As Los Angeles prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games, 120 miles south lies the birthplace of Triathlon — Fiesta Island, San Diego, September 25, 1974. Half a century later, the full story is finally being told by its originator in first person, in real time, Don Shanahan.
COMING SOON! The Jack Johnstone Story
COMING SOON! The Jack Johnstone Story
Don Shanahan originated the sequence of triathlon: run, bike, swim.
Jack Johnstone mapped the course and safegaurded its memory.
From Fiesta Island in 1974, the sport has grown into a global phenomenon.
Hidden in Plain Sight restores Don Shanahan’s story and sets the record straight:
On September 25, 1974, at 5:45 pm, a new kind of race unfolded on Fiesta Island in San Diego. That evening, forty-six athletes lined up for a 5.3-mile run, a 5-mile bike ride, and a 600-yard swim. The sequence - run, bike, swim - was conceived and directed by Don Shanahan, a Marine, an attorney, and a lifelong competitive runner who first proposed the idea to the San Diego Track Club.
A Tower View Stories LLC Project
The Sprint & Olympic Planner + Workbooks
Sprint Distance Planner & Training Guide
Created for the working athlete, this planner brings structure, clarity, and purpose to your 12-week sprint-distance season. It covers logistics, budgeting, checklists, and weekly design, helping athletes with full lives stay organized while training with intention. Built on principles from The Tower View Method, it teaches you how to manage effort, refine focus, and balance training inside real-world demands.
Sprint Distance Training Log & Journal (12-Week Workbook)
This hands-on workbook pairs with the Sprint Planner to turn daily training into lasting awareness. Inside are detailed logs for swim, bike, run, and brick sessions, along with weekly reflections, gear trackers, and space for personal insights. Designed for the working athlete, it helps you record what truly matters—consistency, focus, and the small details that shape performance.
Olympic Distance Planner & Training Guide
Built for athletes preparing for a more demanding and deliberate season, this planner supports the full logistics, budget, and workflow of a 12–16 week Olympic-distance build. It provides structure for busier schedules and helps athletes develop the discipline and organization needed as they progress toward longer formats, including preparing for future half-distance goals. Grounded in The Tower View Method, it emphasizes managing complexity, sustaining awareness, and designing training within the realities of work and life.
Olympic Distance Training Log & Journal (16-Week Workbook)
The companion to the Olympic Planner, this 16-week workbook helps athletes track the deeper, more structured build required for Olympic and beyond. With expanded swim, bike, run, and brick logs, plus nutrition, maintenance, and long-form reflection pages, it supports athletes in developing the focus, clarity, and endurance needed as they move toward half-distance readiness.
About the Story
Hidden in Plain Sight is unlike any other work on triathlon. It is at once a history, a biography, and a study in endurance, a vivid chronicle of the sport’s evolution from Don Shanahan’s beginnings and the early multi-sport experiments of the 1970s to The First Triathlon™ in 1974 and triathlon’s Olympic debut in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.
What makes this book truly distinctive is its grounding in firsthand testimony from the originator of that inaugural race. Each chapter explores a different dimension of triathlon — its origins, its scientific foundations, and its social and cultural evolution, ultimately revealing the human story behind the balance of work, life, training, and racing. A special section features an in-depth conversation with Don Shanahan, giving readers the rare opportunity to experience a personal Question-and-Answer session with the man who started it all.
Eyewitness & Legacy
“Jack won countless swimming trophies, yet they stayed in boxes. The only award he ever displayed was the Hall of Fame trophy from Triathlete magazine in 1986.”
— Betty Johnstone, wife of Jack Johnstone, Volunteer at the First Triathlon
“Paying your dues matters. The very first triathlon in 1974 wasn’t free; it cost a dollar. One dollar doesn’t sound like much, but it turned a workout into a race. It meant framework, results, and bragging rights… That first dollar proved it was real.”
— Bob Babbitt, Co-founder, Challenged Athletes Foundation & Competitor Magazine · IRONMAN® & USA Triathlon® Hall of Famer · Media Host / Author
About the Website
The book is the foundation. The website extends the story. Coming soon:
Visuals: maps, photographs, and course reconstructions.
Video: interviews, testimonies, and anniversary coverage.
Archives: a living extension of the appendices, including complete race results.
Newsletters: the San Diego Track Club bulletins that first announced and recorded the triathlon.
The site is designed as both companion and archive — making the origins of triathlon visible, accessible, and lasting.