Jacob Plourde
Equinox Staff
Keene State College Athletics has created a new event that will let students, faculty, and community members show off their athletic ability
KSC BodyWorks, KSC Intramurals, and the Night Owl Cafe have combined forces to hold the first ever indoor triathlon at Keene State College.
The event has already raised some excitement around campus with almost 60 participants signing up for the event. Gino Vallante, student center programs coordinator, runs the Night Owl Cafe, and says the event is getting people excited.
“The event is actually pretty exciting,” Vallante said. “It is an indoor mini triathlon.”
The event is being run by a committee of four faculty members, which includes Vallante, along with BodyWorks Manager and Assistant Manager Chris Miles and Sarah Testo as well as new Intramural Coordinator Taylor Tully.
Vallante said he was excited about the event after hearing it from Miles.
“I thought we could work together and collaborate and build it up,” Vallante said. “Try and make it a real thing.”
Being the student center program coordinator, Vallante set up a pre-event party the day before the event on March 2 at 4:30 p.m. in the Night Owl Café where participants will get their heat times, be instructed on how the event will work, and receive a water bottle and snack pack for the next day.
“His abilities over at the NOC gives us another opportunity to create another fun part to the event,” Miles said on Vallante.
The idea originated by Ryan Madden, a Keene State Student, and Spaulding Gym employee.
“Me and Wes Landon talked about it one day in spin class and mentioned it to Chris Miles,” Madden said. “And they decided to make it happen.”
The indoor triathlon is broken up into three parts, swimming, biking, and running, just like a regular outdoor triathlon.
The difference between this indoor triathlon being held at Keene State and a regular triathlon is that a regular triathlon is a race.
You start at a set point and you have a set distance you have to run, swim, and bike.
The triathlon being held on March 3 inside the Spaulding Gymnasium is not a race, it is a competition to see how far you can go in a certain amount of time.
The participants will have a certain amount of time for each event and staff will track how far each participant has traveled in the allotted time.
Vallante describes the events. “Participants will swim in the pool, bike on cycling bikes, and run on treadmills,” Vallante said.
Miles said each event will have certain times that are designed to accommodate for the large turnout.
“Participants will have to swim for 10 minutes, bike for 20 minutes, and run for 15 minutes,” Miles said. “Times are set so we have heats that move as units from one place to another.”
Since there is such a large turnout for the event and almost 60 participants cannot fit in the pool or on bikes all at once, the staff has created heats that will start at different times.
“The winners are those who cover the greatest distance in all three events,” Miles said. “And we will also have individual winners for each event.”
A big reason this event is free to participate in is due to a grant received from Pepsi.
“Each semester groups and organizations at Keene can apply for a Pepsi grant, so we wrote up a grant because we think it is a great event and something different,” Vallante said. “Trying to do anything that will get students involved.”
“We didn’t want a registration cost and we wanted to get t-shirts for all the participants,” Miles said. “And we received a $1,500 grant from Pepsi.”
Both Miles and Vallante said would both like to thank Pepsi for the grant and helping make this event possible.
“We wanted to make it as inclusive as possible. Anyone could do this, that was the key so we did everything by time,” Vallante said.
“The idea is to come out and have a little fun In the middle of the winter,” Vallante said, “and for students to come out and try something new.”
Jacob Plourde can be contacted at jplourde@ksc.mailcruiser.com