The Pain Train

Before Lycra became a lifestyle, some athletes at the (then-named) Bellevue Athletic Club were doing something that had never been done before: training for triathlons together, with coaches, structure and serious intent.
The United States in 1983 was deep in a fitness revolution. Jim Fixx had turned jogging into a national religion. Jane Fonda’s aerobics tapes were selling by the millions. And on the shores of Kona, in Hawaii, a still-obscure race called the Ironman triathlon was beginning to rewrite what endurance could mean. During this charged moment, BC member Steve Forsyth founded the BAC Tri Club: the first organized triathlon training club in the world.
The response among members was enthusiastic. Forsyth and other coaches, including Tom Dunning and Todd Starnes, put the team through grueling interval sets, weekend rides up Novelty Hill, intensive track workouts at the Bellevue High track, before landing in the Club’s hot tub to relive every hill, every pull, every breakaway in competitive detail.
The results were very impressive almost immediately. Juli Harrison Brenning reached No. 1 in the world in the Bud Short Course Pro Series. Her sister Nancy Harrison Hill broke into the global top 10 at the Ironman World Championships throughout the 1980s (and won the New Zealand Ironman in 1988). By 1984, the Club had captured 55 percent of Seafair Triathlon trophies and 42 percent at the Bellevue Triathlon—a national-caliber event Forsyth created specifically to raise the level of competition in the Pacific Northwest.
On May 13, 2026, many of those same coaches and athletes will return to Bellevue Club for a daylong reunion—breakfast at Splash followed by a group workout that includes a swim, a cycle and a run, ending with a nostalgia-filled reception at Polaris, with a recap from the coaches, a slideshow and an open mic for those with stories to tell.