An all-you-can-eat pasta buffet was where Lindsey Polinko realized her hidden talent.
Her high school cross country coach — a man who outweighed her by nearly 160 pounds — challenged her to a one-on-one eating contest.
Soon, the empty bowls covered the table.
"The chefs couldn't keep up with us," Polinko said.
A competitive eater was born.
The next day — after she had successfully out-eaten her coach — Polinko stepped on the scale and saw she was nine pounds heavier.
But toss aside the pasta, the hot dog-eating contest at a local fair and dessert with every meal — the kinesiology freshman has another intense hobby: training for a triathlon.
She's a member of the MSU Triathlon Club, a team that has no coach or mandatory practices. But the club's 35 members are serious about competition, meeting 13 times a week to train.
In the cold winter months, they run outside, braving the weather. Once temperatures rise, some members easily log more than 100 miles a week on theircles.
The culmination of their yearlong training will come April 21 at the USAT Collegiate National Championship in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
There, they'll undergo a rigorous two-and-a-half-hour Olympic-sized triathlon course — a 1.5-km river swim, a 24.8-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run — against nearly 900 other college athletes.
Up before sunrise
Most of the world is sleeping — only a handful of car headlights and a street cleaner cruise along the street on April 4.
Not a soul is outside moving on the darkened campus by the time Polinko climbs into the pool at IM Sports-Circle at 6:30 a.m.
No students lugging heavy backpacks on the sidewalks. No dog walkers. No joggers.
Three times a week, Polinko begins training with the MSU Triathlon Club by 7 a.m.
"It is hard to get up," she said. "But I usually go and eat a big breakfast in the cafeteria. It's always worth it when I'm done."
With the triathlon almost two weeks away, Polinko cuts through the water, swimming lap after lap. Underwater, she doesn't hear the country song blaring from the loudspeaker. The sounds of splashes and kicks drown out the twangy chorus.
She's not a natural swimmer. Nor is she an expert cyclist. In fact, Polinko had to borrow her dad's bicycle for practice.
"I was only a runner," she said. "I ran track and cross country in high school."
At the beginning of this school year, Polinko went for a run on campus when a stranger joined her, inviting her to join the triathlon club.
"I started going to the running practices, then I started going to the swims," the 19-year-old said. "I just got into the groove."
From then on, she was hooked.
Even happier was Polinko's father, an avid marathon runner who has run the Boston Marathon.
"When he found out I was attending triathlon practice, he was psyched out of his mind," she said. "It was a dream come true."
Polinko holds onto a kickboard in the pool, the white foamy splashes following her as she swims laps.
An hour later, Polinko's 3,000-meter workout is over.
Later that evening, in less than 12 hours, Polinko will join the club for a 4-mile workout through campus.
The ultimate workout
There's the sound of a gun going off, and then it's a mad dash as the athletes scramble into the water — a triathlon has officially begun.
"You're getting hit with arms. You have to watch out to make sure you don't get kicked. People are losing goggles," said Eric Tingwall, the club's president. "It can be scary. It can be exhilarating, but it's part of the sport. It's what separates it from swimming in a pool."
The adrenaline already has kicked in as the competitors fight their way into the water.
For nationals, the triathlon club will swim in the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa, about 40 feet deep.
When Polinko competed in her first triathlon in September, she wore a wet suit, as do most competitors, to stay warm in the chilly, 60-degree water.
"It was freezing," she said. "It was cold enough to turn blue."
After completing the swim, which is just under 1 mile, people race out of the water toward their bicycles.
"You try and shove off your wet suit as fast as you can, which is probably the best part to watch because people are tripping all over the place," said Tingwall, a mechanical engineering and journalism junior.
The racers stumble, awkwardly trying to unzip their wet suits, feeling a little light-headed from the swim.
The next two hours will become an endurance test to find the perfect pace — not too fast, not too slow — and stay focused, especially on the 24-mile bike ride.
"You'll hit the tough stops like the hills or going into the wind," Tingwall said. "Your legs will start burning a little bit, but the idea is not to let up a bit or click into an easier gear. You just got to keep cranking and push through it."
Some MSU Triathlon Club members reach 25 miles per hour, which can leave its toll on the legs for the triathlon's last event.
"You'll get out on the run and it feels like getting off a trampoline," Tingwall said. "You just don't have that same spring in your legs."
But it's that final moment — crossing the finish line and looking up at the end time — that makes it all worth it, some club members say, after months of early-morning practices, long hours at the gym and the smell of perspiration after workouts.
"It felt like I was floating," kinesiology junior Scott Przystas said. "I just finished a triathlon. That's when it hit me — this is what I want to do."
Three years ago, he was an odd fit for the triathlon club.
Przystas never ran track or swam in high school. Instead, he was a guard on the basketball team and spent the offseason playing baseball or golf.
"He was probably somewhat of an average athlete," said Kirk Taylor, Przystas' old basketball coach. "He wasn't gifted with quickness or speed."
Even at an MSU Triathlon Club practice, one teammate told Przystas, "You don't have a swimmer's body, by any means."
His arms were too bulky from weight lifting in high school.
"I had never swam before," Przystas said. "I was like a rock when I first got in the water."
Yet he decided to stick with it.
"There's a lot of love for the sport," Przystas said.
Before his 8 a.m. class, Przystas practiced swimming laps at IM Sports-Circle. Each day, he said he felt himself improving as he slowly caught up to the faster swimmers in the club.
He never takes more than one day off a week from training, which often means waking up at 5 a.m. to exercise.
"It just doesn't feel right if I don't work out," the 21-year-old said.
Przystas' summer calendar is filled with different triathlons and races.
In September, he finished perhaps the most grueling challenge of all — the Iron Man. It's the ultimate triathlon: a 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike ride, topped off by a full marathon.
At the race, the streets are crowded with those cheering for the competitors.
"It's like the Tour de France," Przystas said. "People are running next to you on the hills."
He remembered one spectator offering bacon six hours into the bike ride.
Almost a third of the MSU Triathlon Club traveled to Madison, Wis., to support two of its members in the race — Przystas and Jon Noll, an electrical engineering senior.
"You go by them once, and it gets you going for at least a couple of hours," Przystas said. "You need to see that familiar face to keep you sane."
His MSU teammates stood on the course, holding up homemade signs and cheering.
"The team is what makes us the triathlon club," Tingwall said. "It's having that camaraderie."
And Przystas' final time?
Twelve hours, 5 minutes.
On the six-hour car ride home, Przystas said his body ached.
"I couldn't get comfortable," he said. "I'd lean to one side, my hip would tighten and cramp up. If I leaned to the other — same thing. … It was a struggle."
His family members and friends, who once "thought he was crazy" for joining the triathlon club, now watch him compete.
"For him to do what he's doing now is impressive," Przystas' former basketball coach said.
"He's probably in the best shape of his life."
