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Last Friday – Homecoming Weekend! – we all gathered for our annual new member welcoming event. After some good food and bonding activities, we briefly reflected on our team-related goals and our broader goals for our individual Dartmouth experiences. Each individual on this team has a unique approach to athletics, academics, and social/personal growth. See below for the intentions of our community:

Triathlon Goals

19s and BEs

  • Swim 4x/week this winter
  • Complete a half-ironman by 19F
  • To feel athletic and accomplished
  • I want to not bonk in a long race
  • To maintain the welcoming and close-knit character of this community, even as we grow

20s

  • Continue the legacy of positivity set by the ‘18’s
  • Get more comfortable with cycling
  • Maintain focus, energy, enthusiasm regardless of how my ability compares to the abilities of others
  • To make Tri a closer community for the 22s!
  • To qualify for and race at Nationals

21s

  • Complete my first Olympic distance triathlon
  • Complete my first half-ironman this spring!
  • Get over my fear of swim practice
  • Become friends with ‘22’s
  • Go on the training trip in Florida
  • Do more than 1 race in 2019
  • Learn the names of the 22s, and complete an open water swim
  • I want to feel strong and fit so that I don't feel like I am an imposter when I say I do Tri Team
  • Get to know all the new members
  • To get to know all of the 22s

22s

  • Go to swim practice
  • Make friends
  • Complete a triathlon
  • Show up to four practices a week, no matter what
  • Meet one new person a week
  • Get *FAST!* And eventually do an ironman
  • Race a half ironman
  • Increase my stamina for all SBR
  • Learn and improve all three aspects of triathlon (especially swimming)
  • To learn how to actually swim and to do my first triathlon!
  • To help the team grow & myself grow as the year goes on. Also to finish my first outdoor triathlon in under an hour
  • Do an awesome triathlon race in spring and be in awesome shape by then
  • Finish an open water swim
  • I want to complete my first triathlon and eventually work up to an ironman
  • Go to swim practice
  • I want to move up 2 swimming lanes by the end of the year
  • To be able to say I finished a triathlon
  • Complete a triathlon and be able to actually compete and push myself in all 3 events, beyond just finishing
  • Complete my first triathlon
  • Make a few team-friends
  • Swim 500m straight
  • To push myself out of my comfort zone to get to know people on the team
  • To actually learn how to do all of the tri sports properly
  • To increase my endurance and to become a better runner
  • To form a personal relationship with every 22 on the team
  • To be able to swim more than one lap in the pool without stopping
  • To get a meal with all the 22s on the team
  • To learn how to rlly ride a road bike
  • I want to get really good at swimming by the winter and maybe bring the team to nationals?
  • Stay with the pack on runs and bikes & complete my first triathlon!
  • Train in a healthy and sustainable way
  • Complete an Olympic race, bond with the team, and get a little better at swimming

Dartmouth Goals

19s and BEs

  • Put a tri person up on the “Hall of Mains”
  • Have a valuable education
  • I want to finish out strong!
  • To practice gratitude, to invest deeply in relationships, to avoid disengagement/burnout.

20s

  • Retain the happiness I feel during my off term when I start taking classes again
  • Graduate with a job
  • To be accepted into medical school by graduation

21s

  • Declare a major & get to know some ‘22s
  • Learn at least one running route around Dartmouth that isn't laps around Occum
  • Narrow down what I want to do with my life

22s

  • Get a lot of sleep
  • Graduate knowing the last 4 years were some of the best of my life
  • I want to find a solid community here at Dartmouth
  • Do one thing a month that scares me
  • Don’t get hand foot & mouth
  • Try lots of new activities and leave my comfort zone
  • I really want to push myself to meet new people and try new things I’m scared to do
  • I want to find a community doing something that makes me happy
  • I want to be more active in the community
  • Learn the salty dog rag
  • I want to make at least 2 friends by the end of the year
  • Always be curious and trying to learn new things
  • To stay in shape
  • To keep working to get to know people throughout the year as I meet new people through new classes, etc.
  • To try a ton of new clubs and activities along with tri

SBR,

The Dartmouth Triathlon Team

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I’ve never liked stretching. It takes too much time, effort, and doesn’t even seem to help. Especially after spending a few hours warming up, doing a workout, and cooling down, the extra 15 minutes I’d spend sitting on the ground seem like too much of a hassle. Little did I know how wrong I was.

When I started running freshman year of high school, I was fine most days without stretching. After all, I wasn’t really running that much anyway. Occasionally, I’d stretch haphazardly with teammates, mostly using the time to procrastinate homework rather than focusing on my movements.

Over the years, the mileage increased, but the stretching did not. And I was surely going to pay for it.

First, it was back pain. Somehow, I, a runner, managed to have unbearable back pain everytime I ran because of a lack of stretching. Turns out, I held too much tension in my shoulders while running. And without stretching my arms or back, the problem compounded to the point where it hurt to run a mile.

Then, it was shin splints. Excruciating shin splints, with pain bad enough that I’d end up finishing a 5k in tears that season and would collapse after the finish line, unable to walk. After that race, I couldn’t run for a few weeks without the pain flaring up. All that because of a lack of stretching my calves.

And, to complete the trifecta, later that year, I had IT band problems, as I wasn’t stretching my quadriceps or hamstrings nearly enough to ward off excess tension in my legs and glutes.

But despite all that, I really didn’t learn anything. I still stretched carelessly, moving through the motions rather than really concentrating on injury prevention.

Flash-forward two years, and I’m training for a marathon, working up to 50 miles a week with plenty of workouts and long-runs to get ready for the big day. I ramped up running, lifting, and strength building exercises as necessary. But, I continued to neglect stretching. Everything was going surprisingly well considering that. Until a few months before race day.

This time, it was my hip. I did everything I needed to: I toned down the running, I started strengthening my glutes more, and I started stretching. But the stretching only lasted a few weeks. When the problem got better, I stopped.

The day I ran my marathon, my hip started to flare up around mile 18. Considering I was well over halfway through, I kept going. After the run, I was way too sore to stretch. I told myself I’d stretch more the next day.

Well… I definitely did not stretch at all the next day. Or nearly enough the next week. Or when I started running again.

Lo and behold, I found myself with another problem because of my ignorance of stretching. And this time, my fourth major running issue wasn’t healed in a few weeks or months. It’s been over a year, and I’m still working on getting over the pain.

Of course, over the past few months, not being able to run, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect and find other ways to stay active. I finally decided to try yoga. (If only that happened a few years ago, am I right?)

After spending a few months exploring and trying different types of online yoga classes, I started to feel myself get more and more flexible and start to be able to tolerate longer runs. I found the stretches that worked well for me and developed my yoga repertoire, complete with poses and stretches for all sorts of muscle groups. I also finally created a 15 minute yoga sequence to do each day, one that would ensure my hips, quadriceps, hamstrings, and IT band all stayed limber.

It’s been a year, and I still religiously do that yoga sequence at the end of each day, whether it’s 10 pm or 1 am.

While yoga may not necessarily feel like a workout, it builds strength in ways we don’t notice immediately--which is why it’s often easy to overlook. Our usual types of workouts build strength in the big muscle groups in ways that allow us to notice improvement immediately, whether through being able to do more pushups or being able to run faster.

But yoga acts more discreetly. It helps build strength in all of the muscles and joints we don’t typically think about, helping us improve balance while also strengthening muscles through the intricate poses we hold for extended periods of time.

Even more alluring is the fact that yoga has a dual effect on the mind and the body. Deliberate focus on one’s movements and breath while stretching introduces mindfulness into our daily routine. We often don’t take nearly enough time for ourselves, and yoga allows us to take care of both our mind and our body simultaneously. Especially since we’re endurance athletes, mental strength is as important as physical strength, and yoga helps both aspects of the sport.

With all I’ve learned these past few years about the necessity of injury prevention, I decided to bring yoga to a community important to me on campus: Triathlon Team. We’ve all grown to love and look forward to the yoga sessions, with everyone commenting on how each practice leaves them much more centered and flexible.

While it’s often difficult to find time to stretch--especially with hectic schedules and ten week terms--if there’s anything to be gained from my story, it’s that stretching and yoga has immeasurable benefits.

So yes, I’m sure even the Geico gecko would agree with the yoga yak: 15 minutes of yoga can indeed save you 15% or more of your training time.

About the Author

Vaishnavi Katragadda (‘24) is from Clemmons, North Carolina and is planning on majoring in chemistry and minoring in anthropology on the pre-med track. While she started running in high school, she only recently picked up swimming and biking in college. A lover of endurance sports, she’s excited to explore triathlons more and improve her swimming and biking skills. Vaishnavi also enjoys writing--scientific or otherwise (check her out on Medium!)--adventuring in the outdoors, dance parties, and searching for fellow soggy cereal lovers.

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It should go without saying that this fall was a particularly interesting term, for a number of reasons. Fall is usually a pretty hectic time for our team, between welcoming a class of new members and organizing many fun activities (some tri-related, others not as much) for our members to enjoy throughout the term we tend to have more than enough on our hands. This fall presented its own share of challenges, since we still cannot meet in large enough numbers to do any of our team activities due to COVID-19, and races have been cancelled across the country. We've managed to adapt though, turning our practices into outdoor runs or rides, weekly Zoom strength sessions, and virtual events to be able to keep in touch with each other. We still haven't lost sight of team traditions, however. While we would have liked to hold our annual team flair breakfast this year, we kept with the tradition of taking some time to think about our goals for the year, both as triathletes and as students. See below for some of our members' goals:

Athletic Goals

  • Get back into shape (ride/run 3+ times/week)
  • Run a 50mi Ultra
  • Become more comfortable cycling and go on a 40 mile ride
  • Complete a triathlon!
  • Run my first half marathon and bike a century!
  • Get more confident on a bike (that is, if I can get on a bike again this year)!
  • Run a half marathon!
  • Keep myself motivated and fit even when I can't race or practice with the team as much
  • I really want to run my first marathon this year!
  • I want to gain more flexibility in my hamstrings and do more overall strength.
  • Getting strong enough to run a marathon in 2021
  • Learn how to preemptively cope with shin splints better!
  • To re-establish routine and reach pre-COVID levels of fitness.
  • Get outside for cold winter runs
  • Improving swimming leg of tri: speed, endurance, and open water sighting
  • Complete my first Ironman 70.3!

Life Goals

  • Rediscover a sense of confidence in online learning and focus on getting assignments done in a more timely manner
  • Finish characterizing a conserved epitope on Influenza B
  • Get outside my academic comfort zone
  • Take classes that I enjoy!
  • Just want to enjoy learning and getting a Dartmouth education!
  • Get as much out of Zoom classes as I can and also finish all my distributive requirements!
  • Get an A
  • Graduate! Honestly, I think that is a good enough goal for COVID times.
  • I would like to learn to like Engineering more
  • I want to finish my thesis!
  • Staying consistent with running and strength training
  • Find value in each term despite the limitations and challenges posed by a virtual education
  • To learn how to write essays in a college setting!
  • Get to know the '24s on tri team!
  • Gain a greater sense of what I want to study (ie. decide on major)
  • Get A's or A-'s in all of my classes

With fall classes coming to a close and the winter term (whatever it may look like) fast approaching, many of us are experiencing a complete change in our Dartmouth experience – whether this be a change in our surroundings, who we see everyday, or just in our routine. Still, we enjoy hearing our members' various goals and how they plan to make the most of the year, and look forward to doing as much as we can as a team!

SBR,

The 20F Triathlon Team

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I didn’t plan to join the triathlon team. Although I occasionally swam and biked in high school, I thought I was satisfied with just running. In high school I ran cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track, and I loved the feeling of being on a team. When I came to Dartmouth, I wanted to find a similar group, which initially drove me to become interested in being a coxswain for men’s lightweight team (at barely 5’0 I thought the sizing worked out). However, I changed my mind when I met smiling captain Valentina at the triathlon booth who encouraged me to try out the triathlon team.

I quickly came to learn what makes the triathlon team so great, and that has kept me coming back for more ever since. Here’s a few of the reasons why I love being on the tri team:

  1. Team breakfasts, dinners, pong tournaments, etc. are awesome bonding experiences.
  2. Pushing yourself at practices is the perfect complement to a challenging academic term.
  3. MUSCLES. Enough said. The constant rotation of swim, bike, run has made me stronger than I’ve ever been.
  4. You get to experience an amazing team feel with dedicated coaches.

Now that I’ve been training with the team for a while, I can definitely say that joining was one of the best decisions I made in my first week at Dartmouth. The training schedule gave me some balance as I navigated my first Dartmouth term, and coming to practice every day served as an incredible stress reliever. I have vivid memories of sprinting across campus from my Math 11 exam with Katherine (another ‘20) to make it in time for tri strength, one of my favorite practices of the week, and running side by side around the track at track workouts with Russell (a ‘20 twice as tall as me who, by the way, is much faster than I am now). Tri team provided me with a network of friends right away, which made the adjustment to college a lot easier.

Winter was ironically my favorite training season, and I grew to enjoy biking and swimming in the comfort of alumni gym in 0-degree temperatures and running along Rip Road buried in snow. Wednesday night swims with Eliot were especially remarkable. They consisted of Eliot giving us crazy drills that left us all laughing as we swam down the lanes. Crazy as they were, they worked; I improved my technique and speed with every practice.

During spring term, I was on crutches for three weeks after attempting to run a half-marathon with no training over spring break (would not recommend). During this time, I swam with a pull buoy 5-6 times per week, coming only to swim practices. I truly developed a love for swimming during this time which allowed me to remain sane despite my injury. I kept in contact with the team and coaches which helped me continue to feel like I was part of a team. When I was finally able to come back to spin practices, it felt awesome to jump back in and be with the team almost daily, and it made me super excited for more training (and hopefully fewer injuries) in the fall.

I never get bored with swim, bike and run. Recently, over the past weekend, I had the privilege to go on the first ever tri training trip. Five Tri team members (myself, Katie, Moises, Matt and Erin) headed to Katie’s summer home on Coleman Pond in Lincolnville, Maine. Maine, it turns out, is a triathlete’s paradise. It provided the perfect environment to tackle all three disciplines. Although we biked, swam, did a fun bike/run brick, and swam, ran, and biked some more, we enjoyed a lot of non-triathlon-related bonding activities too. We developed the art of making a perfect s’more (pro tip: add Reese’s and heat the entire s’more up after melting the marshmallow), sailed around Camden Harbor, cooked delicious homemade pizza, and ate a Thai feast provided by Katie’s aunt. The training trip re-ignited my love for triathlon and as I build back my foot for running, I can’t wait to get even faster in all three disciplines with my teammates.

sbr

Carly

About the Author

Carly Tymm is a ’20 studying Chemistry and Engineering. She likes baking, breakfast foods and hiking with a huge backpack.

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The night before our race, the two of us contemplated waking up at 4:30am to drive through a thunderstorm and compete in a triathlon in the pouring rain. (Throwback to the Season Opener.) Note: this course features a 2.5 mile, 10% grade downhill with vertical cracks and frost heaves so perilous that passing is discouraged.

Naturally, we decided to go for it.

In the morning, we woke up with the sun and made our way to Franconia Notch. While Sonia drove, Catherine enjoyed a smoothie that resembled "straight-up mud." Miraculously, the weather held up -- a perfect 70 degrees and overcast -- for the entirety of the race.

Despite some minor mishaps, including Sonia biking 5 minutes in the wrong direction, we were ultimately very successful. Sonia came in second and Catherine in third for all female athletes. This is where it gets interesting.

We sampled post-race treats ranging from muscle milk (hard no.) to "maple water" (soft yes…). So engrossed were we in taste-testing that we did not hear our names called over the loud speaker during the awards ceremony. Luckily, they called the women's awards a second time, later in the ceremony, commenting on the outstanding intelligence of Dartmouth students. At this time, we received our -- get this -- baby trees!

The rain gods were apparently on our side, as it began to torrentially downpour only moments after we drove away in Catherine's car. Luckily, the weather cleared just as we arrived for a short hike at the Flume Gorge.

There, we dazzled many a young family with our matching neon race t-shirts, Garmin watches, body markings, and Dartmouth Nalgenes. After a quick stretch in the parking lot, we hopped back in the car and were so engaged in writing this post that we got on the highway in the wrong direction.

sbr

Catherine and Sonia

About the Authors

Catherine Rocchi is a tri team ’19 studying Environmental Studies and Ethics. She’s passionate about climate change and fossil fuel divestment, and loves to spend her off days having outdoor adventures.

Sonia Rowley is a '19 on the triathlon team, studying Psychology and Spanish. She loves peanut butter/banana/honey sandwiches from Collis.

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It was 8:55am in Omaha, and we were sitting hip-to-hip with our competitors, our legs dangling over the edge of the dock. After months of anticipation and training, Katie, Sonia and I finally had our toes in the race. We were smiling and laughing with the girls around us, though they would soon become our fiercest competitors when our wave took off minutes later. That’s just the magic of this crazy sport: when you’ve traveled halfway across the country to push your body through a two-and-a-half-hour, three-sport sprint, you just can’t take it too seriously.

After five long minutes, the buzzer went off and the swim began. The water temperature was 80 degrees on race morning, so it was declared a no-wetsuit race. This meant slightly slower swim times without the flotation power of a wetsuit, but it also meant we would shave time from our transitions since we wouldn’t need to rip off our wetsuits or change clothes at all. Besides the lack of lane lines, the lake swim almost felt like a pool.

While the swim looks peaceful to fans on the docks, in the water it’s a battlefield. Remember that pool game “sharks and minnows,” where the shark grabs as many legs as she can while the other kids scramble to cross the pool? The swim leg of a triathlon is just like that game, except everyone is a shark and it lasts for a mile. I fought my way to the first buoy, and Sonia got stuck between two swimmers, claiming that at one point she “rode on their backs” as she found herself in their line of motion. We circled the buoys to complete the mile, Sonia and I coming in at 27 minutes with Katie close behind.

Sonia and I ran to transition together and cheered each other on. Soon, we were running with our bikes to the bike mount line. Sonia started just ahead of me and Katie, quick as a whip, passed me within the first couple miles. The bike is my worst leg of the triathlon by far, so my goal was just to hang on to a 20mph pace and try to hold my position for as long as possible. I was only successful until the turnaround – when my lack of speedwork caught up to me –, but I still finished the bike leg in my goal of an hour twenty. Katie and Sonia finished the bike leg in 1:10 and 1:14, and I cheered them on the start of the run as I sprinted to transition.

By the time I got to T2, it was almost 11 and already 80 degrees. It was hot, and you could see it on the red faces of all of the runners. I followed Sonia’s advice and dumped a cup of water on my head at each aid station. At one, the volunteer handed me the paper cup and called out “wait, that’s a block of ice!” as I ran away, but I’d already poured it, the ice melting on my head. It felt great.

My run was a blurry mix of bliss and pain, and I couldn’t help but smile. There we were in the middle of Nebraska, running down country roads with some of the best amateur triathletes in the nation – and they were all just as excited to be there as we were. I crossed the finish line six minutes ahead of my goal time with Katie, Sonia, Jeff and my dad all waiting at the end. Katie had finished in 2:26:53, coming in an incredible 7th in our age group. Sonia finished in 2:32, coming in 16th. I came in at 2:39, finishing 25th.

That night at the awards ceremony, Katie took to the podium, standing with the top finishers in our age group. She also found out that all three of us had qualified for Worlds in 2018 in Australia. The next morning, Coach Jeff had an amazing race in the Sprint, coming in hot at 1:13:51 and finishing 7th in his age group. Talk about a coach that can do both! Jeff guided us through our race-day prep and cheered us on throughout the race, only to wake up and absolutely crush his own race the next day.

Two years ago, I raced Nationals in my Dartmouth kit, but I competed mostly for myself. I could’ve never imagined how far our team has come since then. At the finish line, we met an alum, Gabriel, who was racing, too. Maybe that’s why I never stopped hearing “Go Big Green” throughout the race, both from strangers and friends. It propelled us forward, pushed us to dig even deeper and put smiles on our faces in the toughest (and hottest) moments. I think it’s safe to say that Dartmouth made a splash at Nationals this year.

Now for a few huge thank yous: First, dad – you’re the best cheerleader in the game (thank you for flying to (the most exotic) midwestern cities with me)! Jeff – you are a saint for driving to Omaha by yourself with our bikes so that we could have the perfect race set up. I’m not sure how we will ever repay you! Jim – this summer, when the devil on my shoulder told me to stay out on a Friday night and skip a Saturday double-day, I’d remember the joy of the TrainingPeaks box turning green and knowing you’d see me kicking butt in my workout and the devil would pipe down. Thank you for thoughtfully writing training plans that made all three of us fit and confident for raceday!

SBR,

Emma

About the Author

Emma Sklarin is an '18 on the tri team studying Creative Writing, Environmental Studies and Spanish. She loves exploring, boogie boarding and a great post-race beer.

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Throughout the slow Hanover winter, on long trainer rides in our living rooms and bone-numbing snow day runs, all I could think – all we could think – was Florida. Outdoor pools, tri-kit tanlines, sunburned feet…Not only were we getting to start off the racing season in March – two months earlier than it usually begins in New England – but we’d also heard rumors of extensively-decorated Disney-themed rooms in our rental house outside of Orlando. And our dream of Florida was truly all it promised to be. Here are a few highlights, from training to our dreamlike week down South:

Saturdays.

Whether you think Saturdays are for the boys, for the girls, or for no one at all, for Tri Team, Saturdays were just for us. Saturdays meant BRick workouts: 2-3 hours biking on the trainer followed by a 3-5 mile run. Saturdays also held strength workouts, which meant, in the end, that most of our day was spent working out. And you know what? I loved it. I came to treasure Saturdays. Have you ever blocked out a whole day, every week, just for one thing, one goal and purpose? Saturdays were a meditation, a huge chunk of time to think, while my muscles fired and contracted and ached. They were a journey, each and every one of them, up until Saturday March 17th – raceday.

The trailer.

Hours of work over winter break and a spark of the captains’ design genius came to fruition in the form of a beautiful, shiny trailer complete with 25 bike hooks, lovingly named Steve. After digging Steve out of the snow on the Monday evening of finals period, Brandt’s engineering degree was put to the test. We all loaded our bikes, and Brandt, Valentina, Matt and Anna set off on their pilgrimage to Florida. They arrived two days later at our rental mansion, Mickey’s House of Champions, exhausted but propelled by Brandt’s guzzling of Mountain Dew and the great promise of sunshine.

The early mornings.

On the first morning of training trip, my eyes flew open at 6am to music blasting in the kitchen. Had I fallen asleep at the Championsgate retirement community nightclub? No, it was just Katie and Matt eating oatmeal before our morning swim. The rest of us dragged ourselves out of bed, and an hour later we were watching the sunrise over the pool at the National Training Center. Our sun-starved bodies soaked up the early rays between long-course laps in the water. We started all of our days swimming at the NATC, followed by biking, running, yoga classes, foam-rolling, pool-lounging, elaborate home-cooked dinners for 28 and 9pm bedtimes. It was the triathlete’s dream schedule – train, eat, sleep, tell stories and watch Miracle to pass the time – and we could not have been more content.

The raceday ridiculousness.

I remember raceday as a series of strange and comical events:

  1. Eating breakfast at 4:30am and watching Moises consume 2 slices of Domino’s pizza before his sprint triathlon, in the dark
  2. Putting on face tattoos and slathering our skin in body-glide and sunscreen at 6am, still very much in the dark
  3. Squinting from the beach with Sonia before the race, trying to make out the farthest orange buoy in the swim loop, which evaded us in the distance
  4. Casually chatting with Steve and Jim about the (way-too-hot) weather as they passed me on the bike course
  5. Bonking at mile 40 when I ran out of water and clumsily dropped both of the water bottles that volunteers at the final aid stations handed me in motion, one after the other
  6. Getting off of my bike feeling like I’d come home from a long, sweaty journey, only to remember I still had to run a half marathon
  7. Nearly bursting into tears of gratitude when I saw our teammates who were doing the Olympic race the next day cheering us on at transition
  8. Running out of ways to say “GO!!!” to Katie, Sonia and Evan when I saw them each four times on the run, only at mile 6 realizing it was a double-loop course
  9. Lying on the ground minutes after finishing the race and promising myself I’d never do a half ironman again
  10. Watching my teammates, Jeff, Jim and Steve take the podium an hour later and smiling realizing that they’d definitely convince me to sign up for another half ironman this year

The people, the people, the people.

Our people: the crazy-driven, (sort-of-just-crazy,) early-rising, car-singing, banana-eating, foam-rolling, fun-loving, wildly sunburnt athletes that make up our strange, determined family. Our coaches: the endlessly-inspiring, ever-committed, TrainingPeaks-revering, warm and loving people we get to look up to every single day. Tri people: the awe-provoking, dazzlingly-muscular, unevenly-tanned, wholeheartedly-vibrant people that make up a bigger and more welcoming community than we ever knew we were becoming a part of – we’re just happy to be in the middle of it all.

SBR,

Emma

About the Author

Emma Sklarin is an '18 on the tri team studying Creative Writing, Environmental Studies and Spanish. She loves exploring and boogie boarding, and farmer's markets.

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Reflections from a teammate abroad

During our orientation to Buenos Aires, our study abroad coordinator did her best to prepare us for living in this city. “Los carros son asesinos," she warned us, “y los perros dejan regalitos en las veredas.” She also warned the girls that Argentine men are more forward than we’re used to, that they call piropos (compliments/cat-calls) to women on the street. After nine weeks of running in the city, I can confirm: the cars are “assassins,” the enormous dog population has a tendency to leave “little gifts” on the sidewalks, and the men stare. I’ve stopped wearing my contacts on runs; my eyesight is adequate for avoiding dog poop and dodging asesinos, but fuzzy enough that I don’t notice all the sideways glances.

Biking and swimming, too, have required some adjustment. I’ve learned which spin instructors speak in Spanish I can understand and which don’t. I’ve learned that personal space is a non-issue at the gym, that someone might sit on the floor directly in front of my bike to wait their turn, or lean on my handlebars to chat to the person next to me. I’m still figuring out lane-sharing etiquette in the pool. Split the lane or circle swim? Chat during breaks or pretend the other person doesn’t exist? Pass or wait?

Argentina, in general, is keeping me on my toes. Every day is different: I learn something, I see something beautiful or surprising, I smell something new (and I sometimes wish I hadn’t). Every week’s schedule looks different. Tango lessons, museums, food fairs, plane flights, mountains, glaciers, waterfalls. There is no routine. I feel different, too; in Spanish, I express myself and relate to others differently. Sometimes, I don’t recognize my own voice.

Although running, biking, and swimming in a foreign country presents its own challenges, more than anything, these activities provide much-needed familiarity and routine. When I left for Argentina, I didn’t intend to prioritize training. I worried that it would hold me back from experiencing all the newness of this place and this culture. I have found, though, that a daily commitment to triathlon gives me the energy and peace of mind to engage more fully in the rest of my day. It helps me feel grounded. My heartbeat and my breath sound the same in any language.

In several weeks, I will return to Dartmouth with a new appreciation for the challenge and the satisfaction of triathlon training. More than that, though, I will return with a deeper gratitude for the team. As I train alone, I’m realizing that half of my love for this sport is actually a love for the Dartmouth triathlon community. I miss group ab sessions, collaborative spin workout playlists, and team dinners.

Sending you all my love, Dartmouth Tri. Looking forward to open water swims in Storrs, long rides up and down the Upper Valley hills, and windows-down road trips with the bikes bungeed out back.

sbr,

About the Author

Sonia Rowley is a '19 on the triathlon team, studying Psychology and Spanish. She loves (and currently misses!) peanut butter/banana/honey sandwiches from Collis.

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Saturday morning looked a lot like a race morning. There was the insomnia, the 4:30 am alarm, the oatmeal, banana, and peanut butter breakfast, and all the gear laid out the night before. There were butterflies in my stomach, and a nagging voice in the back of my head saying, “Are you sure you want to do this?” As it does on real race mornings, that voice had a point. You have to be a little crazy if you’re totally gung ho about biking 100 miles.

But Saturday was different from any of the races I’ve done in one important way. This time, there would be no clock. The only “winners” would be participants who fundraised the most, and the only thing we were trying to beat was the stormy forecast. That thought pushed me out the door, wheels rolling at 5:32.

The Prouty is a major fundraiser for the Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center that takes place in Hanover every year. Thousands of participants set fundraising goals and can bike, hike, row, or golf. There are incredible volunteers, generous sponsorships from local businesses, and good vibes all around. Since it began in 1982, the Prouty has raised over $30 million for cancer research and patient supportive services.

This was my second year doing the Prouty’s century (100-mile) bike ride, and I was excited to be back with a lot more experience, a great bike, and a (hopefully) better forecast. Before the 2016 Prouty, I had never biked more than 35 miles at once, and I was using a hand-me-down bike from Walmart. It also poured rain for the first 30 miles, which left our group nearly hypothermic for the rest of the ride. This year, I had biked a lot more on a new bike in preparation for a Half Ironman in June (check out our Patriot Blog Post!). The forecast was still iffy, but it looked like the rain would hold off until midday. I felt about as prepared as I could be to finish the ride.

Early in the week, however, we were bummed to find out that during a huge thunderstorm, many of the roads along the route were completely washed out. The 100-mile route became a 76-mile loop that avoided the damage. We heard that some riders were planning to repeat parts of the course to make it to 100 miles, though, so we kept that in the back of our minds as we set off.

I rode with Sonia and Catherine (congrats to Tucker and Emma M., other team members who participated as well!) and we made it through 67 miles of partly cloudy and not-too-hot weather, beautiful rural roads and rolling hills, several SAG (stop-and-go) snack stops with fresh fruit, water, awesome homemade granola bars, and less-awesome chickpea/coconut oil brownies, and great conversation. We took turns pulling (riding in the front so everyone else can draft behind and use less energy), and said hello to the hundreds of bikers we encountered along the way. When we made it back to the SAG in Lyme, NH, nine miles from the finish, we overheard someone saying that the storms wouldn’t start until the late afternoon. We felt great, so we headed straight back out the opposite direction, invented our own loop around the beautiful Lake Morey, and made it back to the Lyme SAG again at just over 90 miles. We were 100 bound!

Now, would a Triathlon team blog post be complete without a shocking turn of events? Obviously not. As we started our ascent out of Lyme, the skies opened up and we got caught in a torrential downpour, complete with thunder and lightning. Catherine had to pull over because the sunscreen running into her eyes was blinding, and Sonia couldn’t see through her contacts either. We spent a few minutes huddled under someone’s porch in an attempt to wait out the storm, but the rain was only coming down harder, and we were getting cold. We told each other that we just needed to get to the finish line, where we would hop off our bikes, take a quick picture, hop right back on, bike the mile back to campus, and head straight into hot showers. We weren’t even going to stop for the amazing post-race lunch. Determined, we set off again.

Miraculously, as we passed the Dartmouth organic farm and reached the “one mile to the finish” sign at the bottom of a huge hill, the rain stopped. Possibly in surprise, Sonia changed gears too fast and her bike chain popped off. Luckily, she did some quick roadside bike maintenance and fixed the chain, turning her hands completely black with grease in the process. Starting with no momentum whatsoever, we climbed that final hill and rolled across the finish.

We took our post-race picture, told each other we would do a “quick lap” around the food tent, and proceeded to eat almost everything in sight before riding back to campus at a walker’s pace. There were no age-group awards to stick around for and no times to analyze, but the awesome post-race feeling that’s equal parts accomplishment and total body soreness was still there. And this time, we got to experience that feeling after spending six hours bonding with each other, enjoying beautiful scenery, and meeting new people. So even though there was no official winner this time around, I think we can all agree that events like the Prouty are a win-win for everyone.

s B r

Katie

About the Author

Katie Clayton ('18) is a tri team captain studying Government and French. She loves cooking, the color purple, Maine wild blueberries, and summer.

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Even as athletes who challenge our bodies every day, we often forget about our physical selves during a workout and focus far more on the mental side. “Your brain gets tired before your legs,” is something we have all heard, and for a lot of us, triathlon is less about what our physical bodies can actually do, and more about what we can push ourselves mentally to accomplish. The incredible drive and persistence of our team really shows during our time spent working out and racing, but the mental challenge that can be the most difficult, and often the hardest to detect, happens when we aren’t working out - during that time when our minds are left to their own devices and aren’t distracted by the burning in our lungs or the freeing feeling of our feet against the pavement.

What I’m talking about are the moments when our minds - wired to want to be the best at everything - fixate on the appearance of our bodies instead of their performance. This is at it’s worst when you’re surrounded by athletes that look a certain way, maybe like the stereotypical endurance athlete: lean, light, and graceful, and you feel out of place among them. These are the moments when our own minds can turn against us and attack the physical bodies that work so hard to get us through the miles. Your own voice might be telling you that if you don’t look a certain way, if you don’t look how an endurance athlete is “supposed” to look, then how could you possibly perform like one?

If this sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. It happens to me all the time, daily even. Body image is one of the biggest obstacles I’ve faced in triathlon (and in other sports I’ve competed in in the past), and what’s sad is that instead of believing in the hours of hard work I put into training, sometimes I’m only confident in how I will perform if I look a certain way.

When the Tri Team women met with Olympian Sarah B. True, I asked her if she has ever struggled with body image while competing at the elite level. She replied that of course she has, but that she ultimately came to the realization that what her body could do was far more important than how it looks. I appreciated her honesty, because it is comforting to know that even an athlete as accomplished as she is still sometimes doubts herself in the same ways I do.

I thought it was important to write this post because I don’t want any Tri Team member to feel this way and think that they are the only one. Our insecurities about our bodies can feel so personal that it doesn’t occur to us that anyone else could possibly care, but I want you to know that I do. I understand better than you might guess what it’s like to live with a little negative voice sharing space in your head. I’m working hard to kick that little voice out of my space, but I haven’t been doing it alone. Tri Team is an incredible resource for support, friendship, and genuine compassion that I have not found anywhere else on campus. There have been teammates I didn’t even know very well looking out for me and my mental health on a regular basis. If this sounds like anything you’ve been struggling with, I’d love to help you kick your little voice out too, so you can all get back to focusing on the amazing things your bodies can accomplish.

Sbr,

Emma

About the Author

Emma Rodriguez is a ‘20 studying Psychology and Women’s Studies. She enjoys banana and almond butter sandwiches and Collis salads. Her favorite (and slowest) leg of the triathlon is the run.