One of LQHS’ very own, Daniel Chico ’25, recently completed his first-ever triathlon. He spent approximately half a year training: swimming, cycling and running. It made for a memorable experience in only his first year of high school. That, and completing the event alongside his mom — who was his biggest supporter.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Question: I heard you just recently completed a triathlon. Can you tell me about your experience?

Daniel Chico: It was a really awesome experience. At first, it was a little nerve-wracking, especially being in an open water lake. It was pretty cold, but I wear a wetsuit so it keeps me kind of warm. When we first started, many people, I could tell, were, like me, also nervous. A few of them actually had to stop and ask for help from the lifeguards, but I kept going on. It was a half-mile swim at the start, so that was a little tiring, and then from there, I did a 15-mile bike ride and three-mile run.

Q: How long did you train? When did you start training?

DC: Well, I got into it about six months ago, I wasn’t strictly training for the triathlon at first and then I found out how much I enjoyed it. That’s when I really started to train.

Q: How did you train for the triathlon?

DC: I first started off by doing lots of biking. One of my biggest accomplishments for the bike was doing the Tour de Palm Springs. It was a 50-mile bike around Palm Springs. It was really cool. I did it with my mom. She’s the one who got me into all of this. Then I moved on to swimming. That was a big challenge because I needed to learn how to do my breathing.

Q: Where would you train?

DC: I would bike around PGA West. I would do 25 miles or around 30 miles sometimes, and for swimming, I would go to the Palm Desert Aquatic Center and run, just anywhere.

Q: Why did you do this?

DC: I just really enjoy endurance sports. I really like how it makes me feel. It keeps me going.

Q: Did you learn anything from this experience? What was the most meaningful thing about this?

DC: The community around the triathlon. The community is really cool. Everybody’s just pushing each other to keep going and it’s really cool to see how other people push themselves and their limits. I really enjoyed it.

Q: Who was there by your side during this experience?

DC: It was my mom, she first got into doing track triathlons. At first, I thought, “That’s not for me.” Then I ended up trying it and I really enjoyed it. She did everything with me.

Q: When and where was this triathlon and what was your time?

DC: It was at San Dimas. It was at this park, I forgot its name, but my time was an hour and thirty minutes.

Q: Out of the three sports during this triathlon, which one was your favorite and why?

DC: Running is my favorite. I like pushing myself to go faster and faster as the mileage goes up.

Q: Were there any obstacles or challenges during the training that you came across? How did you overcome those challenges?

DC: I think swimming was a big one. I did not know how to breathe and I was pretty slow. My form was absolutely terrible, but I had my mom who’s really good at swimming, so she was to coach me through everything, the breathing exercises and just how to improve my form.

Q: How did you find the discipline and mentality to do this training?

DC: Some days, I wouldn’t feel too motivated to get to training, but I had my mom pushing me and giving me the discipline to continue. It takes a lot of discipline to get yourself to do your training.

Q: Did the training affect your schoolwork?

DC: Not really, most of it was after school or during the weekends.

Q: How long would you train? How many hours?

DC: It just depends on how busy I was. If I had lots of after school stuff to do, then my hours would go down. I would say around two to three hours.

Q: Would you do it again? If so, would you start training immediately or give yourself a break?

DC: I want to get back into it already. I’m ready to start my next one in October. I am deciding whether to do a full triathlon or sprint again.