ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Close to 20 Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) employees recently participated in the 30th Mach Tenn Triathlon, an event with many ties to the Air Force base where much of the swim-bike-run race is held.

"The Mach Tenn Triathlon originated more than 30 years ago," said Melissa Miller, the race's director and an Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) Instrument and Controls Services Branch project execution specialist. "Bob Alt, a retired AEDC engineer, was the driving force in getting the triathlon started. Sarah Liechty had an idea for a triathlon and mentioned it to Bob. Bob took the idea and ran with it - came up with the location and course.

"Bob Alt is still involved with the triathlon and has been an integral part of the event for its entire 30 years. He was the race director for several years and then turned that job over to others, but remains involved with much of the pre-race preparation and set up."

Miller added, "At the time that Mach Tenn was created in 1982, the sport of triathlon was very new - 1974 was when the first modern day triathlon was organized in San Diego.
Miller said the event originally included the three Olympic-length components, including a 1.5K swim, 40K bike ride and a 10K run.

"In 1997, Wattendorf [Memorial High Way] was under road construction and that part of the bike course was closed. So things had to be re-routed. In the re-routing, the bike course got shortened and it was decided to proportionally shorten the other two legs of the race.

"The race distances are currently 1.0K swim, 16-mile bike [ride], and four-mile run. Although a triathlon is normally an individual event, many people enjoy competing as part of a relay team."

She said the triathlon still presents a challenge to participants and she has witnessed a steady increase of interest in the event.

"The sport of triathlon is growing - a decade or so ago there were very few local participants in the race," she said. "Most of our folks were coming from an area bounded by Knoxville, Memphis and Atlanta. These days, with more participants and more races available, our participants typically come from a much smaller radius - Nashville, Chattanooga and Huntsville. We have seen an increase in the numbers of locals - which is nice."

Miller emphasized the importance of the event's sponsor.

"Our local Budweiser distributor has taken a very active role in the triathlon," she said. "More importantly, they have been the primary or only sponsor of our annual Turkey Trot run that the Air Force Company Grade Officer's Council every year for at least the last 15 years."

She added, "We are lucky to have group of very loyal participants. If you look at the results over the years you begin to see the same names time after time. Certainly Kevin Sipe and Eric Bjorn are included in that. There are three folks who have done the race 29 of the 30 times it has been run. One of those is Dale Smith, who is a retired test engineer from PWT [Propulsion Wind Tunnel facility]."

Kevin Sipe, AEDC's Capability Integration Branch specialist, acknowledged he was initially reluctant to take part in the event.

"Bill Gray decided he wanted to do a triathlon before he turned 50 and thought I would be interested in doing one, too," Sipe said. "I wasn't initially interested, but Bill Gray convinced me to do it. I'm 58 now, so I guess I have been doing them for nine years. I usually do the Mach Tenn. Triathlon since it is a local event and I know many of the participants. Also, in my opinion, it has the best venue and it is the best run triathlon that I have experienced."

Eric Bjorn, chief of AEDC's Strategic Planning Branch, credits the success and popularity of the Mach Tenn Triathlon to other committed athletes who enjoy sharing the challenge of being a multi-sport athlete.

"There are some big-time triathletes on base, including Dave Ruckstuhl and Tony Pennington, who have both done one or more full Ironman races," Bjorn said. "Triathlons are one of the fastest growing sports in America. I love the challenge of training for a multi-sport event and transitioning from one sport to another during the actual race.

"In triathlons, they group participants by age, sex, and even weight, so you can compete against your peers and older, bigger guys like me can place."
Bjorn recalled how he got involved in the local triathlons.

"As for me, I was taking a bicycle spin class at AEDC back in 2006," he said. "I realized it had been 20 years since I did my first and only triathlon while stationed in California.

"I knew the Mach Tenn was coming up and I decided to go for it and started an abbreviated training regimen. I expected triathlons to be a once-every-20-years thing for me. But the race, the venue, and the people were so great, and I had so much fun that I was hooked."

Bjorn added, "I've done the Mach Tenn seven times in a row now and do about five triathlons per year. This year, the 30th anniversary of the Mach Tenn fell on the exact date as the 30th anniversary of my graduation from the Air Force Academy. It made for a special day and I wore my Air Force Academy t-shirt to celebrate."