Spirit Lake sixth-graders soar in second annual triathlon
Dozens of students gathered around the Spirit Lake High School track field mid-afternoon on Wednesday, getting in their stretches and warm-ups. Some speculated on the difficulty of the course — others wore an air of confidence thick enough to cut with a knife. They grouped around Spirit Lake Physical Education teacher Tim O'Hagan when it was time to start, anxiously shaking their legs, excitedly chatting amongst themselves before their coach gave a rousing speech.
The 84 students were about to attempt a miniature triathlon — a feat each of them chose to undertake.
"I truly feel like we're being rewarded this day," O'Hagan said. "It's amazing — not only will you have completed your triathlon today, you're going to be completing your misogi as well."
Misogi is the Japanese Shinto practice of cleansing the entire body, usually beneath an icy-cold cascade of water. The ritual is part of a grueling pilgrimage to sacred waterfalls, lakes and rivers meant to rid oneself of impurities of both the mind and body and gain a certain inner peace during the coming year.
"I wanted to find out, could we replicate some of those behaviors from around the world, and see if it impacts our quality of life," O'Hagan explained. "The idea of misogi is to do something so hard one time a year that it has an impact on the other 364 days of the year. Put one big thing on the calendar that scares you, and go out and do it. In five years, you'll have all this stuff in your back pocket that used to scare you, so now when the real stuff comes at you in life, you'll have the sauce to say, 'Alright, let's take this on.'"
According to O'Hagan, many students underwent their own form of misogi in preparing for the triathlon and ultimately participating in it last Wednesday — all 84 sixth-graders completed the event.
Students geared up for the optional triathlon with O'Hagan's guidance, preparing for the arduous effort through four weeks of practice — a swim week, track week, bike week, learning the ins and outs of mobile communication, passing strategies and the like — all of it culminated in the major event, where children would run one mile, cycle 1.9 miles to the Bedell Family YMCA and finish off with a 150-yard swim.
Students dashed off the line following O'Hagan's starting call that Wednesday — carving their way through each stretch of the course at a brisk pace. Some students stayed in groups, keeping one another going, holding each other accountable. Others went on ahead, tackling the trail solo, driven through the toil by sheer conviction alone.
Slow and steady, quick and nimble — any combination of pacing from the young participants was welcomed, so long as they saw the challenge through to the end. All 84 students were able to complete the challenge, peddling, paddling and plodding along the nearly 3-mile stretch. It was an experience O'Hagan described as fast-paced, fun and rewarding — the incentive was not glory but self-fulfillment.
"There's no winners, no prizes," O'Hagan said. "If you have to walk a little bit, or use a kickboard that's fine. I just need to get you in the pool or on the track. There's this level playing field where on that day they took on a challenge, and they completed that challenge on their own terms."
A long-lasting legacy
2024 marks O'Hagan's 26th year in education — the idea for the student triathlon stemming from his tenure at a school in Wyoming. There, O'Hagan says he worked with a teacher who pushed him to be a better educator in the field.
"I started listening to students, and I had heard their cries that they didn't want to do the Presidential Physical Fitness Testing anymore," O'Hagan said. "I thought, what if we had something that mirrored that? Not something that replaces it, but a newer challenge instead of the mile run, pull-ups and sit-ups. What if we did a triathlon?"
O'Hagan piloted the activity that first year and got 57 percent of students to participate — the very next year, he says that number jumped to 100 percent. Now, that same Wyoming school will be performing its 26th triathlon later this week. According to O'Hagan, the event has become something of a generational phenomenon, with a number of his older students now having their own children participating in the event. One story shared was that of an ex-student, now the Wyoming middle school's principal, who's son was to participate in the annual triathlon — a competitive spark was set between the two when the son asked what his old man's time was nearly 25 years ago, something he now aimed to beat.
A few of O'Hagan's old Wyoming students even helped prepare the Spirit Lake students for the local event, sending an array of encouraging video messages to the students, sharing their own experiences with the triathlon and giving lots of friendly advice. Even the student who had finished last all those years ago reached out, ensuring that the children knew it wasn't about their placement — it was about overcoming adversity.
That same spirit of support has permeated O'Hagan's sixth grade students. He recalled one particpant last year telling their peers, "You know you can do more than you think you can," and "You are definitely capable of doing this."
"It was a positive mantra, not an unrealistic expectation, just telling one another, 'you're capable,'" O'Hagan said.