HANCOCK COUNTY — Jumping into a lake first thing in the morning and swimming 16 miles might not be the way an average person starts their work week, but it’s just another day at the office for fitness trainer Devon Brown.
Brown, 37, Greenfield, is participating in the TransAmTri — a 945-mile swimming, cycling and running endurance test that will take him from Florida to Alabama to Louisiana and back to Alabama over the next two weeks. During the event, which kicked off at 7 a.m. Tuesday, May 25, Brown will swim 16 miles, bike 805 miles and run 124 miles. Brown said the participants could end up going over 1,000 miles depending on projected detours.
“This is my biggest challenge to date,” Brown said, a few days before heading south for the event. “After the race, I will have raced in 50% of the states, five countries and two continents in my racing career.”
The total distance of the race is more than seven traditional ironman races. His longest race so far has been a three-day, 330-mile triathlon across Florida as part of the Florida Xtreme Triathlon in November 2019
Brown, who graduated from IUPUI with a Bachelor of Science degree in physical and health education, is a former college basketball player who started a training career with the YMCA when he was only 14 years old. That included training athletes — something he does now — when he was 18. After working several years at the former Family Fun and Fitness facility just outside New Palestine, Brown founded his own training business, Change Fitness, in 2013.
Brown is an experienced endurance athlete, having taken part in the competitions such as World’s Toughest Mudder and a variety of Spartan endurance events.
“I always tell the people I train you have to have something to look forward to that is going to push you on those days when you don’t feel like it,” Brown said.
As a father of three young boys — Dominic, Gabriel and Chase — Brown said he trains and races because he wants to be able to keep up with his sons, two of whom have already started racing with him. He wants to be able to do any adventures the kids want to try.
Dominic, 8, has raced since he turned 5, and his middle son, Gabriel, 6, started racing last year when he turned 5. Dominic also does cross country and finished 26th in the country last season in the USA Cross Country championships. He’s also on GCAT swim team in Hancock County and raced in his first adult event last weekend on a two-person team with his dad. They won. Gabriel also enjoys wrestling.
Brown’s personal goals in the national race are to go from 10 to 15 hours each day: 100 to 150 miles on bike days and 40 to 60 miles on run days. In order to keep himself supplied with energy during the event, he’ll consume around 7,000 calories a day.
The athletes will have 15 days to finish the race, but participants had only 18 hours to swim the 16 miles, which came right at the start on Tuesday when swimmers plunged into Lake Cane just outside of Orlando.
“If the moon lines up correctly and there is no bad weather, I feel like the best possible scenario is for me to finish this race in 10 days, but my goal is 13 days,” Brown said.
Early Tuesday morning, after arriving in Florida for the beginning of the race, Brown posted on Facebook: “Day 1: It begins! We are off to go swim 16 miles in under 18 hours.”
Brown, who is the youngest competitor in the race, said he will be the only one from Indiana. His father, Dennis Brown, New Palestine, is his crew and will drive his trailer full of gear during the duration of the race.
When he’s not training himself or others, Brown spends time with his boys and his wife, Allison, a registered nurse. The family will meet him in Florida for a vacation when he wraps up his latest event.
“The sooner I finish the race, the more time I’ll have for vacation,” Brown said as he laughed when he thought about his motivation for the triathlon event.
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TransAmTri 945
START: Historic Lucky’s Lake Swim, Florida (Lake Cane) on May 25.
END: Dauphin Island, Alabama
TOTAL LENGTH: 945 miles
Swim 16 miles, bike 805 miles, run 124 miles.
To track Devon Brown’s progress visit, the live race tracking page at trackleaders.com/transamtri21.
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