NIU's Second Trip to Nationals.. It's a Twister!

Last April the team and I decided to take our second trip down to the Triathlon Collegiate Nationals race. It was one big fiasco trying to figure out how we would travel down there because as most triathletes know it costs an arm and a leg to ship your bike to the destination and back. So we decided to drive. Now because I was the oldest of the bunch and the only one able to rent a car.. that is a lie, I'm 24 and at most places you have to be 25, but we found one dealer that let us rent from them.. it was Enterprise. Food for thought..

The race this year was in Lubbock, Texis, and from what I hear it is at the same place this year as last year. The Collegiate Nationals race usually takes place on a Saturday so we decided to leave on Wednesday night and drive through the night. If you haven't ever made the drive from DeKalb, IL. to Lubbock, Texas, it is a wopping 20 something hour drive.. or at least that is about how long it took us with a few short stops and a Tor.... I'll get to that in a second.

This year instead of only 3 team members going to the big dance, we took 7 and all crammed into a Honda Odyssey which is a pretty comfy van but not for 7 people. During the drive we played many games, sang songs, typical road trip things, however when we finally got into Texas and only about 50 miles from our destination; the weather made a turn for the worst. This day was definitely a windier day than usual or at least I assume, as the car was blowing all over the road.

First it started to rain, and then rain harder. All of a sudden it started to hail golf balls. Me being the driver I knew this wasn't safe to drive in, especially because the car was full of 6 other college age students, I wasn't all that pumped to be in charge of their lives in case something really bad happened; so I parked the car underneath an overpass. While we were under the overpass, many other cars joined in. It was like a parking lot, only every car under there was trying to play the wind and back up when the hail started hitting us in the front of the car and then moving forward if it came from the back.

We were of course intensely listening to the radio to try and figure out what was going on and where it was coming from. However, we didn't even know where we were so it didn't really matter. When we saw a bunch of storm chasers speed right by, we knew we were in trouble and this hail storm was actually just the beginning to a very intense and windy situation.

There was so much hail and rain now that on both sides of the road in the ditches were filling with icy water about 2 feet deep so in case of a tornado, we would get out of the car and dive into freezing water that would go over our heads. The road in front of us was covered with ice and snow. The car next to us was having a grand ol' time as this is probably the most snow that those crazy Texans see all year round. Us Illinois-ins see plenty of this white stuff.

All of a sudden, the hail stopped and you could see pretty clearly what was going on in front of us. The road was completely open, covered in hail and ice, but for the most part clear. I tried to open the driver side door and ask the people next to us what was going on. Opening the door was pretty clear that this storm was not over yet. It was so windy I thought we were gonners for sure, I asked the neighboring car what was going on or if they knew of a tornado that was near and the lady replied, "The tornado is right over there!" and I stood up glanced over the top of their suburban and low and behold, there was a Tornado about 500 yards away, not fully touched down but near.

I acted on instinct! Got back in the car and said, "We're going for it! I know this was a very risky move and probably not the smartest but the ditches on both sides of the road were very deep with water and I'm not much of a fan of being a sitting duck so I floored the pedal and we were off! Well not really I floored the pedal, but the car would not gain any traction. We were sliding all over the road. I will admit I was pretty scared at that moment. I wasn't looking for where the Tornado was, but could tell that it was nearby. It felt like it took 10 minutes to get the car to move, but finally we had escaped!! I drove way over the speed limit for a while just trying to get as much distance between the tornado and our car. Hands down, this was the most adrenalin I have ever felt, but I don't see myself becoming a storm chaser after that experience.

The race was good. It was a first race for 4 out of the 7 that went down there. We didn't plan on competing this year, just completing the first of many races. As for me, I don't think I have ever had a worse race. This was my first fall on the bike. And the funny thing is I wasn't even riding my bike when I fell. It was in Transition II while I was running along side my bike, I tried to lift up the bike to avoid a pothole but when I lifted the bike up the front wheel turned and I toppled over my bike and broke my hanger along with dented my disk wheel. I was pissed! After that fiasco I ran the worst triathlon 10k of my life.

Other than the Tornado, the trip was a success. My goal as the president this year was to inspire some new leadership for the future years and this year, they are being led by Jayme Christ who is actually the sister of the other guy I went on that Reno, Nevada Adventure with in the mountains. Never give up!

Collegiate Nationals as President of NIU's first team

This race was recently after the NIU shooting incident on Feb. 14, 2008 which will never be forgotten. We decided to take a pic with Virginia Tech. Huskies for Hokies.

After transfering to NIU because Iowa did not have P.E. as a major, I decided to put my leadership qualities and tremendous knowledge of triathlons to good use. In Spring of 2007 I formed the NIU Triathlon Team. However at that time it was too soon to take the team to the collegiate nationals race which happened in Tuscaloosa, Alabama that year.

When the team started out there were all of 3 active members, myself included. By Fall of 2007 the numbers shot up to 6, but in Spring of 2008 only 3 total members went to the 2008 Collegiate Nationals race. Which also happened to be in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The only difference from this year to last year is that this year was the 2008 Summer Olympics which could only mean one thing. Olympic Trials race. Directly after our race was the 2008 Olympic Trials Race. This is where Matty Reed qualified for the USA Triathlon Team. Above is a pic of Andy Potts in Transition.

Collegiate Nationals is known for 3 major things. A sweet costume and spirit contest during the all colleges pasta party, a massive race made up of all the fastest 19 - 24 year olds plus grad students, and finally the post race party that usually takes place anywhere the Iowa Hawkeyes are at. And who could forget the Purdue team. (those Hooligans).

This trip was an exciting one because first off we drove through the night to get there. Second, we made it there alive, third, the race was pretty sweet, fourth, the Olympic Trials were amazing, and fifth, because the NIU team made a promise to at least double in size for next year's nationals. The only drawback was getting lost on the way home and driving 3 hours out of the way.. dumb GPS and your shinanigans.

My next story will be more exciting, I promise! And once I get to the 1/2 Ironman, that is when the Race talk begins.

Never give up!

Collegiate Nationals 2006

Reno, Nevada This was one of my most memorable races/adventures. This race took place in the mountains of Reno, Nevada. This triathlon actually turned into a Duathlon due to how cold the water and the air temperature was. This race took place in April, but who knew there would still be snow and freezing temps on the bike portion. If you do not know, this was the first year that Arm warmers were starting to get popular. Too bad at the time I was lame and had no clue what they were or where I could buy them. The First Run of this race was just under a 5K. It was really fast and I actually had a pretty fast time, but truthfully I can't remember what time it was especially because that was a long time ago. On the bike portion I remember wanting to give up because of how cold I was. I was beginning to feel hypothermic, but decided to keep going and to never give up. This was another one of my firsts. I haven't ever ridden a bike in the mountains, but this race helped me lose my Vcard to mountain riding. Hills like I never imagined. Not only was it cold and I remember climbing past snow, but my legs were burning with pain and lactic acid build up. When I finally finished the bike portion, I felt like I was in last place. And rightfully so because when I started my first loop of the 2 loop 10K the first place male was already finishing the race. It was really depressing because I knew I still had at least 42 minutes of running ahead of me. Though I was totally bummed about being near last, I do love playing catch up. It is possible one of my favorite games as a runner. In fact I remember a couple years ago I was in a chip timed 5K in Iowa City where I started a full minute after everybody crossed the start line. The whole race I was picking off people left and right and everyone thought I was going to die off but I just kept getting faster and picking off more people. That race I ended up in the top 20 out of about 200. It was amazing! But anyway, back to the Triathlon. During the 10K I played my usual game of Island Hopper. I would run as fast as I could to a group of people, I'd pace with them for a little and then when I gathered my strength up again, I would go up to the next group. This was a great strategy for me as I ran a pretty fast time. This race was a rude awakening to the adverse weather conditions and extreme mountain climbs that I will hopefully encounter again when I head back out west for some more triathlons. Now onto the Adventure side of this post. Technically I should start up a new post for this one considering just how long it is, but then you wouldn't realize how intense this weekend was. Though the race took place on a Saturday and the TriHawks entire team could have been on a plane back to Iowa City by Sunday night, we all decided to stay another night for fun in Reno, Nevada. I'm actually not sure how we decided to do this but the next morning when everyone was awake, some of the team went out to breakfast, some of the team went out skiing at the nearby slopes, but two of us decided we were going to go on an adventure. As we looked outside our hotel, which was Circus Circus btw, we noticed a Large R Carved into the side of the nearest foothill/mountains. There was also an E, N, and O near the surrounding mountains. If you look closely you can see the R in the middle of the Picture. It was exactly12:30 p.m. that we decided we were going to bike over to the R and climb the mountain to the top. It was me and my teammate Eric Christ who btw just competed in the 2009 Madison Ironman. Preparing for this trip ment taking hand warmers, water bottles, hammer gels, and 1 celebratory Heineken for when we reached the summit. It took nearly 4.5 hours to reach the summit, but along the way, here are some of the pics from our journey. Here was our first steep climb. Doing the Heisman Pose, you might be able to notice our hotel way off in the distance. It is the big white building in the background above the Pine Tree. Below is Eric near our first sighting of snow and also when we were first above the clouds. Of course we had to make a snowman..

Victorious! When we finally reached the top, we decided to have our celebrating Heineken Bottle but later realized that we forgot the Bottle Opener back in the hotel room so we were SOL. By the time we realized there was no way to drink our celebration beer it was already starting to get late and we were starting to get nervous about how dark it would get and how quickly that would happen. We had no idea how to get back to the R or our bikes. So after 4.5 hours of climbing vertically, it only took us about 1.5 hours to run down the mountain, and believe me we were running! This was very tricky because it had rained while we were up at the top and all the steep hills had all turned into mushy mud which was more like a slip and slide on the way down. Finally we reached the bottom of the last foothill and followed a sign toward R. Later when we finally got back to our hotel, our friends had been worried but knew that we were all good when they saw all our sweet pics from our trip. These can all be found on my facebook pictures page, but obviously you'd have to be my friend to be able to see them. When I got home from this trip, I googled the Reno area so that I could map out how far we actually went. (If you go to Gmap Pedometer you can trace the route you take and it will give you the total miles.) This particular adventure came out to be roughly 13.5 miles total. Give or take the random paths we took to reach the summit. We Climbed over 8 total foothills to reach the summit. And we did this all the day after a grueling Duathlon in the Cold. Never Give Up.

Collegiate Nationals 2005

The next couple of posts might be a little long because they include my Collegiate Nationals stories from back in college. It includes my time on the TriHawks Triathlon Team (notice the gold font to represent the University of Iowa colors and the red font to represent the time when I was on the NIU TriDogs Triathlon Team (which by the way I will go down in the History books as the person who started up the team at that school).


Back when I was a Hawkeye, I competed in a couple big triathlons. The first big one which by the way was my first at the Olympic Distance took place at the Triathlon Collegiate Nationals race in Lake Havasu, Arizona. I had a lot of firsts this race. This was my first time swimming 1500 meters, this was also my first time biking more than 15 miles in a race. The 10K at the end was definitely my strong part except the 90 degree temperature that was beating down on me in the desert was not an easy feat.

During the Swim portion of this race, the course had more turns in it than any other race that I have done to this day. The swim took place in a canal that boats used to travel into the harbor. The swim course looked as zig zag as this WWWW it was rediculous. Plus, at the time, I did not know how to sight and on both sides of the canal the water became as shallow as 2 feet deep so I kept beaching myself... Note to self and other beginners to the Olympic Distance/first open water race, GET A TRIATHLON WETSUIT!!! NOT A SHORT SLEEVE WATER SKIING WETSUIT. They are incredibly different.

When I finished the race I was immediately ready for my next race! And ready for some much needed R&R, but we weren't going to do much of that. The day after the race we drove to Las Vegas as a team and Partied it up there!.. actually only half the team was old enough to gamble so half of us just walked the strip for half the night. Since then I realized that destination races are the most fun. The destination is nice because you get to explore a whole new scenery, but also because after the race is over, there is still fun to be had.

-Never Give UP!-

College Life

Back in High School I ran some decent times:
2.5 mile: 14:10
3 mile: 16:09
400 meters: 54.7
800 meters: 2:05.3
1 Mile: 4:41
2 Mile: 10:05

During college (I attended the University of Iowa btw) I never really got my freshman 15 but I did lose quite a bit or my speed. In fact, my first year in college I only ran 3 times all year. The Palatine Turkey Trot 5K, Zeta 5K, and the Run for the Schools 1/2 marathon (with zero training) near the end of my first year at the University of Iowa . My times in both 5K's were pretty weak, but my time in the 1/2 marathon was actually pretty decent. 1 hour 23 min with a 3rd overall place finish. It was then that I decided to go back to running and competing.



Let's take a quick side note.. I wasn't a lame-o, I partied it up. While attending Iowa, I was in the Iowa Drumline from 2003 - 2005, went to 3 bowl games, for free! Witnessed the Drew Tate to Warren Holloway Catch to win the 2004 Capital One Bowl game over the LSU Tigers. I was also a member of the TriHawks Triathlon Team. I competed in the Lake Havasu, Arizona Triathlon Collegiate Nationals and the Reno, Nevada Triathlon Collegiate Nationals with that team. I would have finished my senior year at Iowa, but ... they didn't have my Major which was Physical Education. So I had to Transfer and start the next chapter to my life.

NIU - While at NIU it ended up taking another 3 years to finish up my degree plus student teaching. Now when I transferred, I had a couple of things on my mind for school activities that I wanted to take part in. I definitely wanted to continue drumline because that has been a major passion in my life. The NIU drumline was good, but it wasn't the same as a BigTen Drumline. The traditions weren't the same, and lets face it, the football team wasn't as exciting to watch as Iowa's team. However, I did manage to travel once again for free with the Marching band to a bowl game. NIU got wooped by the TCU Horned Frogs in the San Diego, Poinsettia Bowl Game 2006.

The other thing I had on my mind was starting up the first NIU Triathlon Team. This took a ton of planning, representing myself in front of a full room of board members (or whatever those people are called), and a whole lot of extra paper work. Finally it passed, Spring of 2007. The team didn't actually start training till Fall 2007 but at least we made a start. That Spring we took our first team to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the 2008 Triathlon Collegiate Nationals. Since only 3 total members went, myself included, we couldn't score. But Spring 2009 for the Lubbock, Texas Triathlon Collegiate Nationals we had enough to score but took last place. haha, oh well, like I said before, We just wanted to go! and now that there is more experience running through their veins I'm sure they will do much better in the future as I have graduated from NIU with a Bachelors of Science in Education. I now teach as a Long Term Substitute P.E. teacher at St. Charles North High School and am loving it! If you know anyone who needs a high energy, extremely motivating P.E. teacher, please don't hesitate to call!

My last mention for my NIU section is that after quitting drumline, which is not like me to quit something.. However, I did do 4 years total in a college drumline and figured it was time to move on. My last 2 years at NIU was spent running around, peeing on fire hydrants, chasing my tail, and taking over 3 million photographs with strangers. My last 2 years at NIU I spent as the NIU Mascot. Yes, it is true, I was that Giant Dog jumping around on camera and on the football field next to the amazingly beautiful cheerleaders and dancers. Man was it a great gig. Not only did I do some incredible dog tricks, but I also rode around on my unicycle during the tailgating shinanigans. Yes, I did just say shinanigans, and also, it is true, I know how to ride a unicycle. Just another of my many fine talents, I swear. Go Huskies!

From here on out, most of my stories will consist of running or triathlon stories. Please let me know what you think of them and let me know of your own experiences. Woof Woof!





-Never Give Up!-

A little about me.

Hello all, this is John Atchison. I have decided to make a blog because as an athlete specifically triathlete and runner I am following in my best friends footsteps and writing about all the great experiences and stories that come along with racing. Please give me the dignity to elaborate here and there for my stories consist of sub-stories with a few comical endings and some emotional endings. I guess to start things off I'll tell you a little bit about myself.

I was born in Hoffman Estates, IL. but live in Schaumburg now. I was a good little tot. Played all sports imaginable as a youngin. I played hockey, basketball, baseball, volleyball, and soccer (for 11 years). It wasn't till high school when I realized my talent of running. I believe I got my endurance from soccer.

In high school I played freshman soccer and volleyball. I didn't end up enjoying it because of my teammates. So after a ton of encouragement from my parents I switched to CC and Track. While in CC (stands for cross country in case you did not know), I met some of my best friends still to this day. During my first race as a sophomore I was in second place coming into the home stretch and ended up out-kicking a teammate to win 1st place in my first CC race. Since that day, I realized that switching to a running sport has been the smartest move I could make.

From then on I'll recap the highlights. Jr. year I became one of the top runners in my high school. Yes, this may be due to the fact that Ryan Giuliano (my best friend) was hurt that year, but even still, I became quite a fast runner. During the second semester of my Jr. year I shattered my left tibia skiing. This incident has changed my life ever since.

The injury ended up taking 2 months in a wheelchair, 2 months on cruches, and 1 month in a walking boot to finally heal up. But that was just the beginning. I then had to catch back up to my team in training. Luckily, I have been told that I have a Talent. I was able to bounce back from this injury and be close to the 5th runner spot on the top 5 of the CC team. This goal was accomplished from our CC trip to Luddington, Michigan. (Running 70+ miles on sand dunes).

Near the end of the season, everyone was excited because we were actually really good. We did really well in Conference and were ready to dominate Regionals.. which we did! however a week before the race I went on an Adventure P.E. Climbing trip with my class, fell down on loose rocks fell down a hill and ended up causing a stress fracture in the same area I broke my leg. Being the team player that I am, I sat on the sidelines and cheered my team on as we crushed the competition at our Regional Meet. (actually I drummed on the sidelines.. I was also in the Conant High School Drumline and had major pull in the line to get the drums out to the meet to drop some sweet beats as my teammates ran by).

After Regionals, I had 1 weeks rest till Sectionals (the state qualifier meet). After all the training I went through, and after all the injuries, I was not going to let this opportunity slip by. I got back on my feet. Began to run with the team again.

Saturday morning finally rolled around. For sectionals at the time only 5 teams made it out to the State meet. Going into this race we knew that there were 4 teams better than us and that it would come down between us and another school. Well what do you know, that is exactly what happened. As the announcer went through the team placings during the awards ceremony, he certainly took his time when he announced the last team qualifier. Turns out we made it! By 1 point (place). I'm not saying that I was the deciding vote, but I was the 5th runner for our team to come across the finish line. That day made me realize my philosophy for life and now my philosophy for teaching. Never Give Up!

At state we took next to last place! Oh well, we made it, and that is all that mattered to us! Some other members of the 2002 boys State Qualifier team includes the following: Jon Hicks, Mike Reddington, Andres Ardila, Tom Zlotnikki, Ryan Giuliano, and Matt Janiga. Go Cougars!