• Tri-athlete Jan Jacobs has covered tremendous distances personally, athletically Jacobs rides her bicycle 130 miles a week. Jacobs always wants to take what she does one step further. or the first 21 years of her life, Jan Jacobs was not a competitive athlete, and never hoped to be. She did not play for any high school team; she was on the sidelines as a cheerleader. This same woman was on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Sept. 27, to swim nine-tenths of a mile, dash out of the water onto a bicycle, pedal 24.8 miles, then hop off her bike and run 6.2 miles. The formerly non-competitive Jacobs, 28, was one of 1,400 men and women to qualify for the United States Triathlon Series national championship, one of many athletic accomplishments she has posted since she took up jogging at age 21. Her natural athletic ability and her delight in running lit a competitive volcano which had lain dormant those first 21 years. It led her to the triathlon, and to other events, such as the more grueling "tinman" competition (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile Continued on next page 37