Jordan’s Story—Balanced Man Triathalon

Balanced Man Triathlon
By Jordan Allred

The crowd cheered and applauded the competitors as they dove into the HPER pool, Saturday, for the start of the third annual Balanced Man Triathlon held by Sigma Phi Epsilon to raise money for YouthAIDS.

Less than six minutes later, the first of 71 athletes emerged from the pool and dashed out to the HPER field to begin the bike course.

The triathlon began with a 400 meter swim in the HPER building, followed by a 10K bike ride that passed by landmarks such as First Dam and the LDS temple, and concluded with a 2.5K run that looped around the HPER field, Spectrum and cemetery right back to the finish line at the HPER building.

Many of the athletes described the multiple hills on the bike course to be the hardest part of the event, "The hill next to the temple was the worst," said Taylor Price, a former member of the USU track team and the winner of the Balanced Man Triathlon.

Price overcame an additional obstacle during the race as a pedestrian stepped out in front of him, "I had to swerve into the sidewalk which ended up flattening my back tire," Price said, "It was good that I only had a few hundred more yards to go on my bike."

Even with the flat tire, Price was able to finish the triathlon in a time of 39 minutes 49 seconds, just faster than his best friend who also competed, "By the way, you owe me dinner tonight," said Price to his friend.

Competing in their first ever triathlon Cathy and her husband Ron from Syracuse, described the course as "very hilly" and found running the final hill along the cemetery to be the hardest part.

A group of friends shared their personal horror stories of swimming in the same lane with other competitors, "Every time I was passed [in the pool] water got shoved into my mouth," said one participant, another followed saying "Yeah, racing in the pool sucked."

Although each athlete found one or more parts of the race to be difficult, they all agreed it was a fun way to celebrate the start of warm weather in Logan.

"This week was cold but today was nice," said Casey a first time competitor and resident of Brigham City, "I loved it."

Scott Biggs, a member Sigma Phi Epsilon, said that the Balanced Man Triathlon fits in with the fraternity's motto 'a sound mind and a sound body', "Triathlons require having a balance between mind and a body," he said.

Biggs, who was in charge of the event this year, did credit Grayson Weeks for originally coming up with the idea three years ago; Weeks had never actually been able to attend the event since he left for a LDS mission right after he came up with the idea.

However this year Weeks was back and able to serve as a volunteer for the event he created, "It's exciting" he said as he kept count for the swimmers, "I want to be able to compete in it someday."

As a freshman Weeks was encouraged by the fraternity to think of a way to raise money for a charitable organization, Weeks had ran track and cross country in high school and liked the idea of an athletic competition as a way to earn money.

"I wanted to create an event that not only exposed others to the fraternity but got people more involved in living a healthy life," said Weeks, who went on to reiterate how a triathlon represented the fraternity's motto of 'a sound mind and a sound body.'

"We plan on holding this event every year," said Biggs who plans to enter as a participant next year, "Hopefully more and more people will show up and compete."

The Balanced Man Triathlon has become the fraternity's biggest project of the year, raising on average $1700 a year for YouthAIDS.

Weeks explained that he chose YouthAIDS or the organization they would donate the money towards because he had been part of activities in the past that had made donations to that organization, "It's a good cause, and they need the help," he said.

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