Erin Beresini, Triathlete Magazine, Dec
14, 2016
TRI,
the award-winning, feel-good triathlon film of the year, gets our sport right.
You don’t want to miss it.
TRI, the award-winning, feel-good triathlon film of the year, gets
our sport right. You don’t want to miss it.
After
stumbling upon what is possibly, probably the most terrible tri-related movie ever, we went in search of a
film that gets it. A fictional movie where triathlon isn’t stereotyped as a
sport full of personality-less, non-wine drinking swim-bike-run bots. We didn’t
expect to find much since we’d never come across such a film in decades. But a
holiday miracle occurred! A brand-new movie called TRI
was just released on iTunes, Amazon video, Google Play, and in-demand on Dec.
13 and it is our sport’s feel-good movie of the year.
The
premise is simple: Ultrasound tech Natalie never finishes anything. But when a
cancer patient tells her about a triathlon, she’s intrigued. Like many of us
have, she checks out the iconic ABC
footage of Julie Moss (an associate producer on TRI) collapsing at
Ironman Hawaii in 1982 and is inspired to sign up for her first race, the
Olympic-distance Nation’s Triathlon in Washington, D.C. She joins a Team in
Training-like organization to help her achieve her goal.
What
follows is a proper, genuine triathlon education that newbies and old pros
alike will appreciate. “We wanted to make something that if someone was about
to do a tri for the first time, they could play this and show their family:
this is why I’m getting up at 5 a.m. to swim and do long bike rides on the
weekend,” says director Jai Jamison, 31. “You can put it in and help them
understand. It’s also inspiring.”
The movie
covers everything from how to pronounce triathlon—it’s three syllables!—to
training for an open water swim, the importance of finishers medals, the terms
DNS, DNF, and DFL, clipping into your bike, and racing for a charity and more.
It excels in capturing the humor and the fun, beautiful sense of community
triathlon fosters.
“Funny
things happen in the process of training,” Jamison says. Like putting on a
body-hugging tri suit for the first time. “Different types of people from
different segments of life come together to do this. It often lends itself to a
sense of humor.” Then he adds, “We were able to capture how positive the
community is and that’s something I’m proud of.”
This film
gets the sport right largely because writer, producer and TRI’s financier, Ted
Adams III, is a triathlete himself whose own Team in Training experiences
inspired him to create the movie. Since the 52-year old raced his first
triathlon in 2011, he’s completed two Ironmans and earned his USAT Level 1
coaching certification. Sharing the stories of the people he met
training—including those affected by cancer—became a passion project for him;
the mechanical engineer says his day job is running an engineering company that
does calibration for a deadly weapons program.
“It’s not just a movie
about triathlon,” Adams says. “It’s about overcoming challenges and honoring
people who are survivors.”
