Run in the footsteps of triathlon pioneers

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Run in the footsteps of triathlon pioneers

As thousands of marathon runners paraded through the streets of Chicago earlier this month, another endurance sport, triathlon, celebrated its 50th anniversary in San Diego, leading runners in the path of its pioneers and past Plymouth Rock in sport.

I was among more than 1,800 competitors at the Mission Bay Triathlon on October 13, relishing the contrasts with the Chicago Triathlon, which bills itself as the largest urban triathlon in the United States.

In the San Diego race, you swim in the salt water of Mission Bay, not the fresh water of Lake Michigan. You pass the towering rides of SeaWorld, not the skyscrapers of Lake Shore Drive. And you end up, not in Grant Park, but near the historic wooden roller coaster at Belmont Park, within earshot of the roller coaster’s rumble and the screams of the riders.

Then there’s the weather – so wonderfully temperate, unlike the late summer heat and humidity that can assault Chicago race participants.

But I had a special reason to participate: My triathlon coach and former New Jersey high school cross-country teammate, Russ Jones, is a pioneer of the sport, having won the second and third triathlons held here in 1975 and 1976 .

This year in Mission Bay, Jones, 69, who now lives down the highway in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., recalled those pioneer days by “going retro racing,” as he likes to say.

He was wearing gym shorts instead of a jumpsuit. He was riding a 51-year-old Raleigh 10-speed instead of an ultra-light triathlon bike. It was a kick for me to brand his bare chest with “HB 50,” shorthand for “Happy 50th Birthday, Triathlon!” »

Blair Kamin, left, with her coach and friend Russ Jones at the Mission Bay Triathlon on October 13, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Blair Kamin)

Mounted on a rock on San Diego’s Fiesta Island, a plaque proclaims that the first modern-day triathlon took place there on September 25, 1974. Forty-six adventurous athletes took part in a race late in the afternoon. lunch concocted by a swimmer, Jack Johnstone. , and a runner, Don Shanahan. By combining three sports into one race, they sought an antidote to the injury-prone monotony of long-distance running.

The first competition, which totaled 6 miles of running, 5 miles of cycling and 500 meters of swimming, was competitive, without significant financial barriers. Entrance fee: $1. Above all, it was fun.

Some participants rode old-fashioned beach cruisers with heavily padded saddles. Some took so long to complete that organizers had to turn on car headlights to illuminate the course. Most then went to eat pizza.

“There was no doubt that we were on the right track,” recalls Johnstone, who died in 2016.

Indeed, they were. Four years later, two participants in that first triathlon, Judy and John Collins, inaugurated the first Ironman triathlon in Hawaii. The Ironman is a grueling 140.6-mile race that combines a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon.

Mounted on a rock on San Diego's Fiesta Island, a plaque proclaims that the first modern-day triathlon took place there on September 25, 1974. (Blair Kamin)
Mounted on a rock on San Diego’s Fiesta Island, a plaque proclaims that the first modern-day triathlon took place there on September 25, 1974. (Blair Kamin)

Then, in 1982, triathlon exploded into the public consciousness. As the cameras on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” rolled, an exhausted Julie Moss, 23, collapsed within sight of the Ironman finish line. She crawled over it after another competitor, Kathleen McCartney, passed her to win the race – a heartbreaking display of courage known as the “Crawl of Fame.”

Since then, millions of people around the world have participated in a triathlon. It became an Olympic sport in 2000 and is now so ubiquitous that Toyota sells its SUVs with a “Dear Triathlon” TV commercial.

The sport’s popularity “shocks me,” Shanahan, now 82, said at an Oct. 12 memorial dinner hosted by broadcaster Bob Babbitt, a longtime triathlete who grew up in Wilmette.

Certainly, triathlon participation has declined in recent years, in part because the sport has become expensive ($200 entry fees and $10,000 bikes are not uncommon).

But it still has a powerful appeal, whether it’s an Ironman or a sprint that typically consists of a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike ride and a 5-kilometer run. (Only in the distance-obsessed world of triathlon can such a race be considered a sprint.) Regardless of length, competitors have the opportunity to push their physical and mental limits.

“When it gets really ugly and you have to go really deep, you discover something within yourself,” Moss, now in her 60s, told the audience as she stood on stage next to her former rival McCartney.

In rare cases, however, extreme effort can prove fatal – a risk tragically demonstrated during last Thursday’s World Triathlon Championship in Spain.

Two participants died during the sprint event – ​​one during the swim, the other during the run. In the wake of these deaths, organizers of the Ironman Men’s World Championship, which takes place Saturday in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, will no doubt be extra vigilant about safety.

I didn’t push my limits at Mission Bay because a knee injury forced me to walk and run during the running portion of the sprint race. So I smiled and took it all in: friends and families of the competitors gathered on Ventura Cove Beach at the start; the strikingly beautiful, windswept landscape of Fiesta Island; and beach volleyball players in bikinis at Mission Bay Park.

I finished one place behind Jones: 13th out of 30 in our 65-69 age group – my worst result of the year.

But it was the most fun race I’ve had.

As a wise friend once told me, there are races where you do everything in your power to get on the podium, and there are races you do just for the sake of it. experience. It was one of those experience races. This is one I will never forget.

Blair Kamin is a former Tribune architecture critic.

Submit a letter of no more than 400 words to the editor here or by email letters@chicagotribune.com.

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