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The sun barely is rising by the time runners are

on Clarke field warming up for their training.

Their breath lingers in the air before them as

they jog in place to keep warm in the 34 degree

weather. The run that would tire many is only

one facet of the workout for members of the

Texas Triathlon club.

 

The team, a Recsports team since 2011, is

entirely composed of University of Texas

students. They juggle workouts everyday of

the week starting before the sun rises and

ending long after the sun sets on top of their

school work and personal lives.

 

Despite the demanding training schedule and

strenuous physical demands, students love

being a part of the team.

 

“Triathlon is a sport about ourselves. It’s a very selfish sport in a way, but in college we have the unique opportunity to participate as a team,” said coach Joanna Williamson.

 

Williamson has been the coach since the fall of 2012. She serves as an outside advisor as the club is completely student-led.

 

“We do not operate under the umbrella of intercollegiate athletics or the NCAA, at least at this point. What that means is we don’t have a higher level administration that governs our athletes’ schedules. It means that we aren’t scholarships eligible at this point. It’s all basically student run, student interest organized, student motivated, which is kind of nice,” said Williamson.

 

 

                             Texas Triathlon president Margaret Harlow joined the team

looking for a way to get back in shape.

 

“Triathlon seems to sound like the best way to do it or the most

sadistic way to do it, either way, and when I came out for a

practice I realized it was really fun and met a great group

of people and I got sucked in, and here I am now,” Harlow said.

 

A triathlon combines three sports continuously- swimming,

biking, and running. The trifecta ofendurance involves

 working almost all of the body’s muscles.

 

“On the surface, it’s just swim, bike, run, but I think it’s more

than that. It’s definitely a mental game to get through it;

physical and mental. You have to train your body,” said team

member Lewis Tsai. “Sometimes therecomes a certain point

 in the race where it’s just mind over matter.”

 

The team is growing with between 40 and 50 students who regularly participate.  Their hard work has helped them succeed in competitions as well. The team placed in third and second the past two years at regionals. This year they placed first.

 

“We had 32 kids go to our regional race in October, and all 32 of them performed at their best. They all showed up for the race. And historically, A&M has been one of the top ten teams in the country at the national level. And we were able to beat them at regionals by 3 points,” said Williamson.

 

With the win at regionals, the team is preparing for the National competition in South Carolina.

 

“Already we have the ever turning train of winning regionals, which is enough motivation to get people to get better and get even more pumped for nationals,” said Harlow.

 

Novelist and triathlete Haruki Murakmi said, “If pain weren't involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It's precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive--or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Texas Truly Tri-ing

By Juan Cortez, Briana Denham, Heather Dyer, Claire Edwards, and Olivia Suarez

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