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Meghan Schlitt ’11
Swimmer and biology major Meghan Schlitt ’11 (Haddonfield, N.J.) sat down and talked about athletics, turtles, and completing an Ironman 70.3-mile triathlon.
What is your major and what do you like about your major? I’m a biology major and chemistry minor. I love that I am able to take classes in all areas of biology, like ecology, genetics, and human physiology. I also hope to become a doctor, and I feel that being a biology major has prepared me for medical school.
What has been the most unique in-class experience (or school project) you have had at Lafayette? Definitely research! The past two years, I have been involved in research in biology professor James Dearworth‘s lab and have gotten the chance to get a closer look at the anatomy and physiology involved in vision in turtles.
What is your earliest swimming/athletics memory? I’m not necessarily sure about my earliest swimming memory, but I have been swimming competitively since I was seven. As for my earliest triathlon memory, for my first half-Ironman I was pretty much the only person who didn’t have bike shoes and raced in sneakers!
What can you take from swimming at Lafayette and incorporate into everyday life? Through swimming I have made a lot of lifelong friendships. It has also taught me perseverance and how important it is to work hard to achieve your goals.
Discuss the training/preparation for an Ironman event. How has that training assisted your training/routine for swimming? An Ironman 70.3 triathlon is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a half marathon (13.1 miles), so in order to train for this I try to run about 20 miles per week and bike about 50-60 in addition to going to swim practice! All of this has definitely helped me to get in better cardiovascular shape for swimming.
Sport you would play at Lafayette other than your own: Cross Country
Other people are surprised to hear that…: I didn’t even own a bike until less than a month before I did my first 70.3.
The best vacation I ever took: I studied abroad in London the summer after my sophomore year with Lafayette’s health care in London program. During the seven weeks I spent there I also traveled to Paris and Dublin.
My favorite TV show as a kid: We didn’t have cable when I was growing up; I live at the top of a dead end street, and my parents claimed “the cable didn’t reach that far.”
The most played song/band on my iPod: My favorite band is Third Eye Blind, and one of my favorite things to do is to run up the hill to Lafayette while listening to Springsteen’s “The Rising.”
Word Association
Lafayette: Leopards
Swimming: Lane 2
Lehigh: Inferior
Butterfly: 200
Preseason: Lifting