Casa de Pancakeo

It's that time of year again.

The CU Tri Team has been back at school and training hard for a few months now. We’ve spent hours in the pool, on the bike and on the trails, and our first time trial is behind us. Needless to say, all this training has us a little tired out. Thanksgiving break is just around the corner, but until then, we’ve been doing all we can to motivate each other to keep working hard.

That’s why this Sunday, four teammates decided to host a pancake party following our weekly long run. Our team has gotten pretty skilled at pancake-making over the the past year, thanks to the ingenuity of Rudy Kahsar and other like-minded cake connoisseurs. We know, for instance, that Oreos make the best mix-ins and that while maple syrup is a classic topping, vanilla yogurt and peanut butter can work wonders on a flapjack.


Before we could chow down on pancakes, though, we had to earn them with a good workout. With a big group — about 20 runners of varying speeds — and a workout that could range from 45 to 90 minutes, we knew we would spread out over time. Still, we left together from the “Casa de Pancakeo,” heading south towards Bobolink Trail and eventually to Marshall Mesa.

It was a warm but windy morning, and as we struggled up hills into oncoming gusts, the only thing that kept us going was the prospect of pancakes to come. Marshall Mesa is a set of rolling trails near Colorado Highway 93, and it is completely exposed. We had no shelter from the wind and were all trying to draft off each other to make the effort a little more bearable.

As the time on our watches slowly ticked by, we finally settled into a comfortable pace. Finishing a long run is always a mental battle, but with teammates to talk to and pace with, it tends to be over sooner than you think. We picked up speed for the final few miles, knowing that the faster we made it back to the house, the sooner delicious cakes would be filling our bellies. When we reached the driveway of the Casa de Pancakeo, someone’s GPS recorded 10.8 miles; naturally, we took one more lap around the block to get to a solid 11 (it’s a triathlete thing).

Rob Helvestine was the hero of the morning as he poured dollops of pancake batter onto the skillet and took mix-in requests nonstop. The rest of us, spent from our effort and in need of some serious fuel, huddled around the stovetop with our paper plates outstretched. Leave it to a team of college-aged triathletes to consume enough pancakes and coffee to feed a small country over the course
of an hour.

Without times like these, we wouldn’t really be a team — we would just be a big group of training partners. Triathlon in itself is an individual sport, but when we take the time to bond over new pancake-topping creations, we make it a team thing. It may sound silly, but the friendships we build outside of regular practice are the ones that will stick.

And when we race, those friendships will carry us to the finish line.

Give and take.
Caryn