Back Mountain Triathlon Personal Stories: ‘Just do the work’ mantra pays off for Grohowski

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Trevor Grohowski finished third overall at the inaugural Back Mountain Triathlon last August.

He had a blistering bike leg on the hilly course, covering the 24 miles in just over 1 hour (1:00:37). He also had a strong 10K run off the bike in 42:49, where he passed another athlete with less than a mile to go to earn his spot on the podium.

The field was packed with local legends of the sport, and many athletes who had raced the former Wilkes Barre Triathlon many times, but it was Grohowski’s first ever triathlon.

The week before the Back Mountain race he bought his first wetsuit. The weekend of the race he swam in open water for the first time. On race day, he swam in a wetsuit for only the third time in his life, then managed to fly through the bike course in the third best time, and work his way into third place before the run started. He didn’t have a tri bike either, just a regular road bike. Grohowski does have experience as a road cyclist as part of his college’s club team at Shippensburg University (2023 graduate). But the theme here is that he isn’t afraid to try new things and take risks.

Growing up in Nanticoke, the youngest of three children, Grohowski was always active. Riding bikes, running around in the woods, playing sports of all kinds, he was certainly an active kid. He thought being in a state of perpetual motion was totally normal. It wasn’t until middle school basketball practice where one day Grohowski realized he had an aerobic gift. While running suicides during practice, he realized he could go longer and go faster than any of his teammates. In ninth grade, he went out for track where his sister Amber was a senior and a member of the team. As a freshman, he clocked a 10:40 for the two-mile run. Pole vault was the event that really caught his attention during his following years at GNA. He eventually cleared 13 feet, 3 inches for his best vault.

Even today his mind pulls him in all sorts of directions. The kid who played baseball, basketball and football in middle school and ended up as a miler and pole-vaulter in high school, today likes bike racing, mountain biking, rock climbing, running and even wrestling.

When Grohowski was 15 years old, he heard about and signed up to do the Honey Hole Road duathlon put on by Rob Gould of Hazy Racing. He did it on his mountain bike and saw lots of athletes pass him with time trial bikes and expensive road bikes. He still had a great experience with the sport that day. Later his older brother, Deric, got him interested in competing in a triathlon. They signed up for Steelman but it was cancelled that year due to COVID. When the Back Mountain Triathlon was announced last year, and there was an opportunity for him to race in his “hometown,” he got excited to race at Harveys Lake.

Grohowski has a very loose and casual approach to his training schedule. He makes sure to keep lots of equipment options in his car so he can change his mind on any given day based on the weather or his work and personal schedule. That flexibility allows him to work in his 12 hours of training per week when it suits him. In a sport with lots of rigid training programs, many might call it an unorthodox approach, but it clearly works for Grohowski. Since the Back Mountain Triathlon, Grohowski has been putting in more time in the pool, realizing that if he wants to get to the next level in this sport, he needs to cut a few minutes off his swim time.

One of his favorite memories from the Back Mountain Triathlon in 2023 was towards the end of the run when he saw his brother Deric going in the other direction on the run course. (Since the run is an out and back course, runners heading towards the finish will see athletes heading out towards the turnaround. It makes for a great atmosphere on the run course because athletes can shout encouragement to each other and also see where they are in respect to their competition). Deric shouted some words of encouragement to his younger brother which really gave Trevor that extra gear. Seeing the rest of his closeknit family at the finish line, and celebrating with them, was the icing on the cake.

Grohowski has some big dreams about triathlon. This summer he is signed up to do the Lake Placid Ironman 140.6 in July. It will be his first long course race, and it should be a course that suits his abilities well. The two-loop bike course has epic descents and serious climbs, something the cyclist in him is very excited about. He plans to return to the Back Mountain Triathlon on Aug. 25, and will be in Atlantic City for USAT Nationals later this summer. He is eager to try out draft legal racing and maybe an off-road triathlon too. His highest goal: one day getting the chance to race at the Olympic Trials.

Grohowski’s current mantra is “Just gonna send it.” The 23-year-old elaborated by saying, “You get yourself into trouble when you don’t commit. Fear is real. But you can keep your body and your mind under control.” When you commit to something and give it 100% of your focus you have the best chance to succeed.

Another quote that Grohowski repeats to himself came from his Shippensburg cycling coach – “Just do the work.”

Put your head down, do the work and you will get the rewards from the hard work you put in. If you enjoy training as much as Grohowski does, the reward is in the process. Success on race day is a sweet bonus.

Deric shared a story about little brother’s “Do the Work” lifestyle. He came home to Nanticoke to the family house one weekend from Shippensburg University and proceeded to do schoolwork until midnight. Then he hopped on the bike and did a three-hour trainer ride until 3 a.m. If you do the work the rest will take care of itself, but you must “do the work.”

That attitude paid off for Grohowski last year when he qualified for and got to race the 2023 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championship in Albuquerque, N.M. (He even had to skip his college graduation ceremony at Shippensburg to be there. No one said there wouldn’t be sacrifices.)

When asked what he was happy with and what he wanted to improve this year at the Back Mountain Triathlon, Grohowski’s answer was surprising. He said he was pretty happy with how “straight he swam on the swim,” but he wasn’t so happy with his bike since he was stuck in the small loop for part of the first lap of the bike course. He also said he was a little disappointed with how he ran the back half of the run course after “the hills got to me.”

If Grohowski has been “doing the work” I imagine we will see improvements in those aspects of his race this summer.