CLUBS
DC TRI CLUBDRAWSACROWD
By Ed Moser
The 1,087-member DC Triathlon Club has won five consecutive Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships and fields upwards of 100 volunteers at major races. What accounts for the Washington D.C.-based club’s impressive rates of volunteer and race participation?
Many things, from supporting local races to hosting its own triathlons, sponsoring charity events and organizing structured training for triathlons of every distance.
Two key annual events fueling racer and volunteer participation are the Nation’s Triathlon and the Washington DC Triathlon, in which 6,000 racers toe the line, including as many as 328 from the club, along the historic monuments of the nation’s capital.
“We worked with race organizers to become the official volunteer organization for both races,” said former club president Travis Siehndel, who helps organize volunteers. “DC Tri provided roughly 100 volunteers for both, over one-third of the total number.”
The organizers of the races reward the club’s participation, with an annual cash donation to the club, as well as free race entries, special swag bags for volunteers and a volunteer appreciation party.
The club hosts less formal events, including triathlons, manned entirely by DC Tri volunteers. These include a series of three $10 sprint or training tris, held every summer at Hains Point, near the Jefferson Memorial. Club volunteers do body marking, record times and prepare post-race barbecues. Under Hugh Harris, the club’s race coordinator, Hains Point is also the setting for bicycle time trials, duathlons, and 5k runs manned entirely by club members. Harris has learned to handle crises such as flooding and spillover traffic from demonstrations on the nearby National Mall.
Another club tradition is the brick-nic — a brick workout followed by a picnic. DC Tri holds two brick-nics a year, one at Centennial Park in Columbia, Md., site of the Columbia Triathlon.
More formally, the club has a growing array of structured training programs. The New Triathlete Program (NTP) is for novices. The NTP offers seminars on nutrition, open-water swimming, bike maintenance and running form, as well as group brick workouts, such as a Chesapeake Bay swim followed by a bike/ run near Annapolis. NTP assigns every participant a mentor — a club veteran who provides experienced advice. For about five months of instruction, quickly attracts about 120 enrollees each year.
The club has also formed an elite team, consisting of 10 athletes with top-notch USAT rankings, including USAT All-Americans Phil Schmidt and Kelsie Beebe.
“We strive to provide events to meet the needs of all club members, from beginner to elite,” said club president Julie Kennedy.
Participation increases with the club’s extensive series of regular workouts. Patrick Serfass, a competitor at the 2010 USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals, leads bi-weekly dawn rides at Hains Point. First-year clubber Hillary Peabody leads track workouts at the city’s Wilson High School, preceded by active warm-up drills that resemble ballet more than stretching. During the summer, athletes swim twice a week, for $3 a session, at a university pool. DC Tri volunteers also hold a series of laid-back, inexpensive swim meets at the pool. On weekends, group rides of 40-100 miles roll out from Georgetown into Maryland’s hills.
The club is heavily involved in sports-related charities, a means of letting members give back through triathlon-oriented events. One such charity is ACHIEVE Kids Triathlon, which sponsors short races for the city’s underprivileged youth.
The core of any tri club is racing, and hundreds from DC Tri take part in races ranging from the Washington DC Triathlon to New Hampshire’s hilly Timberman Half to Ironman Wisconsin.
Given its dizzying menu of activities, it’s no wonder that in 10 years of existence, the DC Tri Club has had so much success in generating impressive rates of participation. To find out more about DC Tri Club, visit
http://dctriclub.org.
Ed Moser, a sports, science and history writer in Alexandria, Va., has participated with DC Tri since 2001.
66 USA TRIATHLON WINTER 2011
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