Conley Wilhelm, a junior at Thomas County Central High School, is one of about 500,000 triathletes in the United States. Somehow, some way, he finds time to swim, bike, and run while he is also working on the other five sports he plays at Thomas County Central. He spends nearly every day of the year doing something. During the school year, he plays football, runs cross country, wrestles, runs track, and plays soccer. When school is out, he’s in the pool, on his bike, or running. It can be an unforgiving schedule, but it is one to which he has adapted well. There is tremendous carry-over in fitness among the sports he enjoys, and he has turned himself into the most well-rounded student-athletes in the area.
1. When did you start doing triathlons? I began when I was in the seventh grade. I’m the oldest of three children and all of us, including my mom and dad, do triathlons.
2. Your schedule is pretty brutal. Why do you continue to do triathlons? I love the atmosphere before and after races, and I love the competition.
3. What distances do you race? I’ve done youth races, sprint distance races, and Olympic distance races. I have a Half Ironman coming up 
in 2016. I’m not sure whether I will do the one in Augusta or Miami, but it will be one of those. [Note: The youth distances are a 200-yard swim/four-mile bike/one-mile run. Olympic distance races are 1.5-kilometer swim/40-kilometer bike/10-kilometer run. A Half Ironman is a 1.2-mile swim/56-mile bike/13.1-mile run. Sprint distance races vary; basically, it is anything shorter than an Olympic. Most of the time, sprints are something close to a .25-mile swim/12-mile bike/3.1-mile run.]
4. How much time do you spend per week training? It depends. I don’t do a whole lot of training now. I’m always playing other sports at school. I just get workouts in whenever I can. I try to run one morning for 30-40 minutes. I’ll swim one morning for the same amount of time. Some weeks I’m able to get on my bike.
5. How many triathlons do you race per year? Probably three or four.
6. Where do you place in your age group? I won first in my age group in the youth triathlons. In most of the sprints I do, I’m first. In the Olympic-distance race, I was second.
7. What’s the longest workout you’ve done? I ran a half marathon once in 1:42. My longest bike ride is 63 miles. I don’t remember how long that took me. My longest swim was in the Olympic-distance race.
8. Does your triathlon conditioning carry over into your other sports? I like to think of it the other way around, that my conditioning in other sports carries over to triathlon. I spend more time on them than I do on triathlon training.
9. How do you manage your time among school and the various sports you play? A lot of cross-training. I just have to find an open weekend when we aren’t playing or having a track meet so I can get in a triathlon.
10. Which of the other sports is your strongest? Wrestling. I’d love to wrestle in college. Right now, I’m 29-3 in the 126-pound class. Last year, I was second in the region, fourth in sectionals, and top 10 in the state in the 113-pound class. This year, I was third in the region, and now I’m getting ready for sectionals.
10 Questions/South Georgia/March 2015
Conley Wilhelm
Thomas County Central High School
Thomasville, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
