Couples Discuss This Weekend’s Novel Event

March 2, 2022

The first of a pair of videos has just surfaced, this one featuring three couples: Jeanni & Justin Metzler; Mirinda Carfrae & Tim O’Donnell; Eric Lagerstrom & Paula Findley.

This video is kind of an ad, yes, made in service of the Couples Championship upcoming this weekend. But I, for one, sometimes like the commercials. My favorites are the old Chevy commercials in reruns of Route 66. But I digress…

One of the men in this Couples Championship video said something not entirely accurate when he said the point of the race was to discover which is “the fastest couple” among elite triathletes. The real point of the event…

… is to provide an opportunity for working triathlon couples. I interviewed Waterfall Bank’s CEO, Ben Atkins, and he was moved by the hardship of couples in our sport, especially during the COVID pandemic, which wiped out much or most of the earnings of each working athlete.

What I do note when reading these interviews is that they’re stoked to be racing with each other. Remember when Lifetime left USA Triathlon sanctioning a few years back? One of the reasons stated is that USA Triathlon rules (at the time) did not allow husbands and wives, or friends of a different gender or age group, to race together. (This has since been remedied.)

I can “race with my husband, which I’ve never done before,” Mirinda says here. Jeanni Metzler said, ”racing with my partner brings a fun aspect to the sport, first because we don’t ever get to do that, and because it’s a unique opportunity to do what we love.”

You can, “race with your significant other in a relay format, something that Eric and I have never done before,” said Paula Findlay, “which is really cool… a celebration of couples who do the sport together.”

We'll put up the other video tomorrow, with a description of the race format (which is a relay during which each sig other performs his or her relay leg). Tim O'Donnell predicted he'll be "sleeping on the couch" after his leg.