The Collegiate - Issue No. 4

Fievel Goes West
By: JP Severin

As some of you may know, I have recently moved to the home of Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre. The city of angels. That being said, it has been a rough transition (HA GET IT) away from my lovely little Spartan triathletes. However, all baby birds must leave the nest eventually. What I didn’t count on, was hopping out of my comfortable little training nest and right into another one.

The UCLA triathlon team has been a great find. I was initially put off by the disgusting blue and gold, but upon closer investigation, they were nothing like the wolverines. They are essentially a sister team to MSU. Same size, similar speed, and good people. Ironically, I was swimming with them and thought I recognized someone in my lane. She looked and talked exactly like one of my ex-girlfriends and old MSU teammates, so I asked and sure enough it was her older sister whom I had met once in an airport. Bizarrely small world, but I digress.

The bruins have a lot of luxuries as far as college teams go aside from good weather all year. As most everyone in this area drive between a Mercedes and a Bentley, they have wealthy donors who have purchased trainers for the entire team and have afforded them the opportunity to be coached throughout the year. Gareth is a great coach from London, who hates all American sports. He pisses and moans about how stupid basketball is at least every other time I see him. He also thoroughly enjoys the suffering of others. The bruins train less, but considerably harder than the Spartans which has been an interesting change. I have felt the pain big time as I don’t think they ever do anything slower than race pace. Gareth delicately toes the line of a lunatic.

Some of the highlights of the new team include the coach, the laid back and friendly attitude of the people, beastly workouts, and the unreal weather. Being a part of UCLA and MSU is going to be great when collegiate nationals rolls around. April 19th will be a serious showdown as I have been watching the UCLA team get faster and have been talking to my MSU buddies, who are excited about the way the year is going. Both are peaking for this race. Who am I going to race for? Well, I will be toeing the line for the Spartans. I will always bleed green but it is starting to blend with baby blue and yellow. Really weird blood...