Hey everyone,

Mission Accomplished! We officially ended our 2018-2019 season April 6 in Arizona. Nationals was all we hoped it could be, and we are very appreciative of our donors who made this weekend possible. I’ll do my best to write out the highlights, but it’s difficult to do so considering the entire weekend was highlight-quality.

Racing kicked off Friday with Josh Archer. Was he planning to race Friday? No, but he put that aside and suited up for the sake of our team after our designated draft-legal racer called in sick. Josh rose to the challenge with a positive attitude and threw down an impressive performance which set the tone of the weekend.

Ella carried on the momentum with her own draft-legal race right after Josh finished. This was Ella’s first nationals experience, and she signed up for all three possible races in the two day period. Pretty solid, especially for a first year. She tells us she was tired by the end of the weekend, but only her strength was visible in her performances.

While Ella and Josh raced on Friday, the rest of our team cheered our hearts out. I thought we were all professional cheerleaders, but Abby took the cheering to another level and we all just tried to match her insane level of positivity, supportiveness, and volume.

The next day everyone raced, and the insane positive energy did not falter. Abby, Claudia, Mika, Jeremy, Ana, Annalisa, Emma, Julia, Liesl, and Lorraine all competed in their first ever Olympic race. Our president, Mariana, looked stronger than ever on the run. Grant and Mitch proved that they possess the mental strength to conquer an Olympic race even with severe time constraints for physical training (Grant’s in med school and Mitch just got back from a quarter in Italy). Dane showed us that wet suits were optional, Jay put his big quads to use on the bike and put his big brain to use by adopting the role of team comedian throughout the trip. Peter and Jacob both raced well and strengthened their campaign for the coveted title: “cutest friends.” Jose ran several minutes faster than his conference race just two weeks before, and Archie was the best hype-man any of us could have dreamt of.

While I think it is important to recognize everyone’s accomplishments as individuals, the team-element of this event, and of this organization, cannot be overstated. We all raced to the best of our ability because we love this team, our coach, and our teammates. Our team is full of self-motivated athletes, but the competitive flame within us burns brighter because we know we aren’t just racing for ourselves, we are racing for each other. The fun, the stress, and the whirlwind of emotions we experience at nationals fuels this fire, and ultimately brings us even closer as a team.

I am lucky to have experienced such an event three times throughout my college career. Every trip with the triathlon team has been a highlight for me, but nationals never fails to top the charts. So thank you all so much for your support, this year and in prior years. Your generosity made this experience possible for us, and it was an experience we will all cherish.

Riley

Thank you everyone!

This morning we reached our $5,000 goal, over a week ahead of schedule! We are so grateful for your support, and we can officially announce that we will be able to take our team to Arizona next month for Nationals! 

Since we do have over a week left to raise money, we have added a stretch goal of an additional $500. If any other athletes choose to compete in National Championships, this money will be used to cover their costs. If our roster for Nationals remains unchanged, we can use the money to update our racing helmets. Helmets are vital to the safety of our athletes, and consequently they expire after several years. This is to ensure that we do not use helmets which have become brittle and cannot properly absorb impact in the event of an accident.

Right now our athletes must pay for their own helmets and our limited team helmets are expiring. Any additional money raised will be used to lower the cost of entry for our new recruits so our team can continue to expand and to prosper.

Again, thank you for your help! Nationals 2019 is now officially on our race list, thanks to you.

Riley

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much to contributing to our spark campaign. We have a bit more than a week remaining and are are in a strong position to reach our goal. If you have friends who may be interested in helping our team, please direct them our way. However, since you have already shown us your support, we want to focus on telling you a bit about our season. 

We just wrapped up our main sprint-distance races. Our season opened differently than we anticipated; San Diego was a duathlon rather than a triathlon. Not ideal, but it was great experience for our returning athletes and our new recruits both. The first triathlon experience of a lot of our new recruits was actually our very own Iron Bruin. We hosted the event with California Triathlon this year, and for the first time ever we were able to compete in this race rather than just volunteer. Some of us may still be shivering from the cold lake water, but it was a beautiful day and a beautiful race. We think it will grow into one of the most popular collegiate race venues, but only time will tell.

Our most recent race was this Sunday in Stanford. Despite the long commute, sixteen of our athletes competed! Sasha won the draft legal division and then placed fifth in the classic. Jay raced his first ever triathlon, which was long overdue given that he joined the team in 2016. Thankfully he's now hooked and eager for nationals. The race left him, and all of us (especially Marcus) with big smiles on our faces. We all pushed ourselves, gained valuable race experience, and remembered what a nice day in the Bay Area looks like (this race is historically held on a cold and stormy afternoon).

I personally would have preferred not to have thrown up immediately after crossing the finish line, but hey, what are you gonna do? It was a small price to pay for a lovely weekend with our team, a weekend that left us all looking forward to Conference and Nationals in a few weeks.

Thanks for making these experiences possible.

Riley