To be a member of the Fighting Illini Triathlon team, you have to have guts. It is practically required to be able to complete the feats of athleticism they do in a race.

This weekend the triathlon team is heading to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to compete in nationals and has high hopes to do well.

“We have a very big team compared to a lot of schools. It’s harder for us because of the weather. We can’t train outside all winter like some other schools,” said Brian O’Neill, president of the triathlon team.

Sophomore Jennifer Alter, captain of the team, is coordinating the travel to nationals.

“We are cramming into two 14-people vans, and we are bringing a truck that has a trailer that has all of our bikes mounted on and heading down to Alabama,” she said.

Members of the team put in enough work to really shine at nationals. Coordinators for running, biking and swimming lead different workouts at their daily meetings, which aren’t mandatory. The schedule is flexible, so members try to come whenever they can make it, and some even practice twice a day if they are very serious.

“We don’t have a coach, so no one holds it to you to attend practices. We will make fun of people and harass them, jokingly of course,” Alter said.

There are many different types of triathlons, such as sprint, super sprint, Olympic, half Ironman and Ironman. Every type of triathlon begins with swimming, then biking, and running finishes up the race.

“We train all year for triathlons, but there are different levels like the Ironman, which is a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. That takes about a year to train for. Then there are sprint triathlons, which take a month or two to train for,” O’Neill said.

At nationals, the team will be competing in an Olympic triathlon.

The club also holds their own triathlon at the University called the Tri-the-Illini, which usually takes place in October.

For those who are new to the sport, the Fighting Illini Triathlon team is open to all different skill levels.

“We have a lot of people on the team that haven’t done triathlons before and are going to be doing their first one. These people begin working on basic swimming skills and they come to easy, social Friday runs,” said Bryan Conger, member of the club and sophomore in LAS. “On the other end of the spectrum, we have some people who are really competitive that are going down to Nationals.”

O’Neill said that the biggest misconception about triathlons is that they are impossible to do, which they truly are not.

“It sounds a lot harder than it actually is,” he said. “When people hear triathlon, they think of the Ironman, like the really hard ones, but there are really short ones which can be just a few miles for every discipline and are very easy to do.”