Two years ago off-road triathlete Taylor Seavey borrowed his mom's mountain bike so he could compete in his first sprint triathlon, the
Polar Bear Pink Cheeks Triathlon in his hometown of Seward, Alaska.
Though Seavey grew up living in a yurt and being homeschooled, he'd been swimming competitively with the high school swim team for two years. Ready for a challenge, Seavey signed up for the tri with about three weeks to prepare. The Polar Bear Pink Cheeks Triathlon is a reverse tri, with athletes running 5K, biking 10K (mountain bikes recommended) and finishing with a 900-meter pool swim.
"That morning I was pretty nervous because I'd just started biking and running two weeks before the race," says Seavey. Determined to have fun, he used his nerves and went for it, taking eighth place overall and beating his swim coach. "I was like, 'Whoa, this is awesome, I wanna do more!'” he says.
Solid choice. Now, two years later, Seavey, his parents and the family dog
Buffet, are on a six-month training and racing
RV trip, touring the western U.S. via eleven events in six states.
For the last year, Seavey's worked with Amber Monforte and Conrad Stoltz of
Stoltz Racing. He calls Monforte the Torturer (read his post
here). They communicate weekly via e-mail and she writes his weekly workouts. This April, Seavey, his dad, Monforte and Stoltz met up in Reno for a
mountain bike training ride. In his post, Seavey says Stoltz (3x Xterra World Champion known as the Caveman) pretty much rides the trails like he's on a dirt bike instead of a regular mountain bike.
"My racing performance has improved a lot since being coached by Amber and Conrad," says Seavey. "I’m now finishing much stronger than I was last year and I can push harder during races without going over the edge."
When the time is right, Seavey hopes to turn his frequent podium performances as an age-grouper into a pro career. "I would like to build up to being one of the top amateurs e
specially in off-road triathlons before going pro so I'm not in a big hurry," he says. (Learn more about the elite qualification process
here.)
His other life-goal—
to enjoy life as much as possible each day! "If I wasn’t a triathlete and I wanted to be active I would probably be swimming one day, then biking or running the other," Seavey says.
He also loves snowboarding, snowmachining and camping, but someone else better reel-in dinner. "I'm not a very good fisherman, I have a tough time trying to ca
tch fish!" he says. And, when he was younger, he wasn't that interested in his wild backyard stomping grounds, but he loved to escape through reading.
Seavey and I share similar tastes in TV (24) and movies (Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Avatar). And then there's music—it takes me a second to catch up with Seavey's confident humor. For favorite music on his
blogger profile, he writes, "Let me think ...."
When Seavey was seven months old his parents noticed he wasn't responding to their voices or other sounds. "My dad even did his own test of starting and running a chainsaw behind me to see if it scared me," he says. "
But apparently I ignored him haha." Last time his hearing was tested Seavey was 98 percent deaf.
On race day Seavey wears a tri suit with the word deaf written on the back. "In training it’s usually not necessary to have those marks because my Dad is along for the ride or run too," he says. "Earlier this season at the
Lavaman Triathlon, during a dicey section of the bike course involving a sharp corner and a speed bump, volunteers were warning me about the speed bump but I didn’t hear them or see the speed bump. Consequently, I went flying over the handlebars of my tri bike. Fortunately nothing was broken, I was more concerned about my bike and I apologized to it!
Then I was able to get back on and finish."
ON TOPIC- Turn to p. 56 of the July issue of
Triathlete Magazine for a feature on Seavey.
"I felt very honored to be interviewed by
Triathlete Magazine," says Seavey. "I’m happy to help people see that they can do anything once they set their mind and especially heart into it."
See pictures from his photo shoot
here. Preview the digital issue of
Triathlete and enjoy Seavey's feature
here.- "As the only deaf person in Seward my parents decided to teach me English rather than ASL, meaning that I sign pretty much how hearing people speak rather than in American Sign Language," Seavey says.
- Alaskan triathletes race most between May and August, when the weather is more cooperative. "In December I did one winter triathlon in Palmer, a little bit north of Anchorage, and it was a fun race," says Seavey. "I did it on my mountain bike with studded tires on icy roads and it was a frosty five degrees below zero F."
Questions for You
- Is Alaska on your list of must-sees? Thanks to my parents, I visited Alaska in 2009, with stops in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. This is my picture of Glacier Bay—it was incredible.
- RV experience? Growing up I loved touring parts of the U.S. from N.Y.C. to Yellowstone in our family Winnebago. The Winnie burned down when I was almost 16 on our way to the Magic Kingdom!
- How long did you train for your first triathlon?
Thanks Taylor for the interviews and for your patience and willingness to be featured! I hope my three sons grow up with a similar sense of confidence, humor and solid ground beneath their feet. Best wishes to you!
