How would you sum up Intermountain Tri's inaugural season last year?
It was incredible.
Lots of people from first-timers to veterans learned and developed new skills at our clinics, and by year's end we had grown to 3x over where we thought we'd be at the end of our second year.
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| Group shot at Jordanelle |
What's the nature of the relationship with BAM; are you in some ways one connected team/club or are you separate entities?
Glad you asked because I get questions now and again about what the deal is. Admittedly, we haven't done a great job making this clear, and since there are overlapping personal connections, it may look like Intermountain Tri and BAM are the same. They are separate.
The seeds of Intermountain Tri started with Wes Johnson, founder/head coach of BAM. He's very close to Max Testa, Intermountain's leading sports medicine doctor, and Marc Harrison, Intermountain's CEO who Wes now coaches. (Fun fact: Dr Harrison has done a tri every year for 38 years!)
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Wes Johnson, Dr. Harrison and Nat, after racing
2018 USAT Nationals in Cleveland |
Drs. Testa, Harrison and others at Intermountain wanted, as part of their growing investments in elevating health of everyone in the community, to do something triathlon related. Wes more or less said to them, "I'm down, but I can't do that and continue being a full-time coach. Let me find you some people." So he rallied a group who could work with Intermountain directly to make it happen. That's where I came in.
We formed Intermountain Tri, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and it operates independent of both BAM and Intermountain Healthcare. It exists to improve community health by inviting as many as possible to participate in swim, bike, run, triathlon and endurance sports. Our aim is that members can come to us for anything tri related and we'll have a resource to help them out. Partners like ROKA, ENVE, Pioneer and Suunto help members with gear. F2C helps with nutrition. Intermountain helps with general health, sports medicine and rehab/PT. And we ask BAM to handle the coaching/instruction at our clinics and group workouts . . . so they help with technique.
That's the meat of the relationship. As partners do, we look out for each other, such as Wes inviting US Paralympian Brad Snyder to be the guest speaker at our Opening Night tonight, Apr 25!
LEARN MORE ABOUT TONIGHT'S EVENT HERE
Will the mentoring concept continue to be a key part of the team going forward? Can you shed some light on how that process works?
Definitely.
It's pretty simple. After signing up, people fill out a form and we match them with a mentor we think is a good fit. Reigning State Champ and multiple time Kona Qualifier Jorge de Amorim handles the mentoring matchups, sending emails to the mentor and mentee together with brief intros and background on the mentor. And after that, it's up to them. Everyone needs or may be looking for something different, so we intentionally haven't put any more structure to the mentor program than that. The basic idea is for people to know someone when they show up ... and to have someone know them.
For example, people have asked Skye, "Do you wear socks when you race?"
Someone I mentor got costochondritis and wanted to know if it was common. I reached out to some people, got answers and shared what I found and that gave him some assurance that he'd be all right.
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| Some people, like Scott Mortensen (an Intermountain administrator in Ogden), are just thrilled to be connected with someone crazy fast like Tip Worob who inspires them |
The essence of the mentor program is helping more people connect personally with others in the community.
Anything new in the works for year 2 of the team or will the focus be more on continuing to build on year 1?
More clinics and a few social events, including tonight's Opening Night (from 6:30-8:30 at the University Guest House).
We want to do this right and be around for a long time. We have huge aspirations and need to grow steadily to ensure we're in a strong position to continue serving people.
Intermountain's mission is "Helping people live the healthiest lives possible," and for anyone not paying attention, they're very active in our local communities walking, swimming, biking and running the talk. In addition, Intermountain CEO Dr. Marc Harrison and SelectHealth (Intermountain's integrated health plan) CFO Thomas Risse are avid triathletes themselves. Does Intermountain Tri carry that same mission, and/or what are your objectives as a club?
Yes, absolutely. Intermountain's investment in Intermountain Tri is an extension of their mission. Naturally, our mission aligns with it.
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| Rumor has it Nat once won his AG on one of these bad boys |
What we do is expose people to triathlon and endurance sports, invite them to participate, then offer an array of resources that help them develop in the sport and stick with it for a long time. As someone develops in the sport and continues participating, we believe you'll see their health improve and stay in a healthy range over a longer period of time, and that the health of people around them will elevate as well as they take cues to follow their example.
This is a big undertaking, so it's great to have leaders like Dr. Harrison and Thomas Risse setting personal examples, being visible and active in the community, and also aligning organizational resources for a broad impact.
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Thomas Rissse, here at Brineman 2018,
just threw down a 4:54 at Oceanside 70.3 |
On that note, you were recently highlighted on local news for your own triathlon story. In a nutshell how has triathlon helped with your personal health?
Yeah! It was so fun to work with Aley (the KSL/NBC producer) and I think her team made me sound 100x more coherent than I actually was in the interview.
I started working for myself in 2012 and after a year, my weakness for time management became very evident as I was always pushing things off and then cramming them in just before deadline. It got so bad that I operated like that each day ... cramming in my day's work starting at 9 or 10pm and going until 3am. Many nights I would boldly declare my resolve to wake up at 6am, no matter how bad it hurt, to reset the cycle and get my life back in control . . . and then I'd snooze until noon or 1pm and it would continue. Now I know some people can decide to operate night hours and make it work for them. But I was miserable. It wasn't working for me.
Registering for Ironman Maryland in 2014, reaching out to a friend with very strong sleep habits for help, hiring a tri coach and then discovering you really cannot "cram" a week's worth of workouts into 2 days were things that helped me right the ship. As I continued training regularly, I rediscovered how much I love moving, spending time outside and breathing fresh air. These experiences were a strong part of my moving from New York City to Salt Lake.
I've of course had setbacks and challenges along the way. But in the big picture, my health and life has steadily gone up from there.
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| Nat, finishing his first Ironman: Maryland 2014 |
Participation in local triathlons was up significantly last year after a few years of slight decline. From your perspective how can we keep this turnaround going?
I know, such good news!
- Invite more people: we've got to reach out to new communities of both adults and youth to let them know about triathlons and training resources, and invite them to participate
- Help people progress: clinics are the backbone of our programming because I believe as people learn new skills in a supportive environment, they get confidence to go forward and that sense of progress is one of the pillars that keeps people in their hobbies. So, more clinics in more areas covering more aspects of triathlon.
- Strengthen the community: what you're doing with Utah Tri Buzz is so great because the fact that someone is writing about triathlon in Utah and all the incredible people validates it as legit ... great things are happening here worth writing about! Weekly workouts, clinics and a few social events provide more opportunities for people to connect with each other and strengthen relations, making this a community worth being a part of
- Improve local events: it's so awesome to see race directors like Brogg of TriUtah evolving their events. I love that Brogg is doing things like adding swim-only and run-only options at what have traditionally been just triathlons. We just want people to come and move and I enjoy putting down an effort for something challenging, and there are a lot of ways that can happen besides swimming, biking, running all at the same time
- Bring in national/international events: I'd love to see a world-class race series like IRONMAN, ITU, Major League Tri or Super League Tri do an event in Park City. That would bring a lot of people to the state for the event, but more importantly, it would elevate triathlon in the minds Utahns. There's a way that those events will reach and speak to our neighbors that's different from how the triathlon invitation will land coming from us, and it's all good stuff. "A rising tide lifts all boats."
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Nat at an XTERRA race in Hawaii last fall,
blowing by his competition on the trail |
As a prolific racer on the local scene, you've contributed to that turnaround yourself - what's your podium for top 3 races?
1st - Jordanelle Tri, sprint. I've done it three years in a row and it's such a good race! The area is beautiful, the bike course is fun and the run, with the mix of pavement and trail, keeps it interesting.
2nd - Brineman. It's such a good event near the end of the season and the swim is, I'd say, the best in the state! The water is slightly tinted like the bottom of a pool, and the rocks on the edges absorb all the chop so it's super calm. It's about as close to a pool experience as you can get outside, so it's very comfortable. I still get a little anxiety in open water starts, but with all those visual cues of a pool, I've had my calmest (and best) swims there. Have done the olympic distance the last two years and loved it.
3rd - After that, I'd probably say Powell3, but that's no longer around, so I'll hand it to Daybreak. The winding, point-to-point swim is a unique feature, the bike is great, the run is super spectator friendly and the crowd that shows up is solid. Good early season race!
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| Nat and several racers getting ready for the swim at Daybreak |
If you were the "PUTS" (President of the Utah Triathlon Scene), if such a thing existed, what would be your top few agenda items that you'd like to bring to fruition and/or change?
Besides the list above . . .
- Host splash-n-dashes in neighborhood pools all around to give lots of youth and their families exposure to a multisport event, without the complications of a wetsuit, bike and managing a bike course
- Host more indoor triathlons at gyms and fitness clubs throughout the state
- Besides IRONMAN 70.3 St George and XTERRA PanAm champs in Ogden, get another national/international triathlon race circuit to produce an event in Utah, ideally in Park City
- Coordinate local group workouts with masters swimming, cycling and running groups so that everyone in Utah metropolitan areas has a weekly option for a group swim, bike, or run workout within a 10 mile radius ... and everyone in more outlying areas has access to one that's no more than an hour away
- Support the existence of triathlon clubs at every college/university in the state
- Win over more JrH/HS swim and track coaches to see how having youth rotate through sports is healthy for their development, decreases chances of burnout, and great swimmers/runners/cyclists who aren't quite at the level to chase D1/Olympic dreams in a solo sport may have a promising future in triathlon
- Establish relationships with healthcare professionals/PT/rehab specialists who can direct their patients to swim/bike/run/tri/endurance communities so our programming can be an asset in someone's personal health plan
Anything else you'd like to share?
Thanks for the questions and for all you do. I think I've said enough!
But two final invitations . . .
1) I'd love to hear from anyone reading who wants to help with what we're doing at Intermountain Tri. Send me a message contact@intermountaintri.com.
2) Also, I do my best to say hi to people I know and introduce myself to others I don't. If you see me around, please come introduce yourself! Would be happy to meet you.
UTAH TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES 2019 DETAILS --> SEE POST HERE !
Below are links to all the races in the 2019 Championship Series:
Below are links to all Challenger Races:
We started a Patreon account (link below) with the hope of raising a few bucks towards awards & swag for athletes of all abilities in our tri community. We've given out a lot over the past 2 years, but would like to continue to expand our offerings & the volume we can do.
If you enjoy Utah Tri Buzz and would like to pitch in, any amount would be greatly appreciated... (there may be something in it for you as well!)
We're also always grateful for talented people who contribute in terms of time... let us know if you'd like to be part of the Utah Tri Buzz team.
