Sprint to the Finish

Southeastern Swim Club swimmers Katie Scherzinger, Aly Morgan, Hannah Booth, and Jenna Jarosinski competed in a recent Sprint Triathalon.

By Katie Scherzinger – 7th grader at Hamilton Southeastern Junior High

“Go!” the voice would shout. Then off you’d jump, into the pool. The timer on your ankle will be counting the milliseconds until you finish. You climb out of the pool racing to grab your bike and catch up with the people ahead of you. Three miles later, you hang your bike up on the rack and run away. In one mile, you will be finished at last. What is happening, you ask? Let me tell you.

FAST (Fishers Area Swim Team) hosted a sprint triathlon on Saturday, September 19th. A triathlon is a swimming, biking, and running race. A sprint triathlon is a shorter triathlon where you try to race as fast as you can.

Some friends and I from SSC (Southeastern Swim Club) participated in this event. Aly Morgan, an SSC swimmer and friend of mine, feels “happy and satisfied that I finished,” when she crosses the finish line. Her favorite part of this race is swimming. Because we are on the swim team, we both agree that swimming is the easiest leg. Although, Aly and I have different opinions on our least favorite part. I hate running.

Jenna Jarosinski was also satisfied when she crossed the finish line. She said, “I’m glad I’m finished. It was fun.” Jenna is on the SSC swim team and this is not her first triathlon. She would like to continue participating in these races.

Katie Scherzinger with Jenna Jarosinski sporting their finishers' medals after the race.

Training was important for all of us. Five days each week, we marched off to swim practice. Practice being two hours long, we spent the first forty-five minutes to an hour running around Hamilton Southeastern High School and doing multiple variations of push-ups and crunches. After that, we’d head inside to swim for an hour before lugging our bags home to eat and sleep.

The race itself was exhilarating. Even though we had to be at Fishers High School at 7 a.m. to get our numbers written on our arms, something felt right about being in the middle of the race. There’s a voice inside your head saying, “You can do a triathlon. You are special.” Whether it’s swimming, biking, or running, you know what you are doing is a huge accomplishment. The crowd, your family and friends being there to cheer you on, pushes you to move faster.

All the training and support paid off for me because I shaved five minutes off my April time. Is there an Iron Man in my future?