For the second time in four months, San Diego's triathlon community has been rocked by tragedy. In April, it was Dave Martin, 66, of Solana Beach being killed by a great white shark.
This week, it was Barbara Warren, 65, of San Diego, dying after crashing her bike at a Santa Barbara race.
“We're suffering,” Raja Lahti said of the tri community. “We're suffering hard.”
Lahti echoed the sentiments of many triathletes when she said she's mourning. That she'll be more cautious riding, particularly in corners and when racing downhill.
And that she's not about to give up the sport.
“This is what I do,” Lahti said.
Said Craig Zelent, who coaches the Triathlon Club of San Diego's Ironman program: “To our credit, we'll probably always be conscious of those risks. But we're going to go right back out there and keep playing. It's what (Barbara) would have wanted us to do.”
Given triathlon's mushrooming growth the past 10 years, plus that the sport entails swimming sometimes 2.4 miles in deep water and riding a bike upward of 30 mph, it's understandable that deaths, while rare, do occur.
Nationally, three people died in triathlons within a recent 38-day span.
At the New York City Triathlon on July 20, a 32-year-old man from Buenos Aires, Argentina, died during the swim.
At the Escape From the Rock triathlon last Sunday, a 63-year-old man died during the swim between Alcatraz Island and San Francisco.
Warren died Tuesday, three days after her bike accident.
In 2001, a 45-year-old Ohio triathlete died after crashing his bike on Camp Pendleton during an Ironman race. In 2002, a 55-year-old man died during the swim at Ironman Utah near Provo; 30 mph winds created 3-to 4-foot waves during that race.
Of the sport, Encinitas' Roch Frey, one of triathlon's most respected coaches and a race director said, “It's an inherent danger.”
Added Paul Huddle, Frey's business partner and another top coach: “It's an inherent danger of being alive. You are going to die. I feel like so often everyone's looking for a reason or looking for a cause, which is natural, especially as a race organizer.
“Sometimes it's as simple as your number came up. A heart attack or a stroke. Or you were unfortunate to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. There was a crash or you were taking a poor risk.”
Frey said many triathletes put themselves in danger because of poor decisions and bad bike-handling.
At camps, Frey said, he's often stunned when he sees amateurs riding on a bike lane's white stripe or even beyond it rather than farther to the right. He said many cyclists will reflexively swerve out of the way of debris and across the white line.
“I'd rather have a flat tire than swerve out into traffic,” he said.
Added Frey: “Some (cyclists) simply don't have the courtesy toward drivers. They're thinking, 'OK, I'm on a bike. I cannot stop at stop signs. I can roll (through) red lights.' It takes just one bad cyclist for drivers to think all cyclists are like that.”
Frey said that one time in Kona, Hawaii, while riding in a taxi before the Ironman Triathlon World Championship, the cab driver told him, “If they're on the left side of the line, they're fair game.”
Of the man's attitude, Frey said, “It's sad, but it's the world we live in.”
When San Diego triathlete Jacque Harvey read Warren's obituary to his wife yesterday morning, he said his wife told him, “You know, I worry about you every time you go for a bike ride.”
Harvey, 61, was struck from behind by a car when he was cycling in his first triathlon 13 years ago.
“Biking is scary in populated areas,” he said.
But he won't quit riding.
“Oh, absolutely not,” he said. “It's what I love to do.”
Lahti said cycling's sense of freedom is too strong for her to be scared away.
“Every time I get on my bike and start riding, start turning my legs over, I feel like I'm flying,” she said. “I'm a little hovercraft, 3 feet off the ground, and nothing can stop me.”
Don Norcross: (619) 293-1803; don.norcross@uniontrib.com
