When Susan McQuiston lined up to start her first triathlon at the age of 44, her training partner, Stephen Murphy, insisted on starting the race beside her. At 6 feet tall, the 27 year-old classmate of McQuiston’s cut a comical (slightly imposing) figure in the crowd of 40- to 45-year-old women as they dove into the first leg of the Treasure Island Triathlon in San Francisco.

On Sunday, as she lines up to start the Tri-Goddess mini-sprint triathlon in the Waterloo Recreation Area, her first race in almost nine years, McQuiston will look back on the events that unfolded after that race that took away her health, job, and home. And she’ll take yet another step toward putting her life back together.

McQuiston will be one of 577 women “competing” in the Tri-Goddess Sprint, Mini-Sprint, and Duathalon events organized by Epic Races on Sunday in Portage Lake State Park. According to Epic Races co-founder Eva Solomon, most women in the Tri-Goddess are no focused on ‘winning’ the race.

“The race is unique compared to other triathlons because it’s about the spirit of women,” Solomon said. “It’s not about who crosses the finish line first, it’s about women fulfilling their goals.”

The race is also beneficial for Ann Arbor’s newest high school. Epic Races is a for-profit company and its leaders have teamed with the Skyline High School athletic department. A portion of each race’s profits goes to various Skyline sports teams. In return, athletes volunteer at the events. Solomon said Sunday’s race would benefit the Skyline crew team.

For McQuiston, who will be racing despite surgically repaired knees, pain medications, and asthma holding her back, the goal is simply to finish.

After the Treasure Island race, McQuiston went on to complete four more triathlons within a year. During that year her younger sister was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, and Susan took over responsibility for her care.

“I brought her out to live with me in San Francisco,” McQuiston said. “With the stress of my new career and [my sister’s] health and everything, it began to impact my health in an extremely negative way.”

Her sister survived her bout with cancer and went back to work, but McQuiston’s health deteriorated. She had previously been diagnosed fibromyalgia (a syndrome whose symptoms, according to WebMD, include anxiety, depression, difficulty in maintaining sleep, tender soft tissue points, incapacitating fatigue, and joint pain) and the chronic pain caused by the disease became increasingly difficult to manage.

According to WebMD, “There is no clear consensus about what causes fibromyalgia. Most researchers believe fibromyalgia results not from a single event but from a combination of many physical and emotional stressors.” The website added that “some researchers theorize that stress or poor physical conditioning are factors in the cause of fibromyalgia.”

Besides taking care of her sister, McQuiston dealt with a divorce, losing her job in San Francisco, and the sale of her home to pay for attorney’s fees. The compounding stress exacerbated her fibromyalgia, which led to a cycle of pain and stress that were difficult to cope with. She knew she had hit bottom.

“My health and my situation continued to decline until October 2007. That’s when I decided to move back to Michigan and move in with my mom.”

After declaring bankruptcy, McQuiston started rebuilding and eventually found a job at Michigan State as an instructor in biomedical laboratory diagnostics.

“For about 6 months, I just took care of myself and things that needed handling legally,” she said. “I went and worked at a couple of hospital labs until I found this job.”

As she worked to get back into shape, the idea of completing another triathlon started to take shape. The mini-sprint race was an ideal fit for her after multiple knee surgeries and an osteoarthritis diagnosis.

“I know I can’t get it all back to what I had in my forties, but I’ve worked very hard with diet and exercise to get back into shape,” McQuiston said. “I’ll have to walk the ‘run’ portion of the race, but just being in a triathlon will be a big accomplishment for me.”

According to Solomon, a lot of people who come to the Tri-Goddess come with similar goals.

“We have racers from 16 to 75 years old, and 50 percent of our women are first-timers. You see all sorts of bikes, all sorts of bathing suits, and all sorts of women in this race,” she said.

That spirit drew McQuiston back to triathlons. She hopes to both draw strength from the race and help lift other’s spirits as she continues down her road to recovery.

“I feel like triathlons are like Baptist revivals for athletes,” she said. “They’re very uplifting and exciting and everyone is supportive. I just really want to inspire and encourage people to go for their dreams and be the best that they can.”

The Tri-Goddess race is in its third year and reached capacity three weeks before the event. The first wave starts at 7:30 a.m.

Ben Freed is a summer intern at AnnArbor.com. You can reach him by email at benfreed@annarbor.com or by phone at (734)-623-4674. Follow him on Twitter @BFreedInA2.