BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Maj. Melissa Tallent, an Individual Mobilization Augmentee assigned to U.S. Pacific Command, represented the Air Force at the 2015 Armed Services triathlon, June 7.
The annual inter-service event was held in conjunction with Leon’s Triathlon, in Wolf Lake Park, Hammond, Indiana. The Air Force Men’s and Women’s teams excelled, earning gold and silver, respectively.
Despite pouring rain, wind and a thunder storm, Tallent, who has represented the Air Force in the swim, bike and run event every year since 2010, finished 11th in the women’s military race, with a total time of 2 hours, 23 minutes, 49 seconds.
A triathlon is a race where competitors must swim, bike and run (in that order) for a set distance, which varies depending on the event type. In a sprint event, the athlete swims 750 meters, bikes 20 kilometers and runs five kilometers. In an Olympic distance tri, participants swim 1.5 kilometers, bike 90 kilometers and run ten kilometers. In an Ironman distance event, the competitor swims 3.8 kilometers, bikes 180.2 kilometers and runs 42 kilometers.
Tallent said her strongest legs of this year’s competition were the swim and the bike. A strong swimmer who started in the second wave, Tallent powered through the first leg, transitioned to the bike and passed most of the athletes from the first wave. During the cycle portion, the weather deteriorated, with the wind picking up and thunder rolling in. She lost some time on her run to some strong runners but felt good about the race overall.
In recent years, the military triathlon has been held in Southern California, where the weather is always beautiful, said Tallent. This year’s move to Indiana was definitely a shift, but the organizers treated the athletes very well and provided a lot of support, she added.
The masters-level triathlete got her start in sports in high school by running cross country. She picked up swimming during her college years and kept it up after. She got her start in triathlons when a Marine she was swimming with in a master’s program offered to sell her a bike. Once she started riding, it wasn’t long before friends pulled her into her first multi-stage competition.
She completed her first sprint triathlon in 2005, finishing in 1 hour, 30 minutes. That race was held in conjunction with an Olympic distance event and she recalled how she felt seeing the participants compete in the longer event.
“I remember watching the athletes doing the Olympic event and I was like ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t imagine being out there doing double that course.’”
But, she was hooked and over the next several years would experience a shift in mindset, reconsidering her capabilities. By 2010 she completed an Ironman distance event in 11 hours. As her mindset shifted, so did her results. After she started competing in triathlons, it wasn’t long before she began excelling in her age group and that gave her even more motivation.
“Once I started winning my age group, it encouraged me to want to do better, and I wanted to start placing overall,” she said.
Her results got noticed. The same year she completed her Ironman, she was selected to participate on the Air Force triathlon team at the Armed Forces event.
To prepare for her races, Tallent dedicates up to 20 hours a week to ensuring her body is in peak physical condition. Her training routine regularly involves two workouts a day, often referred to as doubles, with a swim session in the morning and running or cycling in the afternoon.
When training for an Olympic distance event, such as the Armed Forces Triathlon, her first workout entails about an hour in the pool, about a two-mile swim. During her second workout, she’ll complete up to a 10-mile run, and her cycling sessions range from 20 to 60 miles, depending on the day.
In addition to her training, Tallent also spends time at the chiropractor and physical therapist, as well as strength training and stretching.
Tallent’s hard work pays dividends on race day. She is a regular age group and top-10 finisher in her triathlon events and, in 2014, USA Triathlon named her an All-American in the master’s division, which put her in the top five percent of triathletes in the country and qualified her to compete at the Olympic-Distance National Championships. She has also exceled in cycling and, through a ranking system based on experience and results, recently moved from a Category 4 to Category 3 rider.
Her success has not come without setbacks. In the 2012 Armed Services Triathlon, Tallent was poised to advance to the international military triathlon, known as Conseil International du Sport Militaire. Running in sixth place with only two miles left to go, her calf muscle, where she’d experienced tightness that season, tore.
“It snapped like a rubber band,” she said.
Instead of advancing to the CISM event, which was held in Switzerland that year, she went home on crutches.
But she didn’t let her injury slow her down. After recovering, she continued to work hard and has made the Air Force team every year since. She has also started riding with the U.S. Military Endurance Sports cycling team. The USMES is a nation-wide athletic club made up of current military members and veterans who compete in endurance sports, such as cycling and long-distance running.
She said the training and racing schedule can be hard to balance, with her boss often getting on her case to make up missed hours at work, but she said the reward she gets from competing makes it worth it. Tallent often asks herself why she continues to compete at such a high level, despite the difficulty balancing life, but she said a recent seventh place finish with the front pack at a large bike race highlighted the reason.
“The fact that I crossed the line with the pack, I was ecstatic,” she said. “I was so happy after the race, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is why I do this.’ It’s that sense of accomplishment you get when you do well at something.”
The 2015 Armed Services Triathlon was recorded and will be broadcast by NBC Sportsnet, July 4, 5, 9, 10, 13 and 19.
IMAs are Air Force Reservists assigned to active-duty units and government agencies. They are managed by Headquarters Individual Reservist Readiness and Integration Organization, located at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, and serve over 50 separate major commands, combatant commands and government agencies.
Unlike traditional Reservists, who are assigned to Reserve units that regularly perform duty together, IMAs work with their active-duty supervisors to create a custom duty schedule to meet mission requirements.