125th Medical Technician is Going the Distance

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jaclyn Lyons
  • 125th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
Sportsmanship, teamwork, and competition are what the Armed Forces Triathlon is all about. --  Senior Airman Jaymie Brooks, a Medical Technician at the 125th Fighter Wing, is preparing for this year's competition, being held at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California.

Each year teams from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Canada come together to compete in a Triathlon which consists of a 1500-meter open-water swim, ten-kilometer bike ride, and ten-kilometer run. Senior Airman Brooks will be representing the 125th Fighter Wing and the Air National Guard as the only National Guard member on the Air Force Team. Brooks has only recently started doing triathlons. She was a runner throughout high school and college and ran the Air Force Marathon a few years ago. Brooks switched her focus to Triathlon training to help prevent injuries common to long distance running, and competed in her first triathlon in October 2013. After winning the competition as best female overall, Brooks felt inspired to take it more seriously.

" I thought this might be something new for me that I could be competitive in. So that's when I looked on USAFsports.com and I saw that they did have a triathlon team," Brooks said.

She explained that she reached out to the coach and found out the requirements: "I got a hold of the coach and he said you need to do an Olympic and you need to do it at this specific time to possibly make the team. So that's what I started setting my goal towards."

Brooks went on to her next race and finished in 2 hours 18 minutes, which qualified her to apply for the team. After that she was accepted to the team of six women and ten men. Brooks has been training twice a day in preparation for the event and thankful for the support she has received from her leadership at the 125th Fighter Wing.

"They have all been really great and the fact that everyone is given time to work out at work has been a tremendous help," she said. "And I'm just excited to be able to represent the Air Force in this capacity."

Senior Airman Brooks along with the other Airmen chosen for the team will come together to train for a few days at Naval Base Ventura County before representing the Air Force during the competition on May 31.