Let’s Talk! NWABA Triathlon
Hosted by Michelle. Guest speakers Miguel, Elias, and Nick. Produced by the Let's Talk! Podcast Collective. Audio and transcript editing by Miri Newman. Web hosting by Eugene Holden.
Let’s Talk! NWABA Triathlon
Summary: Michelle talks to the NorthWest Association of Blind Athletes participants of the 2024 summer Triathlon about their experience competing, and their life in sports.
- Hosted By: Michelle
- Guest Speakers: Miguel, Elias, and Nick
- Produced By: Let’s Talk! Podcast Collective
- Audio and Transcript Editing: Miri Newman
- Web Hosting: Eugene Holden
- Released on: 10/20/2025
- More resources at our home website.
Episode Transcript
Transcript edited by Miri Newman
Introductions
Michelle: Good morning. My name’s Michelle, and I work with the Let’s Talk! Podcast at PCC, and this past two weekends, I went and watched Miguel, Nick and Elias at the Columbia River Triathlon.
Nick: My name’s Nick. I’ve been an athlete with Northwest Association for Blind Athletes for about six months now. Last weekend was my first triathlon I ever did.
Michelle: Wow. That’s really cool.
Elias: My name is Elias. I only recently joined up with NWABA in I think April of this year. I’d always known about them, and this was also my first triathlon that I’ve ever done. Although I did do sprint version, the duathlon. No swimming for me.
Miguel: Hi everybody. My name is Miguel, and I am one of the podcast techs here at PCC along with Michelle. And I have been with Northwest Association for Blind Athletes since 2018. But this was my second triathlon. I did one last year in 2023, and this was my second time doing this event, and it was a lot of fun.
Michelle: You all participated in the, what’s called a sprint triathlon. Does anyone wanna talk about what that is?
Nick: Sure. The triathlon was a 0.5 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile jog slash walk. That was the distance that we had to do. I think it was similar for the Duathlon, but they just did the bike and the running aspect of it.
Michelle: Thanks for explaining that. How long did you train for this event? If you did any training?
Training and Participating in the Triathlon
Miguel: NWABA had some events in the last couple months that we attended to do some of the practice. In July we did a lot of the practices, but for me it was I didn’t train as hard. So, last year I felt much more prepared than I did this year. Last year I trained for about three or four months before I even started. This year was much more later. But, the thing that most important that I learned was just to get it done. So my goal next year is to train much more often, probably starting now. Nick, Elias, what about you guys?
Elias: So, yes, I will say that NWABA had a few events leading up to this, which trained us for the specific things we would be doing, like biking and running. Although I don’t think we did any swimming events to prepare for this, at least leading up to it. I trained pretty hard, outside of there because they can only have so many events. A lot of it was left up to us to try to get in good enough place for a challenge, especially when it comes to endurance. ’cause that’s something you have to keep up. , And so I did a lot of running on a treadmill. ’cause finding partners to run with is a little bit hard. That’s the majority of what I did, and served me well, especially since I did the Duathlon, which is the 5K run, 12 mile bike ride, and then another 5K run. I didn’t have to worry too much about the swimming either way.
Nick: Training for the triathlon. Does eating count? Did a lot of that.
Michelle: I think it absolutely does. So, yeah.
Nick: Sponsored by Hot Cheetos. Now the training, I did do a couple swimming things for NWABA. Everyone doing the swimming portion of the triathlon had to show them that we could tread water for two minutes straight. So I did that. I remember doing that once and I went to a couple swimming trainings in the pool. I wish I would’ve done more, or I wish there were more. On my own time, all I did was jog on the treadmill. I did a little, stationary bike. That was cool. Just trying to get my muscles acclimated to the transitions. But I didn’t realize that the swim was gonna take more energy than I assumed. So I ended up walking instead of jogging some.
Miguel: That’s a really good point you bring up, Nick, because like the swimming wore you out. Cause you have to walk the half mile to swimming area and then you had to swim and then trying to get out of the river. Your body’s just like, what are you doing to me? Right?
Nick: Yeah.
Miguel: For like the listeners, we all wore numbers on. We had like a type of bracelet on our left or right side ankle so when they would walk through the time mats that were placed down by the areas so that time could start and time could be stopped. But also we had, our numbers– like mine was like 1372– on both my arms, and we had ’em on our calves as well.
Michelle: Yeah, I think I saw a few athletes run or walk by with their numbers written on their arms and legs. You were swimming downstream, correct?
Miguel: It was downstream. Yeah. But it was super hard because the water kept pushing you to the shallow end instead of to the deeper end. So you had to keep readjusting your swim techniques. Like I basically used for the full swim, three different swim techniques just to make sure that I was gonna make it across ’cause I was so tired.
Nick: Yeah. The swim, we swam downstream, we swam with the current. Miguel brought up the current pulling us to the shore, so it always threw me off guard. I try to swim in the deep end and then I would end up being floated to the shore and end up kicking the sand because it was so shallow there. So I had to stand up and then walk myself back out to the deep end and start swimming again. I had to do that so many times.
Michelle: I think it’s pretty awesome that you both were able to like swim for half a mile, that’s not an easy feat to do. So good job for the both of you. Also, how was the water? Was it cold?
Nick: I don’t think the water was that cold, honestly. I anticipated the water to be a lot more cool, ‘ cause it was early in the morning. I think the triathlon started at eight o’clock in the morning. I just wore board shorts, but I think Miguel had a wetsuit on. There were a few people that had wetsuits on. I wasn’t one of them. The water was not that cold.
Miguel: For me. It just took me a while to get used to the water. But I was fine afterwards. I’m like, “Oh, I like this. This is refreshing, having 75 degree water.” It was great.
Michelle: Yeah. I felt like the air temperature felt like humid, but I think it was pretty good racing conditions, to start with, I felt like it definitely got hotter, into the afternoon. So after swimming what event did you have next? Elias, you ran first, correct? Instead of swam.
Elias: I did run first. So there was no swimming for me at all. And I really do commend Miguel and Nick and everybody else who swam for doing it, ’cause. It’s a full body workout. I can only imagine how draining that was. I love running, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal for me. It was just a blast getting it all done.
Nick: Yeah. After the swim portion, we just had to transition into a tandem bike riding, ’cause we can’t ride a bike by ourself with the vision loss.
Michelle: I got to the triathlon right as they blocked the roads. So I was walking in when bikers started going by. I think I saw Elias go by and I was looking for you, Nick, and also Miguel as well. There were so many people there and running around trying to find like family members or friends to cheer them on. It was a lot. It was chaotic. It was so fun. The bike ride was, let’s see, 12 miles? How did that go for everyone?
Miguel: The biking portion? I got numb after a while, so I had to stop like once or twice just to stretch. But I think I did pretty good. That was one of my favorite parts of the race was doing the biking. It’s like really interesting because like with the tandem, you’re a bit slower because everyone else is like running with their cool bikes that are like really light. And, aerodynamic while the bikes for the tandem bikes are not as fast, and so I wish they would make lighter ones or ones that were more keep up with like the stamina of the triathlon and bikers. I don’t know what you guys think, Elias and Nick, but that was my impression.
Nick: I agree with Miguel. The biking portion was definitely a– it was a breeze for me. But yeah, there was a lot of bikes that just zoomed past.
Elias: The biking portion wasn’t too difficult for me either. It was actually a good recovery point, between running, since it’s not very harsh on your knees or anything like that, and, unless you’re going full throttle, you’re not really gonna tire yourself out either. The bike does do some of the work there.
Michelle: Nice. So how did the third part of the race go for everyone?
Nick: The third part of the race, was that 3.1 mile jog. For me, it was — it was, I guess I wouldn’t say brutal, but it was definitely I could feel the muscles in my legs were really heavy after completing swim and the biking. My quads could feel it too. Like I said I’ve been training, I’ve been jogging on the treadmill, so I was excited for that portion ‘ cause I thought I would be able to jog more, but my body just wouldn’t let me.
Michelle: Well, yeah, it makes sense if you’re tired. Let me think, what is it, like 12 and a half miles, before running that you covered? Another thing I wanted to ask is, during the race, did you plan any refueling or did you have any points where you’re like, “Oh, I’m gonna like get some water?” I know that sometimes there’s gel packs or like,
Miguel: I had gel packs. So before we, I did the– the running. I took some of the gel packs and they had gummies there as well. So I took this as well just to refuel with some of my energy and definitely had some water. They had water, like on some of the stations. So when we were running a bit, I made sure to get some water the rest stations when we ran by. I love all the cool signs that they had that says, “Remember your why.” One of the other ones I remember when I was walking by, ’cause I was really in pain, was ” If a triathlon was easy, then everybody would do it.”
Michelle: I know what you’re, what sign you’re talking about. I did see that. Yeah, I like how were trying to be inspirational. And encouraging. It was definitely a very like high energy, like chaotic environment, but it was really fun and very positive. Or at least for me, like as an onlooker. We were just walking around and watching people compete and talking to people that had family or friends competing.
Elias: I can’t even remember how many times as I was running by somebody who was obviously ahead of me because they were running the opposite way. And they would be like, Way to go, dude! Keep it up, you’re almost there!” And then I’d be like, I hope so. But it was awesome. Everybody there was so nice. And eventually I was like, why am I not telling people that? And whenever I’d pass somebody or even they were coming the other way, I’d be like, ” Hey, good job.” And they’d be like, “Oh, thank you man.” And they’d be like, “Yeah, awesome dude.” Gotta spread the love.
Michelle: It was very interesting to watch racers cheering for each other. It was very positive. There’s some competition, but even the really competitive, they almost looked professional or like maybe semi-pro if they have that for triathlons. Yeah, there’s, everyone was cheering each other on. For running and I only saw part of the course, was it mostly on cement or was it an all terrain course? Because for the most part it looked like most of the course was on the road at Frenchman’s Bar, leading up to the dock or the beach.
Elias: I can’t say for the swimming part, what that looked like, but it was mostly all on a concrete trail, as far as the running went. And then the biking was both on the trail and on the road. It was not all terrain, all of it was paved, thankfully. And pretty flat, so not a lot of uphill inclines we had to deal with.
Michelle: So, NWABA. Do they have a schedule of when events are, and what events are you planning on participating in in the future?
Future Events
Nick: I think the schedule is maybe every first and last week of each month. I could be wrong, could be first and third, but I do plan on going to different events. I know there’s some paddle boarding. I would like to go to some kayaking events. Definitely jogs. I know it’s all seasonal events as well. I would like to go up to the mountain and ski again. Maybe try snowboarding.
Elias: So yeah, they tried to put out a monthly schedule to let you know what events they’re doing for that month. And for right now it’s mostly summer sports obviously. ’cause it’s August when we’re recording this. And I’m always happy to be on the water. So kayaking and paddle boarding, like Nick said, is definitely something I’m looking forward to. And since I didn’t sign up with them until April, I’d missed out on all the winter sports. So I’m looking forward to try all of those. Especially snowboarding, which is something I’m super interested in. And it would be an awesome hobby to get into if I end up liking it.
Michelle: Yeah, I think snowboarding is really fun. so you said they have skiing and snowboarding. Do you know if they have any other winter activities or is, are those the main ones?
Nick: I think they have a, what is that thing called shoe? It looks like a tennis racket on your feet and they go hiking in the snow.
Michelle: Oh, snowshoeing. Okay.
Nick: Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah, that sounds fun. Let’s see, I’m on the website right now and I’m trying to look for like, the volunteer information for guides and, oh, that’s actually something I wanted to ask about. So you had three different events. Did you have three different guides, or did you have the same guide throughout the entire event?
Nick: For me, I had the same guy for all three events. I just personally think it makes things more convenient and easier.
Michelle: Yeah, I would think. I would think so. ’cause you might not have to I guess search through the crowd of people or bikes to find like the next person. So that can make sense. What about you, Miguel?
Miguel: I had Megan, one of the directors from NWABA do the swimming and running portion with me. And then I had a volunteer named Kevin who did the biking with me. So I had two guides throughout the race. Last year, I only had one. His name was Robert and so he did the whole triathlon with me. It’s much easier when it’s just one person instead of more than one. ’cause it can get really hectic. But it was still good. Still had fun.
Michelle: Okay, and what about you, Elias?
Elias: I had one volunteer guide the entire time. It was nice. I didn’t really have to worry about much. We didn’t really leave each other’s side except for like the one minute I spent hopping into the porta-potty, ’cause I drank a lot of water at the refill station.
Michelle: But oh gosh,
Elias: Regretted that. But so yeah, it was nice just having the same person there and ahead of the event itself. They try to partner us with our volunteers during some of the trainings for the event. And so we got to know them a bit better and they got to understand our levels of vision. It’s just great. I loved every minute of it. And I definitely appreciate my guide a lot. He was super understanding and I remember at one point he said like, ” Hey, you can bump into me all you want.” He was like, he was, “I just don’t want you falling.” So he is like, ” Don’t stray too far from me.” I was like, all right, you got it dude. I’ll knock you into the street. But like, yeah, he is a super nice guy,
Miguel: Especially at the end of the running where like there’s that turn. ’cause last year I had a really big fall on that turn and so I was really nervous about it when running back into the park itself. But no, it was super fun. Megan and she, I was like, okay, Megan, I got this. I can do this. Even though I was like really bad in pain. Like I would like just give myself pep talks, like all like speed walking. I did run like the last 40 meters of the race, but I was like, okay, I need to be realistic with myself after doing all that biking and the swimming part of how far I can take my body.
Michelle: Oh, let’s see.
Miguel: Well, did you guys like your medals?
Nick: I didn’t really look at my medal. I just had it this morning. I just put it in my closet.
Michelle: With your other medals?
Nick: Yeah. Well, I just put in my, was it, hang on.
Michelle: Was it your medal closet? Like the closet that doesn’t even have anything else. Just like all your trophies and all your medals.
Nick: It’s more like one medal and a bunch of participation ribbons.
Michelle: I think you should just tell people I have a medal closet.
Nick: Yeah.
Michelle: And a trophy closet. There we go.
Nick: I’ll just go looking for medals. I don’t even do the race. I’ll just buy ’em. Hang them up.
Miguel: Elias, where do you have your medal?
Elias: Mines are in my drawer in my room. I’m gonna find a place to put some of this stuff up ’cause I’ve, like, I have a couple from dragon boat races too.
Miguel: Oh, cool.
Michelle: So cool!. Yeah.
Elias: So, I placed during this event, this– so I got two, but I’m not, I still don’t know what I placed, I don’t know where to find that information, but I’m at least happy I did that, that just reminds me that I never quit. I just kept going.
Miguel: Yeah. That’s awesome, man. That’s so great you placed into like the higher heats, that’s really awesome. Mine are all behind me in my shoe rack that I have by the door. I have them hanging next to my keys and lanyards and all that stuff. So when anyone ever comes in, they can see them.
Elias: Nice.
Michelle: Yeah. That’s awesome. For listeners the medals were round and I believe they said Columbia River Triathlon on them.
Miguel: We can get a picture of those on the website too, so people can see them. Maybe we should all go and like, take a picture with our medals together.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah.
Miguel: I think that would be cool.
Michelle: I think that would be awesome. Yeah.
Miguel: Yeah. One of the things that I found out doing the triathlon last year, the person that was running with me at the time, he was like, “Miguel, once you do one triathlon, you wanna do them every single time, you’re gonna get addicted.” And he was right. Like when once you do one and you’re like, “I can do this. I’m in pain. And like, I made it through,” like, I could totally get this done and complete these triathlons. And so yeah, I’m excited for the next one.
Michelle: Yeah, just being there, I’m like, wow, this looks fun. Definitely very exhausting but yeah, it looks very fun, so I definitely wanna try a triathlon now. But the swimming part, hmm. A question that I just thought of was if you wanted to do another triathlon, could you ask NWABA to help you find a guide or find an event to participate in?
Miguel: We have one of our members from NWABA that she does a lot other triathlons and stuff. But I mean, she knows people like in the field that she has asked to guide her. That’s a good place to start is to go ask NWABA see who they know, anybody that would, but I personally don’t know the answer to that.
Michelle: Okay.
Nick: Yeah. Well I’m pretty sure they would. I would definitely ask. But I guess I don’t just because with the different triathlons and all that, I don’t got the means to travel to get there. There’s not always gonna be a guide that lives within my area of town that can make it happen to where we both go. So it would just be a difficulty for me to get to other events if it’s not just with the organization. But they definitely can find you guides in different events. You just gotta find a ride there.
Elias: Yeah. I’m curious to know if they would even provide like a tandem bike since that’s not something most people would have. I wonder if they would loan one of those out. And it’s like the main thing. ’cause finding a guide is, you can actually probably do that on your own, as far as running and even swimming goes. But I don’t think most people have tandem bikes, so that would be something I’d be super interested to ask them about.
Miguel: And I don’t know about you guys, but with us doing Dragon Boat practice and races as well, that’s like time consuming as well and trying to like figure out other times to do things. It’s interesting, but I enjoy all of it, so much fun.
Michelle: Yeah, I, that’s true. And it looks like online, so there’s the paddleboard clinics coming up and then they have some hiking, kayak clinics in like end of September, except I don’t know where Woodland Washington is. Oh. And then I guess they also have some bike rides in Springfield, so that’s cool that they’re like going all over the place.
Elias: I’m definitely probably gonna go to that hike. I love hiking. Like I could hike for hours and not realize how tired I am until, I’m in a car coming back home. So, so much fun.
Michelle: Yeah. Hiking is fun and yeah, I agree with you. Like, hiking for me, definitely. I don’t get tired until like way later.
Miguel: And so Elias, I always tease coach. That he should run a triathlon with me. He just starts laughing.
Michelle: Oh, for the dragon boat races?
Miguel: Yeah.
Michelle: Well, I-
Miguel: I tease Larry all the time. Larry, when are we gonna go? Alright, when are you gonna go? I’m gonna try with me.
Michelle: That is funny. So I guess with the okay, so, and I’m trying to get like a picture of what, hang on let’s see. I guess with like the dragon boat races or I guess dragon boat practices. So I’m guessing that’s weekly for you, correct?
Miguel: Yeah. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Michelle: Do they have team training days or obviously like they do, but like, do they divide their practices I guess with like, this is gonna be a boat day, or this is gonna be like maybe a weightlifting day, or something like that? Like, so you have like cross training?
Miguel: No, they don’t. They should, that would be cool.
Michelle: Okay.
Nick: Just in the boat.
Michelle: Just in the boat. Okay. Yep.
Elias: They do encourage us to go and stay active outside of even just practices too, though. Like I haven’t been able to make it to a couple of the practices just because of work and I try not to slack too much, obviously I can’t go out on the water by myself, but I try to maintain some level of like, weightlifting and cardio.
Miguel: Same for me here. It’s like I try to like make as much practice as I can, but also working in Vancouver on Tuesdays, it’s really hard. Because I get outta work like at 5:30. So it’s like, I’m not making it across town in 10 minutes. There’s no way.
Michelle: Yeah, that’s definitely rough. And then you have to go through traffic too and getting over, like either, I dunno if you take the I-5 bridge or like the 205 bridge and everybody’s just trying to like–
Miguel: It’s all backed up by that point. It’s like traffic nightmares.
Michelle: Yeah.
Miguel: I don’t know how it’s on the bus, Elias, I dunno if you’ve ever done the commute in. The mornings are great. The afternoons? I’m like, yeah, no, I’m not even gonna try.
Elias: Yeah, the commute in, it’s not the worst. But still, it’s quite a distance to travel, so I wouldn’t, wouldn’t count on, even 20 minutes sometimes.
Miguel: No. Are you guys excited for the Portland races?
Elias: Yeah, I am. I’m gonna see tomorrow morning if missing these practices really made that much of an effect on me, which I’m hoping not. It might take me a little bit to get back in a rhythm, but.
Miguel: We did the biggest yesterday was like, powers of two powers of tens. It was not bad.
Elias: All right. All right. I’ll–
Michelle: Also it’s good to take like breaks too. ’cause I know that like, after like doing a week or two of high intensity or like high weight, having like a rest week. You can, I don’t know, recover and then like you get stronger, if that makes sense. It’s like the recovery week. Like, I don’t know how much like weightlifting or training y’all have done, but there’s like, yeah, that’s like a whole thing in itself. And also like leading up to competitions. Like if you like, ease back on your training load, then you’ll be like.
Miguel: Yeah, we’ll be rock stars.
Michelle: Yeah, you’ll be rock stars! You’ll be unstoppable. Yeah.
Nick: No, definitely. I agree with that though. So I was telling one of the guys last night that hopefully they’re not gonna have us doing a whole bunch right before the race, because usually you would wanna go hard way before the race and the race, just like a week or two before the race. Just light practices before people get hurt.
Michelle: Yeah. And I definitely was gonna look into doing dragon boat racing too, ’cause it looks so cool. But also you can join
Miguel: Vern. Vern.
Michelle: Okay. Wait, hang on. What? Yeah, what was the,
Nick: Why can’t you join ours? You can join.
Miguel: I don’t know if they want side people. Do they want side people?
Nick: No, they do. Anyone.
Michelle: Okay. Hold on. Anyone? I’ll look up the dragon boats. Portland. Okay.
Elias: VIP is open to everybody. VIP? Yeah.
Michelle: Okay.
Elias: Yeah. VIP. Just ’cause
Miguel: Who was that? It wasn’t open to everybody. Was that one, like, one of the guys that was cry babying about
Nick: not having enough? Find people? Yeah. Some idiot. Some idiot that doesn’t know shit.
Michelle: Oh, hey, wait. Wow. Okay. I was not expecting this website to have this many teams. Hold on. Amazon Dragons Paddling Club. Is this like Amazon, like the company?
Elias: No.
Michelle: Maybe not. Okay.
Elias: No, it’s an, it’s actually an all women’s team.
Michelle: Okay.
Nick: No, it is the. It is a company. I thought they were from the Amazon, but they’re from the company.
Michelle: Yeah. I don’t know if it’s like, is the, yeah, I like, it doesn’t say like Amazon with like the hang on. Okay. It doesn’t say like the Amazon or have like the Amazon-like logo. So maybe they are just naming it after like the river.
Miguel: Probably the river. I would assume, let’s say. I don’t know.
Michelle: Okay. Well, let’s see. Okay, next one. Castaways Dragon Fuel. Nice. Dragon Sprites. Okay. Fire breathing, Blowfish. Okay. Golden Dragons dragonflies. That’s a good name. Okay, great. Wait, and you called it, or wait, what was it called?
Elias: V-I-P. Means Visually Impaired Paddlers. But it is open to everyone, they want us to recruit as many people as we can, just ’cause our numbers tend to dwindle a little bit because, it’s hard to recruit people who are visually impaired, just ’cause, not everybody’s into this kind of stuff. But even less so when when you have that barrier.
Michelle: I think it would be fun to like, catch the flag or be like a drummer.
Nick: You should totally be on our team and tell them you wanna be our drummer because we don’t have one. Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah. I’ll, yeah. I have a friend who’s a drummer, and I’ll ask if they wanna do drumming on boats.
Miguel: Jenna, one of our team members yesterday was like, Miguel, we can be on the Olympics, USA for Dragon Boat Racing. I’m like, one day. One day.
Michelle: Yeah. That’d be pretty cool. Yeah, I guess I think Randy, was it Randy? Randy or Larry was like, yeah, we have someone who went, who like went to
Nick: Paralympics or
Michelle: Yeah.
Nick: The crybaby, yeah.
Michelle: What?
Nick: He went to the USA team, the Paralympic team.
Michelle: Oh, Wasabi was the other one, right?
Elias: Wasabi is the paddling club that we’re underneath, and then the teams all have their little names that I cannot remember right now.
Michelle: Oh, I guess they have like a try a team– guest paddlers. Right now I’m just like, this looks fun. This looks fun. I wanna do this. But I have to be a little bit like more realistic. ’cause I’m like, okay, like travel time. Gotta work too.
Miguel: Yeah.
Michelle: Gotta take some time off to rest.
Miguel: You don’t wanna burn yourself out.
Michelle: Yeah, I know. So let’s see. I’m definitely like interested in volunteering for helping snowboard and also standup paddleboard. I don’t own a kayak, so. Do you know if guides have to like, bring their own equipment or does NWABA have like their own?
Miguel: They have all their own equipment.
Closing Thoughts
Michelle: All right. Well, thank you so much for interviewing with us. Thank you for listening to Let’s Talk! Portland Community College’s broadcast about disability culture. Find more information and resources concerning this episode and others at pcc.edu/dca. This episode was produced by the Let’s Talk Podcast collective as a collaborative effort between students, the accessible education and disability resources department and the PCC multimedia department. We air new episodes on our home website, our Spotify Channel, XRay 91.1 FM and 107.1 FM, and KBOO Radio, 90.7 FM.