Triathletes, pre-race, are nothing if not preoccupied and overprepared.

All nervous energy, they mill about the transition area at Rancho Seco Park in the morning stillness, futzing with bike chains and tire air pressure. They arrange their cycling cleats and running shoes just so. They perform the ritual push-tug-hip shimmy dance to don clingy wet suits.

They are, it seems, all business.

Then Mark Shaw takes the microphone and the vibe immediately changes.

"Goooood moooorning!" Shaw says over the crackling PA system at last month's 26th Tri for Fun sprint triathlon (half-mile swim, 16-mile bike, three-mile run). "How about a shout-out for our first-timers? Raise your hands!"

About two dozen hands reach tentatively in the air, and a few joyous hoots punctuate the polite applause.

"We're gonna get 'em hooked," Shaw continues. "Here's the deal: Be nice to the first-timers today. We want them to be part of the multisport lifestyle. Remember: no headphones, no foul language. Be nice to each other."

What? Is this a triathlon or a fitness lovefest?

Well, maybe both.

The goal of Total Body Fitness – prime mover for triathlons, mountain bike races, trail runs and open-water swim events in the Sacramento area – goes beyond putting on well-run races featuring some of Northern California's most skilled endurance athletes.

Founder Bill Driskill, along with co-owner Shaw and training partner Dan Foster, seek nothing less than to make the sedentary sweat and get them to enjoy every minute of it. Through their races at various locales and ongoing training classes in and around Folsom Lake, they strive to restore a sense of joy in movement long rendered dormant in most people.

"For me, as I've gotten older," says Driskill, 48, "I like to teach play, teach people to have fun in the outdoors and not live such boring lives."

All indications are that Driskill and Shaw have succeeded. The two friends since high school (Foothill in Pleasanton) have had more than 10,000 participants at triathlon events since staging their first race in 1999, even more if you count mountain bike events and duathlons. (Their next events will be triathlons Saturday and Sunday at Rancho Seco.)

No participant left behind

And while Total Body Fitness has served as a launching pad for elite triathletes such as Jamie Whitmore and Lydia Delis-Schlosser as well as national-champion junior cyclist Evan Huffman, Driskill and Shaw say the focus is on promoting fitness to the masses.

They call it the "multisport lifestyle," and it's more than just the swim-bike-run regimen. In fact, the very use of the term "regimen" makes them shake their heads. Too many negative connotations.

There is no time cutoff for TBF events. Driskill and Shaw and a small army of volunteers stay until the last person crosses the finish line. And sometimes it takes awhile.

"The final finisher is just as important, if not more so, than the first-place finisher," says Shaw, 47. "Our typical client is a 39-year-old mother of two who wants to get in shape. A lot of our races are sprint distances, even shorter. They are worried if they'll finish last and be accepted. They can take pride in knowing they can find a family, support and confidence."

Such was the case with Connie Wilson, 60, who has competed in six triathlons and dropped 42 pounds in the process.

"I like the Total Body races because it's so friendly," she says. "It's not so serious. I did the Auburn Triathlon (put on by another organizer) recently and it was pretty cutthroat competition."

Not to say that TBF races don't cater to serious athletes.

Marianne Hernandez, 47, of the Mad Cows Racing team, finished third among women in the recent Tri for Fun. She's raced in TBF events since the beginning and says, "These guys know, from an athlete's perspective, what we need in a race."

They know from experience

Maybe that's because Driskill, Shaw and Foster are accomplished triathletes themselves.

In their post-high school lives, they balanced careers with competing on the short-lived Bud Light United States Triathlon Series in the 1980s. They were not quite good enough to turn pro full time, but the experience spawned a love of adventure that led them to chuck their corporate shackles and make a go at earning a living in the exercise and fitness industry.

Driskill was a hotel banquet coordinator at a Hilton and a Radisson before trading in the coat and tie for goggles and Spandex shorts in 1991, when TBF was strictly an in-home personal training business.

Shaw had been a financial whiz first with the technology company NCR in Santa Rosa and then the Ford Motor Co. in San Jose before Driskill convinced him in 1993 that he was living a life of quiet desperation and needed more play and less work.

Foster, 42, worked as an environmental consultant for 12 years. During that time he met Driskill and Shaw while they competed in the Markleeville Death Ride, a grueling bike race. In late 2001, the two hired Foster to run the training program, overseeing a stable of volunteer coaches.

"If what you're doing is not fun, why are you doing it?" Foster says. "I was pretty burnt out on environmental consulting, and Mark and Bill had been bugging me to join. They said, 'Forget geology. This'll be fun and we'll work out all the time.' "

The move, Foster says, has "given me my life back."

If money and possessions were foremost in Driskill's mind, he'd still be in the hotel business. He says Total Body Fitness makes money in all but its adventure travel sidelight, but he calls the profit modest.

This venture is more of a calling.

"What people call daydreaming is what we call planning," he says. "The change really came for me when my work at the hotel began to infringe upon my ability to play."

Shaw remembers those days well.

"Bill and I'd be out on a long training run in Pleasanton and Bill'd say, 'Wouldn't it be great if we could make a living out of this?' "

Don't be fooled, however: These guys work hard. The logistics of putting on an endurance event is onerous, what with insurance and permits, charting the course, taking care of details ranging from aid stations to post-race meals to timing and parking.

Summer, prime triathlon season, is the busiest time of the year for them. Most weekends are dominated by races, most weeknights by overseeing classes in open-water swimming, mountain biking and interval running on a track.

"For me," Driskill says, "the biggest thing is to make everyone feel like we care about them. Our personal touch is our trademark."

Ought to be a sack race, too

At times, a Total Body Fitness event feels like a family outing. Granted, an outing with 600 people sweating and breathing heavily, but a celebration just the same.

On race day, Driskill is a blur of activity. Short and with a rock-hard body, he darts between the registration table, the swim-to-bike transition area, over to the lake. He's gregarious by nature and the smile never seems to leave his seemingly permanently tanned face. He carries a megaphone for the swim start but, really, it's extraneous. His voice carries.

Shaw, as lanky as Driskill is compact, mans the mike and guides the athletes through every step of the competition. He seems to know everybody, calling out hellos to veterans and matching the numbers to names of newcomers to make them feel welcome.

About 20 unpaid "key staff" (they all receive an expense-paid adventure trip to Thailand at year's end) handle the grunt work, such as registration, aid station work, numbering and timing. Triathletes themselves are enticed to volunteer with an offer of waived entry fees for a future event.

"We couldn't put on these races without the unpaid staff," Driskill says.

Foster, meanwhile, ushers a half-dozen members of the current triathlon class around the course. His job is to demystify the event for people who might be intimidated by the three-part event.

"It's important for us to boil it all down so the lay person can understand it," he says. "Primarily, our classes are women just getting started. Men either already know about it or won't ask for help, which is typical of them.

"They come out here and see for themselves that you don't have to be a superstar with a hard body and six-pack abs to be a triathlete. They come in all shapes and sizes."

Most importantly, though, they come. And they stay for the post-race feast. No stale bagels and cut-up bananas for these triathletes. Even in the summer, they get chili, pasta, breakfast burritos, burgers. Heck, it's like a family picnic.

They also get a sense of community and belonging. A shade under two hours after the winner crossed the finish line, Shaw and Driskill and the TBF volunteers were still out there cheering the 556th, and last, participant.

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Call The Bee's Sam McManis, (916) 321-1145. Read his postings on The Bee's Sacramento Health & Fitness blog at sacbee.com/blogs.

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