Shelbie Harris
Staff Writer
The 2014 edition of the Bengal Triathlon will take place on April 25-26, with a good portion of the events taking place on the campus of Idaho State University.
The Bengal Triathlon originated about six years ago with the help of tri-athlete and event coordinator, Caroline Faure.
Faure is an associate professor for the Sport Science and Physical Education program at ISU and the triathlon club president within the community of Pocatello.
After participating in a similar race in the Treasure Valley, Faure was excited about the prospects of bringing something like it to Pocatello.
“This would be a perfect opportunity to do a spring sprint- style type format in eastern Idaho, where we could really encourage beginners to participate in the sport and not really be intimidated,” she said.
Unlike Olympic or Ironman style triathlons, the Bengal Triathlon will be supporting the spring sprint- style format, meaning the distances differ from race-to-race. To accommodate tri-athletes of all different skill levels, shorter distances are used in this sprint format.
In addition to the shorter distances for each leg of the competition, it is also set up in what one may call a split-tri style format, meaning the bike and run portions will be held the next day, rather than immediately after the swim.
The first event of the triathlon will be a 700-yard swim, which will take place on the evening of April 25 inside the Reed Gym swimming pool.
Participants will then be seeded to compete in the biking and running portions based on the fastest swim times.
The first racer (fastest swimmer) will begin the biking portion at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, with further contestants being seeded based on their respective swim times.
Racers will begin at the transition area, which will be located in the front parking lot of Reed Gym, and proceed south down Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Participants will then turn left onto Cesar Chavez Avenue and continue to Humboldt Street, passing Davis Field. Participants will cross 5th Avenue and then take a left onto 4th Avenue. They will then proceed six miles to the turnaround point, located just past Century High School.
The biking section is roughly 11 miles, and is preceeded by the running portion of the race, which will be roughly 3.1 miles.
“The coolest part about the Bengal Triathlon is to see several hundred people all fired up, all going as hard as one another,” said 2013 winner Sam Krieg. “It may be their first race or they may be a veteran competitor, but to see so many people of various degrees of ability from different regions all excited for the same thing is really great.”
Unlike previous Bengal Triathlon events, the 2014 version of the running portion will take place along the ridgeline trail around Bartz Field.
In prior years, the AMI Trailhead was used, however, due to safety hazards caused by the eroding “I” atop Red Hill, an alternate route was necessary.
ISU, the SHEPHERD’s club and volunteers from students in Faure’s facility planning and design course will work in close partnership with the Pocatello Police Department, Pocatello Street Department and ISU Public Safety to ensure participants a safe travel while out testing their endurance limits.
“It’s not intimidating. You say triathlon, and just the word itself brings up a negative connotation for a lot of people because they think, ‘Oh I can’t do this, wow that’s way intense,’ but [The Bengal Triathlon] isn’t,” said Faure. “This helps people, especially those new into the sport and students who have maybe never done a triathlon to get into the sport in a gradual way. It also provides, for those of us who are more seasoned tri-athletes, the opportunity to really bring in the new sport season.”
The event is open to the public for viewing. The swimming portion is scheduled to take place Friday from 3 to 8 p.m., while the biking and running will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.
