At 8:42 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, the first wave of about 50 athletes stepped into Lake Padden, waiting for their mark. Recreation coordinator Billy Reeves, who earlier made a joke about forgetting his whistle, shouted “Ready! Set! Go!” and the initial group was off.
Separated by two-to-three-minute intervals, Reeves released the following two waves into the water. This began the 2023 Padden Triathlon competitive long-course race. Participants started with a half-mile swim, transitioned into a 21-mile bike ride and finished with a 5.2-mile run, or two laps around the lake.
The recreational race followed at 1 p.m. with a quarter-mile swim, 10-mile bike and 2.6-mile run. In total, across both races, 396 participants registered for the event.
This was the 28-year-old Reeves’ first year in charge of the triathlon. Last year, he shadowed Lance Romo in his final year coordinating the event.
Kristen Schafer heads around for her last lap at the Padden Triathlon. Schafer finished was the first women’s finisher. (Andy Bronson/Cascadia Daily News)
“The year before that I was just a camp counselor for Bellingham Parks and Rec, kind of just helping out. I saw [the triathlon] that first year working here and was like ‘I want to run that someday,’” Reeves said. “I got to work my way up and work with [Romo] closer and closer, and here I am now getting to run it.”
One athlete, Frank Ascioti, came up from Whidbey Island to compete in his third Padden Triathlon. Originally from Massachusetts, Ascioti is stationed on the island by way of the Navy. He was an avid CrossFitter before getting into triathlons in 2020.
“You can go be a runner, but then you’re just running every day,” Ascioti said. “You can be a biker and you’re biking every day, but at least with [the] triathlon you get to do all three disciplines. So swim, bike and run, that keeps the training more fun. And as opposed to going to a gym and saying ‘I’m just working out,’ you get to say, ‘I’m training for something.’”
Ascioti placed fourth among all participants, finishing with a time of 1:48:38 seconds. Chris Hughes was the first to finish, completing the course in 1:37.22, followed by Benjamin Latta at 1:47.30 and Brian O’Rourke with the exact same time.
A swimmer looks for the exit of the swimming leg. (Andy Bronson/Cascadia Daily News)
The triathlon wasn’t just fun for the athletes. Many people came out to support their friends and family members. Stephanie Lam drove down from Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband Andrew Lam and their two children, Daniel and Kaitlyn.
A week ago, 4-year-old Daniel completed his first triathlon and now got to watch his father finish another one of his own, something he’s been doing for more than 10 years.
“I found generally the atmosphere of the races is really fun and people are all cheering, not just for whoever they’re here for, but for everyone on the race course,” Stephanie Lam said.
The City of Bellingham hosts the triathlon but uses Pacific Multisports to assist with timing. Marc Blake owns the company tracking athletes’ times as they go through the course. Their times for the swimming, biking and running portions are recorded along with the time they spent at each transition. While Pacific Multisports does the timing for almost every race in Bellingham, Blake has seen much of what draws people to the Padden Triathlon in particular.
“It’s super relaxed, it’s not really high pressure,” Blake said. “Lance Romo used to be the race director for 10, 15 years, maybe even more. He always gave a really fun speech and I’ve heard people say they come to the race just to hear his pre-race.”
While Reeves has big shoes to fill in the absence of Romo, he plans to do that with a lot of the same things that made Romo so appreciated.
“The way that [Romo] ran it and how he kind of had that energy of being a comedian and going out there and being funny, I’m trying to be a super nice, super cool guy and then throw in some of those jokes that [Romo] has,” Reeves said.
For full results from the 2023 Padden Triathlon, visit Pacific Multisports’ website.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the total number of contestants, across both races, was 145. The actual number of registered contestants was 396. The story was updated to reflect this change on June 28, 2023 at 2:20 p.m. The Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
