The coaching staff of TriCoachGeorgia is very proud of TaxSlayer, aka Seth Waltman, as he was named the Oconee Enterprise Athlete of the Week.  He is a great athlete and a huge part of the team. His training has been impeccable as evidenced by his top 10 overall result in the USAT’s NCC Challenge and Seth has made dramatic improvements in his racing since joining TCGa.

Prior to joining the team in late 2012, Seth had never been on a podium in any race and now he is a regular on the podium. Seth continues to set personal records in almost all of his races.  He finished 20th out of 402 in the swim portion at Ironman Chattanooga.  He has taken over 12 minutes off his best half marathon since he joined the TCGa. He battled through some terrible vomiting in Raleigh to finish strong. Seth’s continued success as an athlete will show as he competes in Ironman Louisville in October.

 

 

Seth is not only a great athlete.  He is willing to help his teammates out when they need him.  He has been a Sherpa or helper for our team on numerous occasions.  Also, he played a pivotal part as the team rallied around the son of other team members in a fundraiser that will send the family to Disney World.

In the Autumn of 2014, Seth helped to bring the youth team under the auspices of TCGa and helps with issues outside of coaching the kids.  He has organized team travel, planned numerous events and helped with team purchases. He sponsors the team as well. The TriKidsGeorgia team is lucky to have a dedicated parent, like Seth, help with the team.  All told, there are not a lot of teams that have a guy like TaxSlayer and we consider him a huge part of our core. Read more about him in the Oconee Enterprise article below:

 

 

 

 

 

Athlete of the Week: Waltman excels in national triathlon

[Full Article & text taken courtesy of The Oconee Enterprise Newspaper. Written by Benjamin Wolk]

To get into triathlons, all Seth Waltman had to do was make his wife a little mad.

In May of 2009, Waltman bought a bike. At the time, he wasn’t very active, so his wife questioned his motive for buying it. She made it quite clear that he “better use that bike.”

Waltman knew he’d left himself no choice, so he signed up to race in the inaugural Tri-2-Beat Cancer Triathlon held at Sandy Creek Park in Athens.

“I’ll do that because she was really angry,” Waltman said. “So I did it that year — slow, but I got through it. I did it the next year, then I didn’t really do it again.”

But Waltman’s world of competitive racing had only just begun.

In the fall of 2012, he started seeing some of his friends posting to Facebook about a variety of different races. Then he saw a post for an Ironman in Augusta. Waltman figured if they could do it, so could he, though he knew he’d have to train.

At the time, Waltman’s son competed for a youth triathlon team coached by Harvey Gayer. Waltman approached Gayer to see if he could train him to get ready for the Ironman.

Gayer was happy to help.

“The rest is history,” Waltman said. “I’ve done two more half Irons. I did a full Ironman and numerous sprints. The list goes on.”

As Waltman lost some weight, his times got faster. He built a bunch of friendships, Gayer included, that helped motivate his progress. Because of his improvements, Waltman joined TriCoachGeorgia, a local triathlon team headed by Gayer.

From December to February, the team competed in a USA Triathlon national competition called the National Challenge Competition that helps encourage triathlon training during the winter months.

Each team tracked individual mileage over that time, which translated to a points system. Swimming a mile earned 10 points. Running a mile was worth three. A mile on the bike was good enough for one point.

As the competition developed, Waltman — at the end of each month — found himself in the top 10 nationally among 4350 athletes. In the middle of February, still in the top 10, Waltman finally decided that he wanted to prove to himself and others that he could finish in the top 10.

After running 767 miles, swimming 53 miles and biking 2621 miles, Waltman placed 7th out of all competitors. As a result, he’s been named this edition’s Ellis Pain Center/Oconee Enterprise Athlete of the Week.

“Not everybody knows, but in the triathlon community, it’s a pretty cool thing,” Waltman said.

But Waltman wasn’t alone in his successful endeavor.

As a team, TriCoachGeorgia — a team made up of Waltman, Gayer and numerous others, including member of the club’s youth team TriKidsGeorgia — took the first-place crown over a team from Atlanta. They did so just barely, however, winning by about 200 points, which isn’t much when dealing with 70-person teams.

“We beat the team from Atlanta on the last day,” Waltman said. “Over three months, we’re talking about a pretty small margin it was close.”