The Art of Guiding

Earlier this year, someone at USA Triathlon messaged me to see if I’d be interested in becoming a paratriathlon guide. As a guide, you work together with a visually impaired athlete and help them navigate through the swim, bike, and run. USAT is currently looking to expand their pool of guides so when athletes come along, they can pair them with someone who possesses a similar skillset. At the time, he’d said they had an athlete that could swim a sub two-minute 200yd free and they needed some athletes that could keep up. He mentioned they were holding a camp in August for potential guides and developmental VI athletes if I was interested in trying it out.

I had a lot of fun racing short course, but I’ve been out of racing World Triathlon events for almost two years. This, in fact, worked out because pros looking to become guides must not have raced elite World Triathlon sprint or standard distance events within the past 12 months. I figured this might be a fun opportunity to learn about VI athlete racing and learn a new skill set. In mid-August, I made my way to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for a week of learning.

Outside of a day tour, this was my first experience at the Olympic Training Center. Staying there, it definitely felt like being back in college. Living in dorms without an in-room bathroom and sharing a small room with another guide. I think it would be a great place to live if one-hundred percent of your life’s focus was sport, but it felt like an adjustment having to run down the hallway in the early morning to pee.

As a dietitian, I was very excited about visiting the cafeteria. The menu changes day-to-day, but there’s always an abundance of snacks to grab for training. A make your own smoothie bar with tart cherry juice or beetroot juice concentrate, hot sauce bar, grill, and salad bar. It’s evident the in-house dietitians have their hand in the design of the space and meal offerings. One day, there was even a made-to-order sushi station. It was wonderful. It’s not often as an adult that you get all your meals made for you and don’t have to do the dishes afterwards.

Camp was split into two parts. The first three days were just potential guides and the next three were guides and athletes together. The camp was run by Paralympic VI athlete, Aaron Scheidies, as well as several other USAT coaches. I haven’t spent much time considering what it might be like to be visually impaired, but that quickly changed at the first training session at a local track. During the run, athletes are connected using non-stretchy tethers either by the wrist or at the hip. We practiced by having one guide run with their eyes closed while the other gave commands. Running with your eyes closed feels both terrifying and liberating. It takes some practice to relax and trust that this person guiding you isn’t going to run you into a pole, especially running at speed or through any sort of technical section. I learned quickly that it’s important to know the course routes and mentally plan queues ahead of time, because on the second day, we were running up a new path and came up on an obstacle. I panicked and accidentally led one of the veteran guides, Andrew, into a shin-deep puddle.

The week was packed with activities. Breakfast usually started around 6am and we’d finish out final events by 8pm. Each day we would do some swim, bike, and run training. I think I was most looking forward to riding a tandem. We were lent several Calfee tandems to use for the week. Craig Calfee, the owner of Calfee bikes, was in attendance and helped us with set up and sizing, as well as teaching the group general knowledge about tandem bikes. Excitement to ride turned to nervousness trying to mount the bike for the first time. I never realized how unsteady a race tandem is at slow speeds. The bike wobbles uncontrollably as both people try to find their balance. This problem is easily remedied as you pick up speed, but wow, it brought me back to being a newbie. Once going, you realize tandems are pretty fun, and with two people it’s easy to hit high speeds.

Cornering a tandem takes some practice. Most World Triathlon courses have technical aspects to them, whether it be dead 180-degree turns or tight corners. You really have to lean the bike to turn it, while queuing things you normally wouldn’t think about like coasting before a turn or shifting gears.

The VI athletes in attendance came from various backgrounds. There were some experienced bike riders, and a few athletes crossing over from other sports like para climbing or track and field. In paratriathlon, there are three VI classes:

PTVI1 – Includes athletes who are totally blind, from no light perception in either eye, to some light perception.
PTVI2 – Includes athletes who are more severe partially sighted athletes.
PTVI3 – Includes athletes who are less severe partially sighted athletes.

All VI categories compete together in the same race. PTVI2 and PTVI3 athletes start roughly three minutes behind PTVI1 athletes to account for sight differences. Only about 10-15% of visually impaired athletes are totally blind. By World Triathlon rules, athletes in the PTVI1 category must race with blackout goggles throughout the entire race.

It was really fun getting to know these athletes, all with different stories. Some were young and many could have futures in the sport. Each person has their own queues they like, or amount of information they want to know while training, so communication becomes important. When guiding, it’s not about you. I think this is really important to remember. As a guide, you can’t pull or lead your athlete through the race, nor do you want to slow them down. Your job is to give queues to help them execute their own plan. It’s likely the best guides are people who are great athletes but also capable of building good relationships and communicating.

Overall, the camp was a great learning experience. It was really fun to be able to participate in sport and not have it be about yourself. Plus, triathlon is awesome, so it’s fun to be able to share that experience with others. Will I have a future as a paratriathlon guide? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. It’s unknown if or when the opportunity may arise but I’m open to the idea.

There’s always a need for more guides at every level. If you want to get involved, there’s more info available on USA Triathlon‘s website. Other resources to get involved include:

United in Stride
United in Stride is a tool for uniting visually impaired runners and sighted guides. Finding the right running partner can be challenging, and incredibly rewarding. Both VI athletes as well as those interested in guiding can create an account to find people in their local area.

Dare 2 Tri
A non-profit based out of Chicago. Dare 2 Tri is the first adaptive paratriathlon club/group. They work to support sport participation recreationally and competitively, while cultivating a sense of community for athletes and by building confidence, health and wellness through swimming, biking, and running.

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