Talking to Sally Almekinders is like talking to an old friend. Her warm personality coupled with her incredible passion for her profession enthuses and engages the other party without fail. Since 1981, she has raced over 200 triathlons and even competed as part of Team USA at the ITU World Championship Duathlon, but all she wants to talk about is the community that this lifestyle has afforded her. Her passion for teaching consumes the conversation.
“Our goal is to touch every student, to reel students in,” Almekinders said. “I’ve had so many wonderful students.”
Almekinders has been a professor here at NC State since getting her master’s degree at the University of Miami in the 1980s. She teaches HESF 106, an introductory-level triathlon class, which allows her to share her love for multisport racing with students. Triathlons, duathlons and aquathalons all fall under the multisport umbrella, and they each allow athletes to showcase their talents across multiple disciplines.
This fits in pretty well with the idea behind the Department of Health and Exercise Studies’ campaign, Take 8 at State, which encourages students to pursue new recreational interests by taking eight different physical education classes. In the case of Hannah Wubbenhorst, a first-year studying animal science, that campaign has been fairly successful.
“I like the challenging, yet encouraging atmosphere,” Wubbenhorst said. “It takes commitment and sweat, but hard work and a good attitude aren’t hard to have around these people. I’ve done biking, swimming and running in various forms and levels of intensity and was really interested in putting them together for a triathlon.”
Atmosphere and community are recurring themes in both conversations about multisport racing. Almekinders has a seemingly never-ending supply of stories about people that have improved their lives through multisport racing. Almekinder talks about divorcees reclaiming their confidence by competing, friendships being forged at the starting line and one student even meeting his future wife through NC State’s Triathlon Club.
Almekinders shares one story in particular about a friend that had invited her to fly out to Oklahoma for an aquathalon. After her performance in this race qualified her to compete for the championship in Cozumel, Mexico, Almekinders felt compelled to pay the favor forward and invite another friend from California to fly out to North Carolina to race with her.
“That’s why I love to race,” Almekinders said. “It’s evolved from being pure fitness to being friends, to being mentors.”
Almekinders uses the skills she has learned in various races to teach her students, and she is not scared to share difficulties or obstacles she has faced. She talks, for example, about how she dislikes wet suits which are sometimes necessary for water than can be as cold as 60 degrees.
“Racing is solving your problems,” Almekinders said. “I don’t like cold water, for instance, but I told my class that I’m going to coach myself through that.”
And in the same way that runners evolve, the races themselves evolve. Almekinders said that transitions in multisport races have far more structure and organization now than they did in the 1980s, and that a better setup ensures greater safety for the racers. She makes an attempt to bring her students each semester out to a local race to observe. This encourages some students to run a race of their own.
“I’m hoping to learn more about triathlons in general,” Wubbenhorst said. “To be able to race in a triathlon, and most importantly, to find a new and enjoyable passion.”
Almekinders herself got her start in triathlons from a faculty member in the Department of Health and Exercise Studies. Her friend and former colleague, Bill Sonner, encouraged her to compete in one for the first time.
Now, she is preparing for her seventh year as a part of Team USA at the ITU World Championship.
“I just love everything about racing,” Almekinders said. “I love the training. It’s part of my lifestyle.”
The Take 8 at State campaign offers students a diverse variety of classes to take throughout their academic career. Yoga classes, swim classes and cycling classes are just a few examples of the many opportunities to find a new passion, but passionate people are guaranteed to be found in HESF 106.
