When Susan Cochran participates in a triathlon, swims a mile, or bikes a long, challenging course, she is driven by one goal — to finish.

At age 71, the Santa Barbara resident doesn’t really care whether she comes in first, second, third or even dead last. As long as she completes the event, in her book, she is a winner.

This summer, Cochran is in training to complete her 15th Santa Barbara Triathlon on Aug. 24.

While it seems she’s always had an athletic leaning, when it comes to more serious training, Cochran admits, “I was a late bloomer.”

“When I was 55 or 56, I decided I needed to change something up,” she said. “Someone was advertising for a boot camp. The person in charge was a small woman — a dynamo — and she was going to do the sprint triathlon.”

It was 2007, and Cochran and her late husband, Jim Cochran, who was an avid bicyclist, went to the beach and watched a training session.

“The women coming out of the water looked so happy, so elated, and I thought, that looks great, but I couldn’t do that,” Cochran said. “And Jim said, ‘Of course you can. You know how to swim, you have a bike, and you run … .’”

However, it was another two years before Cochran decided to take the plunge.

“In 2009, I was working at UCSB in the Anthropology Department,” she said. “On Mondays, I could run the track; on Tuesdays, I could swim in the old pool; on Wednesdays, I could run again; and on Fridays, I could bike to the university, and Jim could pick me up. He said that was a good plan.

“Then I said, ‘Well, who’s going to make me do that?’ And Jim said, ‘Not me.’ That ended the discussion.”

For the time being.

Not long after, her husband saw an article about a group called Moms in Motion.

“He said, ‘You need to sign up for this if you are serious.’ That’s when I went,” Cochran said.

Moms in Motion was coached by Whitney Bruice, who Cochran credits for her continued success as a triathlete.

Moms in Motion initially had about 30 people, Bruice said. For swim training, they started at the UCSB Rec Center, then moved to Cathedral Oaks, Los Baños Pool and San Marcos High School, where Cochran joined in.

Training sessions always began in the pool, Bruice said.

“Then we did some open water swim skills and workouts,” she said.

Some of the women signed on not knowing how to swim at all.

“What fascinated me when I joined that group (I could swim from one end of the pool to the other), but there were women who did not know how to swim, so they were in that very first lane in San Marcos,” Cochran recalled.

“But I could tell that these people (Moms in Motion) knew what they were doing. We started at A and by the time we were done we were going to be at O for ocean.

“Ten weeks from not being able to swim to completing a triathlon!”

At first, it was a little bit of trial by fire — or trial by water.

“The first time we were going to go into the ocean, we were going to swim 500 yards (those of us who were more experienced swimmers), and then the people who had not been swimming in the ocean before, they went out to the buoy and came back in again,” Cochran said.

For newbies and experienced swimmers alike, Bruice is always in the water leading the group, and a lifeguard on a surfboard follows along.

“If you are using one arm more than the other, and start heading toward the islands, the lifeguard will steer you back on track,” Cochran said.

While Cochran had done ocean swims in the past, she said she was a little nervous about open water swimming, specifically having to go from point A to point B.

“I like to go out to the buoys because then you don’t get the rolling motion,” she said. “I try not to stop, because if I stop I get a little seasick.”

After the swim session, the tri trainees hit the ground running — literally.

“Get out of the pool, no shower, don’t wash your hair, get into your running clothes,” Cochran said breathlessly as she described the routine. “So we did that; we got outside and we ran the track.

“The next week we did the pool, and then we did a bike ride. And it was again, don’t shower … This is ‘transition.’ I’d never heard the word transition; it was all just so new to me.”

There was a lot that was new to the group’s members, but that didn’t stop them.

“(Some) always wanted to do a tri and decided they were going to go out of their comfort zone, push themselves a little bit and try something new,” Bruice said. “They realized there was so much to think about, so many details in triathlons.”

Even the gear is unfamiliar.

“Some people don’t even know what to wear,” Bruice said. “You don’t need all this fancy stuff. You can wear board shorts if you want. But if you want to buy the $500 wetsuit, it’s out there for you.”

While preparing for the triathlon is the goal for many participants, Bruice said, “for others, they just liked the group; they liked the camaraderie. They just needed something to get them up in the morning on a Saturday. They have friends there, and it is a social, fun thing to do.”

Bruice, who was on the UCSB women’s water polo team for three years, completed her first tri — the Carpinteria Triathlon — in 1999, and has done a local race almost every year since then.

“My favorite is the Santa Barbara Tri — the long course is amazing,” she said. “If you can be fit enough for that, if you have the time to train, if you are not injured, it’s so amazing.

“A 1-mile swim, that’s something, although for swimmers it isn’t that huge of a challenge. But the 34-mile hilly ride, and then a 10-mile run with a pretty substantial hill in the middle of it, it’s a challenge. It’s not a Half Ironman, but it’s longer than an Olympic, so it’s definitely my favorite.”

What Bruice said she likes most about triathlon training is that “everybody has something to work on. Even the elite folks, they’re working on their five-minute-mile pace or whatever it is.

“For people in programs like we do, it can be anything from switching up their stroke to breathing every three strokes instead of every stroke, or learning how to do the right footfall, so they don’t put too much pressure on their Achilles (heel).”

Cochran said she wanted to stress the friendliness of the training group and the support from the coaches. If there were individual concerns, Bruice wanted to know about them, and the group would talk them through, Cochran said.

“I love the camaraderie we all had because I wasn’t the only woman who was scared,” Cochran said. “There were those who could not swim but finished. For one woman [a typically busy mom without much free time], her goal was to run a mile a day — and she did it.”

For Cochran, over the last 15 years she has persevered, but, she said, “At the age I am now I’ve calmed down quite a bit about it. I know I can still do all those things, not necessarily to have a breakneck time, and I know I can finish.”

She recalled an incident when one of the coaches wanted her to speed up on the course. He called out to her — “Race speed!”

“I yelled back at him,” she said. “‘This is it, it’s called finish speed!’”

For more about the 2024 Santa Barbara Triathlon, click here.

Bruice will be running a new triathlon program starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, June 23 at Santa Barbara’s Leadbetter Beach.

She is calling it Santa Barbara Multisport Groups, because, in addition to swimming, it will include running groups, and in the future maybe cycling groups. The cost is $150. For more information, email whitneybruice@gmail.com.