Making a Mark at St. Anthony's Meek & Mighty Triathlon

“We’ve got about 3,700 athletes competing today and Sunday,” said race director Patrick McGee, as entrants and family members streamed past him in every direction. “We have good temperatures and so many great stories of why people compete in the St. Anthony’s Triathlon year after year. You can’t ask for more.”

The Hollenhorsts certainly can’t. Pam had begun doing triathlons in her 50s but began to experience increasing hip pain from arthritis, making it impossible to swing her leg over a bike. “It got to the point where I couldn’t walk more than a few blocks without pain,” she explained.

Fast forward to 2017. The Hollenhorsts had been vacationing in different parts of Florida during the winter, looking for the ideal spot to retire – John from his magazine publishing work and Pam as a research lawyer at the University of Wisconsin. That led to renting a place on St. Pete Beach for a month in 2016 and returning for the full winter the next year. 

“We were going to go back home in early April, but I said to John, ‘Why don’t we stay a few weeks longer, and you can compete in the St. Anthony’s Triathlon?’” she recalled. “We did and he won his age group (65-69) and loved it! And as we drove back home the next day, I said, ‘Why don’t we just move here? He said, ‘Okay,’ and here we are.” 

Along the way, John became involved as a volunteer with Mad Dogs which has been a St. Anthony’s fixture for decades. In short order he was elected club president. Meanwhile, Pam got her new hips, and now she’s on a roll, running pain free with more triathlons in her future. “It’s been really challenging for her, and she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to compete again,” said John, who will take on the Olympic event Sunday. “To see Pam out there doing what she loves, and leading a fitness lifestyle, is great.”

The Hollenhorsts were just one of many Meek and Mighty tales Saturday. Everywhere you looked, vibrant green T-shirts announced the presence of a St. Anthony’s Triathlon mainstay – The Atlanta Tri Sisters, along with their motto, “Just Want to Tri.” The group consists of African-American women from the Atlanta area who have been traveling to St. Petersburg for more than a decade to compete on both days. The Tri Sisters club was founded by Julie Walker, a retired Atlanta judge and tax attorney, after she took up triathlons as a way to get in better shape.

She was thrilled that one of her 30 Tri Sister athletes, Cora O’Kellie, took a third place in the 70-74 women’s age group – not bad for someone who could not swim at all three years ago, progressing from “only blowing bubbles” to a real swimmer thanks to the group’s coach, Askia Bashir, standing nearby. 

“Cora is amazing,” Walker said. “She was totally a non-swimmer, and it took three years of working on her but look at her now! We’re all about motivation. But we’re also trying to improve the health of Black women, and Black people overall, in the community.”

Bashir, a longtime triathlete who will compete Sunday, added: “Ninety-nine percent of people don’t think of doing triathlons – so many people think, ‘I can’t do it.’  But once they cross the finish line, it’s one of the most unbelievable feelings you can have. And this is a great thing for the Black community, because you don’t often see us in the sport. But we’re helping to change that.”