Triathlon on Sunday poses big challenge

By John Kovach

BOARDMAN — Athletes who enter Sunday’s Sprint Distance Triathlon at the D.D. & Velma Davis Family YMCA must be well-prepared to tackle a challenge of swimming 500 yards, bicycling 14.5 miles and running 5 kilometers (3 miles).

“People put in a lot of time training for triathlons. People don’t realize how grueling a triathlon is,” said co-director Robin Turner of North Lima, who also is president of the the Steel Valley Triathlon Club which is supporting the event.

“People think you can swim, ride a bicycle and run, but when you put them all together you are using different muscles and it’s more of a challenge. You have to train for it and people put in a lot of hours. Most people train from 5-10 hours a week.”

A big turnout is expected for Sunday’s event — swimming in the YMCA pools, biking over a nearby course and the run through neighborhood streets— which will begin at 7:30 a.m.

“We have 110 entries [as of Wednesday]. We expect 130-140,” said co-director Margo Jacob of Canfield.

There will be male and female overall winners and five age group winners (14-and over).

Entry fee is $45 for each person and applications are available at the Boardman and Downtown YMCAs, Second Sole and Cycle Sales in Boardman and Glenwood Cycle in Austintown, and also on-line at at www.youngstownymca.org. Proceeds will benefit members of the community who can’t afford YMCA membership and programs.

Last year, there were 97 finishers. The overall winners were Shawn Aker, 26, of Columbiana and Sue Mittermier, 51. Aker’s overall time was 1 hour, 5 minutes, 48 seconds (7:11 swimming, 38:43 bicycling and 18:19 running, while Mittermier was clocked at 1:14.41 (7:02, 44:39 and 20:32, respectively).

Aker will receive his doctorate in physical therapy from Youngstown State during commencement Saturday.

Turner, who is in her fifth year with the triathlon as a partcipant and volunteer worker, said that training for and participating in a triathlon is very demanding.

“In preparation, if the weather is not really great and you knew you had to get in a run, that is a challenge. You have to have the motivation to get out and train no matter what the weather,” said Turner, a teacher at Mohawk High School in Bessemer, Pa., who also teaches triathlon skills class and advanced swimming for adults at the YMCA.

“In racing, you push your body harder and faster than it thinks you should go, so it is huge mental effort to do it and a huge achievement when you do it. It is mind over matter.”

Jacob, in her third year with the triathlon but her first as co-director after being a volunteer helper last year, said that she ran her first triathlon in the Sprint Distance Triathlon three years ago, and has been a competitor ever since.

“I was a runner and then took up biking and I always have been a swimmer, and so I decided to get involved in triathlon, and that was the first one I did,” said Jacob of the 2007 event. “Since then, I have done a bunch of triathlons and I consider myself a triathlete.”

She likes triathlons because, “I like the variety that it offers and it changes up your training with three different sports,” said Jacob, an Ohio State graduate who got her master’s degree from Cincinnati.

Her “favorite race,” she said, was a triathlon she did in San Francisco. “We swam from the Alcatraz island to the shore, ran through Golden Gate Park and the shoreline and biked through the city,” she said.

More information about Sunday’s triathlon may be obtained by calling Turner at (330) 729-0169 or Jacob at (330) 533-1500.

“We strongly recommend that [people] enter as early as possible,” said Turner. “We particularly don’t want race day registration because it is a hassle. We have to put their names in the computer, and they will be wearing a [computer timing] chip around their ankle. But we will try our best to accomodate them.”

kovach@vindy.com