Stacy finished as the top American behind two Canadians, despite having struggled since June with an Achilles’ tendon injury that limited her ability to train for the running segments. Here’s her description of the course: “The epicenter of the race—the location of the start, finish, and transition—was in Lowe’s Motor Speedway, a real NASCAR race-track. The 10K run course consisted of two 5K loops in and around the stadium. The 40K bike leg was a very hilly, twisting 20K course that we also did twice. The final 5K run was on the same lap that we’d run twice for the 10K. The one really cool thing about having the race there was that each bike loop included a lap of that banked NASCAR track. You really build up speed, even on two wheels!”

Stacy also reports on how she managed to overcome her Achilles’ injury and continue training throughout the summer:

“Other than Stuart and Kieran, the home team that constantly supports and encourages me—and puts up with my crazy training schedule—I’m indebted to three people who helped me make it to the starting line in the best shape possible.

Mikael Hanson: After I took third at Nationals, my friend Mikael told me that he thought if I worked on my cycling, I’d have a chance at making the podium at Worlds. It seemed very unlikely. Assuming I could again place third among my countrywomen, wouldn’t I have to beat everyone else in the world? But I figured I had nothing to lose, so at Mikael’s suggestion I joined a triathlon team—Full Throttle Endurance—and started riding with them twice a week in Central Park. Mikael is a personal trainer and coach so I started working with him on the bike once a week, too.

Dr. Rob DeStefano: I tore my Achilles’ tendon at the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon at the end of June. I limped for weeks afterward and was unable to run at all, let alone train properly. I started seeing “Dr. Rob”—the author of Muscle Medicine, a book my company published in September—twice a week. Dr. Rob is a chiropractor who practices a method called A.R.T.—Active Release Techniques. I never would have made it to the starting line without his help. (I also have to thank him for talking me out of racing the Central Park Triathlon, which probably would have put me out of Worlds.)

Chris Griffin: Chris is a champion cyclist and spin class instructor at Equinox, where his tough, hour-long sessions are infamous. When I was too injured to run, I could still spin and Chris helped me stay in fighting shape despite my injury. In the final stretch leading up to my big race, I followed him around town; I once took classes with him eight out of nine days. (On my day “off,” I took a class with my other favorite spin instructor, Peter Ferrara.) To all those runners out there sidelined by injury and to those older age-groupers who may not be able to withstand the kind of speedwork regimens they’ve handled in the past: I cannot recommend spin class highly enough. With the right instructor you can get your heart rate up as high as you want it and come close to duplicating the effects of real track work—without the consequent wear and tear on your body.”

Full results for both Stacy and Judy can be seen here.

Stacy Creamer joined CPTC back in 1987, after representing NYRR along with CPTC’er Tom Phillips in a national race out in Los Angeles. When she got back to New York from the race, she applied to join CPTC.  Her sister intercepted the acceptance letter that Stacy was eagerly awaiting, put it in an orange envelope, and decorated their apartment with blue and orange balloons to celebrate. Since then, Stacy has run numerous marathons, road races, and track races of all distances, including the Empire State Building Run-Up ten times.

But she seems to have found her niche in the duathlon. Creamer started her multisport career with the inaugural Central Park Triathlon. In the beginning, she slowly embraced the multisport world. During the second year of the event, she realized that the last time she’d been on a bike had been at last year’s race. Since then, she has been training more regularly on the bike, including a spin class twice a week in addition to her running. This rededication has paid off. Last September, Creamer traveled to Rimini, Italy, for the ITU World Duathlon Championships, where she placed sixth in her age group in the world.

As an accomplished athlete herself, Stacy follows various professional endurance sports. Back in 1999, her knowledge of professional cycling paid off for her and her career. Being an editor in publishing allows her to pursue book deals on all subjects, and she knew that Lance Armstrong represented an incredible comeback story. She was aware of Lance’s battle with cancer and that he was likely to win the Tour de France that year for the first time. But the day before the end of the Tour, the deal had still not been struck with Lance’s agent. Creamer was forced to call her boss on a Saturday and get approval for the deal. Her boss, who was relaxing on Martha’s Vineyard, replied, “Can’t this wait until Monday?” Stacy pressed on: “On Monday, he will have won the tour and anybody can sign him!” Stacy inked the deal that Saturday, which led to a bestseller—It’s Not About the Bike. If you own the book, open it up and you will see Stacy as the second person thanked on the acknowledgments page.

Stacy started in publishing shortly after college, working as an assistant to the famous publisher Phyllis Grann at Putnam Books. This experience gave her exposure to major deals and paved the way for her own publishing career. Creamer is currently vice president and editor-in-chief at Broadway Books. In her career she has worked on various bestsellers, including The Devil Wears Prada. While on maternity leave, Stacy worked with the author, Lauren Weisberger, to formulate a coherent story from a hundred pages of anecdotes.

Stacy Creamer

Creamer’s current project, which will be released on April 7th, is Dara Torres’s story: Age Is Just a Number. Again, Stacy’s athletic background helped her to land this deal. Torres’s agent was not very good at remembering names, and met with many publishers before choosing Creamer and Broadway Books. He kept referring to Stacy as “the athlete,” which helped her rise above the other publishers and clinch the deal. Creamer’s experience with the rigors of endurance sports also once helped her explain to her superiors why Lance couldn’t do more publicity for his book while training for his next Tour de France.

Despite her clear commitment to training, Stacy is always finding a way to balance work, life, and running. She has the flexibility to do much of her reading for work at home, allowing her to spend more time with her six-year-old son, Kieran, and her partner, Stuart Calderwood. She “tag teams” watching Kieran with Stuart so that they can train, work, and race on top of raising their energetic son. Even with all these responsibilities, she still manages to attend the Tuesday and Thursday CPTC team workouts. Creamer explained succinctly how this is accomplished: “Stuart and I are truly a team, in that we try to figure out the ‘when’ and ‘how’, and not the ‘if’ we will do anything.”

Because of an unusual age-group cutoff, Creamer is allowed to compete in the duathlon field this year as a fifty-year-old, even though her birthday does not arrive until later in the year. Her goals for 2009 include competing in more duathlons and qualifying again for the world championships. But don’t let her age-group achievements fool you: she often places in the top-five women overall in many duathlons. It goes to show that Stacy is not only the publisher of Age Is Just a Number, but also a living example.