TRIATHLON COMES FULL CIRCLE 2015
I was thinking of Jon Noll when I wrote this letter in October 2015. Jon Noll is a member of the USAT
(USA Triathlon) Board of Directors and a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New
York.
Dear Jon,
How are you, and USAT?
This continues to be an historic triathlon season for us. You would have enjoyed meeting young
triathletes from West Point and the Naval Academy who were competing here on Sunday. And more.
September tri sports, for us, began with the 40th anniversary of the longest running annual triathlon in
the world. That was here in Coronado, California, on Labor Day weekend. The Optimist Club of
Coronado Triathlon had been a bike-run-swim-run when our daughter and son first did it, on 27 July
1975. Now the Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon course is a swim-run-bike.
In the 1970’s swimmers from the Coronado-Navy Swim Team (CNSA), Amateur Athletic Union,
(AAU) age-group swimmers, and the Coronado Masters Association (CMA) AAU adult age-group
swimmers, were expected to take part in the Optimist Club of Coronado Sports Fiesta swim events.
CNSA alums Kevin O’Beirne and Kristin and Michael Collins did the triathlon and the 1 mile ocean
swim again in 2015. Judy Collins and David Hansen represented CMA. Hansen family swimmers
have been a part of the Sports Fiesta Triathlon every year since 1975.
1970’S CORONADO SWIMMERS AND TWO NEW TRIATHLETES
1970’s Coronado swimmers Michael Collins, Kevin O’Beirne, Kristin Collins Galbreaith (CNSA,
Coronado-Navy Swim Association) and Judy Collins (CMA, Coronado Masters Association) stand
behind new triathletes Iain Collins and Rob Roy before the swim start in 2015. It was CMA Swim
Coach Stan Antrim and Bob Weaver who created the Optimist Club Triathlon of 27 July 1975. The
Race Director now is Don Crawford. The coastline of Mexico is in the background.
Photo – jnjcollins
INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN SURF AGAIN. 2015.
The Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon is now the longest running annual triathlon in the world. On
27 July 1975 the course began with the 4 mile bicycle leg. Now the start is a 1/4 mile ocean swim
followed by a 1 mile beach run, then the 4 mile bike race to the finish line. Point Loma, San Diego,
California, USA is in the background.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
SWIMMERS EXIT HIGH SURF IN HIGH SPIRITS
Some swimmers entered three Coronado Sports Fiesta events in 2015 to compete for a Hard Rock
Award. Three men and three women won awards based on their cumulative times in the Triathlon, the
5k run and the one-mile ocean swim. Photo – jnjcollins ***
THREE 1975 FINISHERS IN 2015
After the triathlon. Three of the Original Finishers of the 1975 Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon –
David Hansen, Kristin Collins Galbreaith and Michael Collins, are to the right of Judy Collins at the
Start/Finish area at Sunset Park, Coronado, California, in 2015. Hansen family members have been in
every Optimist Triathlon since 1975.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
CORONADO TRIATHLON FINISHER SHIRT
Photo – jnjcollins ***
On 5 September 2015 the ocean surf was steep and high with bodies tumbling all about on the swim
leg. Triathletes dove under the waves, swam out and around the buoys. Some caught waves on the
way back to the shore. Triathlon Co-Founder and Masters Swim Coach Stan Antrim had set up a Hard
Rock Division one year to encourage swimmers to enter their first triathlon and to run. It worked.
Many swimmers did their first triathlon and jogged their first 10k that weekend. Completing all three
events made them eligible for an award that was a smooth rock mounted on a wood base. The oldest
annual triathlon in the world began with a 4 mile bike ride in 1975, then a run to the beach, a ‘A swim
and a 1 mile beach run. Now the order is swim-run-bike.
On 25 September 2015 there was another anniversary in the History of Triathlon. Veteran athletes and
veteran volunteers of the 1974 Mission Bay Triathlon (MBT) met for a picnic on the 1974 course at
Mission Bay Park, San Diego, California. That was to mark the day and 5:45 pm start time of the first
San Diego Track Club triathlon. The Mission Bay Triathlon was the first run-bike-swim (Run, bike,
run/swim x 4-5) in the U.S. The total distances were <5 miles Run, >5 miles Bike, +\- 500 yards swim.
LET THEM EAT CAKE 25 SEPTEMBER 2015 MISSION BAY PARK, SAN DIEGO
Finishers and family of Finishers identify themselves with 1974 commemorative Finish Order #’s
before having dessert, a Mission Bay Triathlon Anniversary cake.
Photo – Thao Vu
A STOP WATCH, A TIME TICK SHEET, A POPSICLE STICK, A NAME = THE FINISHER LIST
John Collins hands a Finish Line Popsicle stick to Mission Bay Triathlon (MBT) Finish Recorder Betty
Johnstone at the 41st Anniversary reunion of athletes and volunteers in Mission Bay Park. John kept
the popsicle stick in 1974 so his name was not on the 1974 Finisher List. In this 2015photo one 1974
San Diego Track Club Triathlon veteran, Bob Potthof, arrived at the picnic on a Razor wearing a
helmet. No helmets were worn on the bicycle leg of the 1974 triathlon. Note that three in this 2015
photo are wearing USA Triathlon shirts.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
For the 47 participants and 7 or so volunteers in 1974 it was our first triathlon. We did not know then
that the French had been holding tri-events for decades, since about 1900.
MBT Founders Don Shanahan and Jack Johnstone called their run-bike-swim a triathlon. That was not
the first use of the word triathlon in modern sport. In 1973 and 1974 there was a cross-country multi-
leg run swim Triathlon at Clear Lake, California. But the San Diego Track Club (SDTC) name for their
event then became the name for the Optimist Club of Coronado (California) Triathlon in 1975 and for
our Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon in Honolulu in 1978.
Judy, John, Kristin and Michael Collins were involved in these three triathlon events. If a competition
included running, biking and swimming then it was called a triathlon by the Collins family, the San
Diego Track Club, the Coronado Optimist Club, and others. The name stuck. In 1979 the first ‘/2 Iron
Man distance triathlon was held in Coronado, California. By the year 1989 there was an International
Triathlon Union (ITU). In 2000 Triathlon was an Olympic Sport.
THE CORONADO-HA WAII-CORONADO CONNECTION
The Hawaii connection. Three Coronado residents. Maui born Phillip “Moki”Martin, Founder, in
1979, of the first-ever 1/2 Ironman Triathlon, SUPERFROG, talked story with Judy and John Collins,
Founders, in 1978, of the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon. On Sunday 27 September the first-ever
Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG was held in Coronado California USA.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
Our family had moved from Coronado to Honolulu in 1975. We left after the Optimist Club of
Coronado Sports Fiesta. We had moved into our new home in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in time for the
Waikiki Roughwater Swim. Swimming 2.4 miles in warm tropical waters at Waikiki seemed heavenly
compared to swimming 1 mile in the cold Pacific ocean in Coronado.
When we had introduced triathlon to the State of Hawai’i on February 18, 1978 we had combined the
three long distance annual events on the island to make up the first endurance triathlon in the world.
They were the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, a minimum 2.4 miles, founded by Jim Cotton in 1970; the
Round O’ahu Bike Ride, an estimated 112 miles; the Honolulu Marathon, 26.2 miles, first run in 1973
and boosted by Jack Scaff and John Wagner in weekly Marathon Clinics. Within the year, in 1979, a
Navy Seal in Coronado, a Son of Hawai’i, Phillip “Moki” Martin, had started a 1/2 Iron Man distance
triathlon, suitable to train for the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon.
Our family moved from Hawaii to the East Coast in late 1979. In 1992 we set sail on our Tayana 37′
from Coronado, California, headed southeast. We went through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic coast,
the Caribbean, in 1993.
We started the Portobelo Triathlon on “D” Day, June 6, 1998. We wanted to train for Kona and to
promote triathlon in Panama. Since 2000 there has been a triathlon on the Pacific coast too, in
Coronado(!), Panama. We laid out our tropical triathlon off-road on a challenging and historic
endurance course in Portobelo National Park. When Paula Newby-Fraser, the Queen of Kona, did
Portobelo one year she rated it as difficult as a really hard 1/2 Ironman although it is closer to
“Olympic” distances. By the way, Ironman Champions Paula Newby-Fraser and Heather Fuhr were on
the swim course at the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG on Sunday as lifeguards on Stand Up Paddleboards.
STAND-UP PADDLEBOARD (SUP)PHOTO
Two Ironman Kona Champions, Paula Newby-Fraser and Heather Fuhr, who were Stand Up
Paddleboard (SUP) Lifeguards on the swim course, pose with a fan after they surfed in to shore on
their SUPs in Coronado.
Photo- jnjcollins
***
PORTOBELO TRIATHLON FINISHER SHIRT 2015
We started the Portobelo, Panama Triathlon in 1998 so that we could train in a tropical setting for the
20th Anniversary of the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in Kona. We wanted to spur the sport of triathlon
in Panama.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
2015 is a memorable year for us as fans of triathlon. In September more than a dozen Panamanian
triathletes raced at the ITU World Championship in Chicago, Illinois, USA. In October five Portobelo
Panama Triathlon veterans will be in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii – Ronan
Pavoni, Fernando Alfaro, Pedro Cordovez, Cristina Mata and Eladio Quintero will race Kona.
Quintero is in a Legacy lottery spot. Legacy triathletes are those who have completed 12 Iron Man
Triathlons.
SURFER CEO PHOTO
“It was fun.” Andrew Messick, Ironman CEO, sprints from the sea after completing the 2 loop swim
course through the surf on the 1.2 mile swim leg of the first Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG in Coronado
CA on 27 September 2015.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
Andrew Messick, CEO of Ironman, is the one who started the Legacy Lottery. When we turned over
Iron Man, before 1980, to Hank Grundman, we stated that we wanted the race to always provide a
place for the ordinary athlete. Val Silk took on the race in 1981 when she and Hank separated.
Val added a lottery category a few years later to insure there were race entries for ordinary athletes.
Now there are hundreds of triathletes who have done scores of Ironman Triathlons. To swim-bike-run-
non-stop was a sport whose time had come.
On the last Sunday in October 2015 triathletes could choose between a USAT race in San Diego or a
1/2 Ironman Triathlon over the bridge in Coronado, California.
CANNON STARTS HEATS AT IM70.3 SUPERFROG, CORONADO CALIFORNIA 2015
When John shot the cannon there was fire and smoke. A heat of swimmers charged seaward.
Swim Start Director, Cannoneer Kevin Shute, held the cannon steady with his foot as he counted down
for Judy Collins to pull the string – boom !- that started the swimmers’ race to the surf.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
John and I had the honor of shooting the canon to start heats in the Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG
Triathlon in Coronado. It was a great day. Ironman and Coronado and triathlon had come full circle.
There was a military division in addition to the usual age-group divisions of triathlon.
NAVAL ACADEMY AND WEST POINT TRIATHLON CLUB TEESHIRTS
Midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy and cadets from West Point competed in the Service
Academies Division in the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG 2015.
Photos -jnjcollins ***
There was a Service Academy division, too, with many young people from Annapolis and West Point.
We were living at the Naval Academy in 1983 when we were first invited out to Kona to meet Val Silk
and to see what Val had done with the triathlon. Val had moved the Ironman to Kona from Honolulu.
It was Val Silk and Earl Yamaguchi who later took Ironman and triathlon world-wide. We felt right at
home to see and meet Military Academy triathletes last Sunday. This triathlon was as far south and as
far west as you can go in the U.S. A triathlete from Mexico raced in Chicago and in SUPERFROG.
TIJUANA TO CHICAGO TO CORONADO
A neighbor-country neighbor at the IM70.3 SUPERFROG was Carlos Santiago, a triathlete from
Tijuana, Mexico. Santiago had placed 11th in his 18-24 age group at the ITU World Championships in
Chicago 2 weeks before. Triathletes could see Mexico from the swim start in south Coronado.
Photo – jnjcollins***
Another triathlon link. Kevin Shute, the keeper of the cannon – that John and I each shot – was the
same Swim Start Official who had directed us when we had started heats at IM 70.3 Panama.
The winner in 2014 of Ironman 70.3 Panama, Javier Gomez Noya, is now the 5-time ITU World
Champion as of this year, 2015, in Chicago. That makes IM 70.3 a training distance for elite Olympic
athletes. Did I hear Jan Frodeno, the German Champion of Ironman Kona 2015, say in an interview
that he learned to switch muscle modes fast in ITU (Olympic Distance) races? To think it was our slow
but reliable muscles that led us to long slow distance (LSD) triathlon, a sport now dominated by super-
fit fast-twitch sprinters!
Talk about full circle…Triathlon, Ironman, USAT, ITU!
U.S. NAVY SEALS, MIDSHIPMEN, CADETS AND MORE WATCH THE MILITARY AWARDS
USMA (United States Military Academy) cadet triathletes wear their cammies and tri club teeshirts as
they watch the Military awards at the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
There was another triathlon side-story that you would appreciate, Jon. A recent Naval Academy
graduate triathlete was off to Korea this week to compete in the international military games… as a
triathlete!
The 1978 Iron Man triathletes who finished 1 and 2 in our first Hawaiian Iron Man were former CISM
(The International Military Sports Council) athletes too. That was news to us at the time. We thought
all who signed up in 1978 for the Iron Man were like us, recreational athletes who enjoyed endurance
events.
Aloha, Judy and John Collins, Coronado, California and Panama.
TRIATHLON COMES FULL CIRCLE 2015
I was thinking of Jon Noll when I wrote this letter in October 2015. Jon Noll is a member of the USAT
(USA Triathlon) Board of Directors and a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New
York.
Dear Jon,
How are you, and USAT?
This continues to be an historic triathlon season for us. You would have enjoyed meeting young
triathletes from West Point and the Naval Academy who were competing here on Sunday. And more.
September tri sports, for us, began with the 40th anniversary of the longest running annual triathlon in
the world. That was here in Coronado, California, on Labor Day weekend. The Optimist Club of
Coronado Triathlon had been a bike-run-swim-run when our daughter and son first did it, on 27 July
1975. Now the Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon course is a swim-run-bike.
In the 1970’s swimmers from the Coronado-Navy Swim Team (CNSA), Amateur Athletic Union,
(AAU) age-group swimmers, and the Coronado Masters Association (CMA) AAU adult age-group
swimmers, were expected to take part in the Optimist Club of Coronado Sports Fiesta swim events.
CNSA alums Kevin O’Beirne and Kristin and Michael Collins did the triathlon and the 1 mile ocean
swim again in 2015. Judy Collins and David Hansen represented CMA. Hansen family swimmers
have been a part of the Sports Fiesta Triathlon every year since 1975.
1970’S CORONADO SWIMMERS AND TWO NEW TRIATHLETES
1970’s Coronado swimmers Michael Collins, Kevin O’Beirne, Kristin Collins Galbreaith (CNSA,
Coronado-Navy Swim Association) and Judy Collins (CMA, Coronado Masters Association) stand
behind new triathletes Iain Collins and Rob Roy before the swim start in 2015. It was CMA Swim
Coach Stan Antrim and Bob Weaver who created the Optimist Club Triathlon of 27 July 1975. The
Race Director now is Don Crawford. The coastline of Mexico is in the background.
Photo – jnjcollins
INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN SURF AGAIN. 2015.
The Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon is now the longest running annual triathlon in the world. On
27 July 1975 the course began with the 4 mile bicycle leg. Now the start is a 1/4 mile ocean swim
followed by a 1 mile beach run, then the 4 mile bike race to the finish line. Point Loma, San Diego,
California, USA is in the background.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
SWIMMERS EXIT HIGH SURF IN HIGH SPIRITS
Some swimmers entered three Coronado Sports Fiesta events in 2015 to compete for a Hard Rock
Award. Three men and three women won awards based on their cumulative times in the Triathlon, the
5k run and the one-mile ocean swim. Photo – jnjcollins ***
THREE 1975 FINISHERS IN 2015
After the triathlon. Three of the Original Finishers of the 1975 Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon –
David Hansen, Kristin Collins Galbreaith and Michael Collins, are to the right of Judy Collins at the
Start/Finish area at Sunset Park, Coronado, California, in 2015. Hansen family members have been in
every Optimist Triathlon since 1975.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
CORONADO TRIATHLON FINISHER SHIRT
Photo – jnjcollins ***
On 5 September 2015 the ocean surf was steep and high with bodies tumbling all about on the swim
leg. Triathletes dove under the waves, swam out and around the buoys. Some caught waves on the
way back to the shore. Triathlon Co-Founder and Masters Swim Coach Stan Antrim had set up a Hard
Rock Division one year to encourage swimmers to enter their first triathlon and to run. It worked.
Many swimmers did their first triathlon and jogged their first 10k that weekend. Completing all three
events made them eligible for an award that was a smooth rock mounted on a wood base. The oldest
annual triathlon in the world began with a 4 mile bike ride in 1975, then a run to the beach, a ‘A swim
and a 1 mile beach run. Now the order is swim-run-bike.
On 25 September 2015 there was another anniversary in the History of Triathlon. Veteran athletes and
veteran volunteers of the 1974 Mission Bay Triathlon (MBT) met for a picnic on the 1974 course at
Mission Bay Park, San Diego, California. That was to mark the day and 5:45 pm start time of the first
San Diego Track Club triathlon. The Mission Bay Triathlon was the first run-bike-swim (Run, bike,
run/swim x 4-5) in the U.S. The total distances were <5 miles Run, >5 miles Bike, +\- 500 yards swim.
LET THEM EAT CAKE 25 SEPTEMBER 2015 MISSION BAY PARK, SAN DIEGO
Finishers and family of Finishers identify themselves with 1974 commemorative Finish Order #’s
before having dessert, a Mission Bay Triathlon Anniversary cake.
Photo – Thao Vu
A STOP WATCH, A TIME TICK SHEET, A POPSICLE STICK, A NAME = THE FINISHER LIST
John Collins hands a Finish Line Popsicle stick to Mission Bay Triathlon (MBT) Finish Recorder Betty
Johnstone at the 41st Anniversary reunion of athletes and volunteers in Mission Bay Park. John kept
the popsicle stick in 1974 so his name was not on the 1974 Finisher List. In this 2015photo one 1974
San Diego Track Club Triathlon veteran, Bob Potthof, arrived at the picnic on a Razor wearing a
helmet. No helmets were worn on the bicycle leg of the 1974 triathlon. Note that three in this 2015
photo are wearing USA Triathlon shirts.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
For the 47 participants and 7 or so volunteers in 1974 it was our first triathlon. We did not know then
that the French had been holding tri-events for decades, since about 1900.
MBT Founders Don Shanahan and Jack Johnstone called their run-bike-swim a triathlon. That was not
the first use of the word triathlon in modern sport. In 1973 and 1974 there was a cross-country multi-
leg run swim Triathlon at Clear Lake, California. But the San Diego Track Club (SDTC) name for their
event then became the name for the Optimist Club of Coronado (California) Triathlon in 1975 and for
our Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon in Honolulu in 1978.
Judy, John, Kristin and Michael Collins were involved in these three triathlon events. If a competition
included running, biking and swimming then it was called a triathlon by the Collins family, the San
Diego Track Club, the Coronado Optimist Club, and others. The name stuck. In 1979 the first ‘/2 Iron
Man distance triathlon was held in Coronado, California. By the year 1989 there was an International
Triathlon Union (ITU). In 2000 Triathlon was an Olympic Sport.
THE CORONADO-HA WAII-CORONADO CONNECTION
The Hawaii connection. Three Coronado residents. Maui born Phillip “Moki”Martin, Founder, in
1979, of the first-ever 1/2 Ironman Triathlon, SUPERFROG, talked story with Judy and John Collins,
Founders, in 1978, of the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon. On Sunday 27 September the first-ever
Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG was held in Coronado California USA.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
Our family had moved from Coronado to Honolulu in 1975. We left after the Optimist Club of
Coronado Sports Fiesta. We had moved into our new home in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in time for the
Waikiki Roughwater Swim. Swimming 2.4 miles in warm tropical waters at Waikiki seemed heavenly
compared to swimming 1 mile in the cold Pacific ocean in Coronado.
When we had introduced triathlon to the State of Hawai’i on February 18, 1978 we had combined the
three long distance annual events on the island to make up the first endurance triathlon in the world.
They were the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, a minimum 2.4 miles, founded by Jim Cotton in 1970; the
Round O’ahu Bike Ride, an estimated 112 miles; the Honolulu Marathon, 26.2 miles, first run in 1973
and boosted by Jack Scaff and John Wagner in weekly Marathon Clinics. Within the year, in 1979, a
Navy Seal in Coronado, a Son of Hawai’i, Phillip “Moki” Martin, had started a 1/2 Iron Man distance
triathlon, suitable to train for the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon.
Our family moved from Hawaii to the East Coast in late 1979. In 1992 we set sail on our Tayana 37′
from Coronado, California, headed southeast. We went through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic coast,
the Caribbean, in 1993.
We started the Portobelo Triathlon on “D” Day, June 6, 1998. We wanted to train for Kona and to
promote triathlon in Panama. Since 2000 there has been a triathlon on the Pacific coast too, in
Coronado(!), Panama. We laid out our tropical triathlon off-road on a challenging and historic
endurance course in Portobelo National Park. When Paula Newby-Fraser, the Queen of Kona, did
Portobelo one year she rated it as difficult as a really hard 1/2 Ironman although it is closer to
“Olympic” distances. By the way, Ironman Champions Paula Newby-Fraser and Heather Fuhr were on
the swim course at the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG on Sunday as lifeguards on Stand Up Paddleboards.
STAND-UP PADDLEBOARD (SUP)PHOTO
Two Ironman Kona Champions, Paula Newby-Fraser and Heather Fuhr, who were Stand Up
Paddleboard (SUP) Lifeguards on the swim course, pose with a fan after they surfed in to shore on
their SUPs in Coronado.
Photo- jnjcollins
***
PORTOBELO TRIATHLON FINISHER SHIRT 2015
We started the Portobelo, Panama Triathlon in 1998 so that we could train in a tropical setting for the
20th Anniversary of the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in Kona. We wanted to spur the sport of triathlon
in Panama.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
2015 is a memorable year for us as fans of triathlon. In September more than a dozen Panamanian
triathletes raced at the ITU World Championship in Chicago, Illinois, USA. In October five Portobelo
Panama Triathlon veterans will be in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii – Ronan
Pavoni, Fernando Alfaro, Pedro Cordovez, Cristina Mata and Eladio Quintero will race Kona.
Quintero is in a Legacy lottery spot. Legacy triathletes are those who have completed 12 Iron Man
Triathlons.
SURFER CEO PHOTO
“It was fun.” Andrew Messick, Ironman CEO, sprints from the sea after completing the 2 loop swim
course through the surf on the 1.2 mile swim leg of the first Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG in Coronado
CA on 27 September 2015.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
Andrew Messick, CEO of Ironman, is the one who started the Legacy Lottery. When we turned over
Iron Man, before 1980, to Hank Grundman, we stated that we wanted the race to always provide a
place for the ordinary athlete. Val Silk took on the race in 1981 when she and Hank separated.
Val added a lottery category a few years later to insure there were race entries for ordinary athletes.
Now there are hundreds of triathletes who have done scores of Ironman Triathlons. To swim-bike-run-
non-stop was a sport whose time had come.
On the last Sunday in October 2015 triathletes could choose between a USAT race in San Diego or a
1/2 Ironman Triathlon over the bridge in Coronado, California.
CANNON STARTS HEATS AT IM70.3 SUPERFROG, CORONADO CALIFORNIA 2015
When John shot the cannon there was fire and smoke. A heat of swimmers charged seaward.
Swim Start Director, Cannoneer Kevin Shute, held the cannon steady with his foot as he counted down
for Judy Collins to pull the string – boom !- that started the swimmers’ race to the surf.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
John and I had the honor of shooting the canon to start heats in the Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG
Triathlon in Coronado. It was a great day. Ironman and Coronado and triathlon had come full circle.
There was a military division in addition to the usual age-group divisions of triathlon.
NAVAL ACADEMY AND WEST POINT TRIATHLON CLUB TEESHIRTS
Midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy and cadets from West Point competed in the Service
Academies Division in the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG 2015.
Photos -jnjcollins ***
There was a Service Academy division, too, with many young people from Annapolis and West Point.
We were living at the Naval Academy in 1983 when we were first invited out to Kona to meet Val Silk
and to see what Val had done with the triathlon. Val had moved the Ironman to Kona from Honolulu.
It was Val Silk and Earl Yamaguchi who later took Ironman and triathlon world-wide. We felt right at
home to see and meet Military Academy triathletes last Sunday. This triathlon was as far south and as
far west as you can go in the U.S. A triathlete from Mexico raced in Chicago and in SUPERFROG.
TIJUANA TO CHICAGO TO CORONADO
A neighbor-country neighbor at the IM70.3 SUPERFROG was Carlos Santiago, a triathlete from
Tijuana, Mexico. Santiago had placed 11th in his 18-24 age group at the ITU World Championships in
Chicago 2 weeks before. Triathletes could see Mexico from the swim start in south Coronado.
Photo – jnjcollins***
Another triathlon link. Kevin Shute, the keeper of the cannon – that John and I each shot – was the
same Swim Start Official who had directed us when we had started heats at IM 70.3 Panama.
The winner in 2014 of Ironman 70.3 Panama, Javier Gomez Noya, is now the 5-time ITU World
Champion as of this year, 2015, in Chicago. That makes IM 70.3 a training distance for elite Olympic
athletes. Did I hear Jan Frodeno, the German Champion of Ironman Kona 2015, say in an interview
that he learned to switch muscle modes fast in ITU (Olympic Distance) races? To think it was our slow
but reliable muscles that led us to long slow distance (LSD) triathlon, a sport now dominated by super-
fit fast-twitch sprinters!
Talk about full circle…Triathlon, Ironman, USAT, ITU!
U.S. NAVY SEALS, MIDSHIPMEN, CADETS AND MORE WATCH THE MILITARY AWARDS
USMA (United States Military Academy) cadet triathletes wear their cammies and tri club teeshirts as
they watch the Military awards at the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
There was another triathlon side-story that you would appreciate, Jon. A recent Naval Academy
graduate triathlete was off to Korea this week to compete in the international military games… as a
triathlete!
The 1978 Iron Man triathletes who finished 1 and 2 in our first Hawaiian Iron Man were former CISM
(The International Military Sports Council) athletes too. That was news to us at the time. We thought
all who signed up in 1978 for the Iron Man were like us, recreational athletes who enjoyed endurance
events.
Aloha, Judy and John Collins, Coronado, California and Panama.
TRIATHLON COMES FULL CIRCLE 2015
TRIATHLON COMES FULL CIRCLE 2015
I was thinking of Jon Noll when I wrote this letter in October 2015. Jon Noll is a member of the USAT
(USA Triathlon) Board of Directors and a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New
York.
Dear Jon,
How are you, and USAT?
This continues to be an historic triathlon season for us. You would have enjoyed meeting young
triathletes from West Point and the Naval Academy who were competing here on Sunday. And more.
September tri sports, for us, began with the 40th anniversary of the longest running annual triathlon in
the world. That was here in Coronado, California, on Labor Day weekend. The Optimist Club of
Coronado Triathlon had been a bike-run-swim-run when our daughter and son first did it, on 27 July
1975. Now the Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon course is a swim-run-bike.
In the 1970’s swimmers from the Coronado-Navy Swim Team (CNSA), Amateur Athletic Union,
(AAU) age-group swimmers, and the Coronado Masters Association (CMA) AAU adult age-group
swimmers, were expected to take part in the Optimist Club of Coronado Sports Fiesta swim events.
CNSA alums Kevin O’Beirne and Kristin and Michael Collins did the triathlon and the 1 mile ocean
swim again in 2015. Judy Collins and David Hansen represented CMA. Hansen family swimmers
have been a part of the Sports Fiesta Triathlon every year since 1975.
1970’S CORONADO SWIMMERS AND TWO NEW TRIATHLETES
1970’s Coronado swimmers Michael Collins, Kevin O’Beirne, Kristin Collins Galbreaith (CNSA,
Coronado-Navy Swim Association) and Judy Collins (CMA, Coronado Masters Association) stand
behind new triathletes Iain Collins and Rob Roy before the swim start in 2015. It was CMA Swim
Coach Stan Antrim and Bob Weaver who created the Optimist Club Triathlon of 27 July 1975. The
Race Director now is Don Crawford. The coastline of Mexico is in the background.
Photo – jnjcollins
INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN SURF AGAIN. 2015.
The Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon is now the longest running annual triathlon in the world. On
27 July 1975 the course began with the 4 mile bicycle leg. Now the start is a 1/4 mile ocean swim
followed by a 1 mile beach run, then the 4 mile bike race to the finish line. Point Loma, San Diego,
California, USA is in the background.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
SWIMMERS EXIT HIGH SURF IN HIGH SPIRITS
Some swimmers entered three Coronado Sports Fiesta events in 2015 to compete for a Hard Rock
Award. Three men and three women won awards based on their cumulative times in the Triathlon, the
5k run and the one-mile ocean swim. Photo – jnjcollins ***
THREE 1975 FINISHERS IN 2015
After the triathlon. Three of the Original Finishers of the 1975 Optimist Club of Coronado Triathlon –
David Hansen, Kristin Collins Galbreaith and Michael Collins, are to the right of Judy Collins at the
Start/Finish area at Sunset Park, Coronado, California, in 2015. Hansen family members have been in
every Optimist Triathlon since 1975.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
CORONADO TRIATHLON FINISHER SHIRT
Photo – jnjcollins ***
On 5 September 2015 the ocean surf was steep and high with bodies tumbling all about on the swim
leg. Triathletes dove under the waves, swam out and around the buoys. Some caught waves on the
way back to the shore. Triathlon Co-Founder and Masters Swim Coach Stan Antrim had set up a Hard
Rock Division one year to encourage swimmers to enter their first triathlon and to run. It worked.
Many swimmers did their first triathlon and jogged their first 10k that weekend. Completing all three
events made them eligible for an award that was a smooth rock mounted on a wood base. The oldest
annual triathlon in the world began with a 4 mile bike ride in 1975, then a run to the beach, a ‘A swim
and a 1 mile beach run. Now the order is swim-run-bike.
On 25 September 2015 there was another anniversary in the History of Triathlon. Veteran athletes and
veteran volunteers of the 1974 Mission Bay Triathlon (MBT) met for a picnic on the 1974 course at
Mission Bay Park, San Diego, California. That was to mark the day and 5:45 pm start time of the first
San Diego Track Club triathlon. The Mission Bay Triathlon was the first run-bike-swim (Run, bike,
run/swim x 4-5) in the U.S. The total distances were <5 miles Run, >5 miles Bike, +\- 500 yards swim.
LET THEM EAT CAKE 25 SEPTEMBER 2015 MISSION BAY PARK, SAN DIEGO
Finishers and family of Finishers identify themselves with 1974 commemorative Finish Order #’s
before having dessert, a Mission Bay Triathlon Anniversary cake.
Photo – Thao Vu
A STOP WATCH, A TIME TICK SHEET, A POPSICLE STICK, A NAME = THE FINISHER LIST
John Collins hands a Finish Line Popsicle stick to Mission Bay Triathlon (MBT) Finish Recorder Betty
Johnstone at the 41st Anniversary reunion of athletes and volunteers in Mission Bay Park. John kept
the popsicle stick in 1974 so his name was not on the 1974 Finisher List. In this 2015photo one 1974
San Diego Track Club Triathlon veteran, Bob Potthof, arrived at the picnic on a Razor wearing a
helmet. No helmets were worn on the bicycle leg of the 1974 triathlon. Note that three in this 2015
photo are wearing USA Triathlon shirts.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
For the 47 participants and 7 or so volunteers in 1974 it was our first triathlon. We did not know then
that the French had been holding tri-events for decades, since about 1900.
MBT Founders Don Shanahan and Jack Johnstone called their run-bike-swim a triathlon. That was not
the first use of the word triathlon in modern sport. In 1973 and 1974 there was a cross-country multi-
leg run swim Triathlon at Clear Lake, California. But the San Diego Track Club (SDTC) name for their
event then became the name for the Optimist Club of Coronado (California) Triathlon in 1975 and for
our Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon in Honolulu in 1978.
Judy, John, Kristin and Michael Collins were involved in these three triathlon events. If a competition
included running, biking and swimming then it was called a triathlon by the Collins family, the San
Diego Track Club, the Coronado Optimist Club, and others. The name stuck. In 1979 the first ‘/2 Iron
Man distance triathlon was held in Coronado, California. By the year 1989 there was an International
Triathlon Union (ITU). In 2000 Triathlon was an Olympic Sport.
THE CORONADO-HA WAII-CORONADO CONNECTION
The Hawaii connection. Three Coronado residents. Maui born Phillip “Moki”Martin, Founder, in
1979, of the first-ever 1/2 Ironman Triathlon, SUPERFROG, talked story with Judy and John Collins,
Founders, in 1978, of the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon. On Sunday 27 September the first-ever
Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG was held in Coronado California USA.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
Our family had moved from Coronado to Honolulu in 1975. We left after the Optimist Club of
Coronado Sports Fiesta. We had moved into our new home in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in time for the
Waikiki Roughwater Swim. Swimming 2.4 miles in warm tropical waters at Waikiki seemed heavenly
compared to swimming 1 mile in the cold Pacific ocean in Coronado.
When we had introduced triathlon to the State of Hawai’i on February 18, 1978 we had combined the
three long distance annual events on the island to make up the first endurance triathlon in the world.
They were the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, a minimum 2.4 miles, founded by Jim Cotton in 1970; the
Round O’ahu Bike Ride, an estimated 112 miles; the Honolulu Marathon, 26.2 miles, first run in 1973
and boosted by Jack Scaff and John Wagner in weekly Marathon Clinics. Within the year, in 1979, a
Navy Seal in Coronado, a Son of Hawai’i, Phillip “Moki” Martin, had started a 1/2 Iron Man distance
triathlon, suitable to train for the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon.
Our family moved from Hawaii to the East Coast in late 1979. In 1992 we set sail on our Tayana 37′
from Coronado, California, headed southeast. We went through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic coast,
the Caribbean, in 1993.
We started the Portobelo Triathlon on “D” Day, June 6, 1998. We wanted to train for Kona and to
promote triathlon in Panama. Since 2000 there has been a triathlon on the Pacific coast too, in
Coronado(!), Panama. We laid out our tropical triathlon off-road on a challenging and historic
endurance course in Portobelo National Park. When Paula Newby-Fraser, the Queen of Kona, did
Portobelo one year she rated it as difficult as a really hard 1/2 Ironman although it is closer to
“Olympic” distances. By the way, Ironman Champions Paula Newby-Fraser and Heather Fuhr were on
the swim course at the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG on Sunday as lifeguards on Stand Up Paddleboards.
STAND-UP PADDLEBOARD (SUP)PHOTO
Two Ironman Kona Champions, Paula Newby-Fraser and Heather Fuhr, who were Stand Up
Paddleboard (SUP) Lifeguards on the swim course, pose with a fan after they surfed in to shore on
their SUPs in Coronado.
Photo- jnjcollins
***
PORTOBELO TRIATHLON FINISHER SHIRT 2015
We started the Portobelo, Panama Triathlon in 1998 so that we could train in a tropical setting for the
20th Anniversary of the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in Kona. We wanted to spur the sport of triathlon
in Panama.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
2015 is a memorable year for us as fans of triathlon. In September more than a dozen Panamanian
triathletes raced at the ITU World Championship in Chicago, Illinois, USA. In October five Portobelo
Panama Triathlon veterans will be in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii – Ronan
Pavoni, Fernando Alfaro, Pedro Cordovez, Cristina Mata and Eladio Quintero will race Kona.
Quintero is in a Legacy lottery spot. Legacy triathletes are those who have completed 12 Iron Man
Triathlons.
SURFER CEO PHOTO
“It was fun.” Andrew Messick, Ironman CEO, sprints from the sea after completing the 2 loop swim
course through the surf on the 1.2 mile swim leg of the first Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG in Coronado
CA on 27 September 2015.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
Andrew Messick, CEO of Ironman, is the one who started the Legacy Lottery. When we turned over
Iron Man, before 1980, to Hank Grundman, we stated that we wanted the race to always provide a
place for the ordinary athlete. Val Silk took on the race in 1981 when she and Hank separated.
Val added a lottery category a few years later to insure there were race entries for ordinary athletes.
Now there are hundreds of triathletes who have done scores of Ironman Triathlons. To swim-bike-run-
non-stop was a sport whose time had come.
On the last Sunday in October 2015 triathletes could choose between a USAT race in San Diego or a
1/2 Ironman Triathlon over the bridge in Coronado, California.
CANNON STARTS HEATS AT IM70.3 SUPERFROG, CORONADO CALIFORNIA 2015
When John shot the cannon there was fire and smoke. A heat of swimmers charged seaward.
Swim Start Director, Cannoneer Kevin Shute, held the cannon steady with his foot as he counted down
for Judy Collins to pull the string – boom !- that started the swimmers’ race to the surf.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
John and I had the honor of shooting the canon to start heats in the Ironman 70.3 SUPERFROG
Triathlon in Coronado. It was a great day. Ironman and Coronado and triathlon had come full circle.
There was a military division in addition to the usual age-group divisions of triathlon.
NAVAL ACADEMY AND WEST POINT TRIATHLON CLUB TEESHIRTS
Midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy and cadets from West Point competed in the Service
Academies Division in the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG 2015.
Photos -jnjcollins ***
There was a Service Academy division, too, with many young people from Annapolis and West Point.
We were living at the Naval Academy in 1983 when we were first invited out to Kona to meet Val Silk
and to see what Val had done with the triathlon. Val had moved the Ironman to Kona from Honolulu.
It was Val Silk and Earl Yamaguchi who later took Ironman and triathlon world-wide. We felt right at
home to see and meet Military Academy triathletes last Sunday. This triathlon was as far south and as
far west as you can go in the U.S. A triathlete from Mexico raced in Chicago and in SUPERFROG.
TIJUANA TO CHICAGO TO CORONADO
A neighbor-country neighbor at the IM70.3 SUPERFROG was Carlos Santiago, a triathlete from
Tijuana, Mexico. Santiago had placed 11th in his 18-24 age group at the ITU World Championships in
Chicago 2 weeks before. Triathletes could see Mexico from the swim start in south Coronado.
Photo – jnjcollins***
Another triathlon link. Kevin Shute, the keeper of the cannon – that John and I each shot – was the
same Swim Start Official who had directed us when we had started heats at IM 70.3 Panama.
The winner in 2014 of Ironman 70.3 Panama, Javier Gomez Noya, is now the 5-time ITU World
Champion as of this year, 2015, in Chicago. That makes IM 70.3 a training distance for elite Olympic
athletes. Did I hear Jan Frodeno, the German Champion of Ironman Kona 2015, say in an interview
that he learned to switch muscle modes fast in ITU (Olympic Distance) races? To think it was our slow
but reliable muscles that led us to long slow distance (LSD) triathlon, a sport now dominated by super-
fit fast-twitch sprinters!
Talk about full circle…Triathlon, Ironman, USAT, ITU!
U.S. NAVY SEALS, MIDSHIPMEN, CADETS AND MORE WATCH THE MILITARY AWARDS
USMA (United States Military Academy) cadet triathletes wear their cammies and tri club teeshirts as
they watch the Military awards at the IM 70.3 SUPERFROG.
Photo – jnjcollins
***
There was another triathlon side-story that you would appreciate, Jon. A recent Naval Academy
graduate triathlete was off to Korea this week to compete in the international military games… as a
triathlete!
The 1978 Iron Man triathletes who finished 1 and 2 in our first Hawaiian Iron Man were former CISM
(The International Military Sports Council) athletes too. That was news to us at the time. We thought
all who signed up in 1978 for the Iron Man were like us, recreational athletes who enjoyed endurance
events.
Aloha, Judy and John Collins, Coronado, California and Panama.