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Log inTeen triathletes go the distance
Teen triathletes go the distance
by Outspoken on Sun Jul 20, 2008 2:18 pm
Teen triathletes go the distance
Portland youths push themselves in the ultimate test of physical endurance.
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
PEAKS ISLAND — Walking off a Casco Bay ferry, 16-year-old Imadhi Zagon tossed a football into the air.
Earlier that day, Zagon had spent a few hours at a summer conditioning workout with the Portland High School football team. Now he was walking toward his afternoon triathlon practice: an ocean swim in a wetsuit.
Portland High's athlete of the year spends each Tuesday, Friday and Sunday training with five other Portland youths from The Bike Shop for local triathlons, grueling races that require participants -- mostly adults -- to swim, bike and run great distances.
The Bike Shop is the hub of a growing recreational opportunity offered free to youths in Kennedy Park, a low-income housing project in Portland's East Bayside neighborhood. In just four years, the shop has served more than 1,000 youths by providing them with bicycles and rallying them to join group rides.
But those rides were not supposed to evolve into Team Triathlon -- at least, not yet. A local triathlete suggested the idea to Matt Velguth, who started The Bike Shop, and Velguth threw it out to his riders. A half dozen stepped forward without hesitation.
''I expected it would be the next set that did this, the 4- and 5-year-olds who ride with us now,'' Velguth said. ''I mentioned it, and the older guys were all for it.''
When Velguth began The Bike Shop, he modeled it after a similar community bike club he ran in Madison, Wis., where he led youths on long-distance camping trips.
Whatever drew the 15- and 16-year-old Bike Shop riders to push themselves in mile-long swim workouts and 100-mile bike rides, their commitment is complete.
''It's a challenge, I guess,'' Zagon said.
Others struggle to articulate why they show up for hours of training three days a week.
''Imadhi convinced me to do it,'' said Nemanja Jenkovic. ''He just said: 'Do it.' ''
The more the youths rode, gained strength and showed unbridled enthusiasm for long-distance rides, the more Velguth realized they needed greater challenges.
Last year, they rode 100 miles from Portland to New Hampshire's White Mountains and back.
They plan to do it again this summer -- three times.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=200071&ac=Outdoors
Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer
Portland youths push themselves in the ultimate test of physical endurance.
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
PEAKS ISLAND — Walking off a Casco Bay ferry, 16-year-old Imadhi Zagon tossed a football into the air.
Earlier that day, Zagon had spent a few hours at a summer conditioning workout with the Portland High School football team. Now he was walking toward his afternoon triathlon practice: an ocean swim in a wetsuit.
Portland High's athlete of the year spends each Tuesday, Friday and Sunday training with five other Portland youths from The Bike Shop for local triathlons, grueling races that require participants -- mostly adults -- to swim, bike and run great distances.
The Bike Shop is the hub of a growing recreational opportunity offered free to youths in Kennedy Park, a low-income housing project in Portland's East Bayside neighborhood. In just four years, the shop has served more than 1,000 youths by providing them with bicycles and rallying them to join group rides.
But those rides were not supposed to evolve into Team Triathlon -- at least, not yet. A local triathlete suggested the idea to Matt Velguth, who started The Bike Shop, and Velguth threw it out to his riders. A half dozen stepped forward without hesitation.
''I expected it would be the next set that did this, the 4- and 5-year-olds who ride with us now,'' Velguth said. ''I mentioned it, and the older guys were all for it.''
When Velguth began The Bike Shop, he modeled it after a similar community bike club he ran in Madison, Wis., where he led youths on long-distance camping trips.
Whatever drew the 15- and 16-year-old Bike Shop riders to push themselves in mile-long swim workouts and 100-mile bike rides, their commitment is complete.
''It's a challenge, I guess,'' Zagon said.
Others struggle to articulate why they show up for hours of training three days a week.
''Imadhi convinced me to do it,'' said Nemanja Jenkovic. ''He just said: 'Do it.' ''
The more the youths rode, gained strength and showed unbridled enthusiasm for long-distance rides, the more Velguth realized they needed greater challenges.
Last year, they rode 100 miles from Portland to New Hampshire's White Mountains and back.
They plan to do it again this summer -- three times.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=200071&ac=Outdoors
Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
