She was a 3-sport Kamiakin athlete 40 years ago — and still is an elite competitor

Lori Selby can’t sit still.

When the Richland woman isn’t helping her clients plan their financial future, she participates in a multitude of sporting events — some for fun, but most in a competitive mode that most 57-year-old people do not possess.

“I have always been extremely driven,” she said. “If I’m not challenged, I’m not happy. I love to be challenged mentally, physically and spiritually. As long as I feel there is room for improvement, I keep going.”

Selby, a 1979 graduate of Kamiakin High School, recently finished sixth in the Aquabike in the ITU Multisport World Championships Festival in Odense, Denmark.

Her time of about 4 hours, 37 minutes was nearly 12 minutes faster than her time last year in the Aquabike World Championships in Penticton, British Columbia, and she beat one of her toughest American rivals, Kathy Bohlman of Greenfield, Wis.

“I was really happy,” Selby said. “When you are a masters athlete, you just go out and do your best. It’s really fun.”

Selby was one of 16 competitors from five countries in the race that included a nearly 2-mile swim and a 75-mile bike ride.

She was the third fastest out of the water, but had a little hiccup transitioning to her bike.

“I had a pretty good swim, but I lost about a minute because I couldn’t find my bag when I got out of the water,” Selby said. “We swam in a salt water harbor (Odense Harbour). The water was grungy, you couldn’t see anything. We had to get out at the half-way point, run over the timing mat and dive back in the water.”

The bike ride was more pleasant.

“We drove the bike course a couple of days before the race,” Selby said. “They had rustic windmills and thatched roofs on the houses. It was really neat. During the bike race, I didn’t notice it.”

She also was pleased with her cycling effort, which was timed in 3:35:07.

“My power watts were 26 better than worlds last year,” she said.

Back home, Selby gets swimming instruction from Jennifer Tonkyn at Columbia Basin Racquet Club, while Aaron Stites of High Gear Coaching of Kennewick works with her on her cycling.

“Between him and Jennifer, they keep this old gal going,” Selby said. “I love the master’s swim class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. They are so encouraging. It’s really fun. A community-type atmosphere.”

After the race in Odense, Selby and her husband, Dave Painter, celebrated their 15th anniversary with a couple of days in Copenhagen before returning home.

One sport is not enough

Selby was a three-sport athlete at Kamiakin, participating in cross country, basketball and track. She earned 12 letters and is on the Kamiakin Hall of Fame for basketball.

Though she’s been out of high school for nearly 40 years, her top times in the 1,600 meters (1979, 7th, 5:17.1) and 3,200 meters (1978, 9th, 11:45.0) still rank among the top 10 in school history. Mind you, she ran on cinder tracks, and shoes and training weren’t as high tech as they are now.

Basketball is her first love. She went on to play at Eastern Washington University, and later coached the Columbia Basin College women’s team for six seasons. She still holds the Kamiakin record for career free-throw percentage at 83 percent

“I thoroughly enjoyed that,” she said of coaching at CBC.

Once organized sports were out of her reach, she turned her talents to other pursuits.

She rock climbed, hiked and ran triathlons before her knees said ‘no more.’

“It kills me that I can’t run,” she said. “I remember how fun it was.”

Now, she competes in aquabike races, and is an elite cross-country skier and biathlete. She also likes to ride her mountain bike (she was second at nationals in Sun Valley in 2016), golf and ride motorcycles. The newest addition to their family is a 2018 Indian Scout.

“We have expensive hobbies,” she said. “I love racing and coaching, but this is a whole other level.”

Fierce competitor

Selby easily could have given up competitive sports when her knees started bothering her at age 30, but she just changed sports.

She could have thrown in the towel when she had problems with her legs not getting enough blood flow. She had lesions in the lining of her external iliac arteries which caused them to spasm shut. She had surgery by the late Dr. Alec Clowes at UW Medical Center in 2011 to fix the right side, and in 2013, she had the left side done.

“Because he did that, I can race until I can’t,” she said.

When she isn’t racing, she puts a lot of time into her work as an estate and financial planner for Epic Trust Investment Advisors, where she vice president.

“I really love my work,” Selby said. “The more I do professionally, the more I can give back to the community. My physical health and financial health feed off each other. I have always been able to plan strategically — how I can get better to get to the next level.”

It’s a family affair

Selby met her husband Dave on a climb at Mt. Hood, but she met Dave’s brother Mark years before.

“Mark was my high school track coach and English teacher,” Selby said.

Mark Painter was a competitive cyclist, while his wife, Jimalee, competed in triathlons. Her mother-in-law, Evelyn Painter, who is 89, still cycles and hikes Badger Mountain with the Fun, Fit and Over Fifty Club. Her late father-in-law, Bill Painter, was the oldest man to reach the summit of Mount Rainier.

Dave Painter, 64, never started running until he met Selby. He recently ran the 50-mile Badger Mountain challenge for the first time.

“I married into the right family,” Selby said. “Dave is always so supportive of me. I am blessed. He waxes my skies in the winter, and he is my bike mechanic.”

Though Selby and her husband enjoy a lot of the same activities, he said there is one big difference.

“I participate,” Dave Painter said. “She competes.

This story was originally published August 4, 2018 at 5:29 PM.