Auburn Triathlon Club is hitting the ground running, biking and swimming in preparation for the Collegiate Nationals April 9 in Tuscaloosa.
"This is our biggest race of the year," said Robert Bedsole, president of Auburn's Triathlon Club. "(Preparation) has involved some pretty hard practices in the last few weeks, but this is a race to really hamper down for and get rested for."
The course begins with a 1500-meter swim, then moves to a 40-kilometer bike and ends with a 10-kilometer run.
The race will conclude at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater.
"Triathlon is kinda unique in that you're not going into an existing stadium," said John Martin, communications and media relations manager for USA Triathlon. "Fortunately, this is the fifth-straight year we've had an event (in Tuscaloosa), so our staff is familiar with the area and we get fantastic support from the city and are looking forward to a great event this weekend."
Bedsole said the team should be familiar with what the course holds since they competed at the Age Group National Championship in August of last year, which was also held in Tuscaloosa.
"We've already seen pretty much the whole course," Bedsole said. "They've made some small changes--it should be a little bit flatter, a little bit faster than Age Group Nationals."
Auburn, who took home the 2010 Southeastern Collegiate Triathlon Conference Championship, will take an equal number of male and female triathletes to Tuscaloosa this year, with a couple competing in individual events.
"We can only take seven (males and females) per team which is really unfortunate because our team is so deep, especially on the guys side this year," Bedsole said. "We actually had to have a race-off last weekend in Columbia to figure out--basically we had nine people that could have been in our top seven. Everyone was right there."
More than 1200 triathletes are expected to compete, with an additional 300 triathletes competing in a sprint-distance race to accommodate athletes who don't make their team's roster.
"There are two races: the olympic-distance collegiate national championship which is only open to collegiate athletes; There is also a sprint-distance race which is open to outsiders as well," Martin said.
Not all of Auburn's top triathletes were at last year's championship, in part because of the location.
"We were 23rd, but we left our top athlete at home because we had a hard time getting our team over (to Lubbock, Texas)," Bedsole said. "We had a couple freshmen last year that weren't ready to race at nationals."
One triathlete who did make the trip to Lubbock was Samantha Clark, a recent Auburn grad with a degree in food science.
"I was top 25 for girls last year," Clark said. "It'd be cool if I could do that again."
Triathletes are allowed to compete for one semester after graduating, which has led Clark, a triathlon-team member for almost four years, to train in Pine Mountain, Ga.
With the race being held in nearby Tuscaloosa, Bedsole is hopeful that this year will be the SEC's time to shine.
"In the past, the Southeastern Conference hasn't really been on the map," Bedsole said. "It's a great shot for us to showcase the Southeast with the national championship being in Tuscaloosa.
"We are trying to put the Southeast on the map this year. We have pretty high expectations."
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