Linsey Corbin Talks About Return To Bend
American triathlete Linsey Corbin chats with Bend's The Bulletin about her decision to relocate to where she grew up.
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American triathlete Linsey Corbin chats with Bend’s The Bulletin about her decision to relocate to where she grew up.
Now 33, and with eight Kona appearances under her belt—including three top-10 finishes—the former Linsey Pickell is back in Central Oregon, where she grew up running and skiing. She had spent the previous 13 years in Missoula, Mont., where she and husband Chris Corbin went to college, before moving back to Bend last month.
She is still “Montana Made,” the slogan/personal brand she has popularized in triathlon circles. “That’s where I learned how to swim, where I learned about triathlon,” Corbin says about the Treasure State. “My work ethic and competitiveness, that all happened there.” As a nod to Montana, she finishes every race with a cowgirl hat on.
But now she will incorporate a little “Oregon inspiration” into her life.
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“The last two years we’ve come back here for part of August and all of September getting ready for worlds in October,” says Corbin, who mentions Bend’s milder winters and greater access to swimming facilities among her reasons for moving back to Central Oregon.
“We just really enjoyed ourselves here,” she adds. “There’s a good support network here and definitely a few more elite athletes to train with. … We travel all the time (to compete), and Bend was the only place we kept coming back to where we could see ourselves living.”
Corbin was a solid runner during her days at Mountain View High, and she was a competitive youth skier with the Mount Bachelor Sports Education Foundation. Out of high school, she went to the University of California, Davis, where she planned to walk on to the cross-country and track teams before realizing that running “wasn’t that much fun anymore.”
She transferred to the University of Montana after a year and joined the club triathlon team. She stayed fit through school by running shorter triathlons, but she never really immersed herself in the sport until some friends persuaded her to sign up for Ironman Coeur d’Alene in northern Idaho in 2006.
Read more: Bendbulletin.com
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