Low cost races in Ontario?

I just got back from the Splash N Dash at Lake Whittaker (east of London).  It's not a full-blown race if you're expecting electronic timing and all the other niceties, but it was $20 + OAT insurance + entry to the park ($8 per car), which is pretty cheap.

Oakville is probably a bit far to drive for a weekday 50-minute race, but I had fun and will probably partake again this summer.

Elmira, ON has a Try a Tri annually and it's $20 bucks taxes in.  No time chip, but still a fun little try a tri.

I think compared to pure swimming events, or other sports/events, the costs overall at any tri event are exceptionally low.   Under  $80 for all the events I'm registering for....say compared to the Warrior Dash which is just a 5km run at over $50 bucks!

Goderich tri is $35.

http://www.goderich.ca/en/visitors/triathlon.asp

Some may think it strange that I promote another race but Tom Doherty puts on a fun and great race in Goderich. It also supports the Goderich High School. Anne and I competed in Goderich years ago, before we started the series, and I can say it is one of the little known jewels in Ontario. This year Tom dropped by our Woodstock race and I was happy to put out applications for Goderich in our registration tent. If you are not racing with us in Cobourg that weekend I highly recommend Goderich.

As to the rest of the thread I believe that there are probably some good local races people should explore. They may not have technical shirts, chip timing or some of the frills of bigger races but that doesn't mean they are not a fun day of racing. I do agree with another poster in that the price of races in Ontario in larger races is inexpensive compared to the U.S. and Western Canada.

I can also tell you that no one is getting rich from race fees. In fact, no race "series" would survive on race fees alone. Local races survive because of local volunteers and organizing committees that donate their time. Some races even have police and ambulance time donated. For a series the sponsors make the difference between survival or failure. Most people would be surprised and perhaps even shocked if they knew how much it costs to put on a race. Police costs average between $2,500 to $4,000 per race, fees for paramedics and ambulances on standby in the range of $2,000 to $3,000 are not uncommon. The list of expenses is very long.

As a point of interest, if you would like to get a sense of the "high level" logistics associated with putting on a race take a look at our Find A Race Site Contest page. We had this contest for a limited time a year ago and have now decided to open it up indefinitely. 

John - thanks for giving us a RD's perspective and for your endorsement of Godderich.

I posted this question mostly becasue I was thinking about how our beloved sport can grow beyond what is preceived to be a fringe activity and into something more mainstream.  I, and I suspect that most people on this site, realize that the fees we spend for a day at a local race is great value - its not a lot to pay for half a day of fun, plus the post-memories and pre-race anticipation.

Its the people who never tried a triathlon before that may see $50 to 75 as a lot to invest in somethnig that they are not sure they will: enjoy, be able to complete, not get embarrased by, etc.

I've been rolling ideas around in my head on how to reduce these 'barriers to entry' for triathlon. My intuition tells me that races with the following characteristics would probably help stimulate more 1st timers (particularly female) to join (for most tri there are still more male participants than female - the opposite of what we see at 10k or 5k runs).

1. A 200m swim that follows the shoreline (i.e. no more than 20m off-shore) - Welland might be perfect for this if there was one ingress and a different egress spot 200m to 400m farther along the shore.

2. 10-20 Bikes available to rent for a few extra bucks (older MTB or Comfort bikes would be fine)

3. Allow the racer to opt for a 'Just-for-Fun' category within the race. i.e. the racer would be un-timed. This would remove the fear of being Dead-Freakin'-Last.

4. Location needs to reasonably close to a population area.

5. cross-market it with a running event to attract the fintness crowd that hasn't considered or commited to trying tri's

6. give out a finisher's medal. I know its a little tacky but this offers longer term re-inforcement to the 1st timers sense of accomplishment. (But please don't start giving out finisher medals at longer events!)

7. and of course keep the price as low as reasonable.

I feel confident that once they tried it once, most will get hooked this sport the way we all did.

Being a first timer, I was pouring over last years stats to try and guess how I might do in the Try-a-Tri.  It is interesting to note that (for at least the Trisport series) there is more female participants in all the Try-a-Tri's than the men in 2010 and so far in 2011

Deep River, ON has a long sprint Tri that is pretty cheap ($37) for the Ottawa Valley.  It's a small community and the course is fun!  Its on July 31st this year.  Check out the website!

http://town.deepriver.on.ca/recreation/triathlon.htm

Mark,

Your ideas are good however I think that the cost to execute these concepts would be very high, which means not being able to keep the prices low. I am off to Challenge Roth for the Iron Distance race and will give some more thought to your ideas while I am away.

Winter Mute, 

I think that once you come out to a race the one aspect you will really enjoy is the camaraderie. A lot our Give-It-A-Tri races now have over 50% women and we celebrate the "first-timers" with a group picture. I hope we see you at one of our events this summer.

John,

I was going to do Binbrook this year, but ended up doing Guelph instead as a co-worker was going to the same race.  I won't be doing any try-a-tri's in your series this year for the same reason - scheduling races with people I know.

That being said, next year when I plan to move up to Sprint races, I'll definitely be favouring your series as you have "true" sprint distances.

-Erik