Mark Primeaux, history senior, starts each day with a four-hour bike ride at 6 a.m., a time most college students reserve for sleep.
Primeaux is not an average college student.
Primeaux is a member of the Triathlon Club at LSU, where members train for and participate in triathlons, — endurance races that consist of swimming, biking and running.
“It’s a unique experience,” Primeaux said. “It’s not the normal college experience to wake up at 6 in the morning and go ride for four hours.”
Fellow triathlete Chris Bayer, mechanical engineering senior, said most of the club members were active in at least one of the disciplines in high school but were interested in competing on more than one level in college.
“One of the most intriguing aspects of the sport is that it is three sports combined in one,” Bayer said. “The awesome thing about racing in all three is that it’s really hard to have a perfect race. Instead, I try to have an individual goal per each leg of the race.”
Primeaux, Bayer and club vice president Mark Fry, recently represented LSU in the Louisiana Triathlon in Pointe Coupee Parish.
Primeaux came in first place out of 165 triathletes on the course, which consisted of an 800-meter swim, an 18.6-mile bike and a 3.1-mile run, with an overall time of 1:18:36.9.
Bayer and Fry finished 13th and 30th, respectively.
Primeaux said the triathlon is not an NCAA-sanctioned sport, so members wear LSU-approved uniforms to competitions, but the club receives no funding from LSU.
He said though they are not a sanctioned sport, they do take pride in representing the University.
“We’ve represented LSU really well,” Primeaux said. “Both in the presence of people there having fun but also in the level of performance and achievement.”
Fry said  the club’s achievements beyond competition are noteworthy, as well. Members of the club balance up to 15 hours of training a week with academics and various other responsibilities.
Fry credits the demanding nature of triathlons with fostering skills that will be beneficial in the future.
“We have all these responsibilities outside of the club, such as school and work that we have to fit in along with seven to 15 hours of training a week,” Fry said.
“We really have to sit down and plan our week hour by hour. We learn to be efficient at time management, which is a skill that is needed outside of college,” Fry said.
Next up for the club is the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 on Oct. 17 in Austin, Texas.
Fry, Primeaux and Bayer will all be competing in the race, which consists of a 12-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run.
Primeaux said the team will be heading in a more competitive direction this year, but he doesn’t want to discourage people from getting involved.
“We are going to have a team that races, so if you’re an advanced racer we have the capacity to help you grow,” Primeaux said. “But if you’re a person that’s never competed in a triathlon, we have something to offer, too.”
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Contact Erin Henley at [email protected].