So how did you get in to triathlon?
 

For most people the season is winding down (or already wound down) and it's time to rest, recharge, recuperate and reflect. So I'm curious to know how you got into this crazy sport we do.

As for me, I'm not kidding when I say I got into triathlon because I figured it was easier (for me) to exercise more than control my diet. Have to admit, that's a little embarrassing to read now that I've typed it out, but the truth isn't always pretty.

Not that I'm fat, but I do still carry a lot more weight than I would like. But I like food a lot. I can only imagine where I would be if I hadn't gotten into triathlon.

About 10 years ago, I wanted an elective surgery but the surgeon wouldn't do it unless I lost about 12 pounds. So I started working out on an elliptical trainer and running 5 and 10k races. I lost the weight and the surgery was a success. But the pounds started to creep back on. I began running more but that was rough on my arthritic hips and knees. Someone else suggested I run less but add bike and swim.

Now, I heard of Ironman way back in the early 90s on ABC's Wide World of Sports but I had no idea there was, like, more reasonable triathlon. Back in those days, I was younger, stronger and had great stamina. I would have absolutely done a full distance Ironman if I had any idea at all how to go about it. But as you may (or may not) recall, back in the early 90s, there really wasn't the kind of access to information we have today. So life went on and I kind of let myself go.

Then 10 years ago I got in better shape and I learned there were other distances to triathlon besides the full Ironman distance. I started training and signed up for my first triathlon in April of 2020. That got shut down along with everything else thanks to the covid. I kept training and a year and a half later I was able to enter and complete my first sprint. Emboldened, I tried an Olympic just a month later. I finished but only barely. That experience woke me up. I began to train with a little more structure and focus, working my endurance up. Improving my swimming, got better on the bike. Did a couple longer courses and finally, just a little more than two years from my first ever triathlon, I finished the 70.3 in Indian Wells. After that, I figured, hell, if I can do a 70.3 then surely I can do a 140.6. So in November of last year I finished Ironman Arizona in Tempe.

To date, I've completed some two dozen triathlons, including one 140.6 and two 70.3 with just one DNF (that still stings). I have even completed a personal goal of triathlons from Atlantic (Key Biscayne, FL) to Pacific (Santa Barbara, CA). I have one more 70.3 on the books in Florida next month to finish off 2025, then Oceanside next March, plus a half dozen or so short courses local to me. And as of right now, I intend to do the FIM in Sacramento next fall but have not committed to it yet. I'm going to play it by ear after that. I'm no spring chicken so the long courses are getting to be harder to train for and recover from. But I hope to continue with at least short course triathlon for at least another five or even ten years.

In Indiana high school (class of 1979) I ran track and cross-country beginning in my freshman year (1975). I was really intrigued by endurance athletics. I ran my first full marathon my junior year. (Since then I’ve done a dozen-plus, some marathon (10k+) swims, and century rides all separately.) Yet, in the late 70s/early 80s road races weren’t as prolific as they would become just a few years later as a result of the running boom of ‘79. And “triathlon” wasn’t even ‘a word’ yet. At team practices we began to talk about an article that I think appeared in RUNNER’S WORLD magazine about a crazy event a small group of military guys were doing in Hawaii “the Ironman” — a combination of what they considered the most difficult event in each of their own favorite sport…the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, a “century” in bicycling, and a full marathon road race. The distances that would become the standard for “Ironman” triathlons. Then there were features about it on Wide World of Sports. I continued running competitively after h.s. In the year after h.s., I ended up in Florida working as a lifeguard at a large YMCA aquatics facility. I had always been a strong swimmer…but never really had any interest in being on the swim team (mostly because of training for winter/indoor track). My initial lifeguard training came as an elective class my senior year of h.s. The instructor was the school’s swim coach. I remember him asking me after our qualification swim for the class “Why aren’t you on my swim team?”
Anyway…that first summer after h.s. that I worked at the YMCA, they put on a “tri-athlon” (run-bike-swim (50m pool) was the order of events). I was expected to work it, but asked my supervisor if I could instead compete. He said yes…and also provided me with his road bike to train on. I was already in good swimming shape because of lifeguarding requirements. But I’d have to concentrate more on cycling. This was still a few years before the establishment of TRIFED, the predecessor to USAT, or any standardized distances for the event (nor any triathlon-specialized equipment). By today’s standards, the distances of that first race I was in would have made it longer than a sprint, but a little shorter than an Oly. I think it was a 5-mile run, 20-22 mile bike, and a 500 meter swim. I ended up finishing in the top five overall. But I was hooked. Other organizations began to put on triathlons. I bought a road bike, and began to split my training time from all running, to include more swimming, and road cycling. I never did a full Ironman…triathlons in general, but especially IM/HIM were very few and far between back then. But I did do a few races that were essentially HIM distances. However, I found that I liked the sprint and (what would become) Oly distances better. Eventually I was doing five or six races per season until I was in my 50s…with an occasional overall placing, and frequent age group placing. Then I began to have hip and knee problems…eventually receiving artificial joints in my late 50s…so any real opportunities of competing (especially in longer races) evaporated. Like Jen, I always kind of used excessive endurance exercise as an excuse for eating whatever I want. I still do all three disciplines on a regular, frequent basis. And also maybe one tri race per season. But they (especially the running) are dreadfully slow. — Dan

I’m a pretty decent swimmer, was swimming for exercise when I met 2 guys my age who were swim training as part of their tri training. We all started doing intense swim workouts and before long they invited me to join them on cycling rides. I had already done enough serious damage to my ankles, having previously been a runner out to 10 mile runs, but it became difficult, so skipped that. I ended up buying a road bike. Then a mt bike, then started down the road of serious cycling including racing a few years as a Cat 4&5. Then I started on the team triathlons and had good results with that, often placing top 3 in my age group. Eventually gave all the racing up as I realized the anxiety was stressful and I disliked that aspect. Happy now to just fun ride and swim.

For me, it was seeing IM TX every year outside of my office. I would go on my normal lunch runs and see all the athletes coming to the expo or doing their practice runs/rides. I would see some of the athletes and tell myself if that person could do it, I can do it. So after years and years of telling myself this, I finally got my butt in gear and hopped in a pool and bought a bike. No other real reason except FOMO. LOL.

It's a long and old story that began on a training holiday at a sports center in one of the Spanish Canary Islands almost 40 years ago. I was mainly a runner, but this center organized different activities and less serious competitions every week. One day a sprint Triathlon was organized and I thought why not try even though I didn't have much training in either cycling or swimming at that time, I enjoyed it. From that sprint Triathlon competition to the next it should go almost 15 years. After many work assignments in Asia and several longer deployments there I was one day "tricked" into taking part in a team Olympic Triathlon with 2 friends and to the great surprise for ourselves and the organizer we came in as number 2. This gave me inspiration and for the next 20+ years I did an average of 5-6 competitions a year, mostly Olympic distance but also a couple of 70.3 but I have never started in a 140.6. These days I might take part in a sprint triathlon or two a year, but my body has become so battered after all the years of endurance sports that it's mostly to feel a bit of the atmosphere that I was once a part of. But it's okay and I'm happy every day I wake up and can get through a bike ride or swim.
hsea17 :)

I was a competitive swimmer growing up then played water polo in HS and College. After college, I became very serious in Master's Swimming and ended up racing a lot of pool and open water swims. After doing a number of 10K swims (USS and USMS) and two international ultra distance swims (25K in Germany and 25 miles in Argentina) I was a bit burned out on swimming. I had a number of friends that we doing Triathlons at the time so after my last race at master's nationals that year (1996) I did my first run. Three months later I did Alcatraz as my first Tri, then wildflower 70.3 a year later. After a few years of racing, we started raising a family, so I stopped racing. My wife and I then decided to do a couple of 70.3s a decade ago. We both still workout multiple sports, but rarely do any races.

I had a "semi-competitive" athletic background in swimming and running in high school (class of 1979), i.e. good enough to letter in high school but not good enough to make my Div 1 college teams. I think I actually first heard about triathlon when I was out for a run the summer of my junior year in college and ran into a swimming buddy from high school. He told me all about this "triathlon" he had seen on TV (probably the 1982 Ironman Hawaii) and told me that he thought I could be good at it (thanks again for the encouragement, Rick).

I graduated college in December 1983 and started working full-time in January 1984. I bought an entry level road bike in the spring of 1984 and had a blast riding it around the city and suburbs of Minneapolis. Later that summer I went to watch a local triathlon called "Triathlon Minnesota" that had enough of a prize purse to attract a few of the top American professional triathletes. I was hooked and knew I had to give it a shot. I raced a couple of sprints in the summer of 1985 and became a triathlete.