Local triathlete is Silverman ready

Richard Brian

Cole Freestone, a triathlete competing in the Silverman Triathlon, poses with his bike outside his Silverado home on Oct. 31.

By Jared Harmon (contact)

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 | midnight

Richard Brian

Cole Freestone prepares for the upcoming Silverman Triathlon.

Richard Brian

Cole Freestone, seen here running in his neighborhood, is a triathlete competing in the Silverman Triathlon this weekend.

After two years of training and competing in triathlons, Silverado resident Cole Freestone is ready to give the state's biggest event a shot.

Freestone, 42, will be competing in the fourth annual Silverman Triathlon on Sunday, a race that takes competitors on a tour of Henderson and Green Valley.

Originally from Idaho, Freestone comes from a mountain biking background but was forced to look into alternative workouts after coming to Southern Nevada.

"In Idaho you have the mountains all over so it's easy to get into biking, skiing, snowboarding or whatever," Freestone said. "(In Nevada) I started out driving up to the mountains and biking and then coming home but all that driving was such a time commitment. I had to look for something else."

Freestone took up cycling and soon moved into triathlons after adding swimming to his training regimen.

At the Las Vegas Triathlon on Sept. 28, Freestone took 44th out of 193 competitors and seventh in his age group with a time of 2 hours, 47 minutes and 56 seconds.

"I didn't do too bad," he said. "It was a good race. Triathlons are still pretty new to me but so long as I'm improving I'm OK. I like to compete — I like to give it my all. When I cross the line, I want to stagger across and fall down. Then I know I left everything on the course."

Frank Lowery, Silverman race director, said Freestone has come a long way in a short time as a triathlete and is on the verge of reaching the next level of competition.

"Cole is a good local boy who's not far from breaking through," Lowery said. "He's one of those guys who knows how to put that next foot forward and keep going. This will be a test of will for him but he should do well."

The Silverman begins at Lake Mead with a 2.4-mile swim at the Hemenway Launch Ramp. Participants then embark on an 112-mile bike ride northeast along the lake and then and into Henderson where they finish at the Henderson Multigenerational Center. From there they begin the 26.2-mile run through Green Valley.

Lowery expects roughly 800 participants this year, up from about 525 last year.

"I don't think the Silverman has the hype that some other big races on the West Coast have, but it definitely has bragging rights among people who have competed in it," Freestone said. "People that the bike is uphill, the run is uphill and somehow Frank found a way to make the swim uphill."

As for his strategy, Freestone said his cycling skills can be a detriment if he's not careful.

"Swimming was definitely my weakness when I started, but now I usually come out in the middle of the pack and make up time on the cycling portion," he said. "That can be my downfall, though. I've been racing for so long that when I see someone in front of me I feel like I have to catch them and then I get burned out."

Jared Harmon can be reached at 990-8922 or jared.harmon@hbcpub.com.