Thirteen Pepperdine students seven male and six female braved inclement weather in their season opener at the Fiesta Island Triathlon on Sunday in San Diego. While official results have yet to be released participants considered the event memorable and intend on pursuing triathlons in the future.
The weather proved Sunday’s ultimate decider shaping the race’s format and quality. The swim portion was canceled due to excessive rain and was replaced by a second run following the bike portion. In the resulting dual-athlon participants ran two miles biked 13 miles and ended with another two-mile loop on scenic Fiesta Island which sits parallel to San Diego.
The team assembled at 5:45 on a cold windy and rainy Sunday morning in a torrential downpour. The event provided little relief from the elements and participants waited in the rain and cold until the 7 a.m. start time.
“We had to be there at 5:45 this morning and it was just a downpour junior Lindsey Watson said. It was super cold and there weren’t any tents.”
The weather abated for the actual race but continued to wreak havoc in the form of mud and slippery grass.
“The course was really muddy the TriWaves explained. The UCSD race volunteers had to put down mats leading into the transition areas. Running in the grass was also tough for the competitors because the rain made the course slippery. After four days of rain the team had mentally prepared for the difficulties.
An inspiring double rainbow served as a redeeming quality of the sporadic weather, visible during the majority of the race, but eventually covered by another onslaught of rain.
Pepperdine’s presence in the Fiesta Island Triathlon was organized by TriWaves, an on-campus athletic club aimed at preparing students for triathlons while engendering a sense of community. The team is relatively diverse, composed of varied levels of athletic prowess, commitment and involvement and appears more a loose association of athletes than a true team. Students can sign up at any time throughout the year, can choose which practices to attend and used Facebook as an invaluable tool to schedule meetings and practice times.
We felt pretty close considering it is an individual sport freshman Kevin Fleming said. We connected mainly on Facebook. Someone would write on the TriWaves wall ‘Wanna go for a run?’ or ‘Meet at the pool at 4?'”
Even though the practices were not uniformly attended or synchronized Pepperdine students still felt a sense of camaraderie and pride when seeing their peers in orange and blue compete at the Fiesta Island Event.
“Everyone cheered for each other Jenkins said. Some of us haven’t trained with some of the other members of the team but we still felt that we were there for each other. It’s cool to support people you don’t know much about.”
The level of training varied as much as the levels of formal participation. Junior Jenny Cho decided to compete the day before the race after nixing her commitment to the team due to time constraints.
“I signed up in early January and decided not to do it about a month ago and then changed my mind the day before the race Cho said. I am happy with it considering it is my first triathlon.”
Members of TriWaves explained that participants could be as involved as they wanted to be and cited time management as a crucial part of triathlon success.
“I want to do more triathlons Watson said. It is just hard to find time to train for them.”
Triathlons by nature include a large time commitment. The TriWaves must train in three separate disciplines in order to be competitive. “That requires three times as much work Watson mentioned.
The TriWaves opened their season at Sunday’s event and look forward to the races to come, next competing on March 12 in the USC Fight On!! Triathlon in Oxnard.
