This newsletter comes out every other Thursday and hopefully provides you with thought-provoking content about the mundane, wacky, and weird. I will be writing until the 75th edition. If you know someone who may enjoy the newsletter, you can share it here.
I was surrounded by 250 people all clad in neoprene wetsuits in a chilly Northern California lake. I was participating in my first triathlon in years. It was a sprint triathlon, which consisted of a half-mile swim, a 12.4-mile bike ride, and a 3.1-mile run.
As the countdown to the start got nearer, my nervous energy kept building. As soon as the gunshot went off, all 250 of us, started kicking and jostling for our position towards the buoy a few hundred meters away. The excitement and the scrambling burned off a lot of my energy, but I soon found my own path and rhythm in the water.
The madhouse of the initial swim start.
Running out of the water, I hurriedly went to my setup station, stripped my wetsuit, and got into my bike shoes, shorts, and t-shirt to gear up for the bike segment. The bike route was along a gorgeous lightly trafficked road with rolling hills. I ended up passing and being passed by the same women 6+ times. Each time one of us passed each other we gave little words of encouragement. The end of the 12.4-mile bike ride had me dropping off my bike and running through the gates for a 3.1-mile run.
I hadn’t practiced my running enough, because I soon realized that my tired legs kept anticipating the halfway turnaround point to be just around each uphill corner. I made it to the turnaround and rejoiced that it was all downhill to the finish line. I was greeted by cheering fans as I crossed the finish line. Tired, but already looking forward to my next triathlon.
A bit weird isn’t it, swimming, biking and running, all in one event? The history of triathlons is a little murky. It traces its roots back to 1920s France when people canoed, biked, and ran all in one event. In the 1930s and 1940s, there were a few unofficial races that replaced canoeing with swimming. However, the true birth of the triathlon began in San Diego, California in 1974. The San Diego track club was looking for a fun way to cross-train and came up with the idea of adding a bike section to the already popular “run-swim” events.
The official notice for the event ran in the September issue of the San Diego Track Club Newsletter and read:
“RUN, CYCLE, SWIM: TRIATHLON SET FOR 25TH
The First Annual Mission Bay Triathlon, a race consisting of segments of running, bicycle riding, and swimming, will start at the causeway to Fiesta Island at 5:45 P.M. September 25. The event will consist of 6 miles of running (longest continuous stretch, 2.8 miles), 5 miles of bicycle riding (all at once), and 500 yards of swimming (longest continuous stretch, 250 yards). Approximately 2 miles of running will be barefoot on grass and sand. Each participant must bring his own bicycle. Awards will be presented to the first five finishers. For further details contact Don Shanahan or Jack Johnstone”.
Most participants were not skilled swimmers, so Jack Johnstone (co-head of the event), recruited his 13-year-old son to float on his surfboard and act as a lifeguard. They named it the triathlon because it had a similar naming convention of the iconic Olympic sport, the Decathlon. It was an aspirational name and sure enough, the triathlon as come a long way since that first event in San Diego.
Two of the San Diego original 46 contestants were Judy and John Collins. Four years later they founded the Hawaii Ironman, which brought international attention to the new sport. The Ironman partly gained attention for the sheer length and its surrounding beauty. Other Ironman’s have followed, but the Hawaii Ironman is the World Championships for triathlons and remains iconic. All Ironmans are a distance of 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and a 26.2 mile marathon distance run.
This is an aerial shot of the swim from the 2019 Hawaii Ironman.
Triathlons continued gaining popularity throughout the 80s and 90s and eventually became an official Olympic sport at the 2000 Sydney games.
Americans dominated the Hawaii Ironman for the first 10 years, but soon enough people from all over the world were taking home the trophy. The German, Jan Frodeno has won 3 of the last 5 Ironmans and is the favorite for the upcoming Hawaii Ironman on May 7. Frodeno’s last Ironman came in at these splits:
2.4 mile swim - 47:31
112 mile bike - 4:16:02
26.2 mile run - 2:42:43. That is a 6:11 minute pace!
Today, triathlons of all distances are as popular as ever. The sport grew from roughly 900k participants in 2006 to over 4 million by 2017. On top of that more people are searching for “triathlon near me” every year.
What is the appeal of a triathlon? For me, it is the challenge + the diversity of events. It is a grueling race and requires a lot of training, particularly at the longer distances. Despite the intensity, you are less likely to get injured from repetitive training and the variety keeps you mentally fresh. I have already signed up for a triathlon next Spring and I can’t wait to start training again.
Newsletter I am enjoying
James Clear’s 3-2-1 Thursday newsletter. His goal is to provide the most wisdom per word of anywhere on the internet.
Here is a snippet of his recent newsletter:
“Look around your environment.
Rather than seeing items as objects, see them as magnets for your attention. Each object gently pulls a certain amount of your attention toward it.
Whenever you discard something, the tug of that object is released. You get some attention back”.
Inspiring story
The Dolphin Club is a members-only (although affordable) open-water swimming and boating club at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. Walt Schneebli passed away in 2017, but was a member of the Dolphin Club since 1948.
Erin Brethauer did a short documentary of Walt’s time and history at the Dolphin Club. It is a heartwarming story and inspiring to see someone at age 90 (when it was filmed in 2015), getting out in San Francisco Bay’s frigid waters.
Quote I’m pondering
Pic of the Week
It was awesome celebrating Tim and Erin Sweeney’s wedding in Hawaii. This is our SF crew having a fun time after the ceremony.