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Swimmer Tackles Triathlons: Woodlan Grad ?Can Turn Anything into a Compe- Tition,? Says His Wife.

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Blake Sebring, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Jun. 2--The first time he competed in a triathlon, New Haven's Eric Limkemann realized about halfway through the running portion that he seriously needed to re-examine what he was doing.

"I've never done too many things that were easy," Limkemann said, laughing.

Not even close. A competitive swimmer, Limkemann attended Woodlan Junior-Senior High School even though the Warriors did not have a team. After competing for the Fort Wayne Aquatics club, Limkemann attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he won nine Big East championships, including four in the 1,650-meter relay, the sport's longest race.

After graduating in 2004, he became an assistant coach with the Panthers because, though he was very good, he wasn't quite good enough to take the next step into international competition. That meant he had to find something else to do because, as his wife, Ashley Petten says, "He can turn anything into a competition. It's amazing."

"I was done swimming, but I wasn't done competing and I didn't know what to do," he said.

Limkemann always enjoyed running as training, usually hitting a five-minute-per-mile pace. That led him to try triathlons with their 1.5 kilometer swim, 40K bike ride and 10K run with help from Pittsburgh's Trizilla Triathlon Equipment Co. The hardest part was getting used to the bike ride, falling and breaking his collarbone that first summer when a tire blew out going around a turn.

That pushed his progress back, and two years later Limkemann, 24, is just starting to compete with some of the country's top tri-athletes. Most top professionals hit their peak around age 29 or 30.

"I've always had goals of possibly going to the Olympics or high-level competitions," he said. "I think I've already seen that I'm going to be better at this than I am at swimming, even though I've (swum) for 20 years."

But swimming is his major advantage, as most competitors have running or biking backgrounds and struggle in the water. Limkemann is almost always the fastest swimmer in any meet, which led to a problem at a recent race. His time in the water was so good -- 27 seconds better than the fastest pro -- that meet organizers thought he had taken off in the wrong group and disqualified him. When informed after the race, Limkemann was able to convince the race director that he had indeed gone that fast.

Then in his next meet he swam a minute faster than his first time.

Limekmann has competed in 15 triathlons and has finished among the top 10 in almost all of them. During a typical week, he bikes 100-150 miles, runs 20-30 miles and swims five-10 miles. It takes 20-30 hours per week, with Ashley's encouragement. Both Limkemanns are working on master's degrees, and she will apply to med school next year.

"We try to get workouts together if we can," Petten said. "Sometimes I think he has to balance between me and training, so we try to combine workouts."

The triathlon season starts immediately after the college swimming season ends in April, and finishes just as the swimming season starts in October. He'll get up at 5 a.m. to swim before the Pittsburgh swim teams arrive for practice. Then he'll run after the evening practice on the indoor track. But usually Limkemann doesn't mind the solitary nature of training.

"It's not much more boring than having your head in the water for two hours straight looking at the bottom of the pool," he said. "It's kind of what I'm used to. When I have free time, I get bored easily and this keeps me occupied. Training is something I've always done."

So now he knows this is what he's supposed to be doing. He's not in a hurry to turn pro but knows it's going to happen.

"The big thing with me is that I'm still very, very new at what I'm doing," he said. "It's always been my goal to compete at this level, but I don't feel like I've really prepared to be here yet. It took me a long time swimming-wise to get where I felt like I was reaching my potential. I'm nowhere near my potential in this. I still feel like there's a lot left."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.)

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