Human Powered Racing – 12 Years On

Human Powered Racing was the brain child of Columbus, Ohio based Triathlete Michael Brewer back in the early 2000’s.

The idea was to build a “TEAM” of age group triathletes that worked together to get the most out of each other in one of the most singular of sports. I was lucky enough to meet “Brewer” at one of Peter Reid’s triathlon camps in Tucson, Arizona where I was helping out as a coach. After a conversation over a couple of beers I was persuaded (it didn’t take much persuasion) to join the Columbus team as their Pro athlete/coach. After a great few years traveling and racing with the Columbus crew it was agreed that we should bring the concept of a triathlon team to Victoria where a number of athletes who I was directly involved in coaching were looking to tackle an Ironman.

At first, Human Powered Racing was strictly an Ironman team.  Only those who were training for Ironman or who had done an Ironman were able to join. With this caveat we were also very small, about 20 athletes in total. This small number led to a real cohesion and also fostered the team atmosphere that was behind the original concept of “HPR”. When most of your non work and social life is spent with your fellow team mates training it made for a really fun few years of Ironman racing. This was not only the case for the athletes on the team, but also for myself who was in the final few years of a “journeyman” Ironman career. I would definitely not have had the success I had in my last few years were it not for finding Human Powered Racing and training in the environment that was created by the athletes who made up the group.

Since this time, Human Powered Racing has morphed into a team that takes athletes competing in all distances. One reason is that as we all aged together some of us decided that Ironman was indeed “crazy” and that 70.3’s, Standard Distances, Sprints (and yes, Aqua Bikes) were more suited to joints, tendons and bones that had many, many miles on them. We also had a number of spouses that decided to get involved in the sport so that they could get to spend some “quality” time with their significant others. We are still an Ironman team at heart and we still have many athletes racing Ironman’s and trying to get to Kona every year. We also have some of the most competitive sprint and standard distance racers in the country as well as XTERRA athletes and trail runners. We are definitely an eclectic mix of athletes, and although the team has grown from 20 to 35 athletes it remains at it’s core a team.  A team where former members (alumni) are always welcomed back with open arms and new members looking for a unique training environment somehow always seem to find us.

As we embark on year 13, it is a real point of pride to be able to lead such a great group of athletes and to be recognized as what we originally set out to be; a TEAM.