HARMONY — Joella Baker began running in high school — and she's still going.

Baker, 39, of Lancaster Township competed in the Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon Nov. 13 in Wilmington, N.C. She placed 13th out of 103 women overall and won her 35-to-39 age group.

Her time was 11 hours and 45 minutes, less than 90 minutes off champion Sara Tussey's winning time. The event consisted of a 2.4-mile swim, 112 miles of bicycling and 26.2 miles of running.

"I'm thrilled," Baker said. "I've worked so hard to get to this point."

Baker, a graduate of Quigley High, where she ran cross country and track and field, attended Duquesne University on a cross country scholarship and was named Student Athlete of the Year in 1992.

An asthmatic, Baker couldn't use an inhaler at Division I meets "because of the steroid ingredient," she said.

Baker, who ran the Pittsburgh Marathon during her senior year in college and has run 23 marathons in her lifetime, relocated to Harmony in 1995.

"I got really sick in 1999 and was diagnosed with lupus," Baker said. "I took nine months off and dealt with some personal issues there. .... Doctors told me my competitive running days might be over."

Instead, Baker returned to the Pittsburgh Marathon a year later and completed the course in 4 hours, 36 minutes. Her best marathon finish is a 3:53.

"My goal that year was just to finish," she said. "I had to prove to myself I could do it."

Baker has run the Pittsburgh Marathon seven times, the Boston Marathon twice, and marathons in Erie, Chicago, Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn., Charlotte, N.C., and Washington, D.C.

And her health has been fine.

"I've learned to listen to my body," Baker said. "I take some time off when I need it."

Baker and her father run a trucking company in the Cranberry Township area. She also is a certified spinning instructor and teaches classes at the Cranberry Township YMCA.

Once she began working at the Y, she got back in the pool — and into triathlons.

"I love swimming and I was able to get in the water quite a bit at the Y," Baker said. "I worked on my conditioning. The biggest adjustment for me in terms of triathlon was the bicycling part.

"I grew up on a horse. I didn't ride around on a bike when I was a kid. I didn't get my first bike until I was 18."

When Baker finished the 2007 Montauk — a half-ironman event in Long Island, N.Y. — in 5 hours, 30 minutes, she believed she was ready to tackle a full ironman event.

"I started training for the Beach2Battleship almost right away," she said. "I wanted to push myself."

Baker trains six days a week. She runs four days a week, bikes four or five days a week and swims two or three days a week. There are days she trains for nearly eight hours.

Her sisters, Jill Danley of Easton, and Jodi Richard of New York City, did the Beach2Battleship event with her. Danley finished in 12:46, Richard in 13:40.

"That was an interesting family reunion," Baker said.

Baker is now training for the International Triathlon Union Championship, slated for Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Oct. 2.

She qualified for this year's ITU Championship, which was held Sept. 26 in Australia.

"I couldn't get away and I couldn't have handled the expense of that trip anyway," Baker said.

"I love having a goal in front of me and the hard workouts have been beneficial to me. I head up the running club at our YMCA, too, so that keeps me busy."