Smithfield Sprint Triathlon : Official Thread

I just signed up. Figured it would be an easy drive morning of the race and a good way to kick off the season.

Trying to start posting on BT a bit more often than once a year...

I'm in - will be interesting/good reality check after a few months letting school win over training.

and it's good if i remember correctly.  hoping the weather is half decent...

The 10 day puts the high at 61. If that's true, then I think I can manage with just a Trisuit...but it will be close. I hate the cold!

bring sweats for afterwards...the weather was on the cooler rainy side the last time i did it, and since the race is "short" and you just keep moving you feel fine, but hanging out socializing and eating afterwards...i got cold FAST!

SumFatWhiteboy - 2013-04-02 3:51 AM Yup, Im in! It will be my first Triathlon.

no tears, it is a fun, easy race.  great choice for a first tri!

For those BT'rs who race Smithfield, hope you had fun.  Especially you first-timers.  For me, this was the first time I've watched a race.  My wife was competing in her first race and I was the sherpa.  Interesting to see it from this side.  The indoor swim was something new to me and frankly it was far more organized and efficient than I had thought it would be.  I only have a couple of comments of the setup by, uh, setup.

1. I didn't see the usual post-race munchies for the athletes. (bananas, cookies, OJ, etc).  There was a BBQ but that just doesn't look like a great post-race meal to me.

2. Due to the location I couldn't find a convenient way to get out on the bike or run course to cheer my wife along.  Still got to cheer her at the transitions and the end (kids had their signs) but would've liked to get to the run turnaround and couldn't get there.

3. Because the race was a one-at-a-time start that lasted about 4 hours, the post-race reception was very thin.  Half of the fun of a race is having big crowds cheering for everyone.  This was so spread out that unless you had family/friends waiting for you, there weren't many folks hanging around. (my perception).

All-in-all a very successful day and a great low stress race to kick off a season, or for many, to kick off a new hobby (obsession?)

Cheers to all who raced

Agree on the food.  The bbq was great, but I was DYING for a gatorade or an orange.  There was nothing SWEET post-race.  Setup generally organizes a great race, but I also felt like there were no signs for anything - where is packet pickup?  where are the body markers?  I have done this race before and STILL walked around in circles for an hour getting set up.

The last time I ran it, lots of people were sitting in their yards cheering on the runners, and the weather that day was ugly.  The volunteers on the run were AMAZING, but I miss passing random folks watching.  There were 3 kids in an apartment complex running up and down the fence cheering us on, which was awesome.

Time trial starts are always tough like that.  I wanted to stay and cheer on late finishers, but I came without my sherpa and was just tired and in need of a gatorade or a smoothie or anything, so I packed up and left shortly after the last swimmer left the pool.