Papillion Mayor's -vs- Corhusker State Games

Typically the triathlon is on the last day of the state games and an announcement was made at the Mayor's tri this past year that they were going to schedule that tri a week apart from the CSG so that people could participate in both if they wanted.

I did them on back-to-back days last year and it was a great time! I'd say they're pretty much equal except that the CSG has more participants. Both had chip timing, both had bike courses with enough hills to make the newbies cry [but they weren't too hard], both lakes were only suitable for triathletes to swim in, and the runs were relatively flat with not much shade - CSG had more shade on the run though, barely. Post-race food was basically equal [though TNT was grilling free burg's & stuff at the park across the street at the CSG, so maybe they get a leg-up just for that ]. The main difference is really the swim, which last year they were close to the same due to some measurement errors by the race organizers at the CSG that I don't expect to see repeated this year. You'll swim less at the Papio tri. Also, Papillion sells out somewhat quickly, so you'll want to decide sooner rather than later. Oh, and I think the State Games tri is on a Sunday.

Also I just remembered - some of the Papio bike course is a little tricky up by the tennis courts. It's just a regular sidewalk width. I've never had a problem the past two years but I know my wife about got run over two years ago by some knucklehead trying to save two seconds on his bike split. That might be something else to consider. The CSG is only on roads.

Have fun and I'll probably see you at whichever one you decide to do!

Edit: Parking isn't as good at the State Games as it is in Papillion, in my opinion, We had to park at the dog park across 70th street and take the bike path over to transition! If I have to talk about the difference in parking in order to try and find a difference between the two races, I'd say they're pretty much equal

Edited by Bripod 2009-03-02 3:52 PM

I've done the CSG twice and like it both times.  The run at the CSG had a big hill at the turnaround 2 years ago, not sure if the run course is still the same. I've watched the Papillion Tri but have not raced it.  It looked like a decent race, if I remember right, coming out of T1 there is a pretty sharp corner, and when the last few people were getting out of T1 they about got way-laid by people coming by to start their second loop.  The only other problem i saw is they need to redesign T2, Bripod had like a .5 sec. T2 time last year, they need to do something to slow him down.

I'm hoping to race both this year, depending on my work schedule.  Hope to see some of you there.  Train hard.

 

 

Edited by jeremy_424 2009-03-02 3:58 PM

hahaha yeah I was a T2 maniac, that's for sure!

That's a good point about that hard left - you actually do that three times. Once right out of T1 as people are coming in on lap 2 [if you're a slower swimmer/transitioner] like Jeremy said, then twice when you've just come down a slight grade, so you gotta get on the brakes and hope that nobody's stopped around the corner that you're gonna smash into! That part and the sidewalk by the tennis courts are the challenging parts of the course - more technical than anything.

I totally forgot about RAGBRAI......

I am planning on doing the first two days of that. Crap!

If I were a real man, I could do the Mayor's Tri, get a ride to mid bike on the first day of RAGBRAI, then do the CSG tri the next sunday. Really wouldn't be that bad, but I'd be using 3days of vacation minimum for this. Did I mention I hate my work schedule?