At TN Multisports, we are honored and excited to have two new Team Specialists joining our forces this year! Please help us welcome Kim Pancoast, running expert, and Rusty Pruden, biking extraordinaire! We hope that each of you get to meet and know these two awesome people, specialists and athletes. You will be seeing them each around more and more, so don’t be shy — introduce yourself! They are thrilled to be a part of the team and to get to know each of you!

Here is a brief bio on who and what they are all about and why they love the sport of triathlon:

Kim Pancoast started getting involved with triathlons in 2008. The 2010 season will be her 3rd season as a triathlete, having competing in both sprint and olympic distance events. Before competing in triathlons, Kim was a collegiate middle distance runner for the University of Nebraska (go huskers!). After finishing her collegiate running career and taking a year off, Kim decided she needed a new challenge outside of just running. Her dad started training for triathlons in 2008 and suggested Kim join him. She has been hooked ever since competing in her first sprint triathlon at Lake Chelan!

As an athlete, her biggest achievement was finishing 2nd at the Best of the US race in Orange County, California, in 2009. She joined TN Multisport to surround herself with other athletes who like to train and have fun, as well as to become a better swimmer and all around triathlete.

For 2010, Kim plans on sticking to sprint and Olympic distance triathlons, with a goal of competing well at the Age Group National Championships in September.

In the words of the one and only Rusty Pruden:

“I more or less stumbled across triathlons on accident. After getting my transfer degree at Clackamas Community College, I wanted to start life. Little did I know life would take me on a path of dead end roads, countless hours of work, high blood pressure, and my family doctor telling me “You need a change!”

“In 2006, triathlon found me. My high school cross country coach and long-time friend gathered two other buddies of mine and me over for a dinner. The goal was getting us all to do Ironman Canada. I didn’t know what an Ironman was, let alone a triathlon, but it sounded challenging and fun. That next month, the four of us piled up into Coach Overstreet’s van and headed up to Penticton to sign up for IMC 2007. This was where our lives would change forever.

“Over that next year of training, I found not only myself, but also my best friends. The sacrifice had never been greater, dedication never deeper, and friendships never closer. I learned quickly with these three men what it was like to rely on and be relied on for success. In the course of that one year, I went from needing to change my life in a big way before developing real health issues to competing at the 70.3 World Championships in 2007 and completing my first Ironman in 10:38 that same year. You learn a lot about who you are and what you’re capable of when you set your mind to it.

“These days, I’m a competitive Olympic and sprint distance triathlete who has qualified for the ITU World Championships in Budapest 2010. My goals for this season will be train hard, have fun, laugh TONS everyday, and win overall at the 2010 ITU World Championships. Fighting for your dreams and living your life to the fullest is what living is all about… So live it I say. Hard work pays off!!”