42nd Annual Hagg Lake Triathlon & Trail Festival continues to thrive

Published 3:51 pm Monday, July 17, 2023

The 42nd Hagg Lake Triathlon & Trail Festival is in the books, and the latest iteration on Saturday, July 15, and Sunday, July 16, might have been the biggest yet.

Nearly 1,000 endurance athletes from across the state, region and country competed in last weekend’s event, and while the temperature was hot, the atmosphere was far from spoiled at an event that simply continues to grow.

“Over the 10 years we’ve been running it, this is the biggest we’ve produced here,” WHY Racing Events event and partnership director Karissa Schoene said. “It’s usually about 450, 500 people, and this year, we’ve got more than 800.”

Frank Gouland — who lives in Canby and previously lived in Hillsboro and Beaverton — first raced at Henry Hagg Lake in 1982 and was the racing director from 1988 to 1994. He’s missed but one of the events since.

Goulard has been in love with the sport of triathlon since first dipping his toe in the water — proverbially and literally, since one leg of the race is swimming — more than 40 years ago.

“I think what initially catches people’s interest is curiosity,” Goulard said. “When I first saw it on TV, I thought, what a blast. The swimming looked fun, the transition looked exciting, then I did it and I was like a little kid, I was so excited.

“They say once you’ve done it, you’ve caught the bug. And that’s definitely how it was for me.”

Goulard said he thought interest in triathlons was waning, or at the least plateauing, in the late 1990s, but said he felt the sport got a much-needed infusion of energy in the wake of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, site of the first Olympic Triathlon. Since then, he’s seen the numbers of participants seemingly exponentially grow — with people of all ages.

“Look around here — there are a lot of young people here,” Goulard said at the Hagg Lake Triathlon. “It’s not just people around or over 40, but a lot of youth and people in their 20s and 30s, which is nice to see.”

One of those young racers was Lydia Bartlett who was competing in her first triathlon at Hagg Lake. The recent high school graduate from Sisters was a competitive swimmer but decided to give a triathlon a shot after talking to her friends about their experiences with the event.

Bartlett’s inexperience didn’t show: The first-timer was the first female across the finish line in the Sprint Division, and she finished seventh overall.

“It was really fun,” Bartlett said. “I just started biking a couple weeks ago and I didn’t really know what to expect, but my friends told me the stuff I should practice ahead of time, so I wasn’t that surprised. I’ll probably do more of them.”

Reid Sund, 39, of Salem too competed in that Sprint Division, placing third. He’s been racing triathlons for roughly two years, beginning with the Oregon 70.3, an Ironman-run event held in Portland consisting of a 1.2-mile river swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run.

Sund said that since that event in 2021, he races as many triathlons as he can and said he never misses the event at Hagg Lake — a course he immensely enjoys.

“I love this course,” Sund said. “The bike is one of the prettiest around. It’s beautiful, the roads are perfect and it suits me well because I love to climb.”

He went on to say that while he enjoys the larger and more well-known Ironman events, he has an affection and appreciation for events run by smaller companies like WHY Racing due to the manner by which they go about their business, as well as the people they reach in the sport.

“They’re so great,” Sund said. “These local companies are out here rolling up their sleeves, getting volunteers, and doing the little things that make their events so great. Ironman is a big juggernaut, but companies like this (WHY Racing) bring a lot of people into the sport. I wouldn’t have ever gotten into triathlons without them.”

Schoene said that while they certainly and happily recycle athletes at the Hagg Lake event, she said that this year, roughly 40% of their participants were first-timers.

“We have a lot of the same athletes, but we have a lot of new ones right now,” she said. “While it’s not growing nearly as much across the country, it definitely is here.”

Goulard said he attributes a lot of that to the welcoming and festive atmosphere you find at endurance events like the one at Hagg Lake. There’s music, food and beverage, a relatively lighthearted approach to the competition, and smiles — lots of smiles.

“I think what separates us (triathlons) apart from other sports is the camaraderie,” Goulard said. “Whether you’re the first-place finisher or someone down in the pack, everyone respects every finisher. People have different goals and are different ages, but it’s always about the effort.”

That fits with WHY Racing Events’ mantra, which you can see written across the top of both the start and finish line: “It’s not finishing that matters, it’s having the courage to start.”

For all the results from the Hagg Lake Triathlon, visit WHY Racing Events’ website at whyracingevents.com.