when there was a triathlon near where I lived, at that time I was in Oregon, I thought ‘well shoot, I can do that.’ So I borrowed my son’s bike and learned to swim a little.

And in that race I ended up being the third woman overall, which was amazing, but I came in dead last. There weren’t many women doing races, so there were only three women in the race. But it got me interested and I learned how to ride a little better, got my own bike, took some swim lessons and the running part, I kind of already had that down.

I did a lot of local races and tried to qualify to go to Kona, because that’s the ultimate achievement in triathlon is to go to Kona. It took me quite a few years but I eventually did qualify in 1993. It was an amazing experience, so that’s how I got started.

Tell me about your journey to Australia and your journey from Ironman to doing a half Ironman.

My journey to Australia was amazing. I have been there once before. It’s strange when you get there and everyone’s driving on the wrong side of the road. But I decided I would not drive, I let someone do the driving for me.

I still want to do the full, I like the full. I’m not a fast person, but I have endurance and can keep going. I like the full distance. I plan to keep doing that as long as I can. I did the half simply because we had a half here in town. I figured, shoot, I’ll do that, too. It’ll be a good warm up for the full. As it turns out, when I qualified to go to Australia, my flight left five days after the full race here. So I knew I would not be able to do the full race and recover within five days to get on the plane and go to Australia.

I had to skip doing the full here this year, but I’ve registered for next year. So I’m back doing the full again.

Which is your favorite part of the race?

Now I’d say the bike, I’m the strongest on my bike. The swim is pretty good but I’m not fast. I don’t know how people are fast in water. I just do my best and once I’m out of the water and on my bike I can power it

So is swimming or running the hardest part?

Um, I think the running is, not that running itself is harder, just that at that point in the race I’m tired. You’ve already done the swimming, you’ve already done the bike. Of course this race I just did was only a half, so I only had to ride the bike 56 miles, but after you’ve done a full and you’ve ridden a bike 112 miles your legs just are not fresh. So, my run does suffer.

What’s your inspiration to keep going, and going, and going, and going?

I really enjoy it. Some people say how do you get motivated, and I say I get to go out and play. I sort of feel like a kid in that matter. I enjoy training up here. I think we’re really blessed to have the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. I’m intimidated by traffic so I can go out there and get a 100 mile bike ride in without worrying about traffic.

I do that about twice a week. I also go up Fernan a few times a week, to get a good climb. I swim at the Kroc or in the lake. I am so blessed to have such a beautiful area to train. And there’s a fantastic triathlon community here. They’re very supportive and just an awesome group of people.

What does a week of training look like?

I swim four days a week, either in the lake or at the Kroc. I ride hills on Fernan twice a week and I do a long ride once a week. I’ll try to run two or three days, depending on the length of my bike rides and the other things I’m doing. Once I start getting up to really long bikes, and runs and swims, I may only get two runs in, not three. And I usually take at least one, possibly two days a week off to rest. So there are a lot of days I’m doing two or three things to fit it all in.

And then I lift weights twice a week. It is a full-time thing, sometimes I tease my husband and say ‘well, off to work.’ It is a full day for me.

Do you listen to music to pass the time on those long bikes and long runs?

I actually listen to audio books. That’s when I get my reading time! The swimming I’m concentrating on what I’m doing. You’re looking out for other people and you’re looking at which house you’re going by and your progress. When I’m swimming in the pool, you’re just doing so many laps back and forth. It gets a bit mind numbing but you’re counting your laps. Except I catch myself daydreaming, luckily I have a watch that counts my laps for me.

What’s your next race?

I’m actually registered in the Cozumel Ironman in November. It’s over the Thanksgiving day weekend, which, it’s going to be a challenge training when we get winter here, but I’m working on some different methods. There’s going to be some long, indoor bike rides which will be boring.