Have you ever considered competing in a triathlon?

Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 1:07 pm

Here is an article I wrote for my local newspaper about two of my friends, Galen and Angela. I hope you enjoy it.

Not Galen and Not Angela!

Have you ever considered competing in a triathlon? Well for most people the answer is no and many people will come up with one or more of the following reasons for not doing it. I Can’t Swim; I Can’t Afford a Good Racing Bike; I Don’t Have Time to Train; A Triathlon Is Too Confusing; I Can’t Complete an Entire Triathlon .

None of those reason stopped Galen Critchfield or Angela Rupp. Both Galen and Angela competed in and finished the Kansas 70.3 Ironman in buy cheap Decadron online Lawrence, Kansas on Sunday, the 6th of June. They swam for 1.2 miles, rode their bikes for 56 miles and then ran a half marathon, 13.1 miles for a total of 70.3 miles and that’s without a break. Angela is one of the trainers at the YMCA and has been competing in triathlons for some time and is a very strong competitor in her age group.

Last year, Galen gave no thought of competing in a triathlon, until his son, Dallas, decided he was going to compete in a full ironman which is 140.6 miles of swimming, biking and running. On the 29th of August, 2009, Dallas did compete in the Ironman Louisville in Louisville, KY and finished in just under 12 hours.

Galen said, “That was an amazing effort by Dallas and he inspired me. I made the decision then to start planning and training for my own Ironman”.

Remember the first reason people gave for not competing in an Ironman, “I can’t swim”.

Can’t swim? No problem.

Galen simply signed up for swimming lessons with Jerri Hart at our YMCA last year and started his triathlon training in earnest. He signed up for the YMCA Master’s Swim Team which meets every Monday and Wednesday at 5:30 am to swim for an hour with Jerri Hart providing the training drills.

Galen is a strong runner and had competed in various races, including marathons, with his 3 sons over the years. He was comfortable with the idea of a 13.1 mile run, but the bike was a different matter. He did have a nice hybrid bicycle, but it was not suitable for a triathlon and riding it was not something Galen had been doing on a regular basis.

With the determination of an Ironman, Galen did his research and purchased a bike specifically designed for triathlons and started his bike training. On various weekends, Galen would go for long bike rides with two of his friends, Paul Bechtel and Duane Spears.

“As coaches, I want to give credit to Angela, Jerri, Michelle and Dallas for their training and their advice on open water swimming, hydrating, nutrition and conditioning” Galen said. Angela, Jerri and Michelle are all trainers at the Miami County Family YMCA.

As a test run, Galen, Linda Wood and Duane Spears formed a team and competed in a sprint triathlon at Fort Leavenworth this past May. Linda did the swim, Duane the bike ride and Galen completed the run. The triathlon bug had already bitten Linda, a few days before the Fort Leavenworth triathlon; Linda had flown to Florida and competed in her first sprint triathlon in Clearwater. This inspired Duane to start swimming lessons and now he is planning on doing a sprint triathlon with Galen and Linda at the Midwest Meltdown at Miola Lake in Paola on the 29th of August, 2010. They will all compete as individuals and not as a team. A sprint triathlon is a much shorter version of the full triathlon.

It seems the triathlon bug has bitten several more of our local athletes; Dr. Brian Cook, Dr. Jeff Dorsett, Rob White, Paul Bechtel, Russell Claar all have competed in or are planning on competing in a triathlon this year.

Galen said, “Anyone who has thought about swimming, biking, running or all three, in order to get into or stay physically fit, joining the YMCA is a great way to do it. The Y provides a variety of fitness classes taught by very knowledgeable trainers geared toward all levels of fitness.”

It seems Galen is not done with triathlons any time soon.

“I am personally looking forward to improving my performance at next year’s Ironman 70.3 Kansas and having a few more of my friends join me in competing,” Galen further stated.

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Wishing you success,

Duane Spears

Duane E. Spears

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