Originally published at: Life With the Slowtwitch Goodlife Racing Team – Join Now for 2025 - Slowtwitch News
How often do you hear people talk about age-group athletes being the life-blood of the sport, then go on to rave about all the pros they saw at a race? It doesn’t have to be an either/ or scenario, though. The inclusion of age group athletes to the Slowtwitch Goodlife Racing Team, alongside the professional athletes and podium-placing amateurs, creates a broader representation of endurance sport (and the companies geared to serve them).
That’s the goal of the Slowtwitch Goodlife Racing team, much like this website. It is a place for people who love racing (and countless hours training toward milestones) to come together, whatever their level or history in the activity.
With this in mind, I spent a weekend in 2024 with the recently expanded Slowtwitch Goodlife Racing Team to see what it was like at one of their featured races. As a relative newcomer, I experienced the Slowtwitch platform online – including the team spaces set up for connection and collaboration. Meeting peers and long time social media contacts in-person, though, brought a whole new level to the experience.
Endurance Experiences
There are many ways to experience the endurance community. Often that means braving all the training one has to do to get to the start line as a participant. Sometimes it includes volunteering at the event, or supporting someone in it. Less often it means spectating as athletes, professional and age group alike, compete.
All parts make up the atmosphere that makes the endurance lifestyle so special, and no component is truly complete without the others. And, while race day itself cannot be underscored, the events leading up to it (like the nerves of travel and pre-race check-in) and after it (picking up gear from transition and the commemorative photos with others), make a race weekend part of what we live for.
Several names serve as title and presenting sponsors for the racing team, including Slowtwitch, Certified Piedmontese and Goodlife Proteins. These brands are familiar, in part, because of Certified Piedmontese’s support of various endurance events (including select IRONMAN races, along with regional multisport and gravel competitions). Certified Piedmontese’s well-earned social media presence is also augmented by the Goodlife Proteins brand, which offers (and our tastebuds can confirm this) premium, sustainably-sourced meats and other proteins through home delivery. Slowtwitch’s involvement ensures that networks built up over decades can lead to “home field” advantages and friendships across many geographies.
Collectively, these sponsors facilitate some truly remarkable memories for team members. The Slowtwitch Goodlife Racing Team also benefits from Hyperice recovery tools, Wahoo Fitness and Shimano products, Lazer cycling gear, Challenge tires and Sailfish swim equipment, Zoot for inline apparel, Goodlife Cyclery for anything else you need bike related and of course Goodlife Nutrition for all nutrition needs. These companies also sponsor or support various athletes, which, in turn, promote frequent interactions around common interests.
Race Weekends Where We Gather
In advance of race days, staff from Slowtwitch arrive in town. We hold team gathering that always involve really good cooked food. Professional athletes usually show for a burger or something else off the grill and normal fun personal interaction takes place.
Where possible, pre-race meet ups (and meals) serve as a way to build face-to-face bonding. The weekend I joined included a cumulative 90 lbs (40.8 kgs) of product to sample from Certified Piedmontse and Goodlife Proteins at the more-intimate sessions on Thursday and Friday. There was an even larger cook-out on Saturday for the pre-race gathering that included everything from first-time athletes to seasoned veterans. It also included stars of the sport: Paula Findlay, Sam Long, Ellie Salthouse, Jackie Hering, Eric Lagerstrom, and Holly Lawrence all attended – staying late into the evening. (One professional even took home an entire bag of chips, leaving with a roar of cheerful satisfaction – a lesson that carb loading never stops.)
Slowtwitch is Our Online Hub
New to the Slowtwitch Forum is the ability for Teams to have their own private category. This allows us to do all the things we were used to doing via private groups on Facebook. Now I don’t have to login to Facebook talk to my endurance buddies. I also have the endless amounts of Forum data that I can search when looking for answers to questions that I have. It also allows me to be more engaged with the endurance community as a whole. We were the first team to pilot this program and so far it’s way better than Facebook.
Joining the Team
Given the multisport interests of athletes, the Slowtwitch Goodlife Racing Team offers a place to find like-minded triathlon, cycling, and running teammates. And the team is only going to get bigger, and experience more race weekends like the one I experienced, in the future. For more information check out the team page here or just sign up today. The team shop is also open and people are excited to hang together in 2025.
While past iterations of the team apparel (including the Timex, Suunto and TOP teams) have featured various color schemes, the Slowtwitch Goodlife kit this year includes an eye-catching mix of blue, green, and white. These kits are also shipped directly to your door from Jakroo, the custom apparel partner.
Regardless if you are on our team or another we still want to see you at the races. Make sure you say hi to any of us in 2025 and let’s cheer each other on as we find our personal bests.
