20 Years After its Conception, the Impact of the Bengal Triathlon Keeps Growing

Twenty years ago, Caroline “Smitty” Faure, a sports management professor, decided she wanted to bring the community together with ISU in a way that was revolutionary. Her idea? A triathlon on the ISU Pocatello campus. What started as 45 of Faure’s friends running a race together quickly grew into one of the largest triathlon events in the Western United States. Last year, it boasted over 450 participants from 14 states and 2 Canadian provinces. This year, over 500 athletes participated. It’s a unique event that puts ISU on the map in a way not much else could.

This student-led event has brought beginner to elite athletes from all over the United States, with participants spanning the ages of 8 to 76, and everyone in between. It’s a race not just for everybody, but for every body. The athletes aren’t the only ones benefiting from the race. From risk management to budgeting to consumer behavior and customer relations, ISU students have the opportunity to learn what it’s like to manage sporting events.

“Prior to this class and event,” said Matti McAllister, an ISU student in the sport management program, “I had little familiarity with the event planning and management process. By the end of the semester, however, I will have gained hands-on experience and practical knowledge that will prepare me for a career in event services, and potentially in athlete services specifically.”

Another student felt similarly. “As a pre-nursing student at Idaho State University, this experience will help raise my self-efficacy in all aspects of life,” Ammon Tingey said. “Planning, working hard, and being able to balance multiple items of business will transfer from this experience to working as a healthcare provider.”

Two things influenced Faure’s idea for starting the Bengal Triathlon. The first was for the development of her students. “All our students are really comfortable with football, soccer, basketball–you know, the sports they know,” she said. “But I wanted to take them outside their comfort zone and to teach them about sports they don’t know.”

While Faure takes care of logistical things like campus scheduling, ordering medals, and sweatshirt logo design before classes start in January, students take on everything else. In class, they learn about the theories of event experience, why people engage in sport, good event management, marketing, risk management and how to approach sponsorships. Then they take this knowledge and apply it in the real world. 

A graduate student in athletic administration, Mike Zele, had a key leadership role with the event. He noted the impact this experience would have on his future career. “This experience directly applies to my goals of working in event operations,” he said. “It is giving me hands-on experience managing people, coordinating logistics, and working with multiple stakeholders.”

The second reason for this event’s creation was to promote the sport of triathlon through service learning. Faure credits the sport for doing a lot for her, and she wanted to provide a local opportunity for other like-minded people. There were pockets of triathletes in the Southeast corner of Idaho, and she wanted to bring them together into a larger community. Last year, 94% of participants heard about the race from either being past participants themselves or family and friends telling them about the race. Fewer than 15% of participants last year had any affiliation with ISU.

Aileen Pannecoucke, who is originally from Belgium, participated for her second time this year. “This was the first actual race I did in the triathlon world,” she said, “so it’s always nice to come back to where it originally started.” She normally competes in Olympic distance and Half-Iron Man races, so this triathlon sprint is a great way for her to support the local community in a smaller race. “Everyone is out there pushing themselves to the highest limit,” Pannecoucke said. “Everyone receives swag, and they show it off and show that they did it. That’s what it’s all about.”

If there’s one thing everyone agrees on, it’s that the community of the event is phenomenal. “It’s a great time to see everybody of all shapes and sizes and athletic ability,” said Melissa Lott, another racer from Ririe, Idaho. “Everybody is so happy and cheerful for each other.” 

To learn more about the event, visit https://www.isu.edu/bengaltriathlon/.