Triathlon nationals return to Milwaukee
It's back.
The Toyota Age Group National Championships returns to Milwaukee this weekend for real racing, and with more than 6,000 amateur athletes expected to compete in the open-water swim competition Friday and two different triathlons Saturday and Sunday, it could set a record in participants.
The Olympic distance triathlon on Saturday and the Sprint distance triathlon on Sunday will both kick off at the Discovery World Dock with at 7 a.m. with the swim leg of the three-sport race and continue throughout the lakefront and Milwaukee area streets for the bike and run.
Expect street closures until 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
After a year of mostly no races anywhere in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a welcome event – even if coronavirus concerns continue.
“It's so good to get back out there – pushing myself against some of the best age-group athletes in the nation,” said Todd Buckingham.
Buckingham will compete in both the Olympic distance and the Sprint distance Saturday and Sunday and has the goal of contending for podium finishes in both for his age group. Buckingham, 32, was the overall winner of the USA Triathlon National Championships in 2016 and also won his age group in 2017 in the Olympic distance race and 2018 in the sprint and Olympic distance races.
That's what makes USA Triathlon nationals so unique. Not only are overall champions crowned, but men and women compete within their own age ranges against their peers for medals as well. It's extremely competitive.
This is a return trip for Buckingham, an exercise physiologist at Mary Free Bed Sports Rehabilitation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he tests and trains performance athletes. He raced Milwaukee for this same event in 2015.
“I know it's a pretty flat and fast course,” said Buckingham. “Milwaukee has a beautiful race venue. The Burke Brise Soleil at the art museum provides a stunning backdrop for the beginning of the race.
“The swim in Lake Michigan is usually much colder than other races I compete in, so that provides a bit of a challenge. Having the swim in the protected cove of Discovery World near Lakeshore State Park does provide some reprieve from the waves of Lake Michigan.
“The run will be flat and fast as we cruise down Lincoln Memorial Dr. Running along the water offers a great view of the lake and the out and back course will allow us to keep an eye on our competitors.”
Return to Milwaukee
It's a pretty big deal that Milwaukee is once again hosting the Age Group Nationals. The coordinated efforts of national and local USAT organizers – and hundreds of volunteers – put on successful events here for three consecutive years from 2013-15. And the amateur athletes really turned out; the Age Group Nationals participation record of 5,789 was set in Milwaukee in 2014.
With its debut in 1983, the Age Group Nationals is USA Triathlon's largest and longest-running national championship event.
The racing weekend begins Friday at 11 a.m. with the open-water swim competition, a 750-meter course in Lake Michigan. No qualification is required.
The Olympic Distance National Championships (1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike, 10k run) are Saturday, with athletes going off in staggered waves starting at 7 a.m. Racing will conclude by 1:05 p.m.
Sunday's Sprint National Championships (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run) begins at 7 a.m. Sunday's racing will conclude by 11:35 a.m.
The course for the triathlon races will be near the Milwaukee Art Museum, Henry Maier Festival Park and Discovery World along the shore of Lake Michigan. Athletes will swim in Lake Michigan, bike the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge and the Lake Freeway, and run along Lake Michigan through Veterans Park and Lincoln Memorial Drive.
Athletes had to qualify for these national triathlons with a previous competitive age-group finish in a USA Triathlon-sanctioned event, although each race this weekend also includes a Time to Tri Open wave that does not require qualification. Sunday's sprint race also includes an Open division for adaptive and physically challenged athletes.
An author races
Sue Reynolds, who lost 200 pounds at age 60, will swim in Friday's open water race. There's a book about Reynolds with a chapter about her first national championship in Milwaukee – and how she overcame a fear of suspension bridges racing over the Hoan.
“At that Milwaukee race, I also discovered a competitive ‘monster' had been hiding inside my obese body,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds said 100% of the proceeds from the book, The Athlete Inside, is donated to USA Triathlon Foundation to help those with disabilities participate in sports. Reynolds is doing a book signing at the Race Expo on Friday.
“I competed in Milwaukee in 2014 and 2015. I normally do the sprint distance, but I am recovering from an injury,” said Reynolds, now 68. She is from Bloomington, Indiana. “Since Milwaukee is my favorite race venue, I decided to do the open-water swim competition so I could still be in Milwaukee competing.
"I will be training in Milwaukee all week. I can't wait to run and ride along Lake Michigan. This is truly the most beautiful triathlon venue anywhere. It is wonderful to be back racing with the triathlon community – a joyful and kind community that truly support one another.”
Father and daughter
Father and daughter team Craig and Clara JamesHeer will both race the Sprint. Also from Grand Rapids, Clara did her first triathlon at age 5 in a local race where she wore a life jacket for the swim and had training wheels on her bike.
“She loved it and raced in just about every youth triathlon she could,” said father, Craig.
Clara James-Heer won her age group in the USA Triathlon Youth National Championships three times before the age of 12. Then, in 2019 at age 13, she won the USAT Youth Elite National Championship and just finished her last Youth Elite season last week where she won 5 of 6 races and her team won gold in the Mixed Team Relay event.
This is the first year that she could compete in USA Triathlon events as an adult.
“On just about every day of the spring and summer, you can find the two of us either swimming, biking or running together,” said Craig James-Heer. “It has really allowed us to grow close and spend a lot of time together.”
That's the beauty of this sport: The spirit of camaraderie in the pursuit of competition. Several races, runs and rides have not come back after the last two years; others remain tenuous with the changing pandemic. USAT is following all the safety protocols that we are all used to be now, and hopefully this outdoor event remains low-risk for virus spread and turns out to be a great success.
“It was depressing to lose all of our races” in 2020, said Tony Schiller. “I have raced every year since 1973, so to have that streak snapped (just short of 50 years) really stunk. Luckily, I found a November trail run in River Falls, WI and was able to keep the streak alive and well.”
Schiller, 63, of Chanhassen, Minnesota, near the Twin Cities competed in the Milwaukee nationals in 2013-2015 in both races, and will race the Olympic and Sprint again this weekend.
“It's a really honest race course - meaning, it's a perfect combination of tough and fair with and offers the spacing needed for a true national championship with so many racers,” said Schiller. “I believe most of the veteran racers were thrilled to learn that the nationals were coming back to Milwaukee.”