Beer Drinkers Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2023 Mentor Group - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 54)

@Andrew...we need to do something spectacular soon...the ladies in this group are lapping the field on us. 

@Gretchen:  that is awesome to go to worlds!!  And Australia to boot - maybe we can have a big BDAS reunion to cheer you on!

@Nathalie...there has definitely been a decline in triathlon participation around here over its peak maybe 15 years ago.  The biggest local company went under about 7-8 years ago (they used to have probably the biggest Olympic race on the east coast near me, where they'd have over 5,000 racers).  Savageman which was a famous half-ironman race out in the Maryland mountains is gone. 

Our local sprint/Oly company (Kinetic Multisports) is still going strong and we get good participation numbers (usually 200-400 per race).  They run about 15-17 events a year from April to October all within about 2-300 km of me, many much closer.  They have a long-standing relationship with the venues and local jurisdictions where they race.  To my knowledge only one race they've managed has fallen off the calendar, and honestly it was probably not needed as they race at the same place a month earlier.  There are a few other companies that run 1-3 around here.  Honestly, there's no excuse to not find a race around here as there's one at least every other weekend, but the days of having four different companies that manage 10-15 races a year with 1K+ participation numbers is done.

Ironman dominates the long course scene around here (and all of the U.S. for that matter, Gretchen's non-IM-branded race notwithstanding).  Eagleman 70.3 and Ironman Maryland still do well but don't sell out like they used to (Eagleman would sell out in a few days of opening).

With respect to your local race, it's tough for a small event to do well.  It costs more or less the same amount of money (at least here in the U.S.) for traffic control / safety, and if you don't have enough participation it's a money loser.  I agree serious racers trend towards the long course over Oly...I'd guess the Olympic distance probably draws the least number of racers overall because it's a brutal distance and doesn't have the cache of IM-branding.  It's also upon us as triathletes to do what you're doing and get involved where we can (volunteering, promoting, recruiting, etc.).

I'd imagine Gretchen has a very different experience locally as she lives in the middle of the country in a MUCH less populated area than I do (we probably have 60 million people living within that Kinetic race reach).  And Andrew lives on an island more or less. 

Yes, mostly for-profit companies.  I don't know of any that are publicly-traded, but I don't think Kinetic makes a ton of money and the owners do it because they love the sport.  There have been some mergers over the years, as well as races that have changed hands.  Kinetic bought a company (Piranha Sports) when the founder retired, and they pulled in their race schedule, including the one I just did in Delaware.   They also run the races that are national age group qualifiers for USAT. 

I think your idea to band together is a good one, and you could even have like a "Swedish Triathlon Cup" series of races where you compete with others across multiple races.  Kinetic does that here and they have people that will race like 5-8 times.  Triathlon clubs also compete. 

Back from New York City, a little lighter in the wallet but we got a really nice walk around Central Park.  On Sundays they close the perimeter road (the one you ride in Zwift) I swear there were like 100K people exercising yesterday (running, cycling, playing with their dogs).  NYC is such a cool place (I think I heard a dozen different languages spoken there) - couldn't live there for any length of time but I love visiting, especially when the weather was beautiful yesterday.

Welcome back to the regular world, Andrew.  Work travel is tough and it seemed you had some really long days there as well.  You did well getting a little bit in and now just back at it. 

Started the week with an off day yesterday and then 90 minutes in the Pain Cave this morning...40 min VO2 max intervals on the bike, a short 20 minute easy run and then some dumbbell and planks work.  The third interval (4' @ 105%) was a little rough but I was able to play mind games (I count down by 1 every 6 seconds so at one minute left it's "10" then at 54 seconds "9" and so forth.  Seems to work for my harder intervals.  Double tomorrow with a morning swim and lunch bike/run brick.