The sun had already made its presence known at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 27 as the first wave of athletes started wading into Lake Padden.  The only thing on their minds was the 26-mile race ahead of them.

The annual Lake Padden Triathlon, a community event that began in 1980, has two separate race categories, a competitive race that is 26 miles long and a casual race that is 14 miles long; each with 325 participants.

Both categories consist of swimming across Lake Padden, bicycling around Lake Samish and Fairhaven, and running the Lake Padden trail.

Western senior Anne Maertens, who competed in the casual race, said she used the triathlon as an opportunity to get more exercise by training in preparation for the race.

  "I was so scared to fail that it made me work harder [in my training]," Maertens said. "Failure equals drowning and that would be embarrassing."

Maertens prepared for the race by running at Lake Padden as often as she could.  She ran with her friend in the race and said they both trained together which helped her push herself to improve.

Maertens said the most difficult part of the race for her was coming out of the water and running up a hill during the transition into the biking leg.

"I was just out of breath," she said.

Traithlon director Lance Romo said all the money raised by the event will be used to help fund Whatcom parks and recreational facilities.  Romo said the main goal for hosting the triathlon, which he began directing in 1991 in the footsteps of Paul Leuthold, is to encourage people to become more active and promote a healthy community.         

“The idea is not so much money as it is to get people active and doing something,” Romo said.

The operating budget for Whatcom Parks and Recreation was cut down to $3.8 million for 2009, approximately 7 percent lower than last year’s $4.1 million budget.

With $50 registration fee for a total of 650 participants, the proceeds from the triathlon were far from making up the difference.

In the first section of the race, participants swam a half mile from the shore of Lake Padden near the west entrance of the park across the lake to a buoy and back.

Bellingham resident Angie Smith said she has competed in the triathlon for the past three years. She said the swimming section is a good warm-up, but the half-mile swim can also quickly separate competitors.

“It can be a real shock going from standing around at the starting line and then jumping into the cold lake and swimming as fast as you can,” Smith said.

Once the participants got back on shore, they simultaneously raced up to their bikes as they removed their wetsuits and began the 21-mile bicycle race.

Kulshan Cycles sales manager Eric Moe said the bicycle race is where people run into the most difficulty.  Moe was in charge of the Kulshan Cycle tent, which provided people with bicycle services, free of charge, before the race.

“You’ve got a lot of equipment out there, so the chances of a mishap are pretty good,” Moe said. 
On this portion of the race, cyclists rode southeast around Lake Samish, up to Old Samish Highway and then cut into Chuckanut Drive. 
Romo said due to an increasing population in Bellingham, he now has to hire 12 flaggers to help direct traffic and keep racers safe in the Chukanut and Old Fairhaven Parkway sections of the race.

“There’s also a lot of chalk that goes down,” Romo said, referring to the white arrows the recreation staff drew to direct cyclists around the 21-mile bike route.

After the racers returned to the bike racks at Lake Padden, they began the final stretch of the triathlon: a five-mile run around Lake Padden.

Western senior Karen Survis said the triathlon has connected her with new people in Bellingham.  Survis was in charge of the Erin Baker’s Baked Goods tent, a local business that sponsors the triathlon.

“I’m not from Bellingham, so I have found that this event is a good way to get in touch with the community outside of Western,” Survis said.

Lake Padden park manager John Brantley said he is always excited to see events such as the Lake Padden Triathlon take place.  Brantley said with the current budget situation, the more events that are held at Whatcom parks the better, because it means more funding that can go back into those parks.

“We can have picnics going on in one section of the park and in the other, a triathlon,” Brantley said.  “It’s crazy, but in a good way.”

Maertens said it was a cool experience running with so many different people from the community.  A lot of the spectators provided positive motivation for all the athletes as they past by, she said.

"Crossing that finish line was really cool because it validated all my hard work," she said.

Romo said since he began directing the triathlon he has noticed a trend of a small increase in participants each year.

“You’ll see people going to the pool in January and say ‘yep, getting ready for the triathlon’,” Romo said.

 

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