The University of Miami’s triathlon club, Tricanes, hosted its first ever on-campus triathlon. A total of 120 students participated in Sunday’s Try-a-Tri event.
Participants swam in the University Center outdoor pool for the swimming portion, rode spin bikes at Lakeside patio for the bicycle portion and ran from the intramural fields to the Fate bridge for the running portion.
Tricanes President Sally Work talks about the noticeable energy that took over campus that day.
“If you were walking anywhere on campus from 7:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. on Sunday, it would be impossible not to have heard the try-a-tri DJ on the Lakeside stage, or the loud cheers and music from our volunteers posted around the IM fields cheering on the runners,” she said.
For Work the event was about more than just racing and promoting the growing Triathlon Club. She feels that the triathlon brought the UM community together. According to Work, undergraduates, alumni, and faculty all participated in the event, and it was fulfilling to see how far the club had progressed.
“Seeing this event come to fruition in the form that it did has been the most rewarding project I have worked on in my time at UM,” Work admits.
Having the university host a triathlon has been a long-standing goal for Work. She had seen other campuses, like the University of Florida, host similar events and thought it was a “super cool premise.” The Tricanes would participate in the Gainesville triathlon every year.
However, the club faced a multitude of obstacles when trying to plan their own triathlon. Work noted that campus being in an urban area proved difficult to plan courses for the biking and running sectors.
Additionally, there was originally not much traction or interest surrounding the club, noting that when she became a member of the Tricanes, there were only a handful of students involved.
“When I first joined as a freshman, there were only four of us, and this year we have over 20 active freshmen,” Work said.
This year, the club has 60 active members, which is double the number from last year. This spike in interest is part of the reason that the triathlon was even possible.
“With the growing ‘trendy-ness’ of triathlons and ‘hybrid athletes,’ I knew there was a general interest in the student body to participate in the triathlon,” Work explained. “Coupled with the rapid growth of our own team, [I] realized it may actually be possible to host our own triathlon on campus.”
Work proposed the idea of a triathlon – with distances aligning to half of a traditional sprint triathlon – to the Director of Club Sports on Jan. 20, and by Feb. 22, the club had 120 people signed up.
While the club had overcome the hurdle of getting people interested in trying out a triathlon, the planning of the event was far from easy.
Over the next month, extensive preparation went into coordinating the event, from obtaining the proper equipment to ordering the correct amount of medals and shirts.
Thanks to the communication and teamwork of everyone involved, the 2026 Try-a-Tri ran smoothly. Work shares her gratitude with all the people who helped make the event possible.
“Staying organized and having such an engaged team and responsive executive board, made everything so much better. We all put 100% effort into planning this event, and it would not have been possible without such an amazing team.”
Short-term, Work considered the Try-a-Tri was a success, but she hopes to see this event become an exciting campus tradition.