In late August, Ellen Hart traveled to Austria for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. Hart, 57, had been hesitant about making the long trip and about some aspects of the course, yet decided to go for it when her husband and son made it a family excursion.
They cheered her on as she won her age group by more than eight minutes.
At the finish, Hart was so emotional she was crying. Her 18-year-old son Ryan wrapped her in a bear hug and told her, "It's OK, mom. You really brought it today."
Eighteen days later in Chicago, she won the International Triathlon Union sprint-distance world championship. Two days after that she added the ITU Olympic-distance world title.
Hart then dominated her group at Kailua-Kona in Hawaii 30 days later to win the Ironman World Championship by more than 22 minutes, roaring back on the bike and run after finishing 15th in the swim. Again, tears flowed as she saw her husband, Rob, near the finish.
"Coming down Alii Drive must be one of the sweetest moments in all of sports," she says. " Seeing him there and again having a high-five or a meeting of the eyes, it all of a sudden made me start crying."
Then came a flight to Australia for the ITU World Duathlon Championship in Adelaide, Australia just a week after Kona.
"I'm not sure what I was thinking," she says, laughing. "'Oh, yeah, do an Ironman and then do a short, hard race many thousands of miles away.'"
She trailed by almost three minutes after the first 10K run, but took the lead in the 40K bike and held it on the 5K finishing run to win by more than three minutes.
The result: Five age-group world championships in 50 days and various distances across Europe, the United States and Australia.
It was a feat no one expected, least of all Hart, who usually isn't as strong in short-distance triathlons where it's harder to overcome her weakest link, the swim. She also had a knee injury. Yet everything came together.
It was hard to grasp while it unfolded, but with three months of reflection she's overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude. Triathlon is a sport for individuals, but she says the support of "her team" of family and friends -- plus a combination of luck, opportunity and hard work -- paid off.
"I was a competitor," says Hart, who's been racing on an elite level since the 1980s. "I brought my 'A' game every single time I showed up for a world championship, five in a row."
Tim Yount, USA Triathlon's chief operating officer, says no one ever has come close to what Hart has accomplished.
"It's an amazing feat and I can truly say it will go down as probably one of the 10 greatest triathlon feats of history," he says. "I just hope enough people can recognize it and pay attention. And I'm talking about history: elite, pro, age group, youth, para. Put all those in one basket. That's where her performance was last year."
A place of joy and gratitude
Hart's route to triathlon history was long and layered.
She's evolved from a 22-year-old Harvard grad who finished third in the 10,000 meters at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials, to a multi-sport athlete pushing 60 who has won 14 age-group world titles, and says she's "incredibly happy" to still be competing.
Along the way, she became an attorney; had a high-profile marriage to Denver mayor and secretary of transportation Federico Pena; battled anorexia and bulimia while an athlete; had a movie made about her struggle; helped set up a foundation for that cause; continued to be an advocate for eating disorder awareness; and raised three children, two of whom are older than she was at the '80 Olympic Trials.
Now in a second marriage, she finds herself happier than ever. She laughs, saying she's told her son not to worry that she often cries -- at the end of races and elsewhere -- because she's so in touch with her emotions. Both happiness and sadness "bubbles up and spills over."
To her, the past makes the present so sweet.
"I love winning, it's one of the really fun things to do, but it's not that fulfilling and at times it can be a fairly empty feeling if there's no balance to it and no community behind it," she says. "That was part of my experience as a runner in the '80s and that was also when I was suffering from an eating disorder.
"And to really be healthy now, and to be able to reach out and hold people and have them sort of lift me up, is just something that is, well, it's a real contrast to how I used to be as an athlete," she says.
"Now that I'm happy and healthy, I thought, 'Oh dear, I probably can't perform well any more,' because you sort of have this image that the driven people are the ones that really excel. Then I realized that I could run from a place of joy and gratitude. It truly feels better than some of the driven-ness and needing to always prove something to myself and other people."
Hart went into 2015 on a mission to excel. Though she was bothered by a lingering knee injury, she used an anti-gravity treadmill to log hard training runs to avoid wear and tear. Her conditioning coach, Erin Carson, helped her increase specific muscle strength. Coach Neal Henderson had her peaking for the five world championships.
She broke her arm in March, but kept on working. The "pesky knee" bothered her, but by putting in extra cycling miles and treadmill work she felt stronger than ever as summer turned to fall. Carson, also Hart's training partner, said the quality of her training was terrific.
Plus, Carson says Hart is special. On a scale of zero to 10 for mind, body and spirit "Ellen was a 12." Her foundation as an Olympic-level runner, her intelligence and "resilient optimism" allow her to optimize her physical gifts, says Carson.
Yet Carson had no idea Hart, with her nagging pains, would win five world titles.
"I'm a science person, so I love numbers," says Carson. "But the more I learn about sport, there's intangibles in sport that we wish we could put our finger on, like why is that? Why did that happen? How can I duplicate that? And I think it comes down to that spirit."
Yount agrees. He suspects her knee problem was far worse than he knew.
"She is one of the guttiest performers I've ever seen," he says, pointing to her victory in Hawaii. "You win Kona and you're only 70 percent healthy, it's a true tribute to how good you really are, how much of an athlete you really are.
"The world is coming after Ellen Hart and she rose to the occasion in every single one of those events."
Making a difference
Before the start of the World Duathlon Championship in Australia, a competitor Hart had never met approached her as she warmed up.
"She says, 'I just wanted to meet you and say that I had an eating disorder and I was down to 75 pounds and I was hooked up to tubes. But I knew about you and knew that you had recovered and that you were a triathlete and that gave me hope for my recovery'" recalls Hart. "And there she was getting ready for the same race."
Hart says it was as meaningful to her as winning a race. She still makes public speeches about anorexia and bulimia, and she's proud of helping start the Eating Disorder Foundation and her work with other fitness and health agencies and nonprofits. Plus, she knows the 1996 TV movie about her, "Dying to be Perfect," led to greater awareness.
But the incident in Australia reinforced to her that her sport gives her a platform. Recently she was asked to speak to a college triathlon program -- both men and women -- because the coach indicated some of his male athletes, too, have had eating disorders.
"So even though triathlon for me sometimes seems really frivolous and a luxury that I'm getting to do this and spending a lot of time training, I also realize that I have been given this opportunity and given the talent ... and that has some value," she says.
She took a break from training for a few weeks before the new year, but is now back in her workout routine. After going so hard last year, she thought she might take it easier in 2016 and cut down on races and do some events she's never done before.
But then again, probably not.
Though she swore last year's race in Kona would be her last full Ironman, she's now leaning toward doing it again because she won't have to qualify. And she'd like to try the duathlon once more. And the half-Ironman is her favorite distance. And she'd like a chance to defend her sprint- and Olympic-distance titles.
Training makes her happy and she says every race day is like a blank canvas, where she can create something new and exciting.
So, Ellen Hart could wind up with another world championship or two (or three?) in 2016.
It's hard not to compete when you're a competitor.
"I never in a million years thought I would be a competitive athlete at age 57," she says. "Never, never, never, never. To be able to do this and travel and meet wonderful people and to stretch and reach and grow as a person and an athlete is just such a gift."