Triathlete speaks on fitness for AIDS victims

As part of HIV/AIDS Awareness Month, triathlete Jim Howley spoke Thursday about the benefits of fitness, athletics and a positive attitude for people with HIV and AIDS. He explained that despite always practicing safe sex as a teenager, he contracted AIDS later in his life. "In high school, my friends and I all slept around a lot, but none of us would have ever thought of having sex without a condom," he said. "But later in my life, I was at a party in L.A. and had sex without a condom." Howley later learned that his sexual partner from that evening was HIV-positive -- only after seeing him on the cover of a publication in a convenience store. Howley further explained that he spent the first seven years after learning he was HIV-positive as a depressed cocaine addict. But this changed one day, when he resolved to live out the remainder of his life as productively as possible. "I remember looking out the window with my mother one day, drinking orange juice -- I thought orange juice would somehow keep me alive -- and thinking that if I could compete in a triathlon, I could stay alive forever," Howley recalled. He said AIDS has given him an entirely new and positive outlook on life. "One of the best things that has happened to me in my life is getting AIDS," he said. "It changed my life for the better. I'm not dying of AIDS, I'm living of AIDS." Howley, who presently takes about 60 pills each day, said that athletics have been a very effective therapy for him. "I remember being on my bike during a triathlon, with tears on my eyes, thinking, I'm not going to die, I'm going to live," he said. Howley's discussion of AIDS and athletics was of particular relevance in light of Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis' revelation last week that he has AIDS, according to Kurt Conklin, health educator for Student Health Services. "It's unfortunate that the media is focusing not on the fact that one of the best athletes of our time has AIDS," he said. "But on the fact that he bled into the swimming pool in the '88 Olympics." Howley said it amazed him how few precautions some people take with sex, despite the presence of the AIDS epidemic. "Even my straight friends, who live with me, train with me, [and] see what I go through don't practice safe sex," he said. "Their idea of safe sex is staying with one man or one woman for more than a month at a time." Howley explained that he wants no sympathy, but rather wants people to learn from his experiences. "People don't pity me, and thank God for that, because I'd rather they hate me than pity me," he said. "I don't think of myself as someone who is dying of AIDS, but as Jim -- a triathlete with no T-cells." He added that he wished his message were not coming from a gay man, because so many people wrongly believe that only gays can get AIDS. He said he plans to compete in the Hawaii Ironman triathlon in a couple of weeks. Howley, who grew up just outside of Philadelphia in Upper Darby, PA, has since moved to California.

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