Name: Zach Komon
Years in Triathlon: Started late in the 2007 season, so 3-ish years?
Employment: Chemical Programs Manager at GRT, Inc., going on 6 years now.
Outside Interests: Outside triathlon? Running, trail running, hiking, recently started blazing my own trail. That and zombie movies (good or bad).
Family Life: Wonderful wife of almost 7 years now, Janice. Two chinchillas named Mister and The Dread Pirate Roberts.
Your Hero: Fictional - R.J. MacReady (if you don't know who that is, Google it!). Real person: still my dad - if I turned out just like him that sure wouldn't be a bad thing.
Athletic Background: 14 years of soccer and 4 years of high-school track (400 hurdles - I used to think the mile was long distance). After that, almost 10 years of being lazy started to add up and I got kind of fat, I used to be more than 30 pounds heavier. A few years of running for fitness/weight loss I started racing, which led to track workouts which led to triathlon.
Favorite Race and Why: This is a tough question and my answer is likely skewed by recent memory. I'm going to have to go with Oceanside 70.3 of this year. That was my first 1/2 IM. I started preparing for this race as soon as possible after having my tonsils taken out at Christmas. I really felt like I had been set back by the surgery and basically doing too much the previous year. At the February Tri-Club meeting, Sue Beatty and Gary Maxwell both said a number of things that changed my perspective (along with reading Brad Kearns "Breakthrough Triathlon Training" that Sue recommended). I began to train at the performance level I was at instead of where I thought I should be and started having a lot more fun with it again. When race day finally came I had some reasonable goals for the race, but most importantly, I wanted it to be fun. Maintaining a "have fun" attitude, I thoroughly enjoyed the race and finished about 15 minutes faster than I thought I could. Since then, I've really felt re-energized and I'm looking forward to many more fun races this season.
Worst Race and Why: Even my worst race can't be that bad - I haven't DNF'd yet or injured myself too bad. If I had to pick one, I'd say Strawberry Fields 2009. I had a terrible swim followed by a slightly better than mediocre ride. When it came to the run, I figured it just wasn't worth killing myself over it and went fairly easy just to finish. Turns out everyone had a bad swim and I missed 3rd place in my AG by 17 seconds, which I could have easily made up on the run. I was disappointed because I gave up. This year I'm going back - not to place, but to finish it strong this time.
Goals this Year: Keep having fun, stay injury free.
In 5 Years I Hope to: Have completed a full IM. Still have fun with training and racing.
Something Most People Don’t Know About Me: I epilate my legs. If you're gonna remove leg hair, be a man and yank it out by the roots! Right, ladies?