SANDY — Carl Horton wanted his daughter to reap the benefits of competitive sports.
He just didn’t see himself as a soccer dad.
“I’m not that type of parent who wants to go stand on the sideline of a soccer game or a football game,” said the father of two boys and a girl. “I want to do it with them. And there’s not a lot of sports where you can do that — running, bike racing and triathlon.” So he convinced all three of his children to participate in triathlons with him, but only his daughter found her passion in his hobby.
Now 16, Heather Horton will compete in this weekend’s XTERRA Pan American Championship, which will be held in conjunction with the U.S. championships at Snowbasin this Saturday.
“Neither of them got hooked,” Carl Horton said. “They did it because I kind of pushed them into it.”
Heather Horton has not only enjoyed the competitions, she’s proven herself to be a contender with four victories in her age division (15-19) in her last four races — two in the U.S. and two in Canada.
Carl Horton said Heather got her start in the high school mountain biking league.
“It’s so huge here in Utah,” he said. “That pushed me in the direction of XTERRA.”
XTERRA is a series of off-road triathlons, and until a few years ago, Horton focused on road competitions, like Ironman events. In XTERRA’s championship/pro division, in which the Hortons compete, athletes must complete an open-water swim (1.5 kilometers), mountain biking (30 kilometers) and trail running (11 Kilometers).
He said Heather competed in her first race three years ago at age 14, and last year proved she's more than her dad's sidekick.
“She’s faster than me, quite a bit faster,” Horton said, laughing.
Horton is expected to be in the top 10 percent to 20 percent of female athletes at this weekend’s event. The top finishing American will claim the U.S. championship, while the overall winner will be named the Pan American champion. This year is the inaugural marriage of the two events.
Horton said his daughter has gained confidence in every area of her life because of her success in XTERRA and mountain biking with Alta High.
“She’s definitely into the phase where her limitations are in her head,” he said. “She’s incredibly fit, and I just don’t think she knows how to maximize that. There is a lot of mental pain endurance. You can’t say, ‘This is going to hurt really bad’ and have them understand what that means. But she’s starting to get there.”
In XTERRA, both men and women participate on the course at the same time, even though they’re competing in different divisions. Heather’s biggest leap forward came when she realized she could — and should — pass men when she can.
“At first it was a stumbling block because she was afraid to pass these guys,” Carl said. “It really wasn’t until last year that she realized she could just go ahead and pass them. It’s kind of intimidating, particularly for a young female.”
Heather said one of the toughest aspects is the discipline required to train everyday.
“It was hard at first,” she said. “But I just got used to it as time passed.” She said part of the attraction was being with her dad, and the other part that drove her was “seeing what I could do.”
Carl Horton admits the complaints are just part of the game if one wants to compete with a teen.
“You just get better at dealing with it,” he said. “There did come a point where I had to sit her down and say, ‘This hurts and you just have to deal with it. When it comes time to hurt or a training day you don’t really want to do, you’ve just got to suck it up and deal with it. And she never really hated it.”
Heather said the opposite was true.
“I loved it,” she said. “It’s just hard sometimes just how often I have to go and how hard I have to push myself.”
She said her father was “always there to motivate me, so I liked it more. I’m grateful he did. It’s a miracle I’m still in the sport. I’m a teenager, and sometimes life hits and I just don’t want to do something.”
Carl Horton said he has seen his daughter grow in innumerable ways as she’s remained committed to the sport.
“All of this racing has built her confidence,” he said. “Her confidence is by far and away the biggest thing that’s grown. And this last few months, her ability to accept responsibility has really grown. She’s become a lot more reliable.”
Her grades, for example, weren’t very good as a sophomore.
“It really wasn’t that she was too busy,” he said. “She just blew it off. She kind of realized with this whole training and racing thing, it’s a matter of keeping up. If you miss today, you can’t make it up. We’re doing tomorrow’s training tomorrow. … I think she finally realized it’s the same thing with school work. You just do it everyday, be responsible for it, and it’s not a big issue.”
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