Run, Bike, and...Swing?

"Run, Bike, and Swing for the Cure" was the name of the event that Boot Camps to Go held on 24 October 2009 as a benefit for the Sharon Ewing Walker Breast Health Center of Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Swing? In America, run-bike-and-swim triathlons are common, and run-bike-and-canoe events are not unheard of. What athletes were swinging that morning at the Industrial Drive location of Boot Camps to Go was kettlebells. To the list of exercise weights including dumbbells and barbells, add the kettlebell. A kettlebell is a heavy lump of metal with a handle attached. Track and field fans will find it reminiscent of the implement used during indoor season for the thirty-five-pound weight throw, but everyone else will look at it and see the profile of a cauldron or a kettle--hence "kettlebell."

"Marathoners have taken a full two minutes off of their times by adding kettlebell exercises to their training," I was assured by Laurel Blackburn of Boot Camps to Go. I neglected to ask whether the marathoners were going from 2:12 to 2:10 or from 5:01 to 4:59.

After an instruction period for novices on how to do kettlebell swings, the athletes started the event. First, they ran a loop of about 0.6 miles around Industrial Drive. After completing that lap, they bicycled around the same loop. After bicycling a lap, it was onto the gym floor for a set of swings with the kettlebell. After you put down the kettlebell, it was out the door to repeat the whole run-bike-swing formula again. The number of run-bike-swing circuits each athlete completed from 11:00am to 11:40am was recorded. The flyer promised "...one of the most intense workouts ever." After a couple of laps, most of the participants looked as if they would agree. And most everyone was there for a workout. You didn't see a whole lot of racing shoes or carbon-fiber-and-gossamer racing bicycles, just good solid equipment that you could build up a sweat with.

By noon everyone had returned to the gym floor for awards. The top team award went to a group of four athletes who accumulated thirteen run-bike-swing laps among themselves. Their teamwork, however, fell short of agreeing on a team name. "Name? I dunno," they shrugged. Cheryl Derstine was the top woman with three laps, and Paul Peavy the top male, also with three laps. At the end of the awards ceremony, Laurel Blackburn presented Judi Taber of the TMH Foundation with a generous check for the Sharon Ewing Walker Center.

Boot Camps to Go plans to make this annual event. Next time I'll show up early enough to learn how to swing a kettlebell.

Links:

• Run-Bike-Swing Photos
  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2738018&id=5215641&l=23048b60d0
  
  
• Boot Camps to Go
  http://www.bootcampstogo.com/
  
  
• Sharon Ewing Walker Breast Health Center
  http://www.tmh.org/cancer.cfm?id=199