Paula Newby-Fraser

In 1997, Newby-Fraser began running ultramarathons, races of 50 km or more. In the Los Angeles Daily News, she told Ronni Ross, "Running is my passion, my favorite of the three sports. You always have to come back to what you love to do, what motivates you and drives you." She noted that the sport of triathlon had become increasingly commercialized: "There's the money, the politics, it's [now] an Olympic sport." She said that she had recently worked as part of the support crew for her fiancee, Paul Huddle, while he ran the famed Western States 100, a 100-mile endurance race that is run over trails. "At Western States," she said, "People were not there for the recognition or money; they were there for the pure challenge of it." The purity of the event was attractive to Newby-Fraser. She entered the Ridgecrest High Desert 50K in April of 1997, and won, setting a course record of 4 hours and 6 minutes. Although she won, she said she still had a lot to learn about running ultras. "I'm getting a real appreciation and a good deal of humility out there," she told Ross.

Newby-Fraser continued to compete in Ironman Triathlons, and by 2002 had won 23 in all. In that year, she won the Ironman Japan competition at the age of 39, making her the oldest person ever to win an Ironman. Realizing that she could not continue competing and winning forever, Newby-Fraser branched out into other areas of her sport that were not as physically demanding. With John Howard and John Duke, Newby-Fraser founded the Multi Sport School of Champions in 1989. In 2000, Newby-Fraser and Duke joined with the coaching team of Paul Huddle and Roch Frey to form Multisports.com, which provides individualized training and also runs training camps for triathletes.