Avid triathlete Jef Mallett, 45, discusses how Masters swimming became a topic in his nationally syndicated comic strip, "Frazz"

Every day, Jef Mallett creates "Frazz," a comic strip that appears in about 150 newspapers. The strip follows the exploits of a grade school janitor, Frazz, as he interacts with the students, jokes with the faculty and rides his bike with Miss Plainwell. Mallett's creation is one of the more thoughtful -- and genuinely funny -- strips currently in existence.

Almost every day, Mallet, who lives in Lansing, Mich., trains for triathlons. Last year he set a personal best in an Olympic distance triathlon, finishing in 2:14:06. Because he just turned 45, he is now training especially hard to take advantage of being in a new age group. He's also focusing on completing an Ironman in 2008.

GJ: So are we to assume that you had a Masters swimming experience in real life like the one Frazz had in the strip?

Mallett: That was completely autobiographical. There's not much hidden about "Frazz." It's very much about my life, especially in that case. It stems from the fact that I'm not a great swimmer. I swim so I can do triathlon. I'm getting a bit better, but it's all relative. There was a Masters meet in DeWitt, a suburb of Lansing. I just showed up there, and when I got on the starting block, on one side of me was a 60- year-old woman and on the other side was a young lady who appeared to have Down's syndrome. I thought, 'There's no way to look good coming out of this.' But the part of the story that I put in "Frazz," was that in the 50-yard freestyle I just didn't get beat by a 75 year-old guy, I got killed! And you know it was a delightful thing to see that. I've also got to say that I won my age group, the 45-49 age group. That helped, but I still got my butt beat by a guy who was 30 years older than me.

Is it me, or are most of the newspaper comic strips awful?

Well, a lot of them, they don't seem to put any effort into it. You get both sides. Some people approach you and say, that's a lot of stories to come up with. Each one you do is the first one that somebody sees, so it's important that they're all good. Some people say, boy that looks easy, sitting at home, doing your thing. You work in your bathrobe. I have to say that the other way of looking at it is more accurate. It's a very tough job. It's not coal mining tough, but there's a lot of pressure and a lot of work.

Where do you race?

I race mostly around Michigan. Time is constrained and travel is expensive. I try to limit myself to events that are two hours away. There are so many races, I could race every weekend. Triathlon, that's my thing. I used to race bicycles as well, but I don't much anymore. Now that I'm working for myself, I don't relish exposing myself to broken collarbones. It doesn't seem like that great of an idea. I find that triathlon really suits my personality and I find myself drawn to other triathletes. Triathlon is very much an individual event. People are racing against themselves as much as they are racing against you. In the bicycle racing it's me against them, take no prisoners.