Raise the Bar was new once.  We were so energized by the thrill of meeting other triathletes, planning workouts and racing together.  We were also completely intimidated by the mysterious yet large amounts of information we quickly knew we didn't know, that would make the team a fun and thriving community.  We continue to be thrilled and educated every day at RTB.

This isn't unlike the path of a new triathlete.  Equal parts excitement and intimidation....a process of learning and growing and meeting other training partners and friends along the way to share the journey.  There is something invigorating about a new challenge, isn't there? 

Triathlon is doing 3 things most of us did as kids anyhow - swimming, biking, & running. Sure, those same activities we did as kids looked a little different than how they play out in the playground of triathlon, but similarities outweigh the differences. A few of the kids played hard and wanted to be the BEST. They loved trying to beat their buddies.  A whole lot of kids just wanted to participate and be part of the fun....to belong.  In either case we swam and rode and ran around en masse.  It's pretty much the same thing around here at RTB -  we all enjoy the playground together no matter our speed or experience.

In the current playground at RTB, we're working hard to make training fun, de-mystified and available. We want to make it easy to get questions answered and have resources in place that will make the journey safer and time-saving.  We know the sport can be expensive - so we try to make it less so through the strength of numbers and the generosity of sponsors and connections in the community.

Our best job is holding the playground gate widely open and greeting the people who wander in, run in, or are dragged in by a friend.    We invite you to Raise the Bar with us!
 - Patty Swedberg

-Do you have questions about triathlon, the RTB community or membership?  Learn more on our team pages or contact our Team Manager Kathy Morrisson ([email protected]) or Patty Swedberg ([email protected])

The day we watched Gwen Jorgensen win triathlon gold at the summer Olympics was about 5 months and 50 Fahrenheit degrees ago.  What a great day for American triathletes and fans of endurance and multisport!  No doubt it's playing a factor in the uptick on the interest meter at Raise the Bar.  New triathletes are finding their way to the sport we all love and that's awesome!

Gwen generated all this interest doing what the majority of triathletes are doing - short course!  Sprint and Olympic races are the typical gateway into our sport and the easiest (and most financially practical) distances to sustain over the long haul.  True, many find their way happily and successfully to the Half or Full Iron distance events, but sprint and Olympic distance races continue to be triathlon's natural home base.  ​

Fitness and being active have always been a part of our family life-style and story-telling. My dad ran sub 3-hour marathons and even a 100K event.  Even before that, he was known by his fellow fighter pilots for running on the flight line in Vietnam. He brought home is big, heavy 45# bike from Vietnam in 1968. He was running circles around me when he was in his 70s, which I told him was not right! But was secretly proud of him for doing.

His great grandfather was mentioned in the Tacoma newspapers in the early 1900s for his cycling adventures. One included a ride on his 45# bike from Tacoma to Portland between two sunrises. The paper quotes him as saying, “The roads were good except for the potholes in the wooded sections.” And that was without any support crew!

My grandfather and his twin sister were both active. I bushwhacked up a steep mountain with my grandfather when he was well into his 80s. That was when I was fit and I still struggled to breathe and keep up with him! I swam across Lake Washington with him when he was 87 years old.  On his twin sister’s 90th birthday, when I was 45 years old, I jogged with this woman! It was a slow jog, but these amazing people in my life completely challenged me to remain fit into my later years.

With the challenges of childbearing and full-time work, when I was 32 years old, I found myself overweight and out of shape. My children were starting to have more energy and speed than I.  That would not do! So, I focused on what I could do to get back into shape. When the kids were tiny, I would carry one on a front pack and the other on a backpack for fast walks with the eldest on his bike. Even so, I could not run any distance.  Valley Medical Center opened a Fitness Center with free use of equipment for employees. This was my initiation to a treadmill. I started with saying, “I can do anything for 10 minutes” and finally, after quite some time, of slow jog/walk, I was finally able to run a mile! I cannot tell you how excited I was! Using a treadmill made each small improvement visible for me and I was finally able to ramp up the distance, elevation and speed from there. Eventually, I worked up to 35-50 miles a week! I didn’t have any knowledge about training properly to keep from injury or overtraining. Too bad, because there was some of that.

I learned to swim when I was 13 years old, but didn’t learn confidence in the water until I joined the high school swim team my junior year. I was always in the slow lane, and unfortunately, despite sleeping next to a very fast swimmer J I haven’t really gotten much faster over the years. Patty and Chris just keep telling me that means I need to swim more. I believe them, but the thoughts of chorine hair and dry skin keep me out of the pool more than once a week in the winter.