Running on the dew-covered sidewalk of Brentridge Estates, sophomore Evie Smith trains. Alongside her is another set of steps: her dad.

While Smith, a cross country runner, raced a 5K all season, that’s not what she’s training for. Smith started doing triathlons when she was so young that she couldn’t even compete with a team. Instead, she tagged along with her dad. 

“I remember there being a kid’s triathlon team when I was really little, but I was too young for the team,” Smith said. “My dad knew the coach, so I got to go with the older kids. I started getting more interested in this sport, and then I kept seeing him do races, and it kept motivating me to keep doing them.”

Smith and her dad always train together. He gives her advice and tells her all she needs to know about triathlons, motivating her to continue doing triathlons and get better.

“He’s kind of like my training partner, and I’m kind of his, since his training partner left to go to Florida,” Smith said. “So he’s kind of picked me up as his training partner.”

Evie’s father, Jason Smith, has been running with her since she was little. Together, the two train and are able to watch each other grow in the sport. 

“It’s a lot of fun.” Jason said. “Any time I’d go for a run, she was always willing to ride her bike along with me when she was little, and then, obviously, as she’s grown, she’s become a much better one, now she can run with me or outrun me.”

As Evie and her dad have been running, he has seen many growths and improvements. Triathlons helped her prepare for middle school races that were 3k, and now races that are 5k.

“As you grow, you’re doing specific intervals or doing times of certain things where you’re not just trying to finish, you’re trying to actually race it.” Jason said. “I think that’s the growth that I’ve seen.”

Every year Evie and her dad go to Florida for two weeks to train for all components of the triathlon – a 5K run, a 12-mile bike and a 400-meter swim.

“It’s full-on training with some people [in Florida], and my dad and his friend.” Smith said. “We got 20 miles every day on a bike or more. 
We would wake up at five, do a swim, then come home, go bike, and then run. And we’d have the rest of the day off.”

While training happens in Florida, most of Evie’s race have been fairly local, though she did travel to Ohio to race.

“We went to Ohio once. It was kind of boring there, but it was also super cool because you swam in the lake,” Evie said. “There’s this big hill you go up, and there was also a sunrise when we started.”

While just a freshman, Smith would like to continue triathlons in college. Currently triathlons are an emerging sport for women, but several schools field varsity teams, including the University of Indianapolis and Queens University in Charlotte, which is one of the strongest programs. 

“I am interested in finding a college that offers triathlon teams.” Smith said. “It just became an accredited sport this year.” 

While triathlons may be an individual race, for Evie and her dad, it’s brought them together.