Here are the tentative dates for our 2023 events (we are submitting permit requests for these dates):

• 4/15/23: Saturday - Triathlon 
• Registration opens March 1st
• 6/18/23: Sunday - Triathlon 
• Registration opens May 1st
• 7/8/23: Saturday - Aquabike 
• Registration opens June 1st
• 8/13/23: Sunday - Triathlon 
• Registration opens July 1st

Pencil these dates into your calendar! More information will be posted as we get closer to the date.

Events are for members only! Membership is annual and runs this season from March 2023 to March 2024. 

Thanks everyone!

Check our Facebook Group for locals who are training in town or down at Lake Mead. Post your workouts!

The New Triathlete

A New Triathlete's Legacy

New triathletes are notorious for setting hard goals. Our early goals are time-oriented – we are hell-bent on unrealistic times on all three legs of the triathlon, times that are even faster than we have ever done in training. We often make these goals so we can get approval from the ambiguous “them,” those to whom we think we have something to prove, when instead we should be learning and reveling in finishing our first triathlon. Most of us who have completed our first triathlon this way know how well that went. From rolling on our back and gasping for air after 200 yards, to running out of gas on the run, things didn’t go as planned, and we missed our time goal.

 

Here’s the irony in that – no one cared about our time except us. People cheered as we crossed the finish line and not one person looked at their watch. What does that tell you? And what does that tell you about these people? They care about you/us. If you have ever made a friend by offering assistance on the side of the road when their bike broke down, or by encouraging someone in their racing and training, these things will be remembered. These are the triathletes you want to be. Sure, it feels good to step on a podium, and it’s attainable if that’s what you want, but think about what enriches you more – personal achievement or being the reason someone smiles crossing the finish line – helping someone to feel like they are the athlete they never thought they would be. Of course, we all have goals that we work towards. This gives us a target and keeps us motivated. But ask yourself this: which one will you be remembered for more? Your finish times or the help and support you gave to others? That’s the real meaning of Legacy – the impact that you make on other persons’ lives.

~ Bob Gamble

Past President

Leaving a Legacy

“If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.”

-Maya Angelou

This month’s theme is legacy, which is defined as “the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life”.

One thing that really helped me with this concept is a class I took on “Happiness”. Seems terribly ironic that the road to happiness is through thoughts of your death. It was kind of morbid, but it suggested writing your own obituary. Write what you want people to say about your life. Write about what qualities you want them to remember about you. You can write about what achievements you want to be remembered for. For example here was mine:

Family: I want my family to say I was kind, fair and had a lot of integrity. I was a hard worker, I was loyal, and I did my best to make them better.

Friends: I want my friends to say how much fun I was, how much we laughed and what fun and interesting adventures we went on. The places we’d seen, food we tasted, experiences we shared.

Profession: How dedicated I was to my job, how hard I worked, how well liked I was, and how easy I was to work with.

Organization/Volunteer work: Will include work in nature. How I made my environment a better place for others to enjoy. How much joy and pleasure I got from helping others.

Triathletes do this next step, for training and racing, all the time; make a backwards timeline. You know what the end result needs to be, create your path to getting to that end result. If you want to add or change anything throughout the years, do it!



~Shawna Glasser

Coach's Corner:

The Legacy of Triathlon Coaches

The legacy of triathlon coaches begins with you the athlete training under them. Triathlon coaches often become a coach because not only do they love the sport but they want to share their knowledge and experience to help fellow triathletes. And that’s where the legacy begins.

When an athlete begins to train under a triathlon coach, they begin to absorb the knowledge of the sport and make adaptions to enhance their ability to race in the sport. From having guidance on having that high-elbow catch to being told “fail successfully”, these lessons are carried out and applied. Then when that athlete becomes a triathlete and finishes their first race or accomplishing a personal goal, that success shows the legacy of that coach. As the athlete continues to train under the triathlon coach, he or she begins to grow and adapting the coach’s philosophy and implementing it into every day things. “Fail successfully”, those words reminiscing, did that just spark you to apply for that promotion at work? During training, the triathlon coach can help grow their triathletes which can often have a positive impact of having them become a better version of themselves. All the knowledge, resources and growth from the mentoring of the coach, when applied is the beginning of their legacy. 

And if you the triathlete one day become a coach, you will find, like I have, incorporating previous coach’s knowledge and expertise into your own coaching philosophy is another example of their legacy living on. Yes, you will have your own way of how you train your athlete, but the experience shared by your triathlon coach will guide you to develop your own philosophy and how you can mentor your triathlete. 

With that, Thank You to all the Triathlon Coaches past and present for sharing your legacy with all of us triathletes.

~Hilary Mauch

Have you met these Coaches?

Triathlon race season is here. Do you have a coach? Are you looking for one? Well, the Las Vegas Triathlon Club is going to try to help make some connections.

Earlier this year, we sent out a google form to try to capture our local coaching expertise. We had a number of coaches (all are members of Las Vegas Triathlon Club) respond and we have featured them on this webpage: https://lvtriclub.com/coaches/

We are going to continue to highlight coaches on our web page – if you would like to be part of that, please fill out the form: https://forms.gle/yEbcByPPVfHCb7A67

Prez Corner:

Build Your Legacy

Swim, bike, run. Seems fairly straightforward that if you want to get better at triathlon, you practice and train at swimming, biking, and running.

But triathlon is more than just completing three-sports in a single event. Triathlon often represents some challenge that a person has decided to take on. Maybe the challenge is we want to physically test ourselves, or maybe the challenge is more health related. In many cases, many of us have taken on triathlon as a challenge that will build us, that helps us grow as a person, … and because it is fun to swim, bike, and run!

Some challenges have even greater meaning when there is a risk of failure … the risk of not finishing a race … or maybe the risk of not even getting to the start line.

So we train. We learn. We prepare ourselves to be successful.

Triathlon is not only just a sport – but often a lifestyle. The challenge of combining training for three sports often leads us to eat better, sleep better, rest better. Along the way, hopefully, we also strengthen our relationships – we work to be a better spouse, mother, father, friend. We work to build our own individual legacy.

We are in the middle of the 2023 triathlon season … still a lot of racing to happen. This is a good time to step back and remember why you are in triathlon. Think about the legacy you are building by taking on challenges … and knocking down the challenges one event at a time! Use triathlon to build yourself in a way that transcends swimming, biking, and running. Be the best version of a person who does triathlon vs. striving to be the best triathlete. Build your legacy.

Let’s Thrive in 2023!

#thatsthevegasway

#enjoythejourney

#thrive

#timetothrive

#LVtrifamily 

~John Mercer

The Pro Perspective

The Legacy I followed, and the Legacy I want to leave

When I was 6 years old, my dad was a hero. He still is a hero to me today, but back then, when he became an Ironman, I actually thought he might be a superhero!

I couldn’t quite wrap my head around a 140.6 mile race at 6 years old, but it was back then that I had my first bike, riding alongside him during his easy training runs.

Then, I didn’t really touch a bike or go for a run for the next 13 years (some exaggeration, but major regrets now… if only I had run on the high school track team instead of the baseball team!).

Later on, as a 23 year old after college, my dad would tell me these vivid stories of running the Boston Marathon after drinking Sam Adams all night before with his buddies; the first time he broke 40 minutes in the 10k, racing Ironman Canada while my mom cheered him along, or in the one-time-only 2002 Ironman Utah, when they canceled the entire race mid-swim due to 6 foot whitecaps. I could hear the emotion in his voice - these were MEMORIES. Deep, engrained memories - a legacy - that he shared with me as part of his place in a sport that had a profound impact on his life.

My mom also raced a few triathlons in the early 1980s as the sport was starting, something I didn’t even know about her until I was in my early 20s, after I started showing a small interest in the sport - I wonder if I could ever do an Ironman? She shared with me that she had always wanted to do “The Ironman” (now referring to Kona) after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper that she actually still had, and showed me, but never managed pulled the trigger to sign up and race.

My parents legacy in triathlon is what inspired me to begin in the sport. 6 years later, as I was charging down the Queen K during the marathon in last year’s Kona, my parents were there at Kona, for the first time ever on the island, cheering me along. They gave me that final emotional push to get onto the podium by 16 seconds. “Do it for mom, who never got to race kona!” was the mantra I wrote down and repeated over and over in my head during the marathon when things got tough.

With that, I’ll share some of the triathlon legacy that I hope to leave behind - in both results, and impact:

• I want to be remembered in the triathlon community as “perhaps the best American professional triathlete to ever race, while holding a full time job”. To do this, I have a ways to go. I need to podium as a pro in both 70.3 and Ironman branded races, and race on the world stage. This is a 3-7 year goal of mine.

• Remind triathlon fans that you can become a legitimate, respectable professional in long course triathlon, even when starting the sport “late” at age 23.

• Remembered as someone who never took himself too seriously in the sport, and maintained the right attitude towards the sport to have fun, travel the world, and enjoy the training process every day.

• Remembered as someone who always “picked up” those around him. That he shared all of the knowledge that he had with others, and helped others get into the sport of triathlon and find joy in the sport.

• Remembered as someone who started one of the most successful youth triathlon programs in the world - a future “bucket list” item for me.



• Inspire my children to be the best version of themselves and teach them that nothing is impossible with enough focus and dedication.

~Justin Riele

LVTC Member Spotlight

Get to know our club members as our President sits down with the following members to talk about tris and life.

• Melissa Olivas

https://youtu.be/9XByFK-fNX8

The Evidence-Based Triathlete

• Bike workout

https://youtu.be/d1__abZ2Dco

• Swim technique with Rick Simpson

https://youtu.be/bzq34t2rT7I

• Professional Triathlete: Laura Siddall

https://youtu.be/SGdkZVKM2tg

Where in the World Has Our TRI Club Raced?

Check out the map below to see where our athletes have raced!