Virginia Double and Triple IRON Triathlon Help

(this was also posted under the "Virginia" section before I realized it was, wanted other states to see this as well)

Hey all - just wanted to get a thread started about the race this year (3-5 October, Lake Anna State Park, southwest of Fredericksburg VA) and invite anyone out for the weekend that would like to help us put the race on. I need volunteers to help me set up and conduct the race OR support a racer.

If you would like to support a racer, here are some details: The Triple starts Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. and the Double starts Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. The athlete has until Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m. to finish. The first people usually cross the finish line early Sunday morning and they will straggle across thruout the day.

If you would like to help me out, I start setting up Thursday morning (9ish), check-in for the athletes starts late that afternoon. Whenever you could make it out, your help would be appreciated. Be ready to set up a tent or sleep out of your vehicle, there is a camping area in the park about a mile away from where we are set up (or a short walk thru the trees). There are some cabins in the park (those have usually been all reserved by athletes earlier in the year) or hotels outside the park.

Let me know if you are interested in helping out and I will answer any questions you might have. You will not be sorry you came out to help as you will meet all sorts of athletes and their families and support crews and us as well. There are a few users of Beginner Triathlete that have raced the past couple of years and they have met friends, fellow racers and support crews thru this site.

This race is a little different than the normal triathlons you might be used to where there are undred or even thousands of people in attendance (racers, vols and spectators). We might hit 100 people overall. It doesn't take a lot of people to put this race on, just a few good dedicated soles. We don't have water/food stations thruout the course that takes large amounts of people. We have the main transition area and will have a food tent set up there where athletes can get some water/Hammergel product and food items, or mainly a lot of athletes bring their own conctions of things. When you race at this level, it is very important to race with what you train with. What you can get away with at a 10K, marathon or Half IRON doesn't work when you do a Double or Triple. Your tummy starts getting upset, you have a long way to go with those symptons, not a short couple miles to the finish line.

The website for the race is www.USAUltraTri.com, my email address is [email protected] or my phone number is (757) 430-8021. We will feed you from Thursday noon until Sunday evening and show you (hopefully) a good time.

Please consider coming and helpig us out - besides volunteering for an athlete (you will be with that athlete thruout the race and support only that person), you could help us set up, prepare food, check in Thursday or Friday evening, man the food tent, man either the main/headquarters timing station or the bike or run turnaround timing station or help with admin duties at updating the spreadsheet for the website or downloading and answering emails that are sent to the athletes. The race goes on non-stop from Friday morning thru Sunday evening so we need to do these duties in shifts. None of it is physically hard, just lots of it for long periods over the weekend - but we have fun at it.

Steve Kirby

Edited by USAUltraTri 2008-05-04 12:09 PM