Like many busy people, Julie Dixon fits exercise into her schedule with great finesse.
In between her part-time job as a licensed counselor and the soccer and field hockey games, play dates and homework that accompany caring for three children, she sandwiches a little running here. A little tennis there. An hour at the gym a few mornings a week. Some kayaking on the weekends.
On Saturday, the Queenstown resident plans to test just how fit she is by competing with a teammate in the Chesapeake Bay Eco-Tri, a triathlon being held for the first time at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center in Grasonville. "We're both just not serious athletes," Dixon says, referring to herself and her teammate, Jada Beach. "But I have a lot of friends who are always saying, `I'm doing a half-marathon. I'm doing a triathlon.' So we thought it would be kind of cool to give it a try."
Organizers of the Grasonville competition hope that the 4-mile run, 10-mile bike ride and 3-mile kayaking leg will showcase the center's 510 acres of fields, marshes and waterways. (Most triathlons include biking, running and swimming).
The first-time event, which is drawing competitors from six states, exemplifies the growing popularity of triathlons as a recreational athletic pursuit -- rather than a sporting event in which only elite athletes can dream of participating.
"Clearly this is a growing trend -- triathlons that appeal to all kinds of people. The reason people like these [events] is that you do not have to be a great athlete to be in them. And yet most people are interested in fitness challenges," says race coordinator Anne Joyner, who initially suggested that the environmental center hold the triathlon.
The competition is designed to attract not only seasoned triathletes who are looking for something a little different, but also newcomers to the sport. Athletes can participate as individuals or in teams of two or four (kayaks built for two are allowed). "It's an event that allows someone to try new things out," says Joyner. "Look at the way road races have grown: The people running in them obviously all are working. They are working, running, raising families. They are busy, but they want to face challenges, too."
Indeed, interest in triathlons seems to be growing in great strides. In 1999, for example, there were 19,060 annual members of USA Triathlon, a national organization that sanctions about 2,000 triathlon events annually. In 2006, there were 70,291 members, according to the association. And as of July, that figure had grown to 96,000 annual members -- a leap of some 26,000 athletes.
