Meet Jason Klein, the Newest Member of the T1 High Performance Team

I grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a suburb outside of Philadelphia. During High School, I began running cross country and track. In school, I always strived to do my best, and I tried to translate the same approach to running. However, I found myself frequently injured, and despite good training sessions, never racing at the level I had hoped.

In 2008, I started college at Duke University. I had always wanted to race bikes, and the Duke cycling team was just beginning to expand. When I joined the club, there were only a handful of riders. The next year, we began working with a coach, and the team went on to win our collegiate conference my junior and senior years. During this time, I enjoyed riding and racing, but still viewed it as a social activity.

It was not until I moved to Seattle that everything came together. I moved here to pursue a joint MD/PhD at the University of Washington. Coming from New Jersey, and even North Carolina, the outdoors in the Pacific Northwest amazed me. From my house, I can see Lake Union to the south, the Olympic Mountains to the west and Cascade Mountains to the east. I knew I wanted to spend time outdoors, and triathlons became my outlet.

For the first couple of years, triathlons were a great way to explore Washington state and the Pacific Northwest. I would travel throughout the state and region with teammates from the University of Washington Club, and because of my running and cycling backgrounds, I was able to be competitive within the age group.

In 2015, I signed up for the USAT Long Course National Championships in Oklahoma. I went with two of my teammates, and was nervous the entire flight whether my bike would make it there in one piece. Fortunately, both the bike and myself made it there safely, and we had great conditions for the race. I ended up having a 26-minute PR, finishing in 4:46, with a slot for the 2016 ITU Long Course World Championships.

Ever since I started riding bikes, I had wanted to race an ITU championship. The entire year leading up to the race, I couldn’t think of anything else. When the race came, I had a little extra confidence having raced in Oklahoma the previous year, but we got entirely different conditions. A storm rolled in that morning, with high winds creating 4-foot white caps in the lake and gusts throughout the bike course. After coming out of the water in 24thplace, I ended up finishing 6th in my AG.

This past season, I began racing on the Ironman circuit, with Ironman 70.3 Victora, Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene, Ironman 70.3 World Championships, and Ironman Los Cabos. I have enjoyed watching my fitness and performance increase each year, and can’t wait to see what 2018 brings now that I am partnered with Kyle and T1 Triathlon!