Reston Sprint Triathlon (Page 2)

At least you saw an aid station.  The only one I saw was the table with water on it at the start of the run. 

I have debated sending a complaint email (about the food, awards, results)... But more and more it is becoming obvious that even though the races are "usually" run very smoothly, the bang for your buck just isn't the same as some of the race companies in the area... The race director of Black Bear, I noticed, read and commented on all Black Bear RRs this morning. Now that is customer service. Setup can't even come close to comparing to the race giveaways with Reston Oly and the Shandra and LJ at Finswheelsfeet. Sounds like Setup is out for profit and when they have POOL races that close out in 20 minutes they feel justified in poor customer service.

Though I would probably race some of their races again. I like their idea of a regional championship and some of the race locations are really fun.  

Rant over

that's why I'll continue to do the "big" races like Columbia, St. Anthony's, IMLP.  You NEVER have to worry about support at any of these races.  There is no comparison.

I completely agree.. But other than Columbia, they aren't exactly close to home.

I passed two water spots on the run, and that was fine, and what I expected. Though yeah, the after-race food selection wasn't great. Though it was still early in the morning, so I didn't care that there weren't burgers or anything and such a short drive home, it wasn't a big deal to get something when I got home. Last year at Luray there was a TON of food afterwards. And Giant Acorn had burgers and hot dogs and a bunch of other stuff - both Set-Up races.

I will continue to do Set-Up races, because they are fairly close and also on a smaller scale, since I'm still really new to triathlons. But if people are pissed, then it might be worth sending emails. They might get the hint if enough people complain. But like I said, I've only done 3 Set-Up races, and the other 2 seemed to be appropriately stocked.

I think Columbia was awesome, but I thought the food at Columbia was a let down. Nations food selections was way better, and it is a smaller race.. they had water, soda, accelerade for beverages..  as well as a ton of different foods.

Yay, I'm in one of them! On the bike - #254!

And some really unattractive pics of me on the run too...

I ate my bagel and was happy with that. I'm not picky. But I understand there were a lot of hungry guys out there I hated that endurance drink they had at the finish though. I think the swag was a bit crappy for the price of the race.

I will definitely do this race over and over again because it is in my back yard. Can't beat that. May be we all should send out suggestions?  

What I really do not  like is how long it takes them to post the splits... it is somewhat crappy for such large tri event company.

yes, nice to do a backyard race, but remember, its a backyard race. and also, the longer the race has been done, usually the better the quality.  Thats why I'm trying to get to all the long-standing favorites around the country.

I still really recommend St. Anthony's. I don't think I've done a better race, except IMLP.  next year I'm thinking Chicago and/or Wildflower.... 

I just wrote them (e-mailed Setup, and Reston Sprint Tri Association) about the swag, the food, and the time splits. Join me if you wish, here is the e-mail  [email protected]

I live in Reston and I like my backyard race to be great.  Reston Oly is phenomenal, I believe we need a phenominal Sprint!

this is year 2 for this race, right? so maybe in time it'll be to the standards of the bigger ones. i know for me, being brand new to the sport, i like backyard races. especially for the first one, because i didn't want to spend a lot of money for travel/hotel and then find out that i hated every minute of it. i think the race has good points, but like anything else, there is always room for improvement. my opinion is probably a little skewed, but i always have an issue with races that don't have continued support for the last finisher. i think that if races don't have a time cut off, then you should support til the last person is done. in this race, that last person that finished was me. and there were no aid stations on the run at all, which was kind of sucky, especially since i didn't carry anything with me thinking that the two aid stations with water would be there and I was planning on stopping and getting water there. i didn't see them on the way out or back. and i passed a lot of people that were on the way back as i was going out, so i do wonder when they took them down. luckily a volunteer and a tri rat brought me water (I swear triathletes are the most supportive people I've been around in a long time). But that was kind of annoying. honestly, that was the one thing that really irked me about the race. i am very careful to check event websites for specific time cut offs, since i know i am not the fastest competitor. and if i know i can't make it, i don't enter.

edit - i will send an e-mail as well, about the aid stations.  thanks for the e-mail addy. 

That is true - for what the event cost, we got crappy stuff - the race shirt didn't even have their sponsors names on the back?! What gives? Poor sponsors...

Nope.

X2 

usually... but the quality of the race was worse this year.  By quite a bit.

Now wait... the other day you were saying how much you hate to fly for a race. 

I am going to as well.  It is absolutely ridiculous that there were no aid stations for you on the run, that really pisssses me off. 

i know it sucks for the sponsors..but i kind of liked the fact that we didn't have sponsor stuff all over the shirts.  made them look neater.  what's odd is that the volunteer's shirts had the sponsor stuff on the back. 

What email address for SetUp did you use?

Just used Contact Us form. 

This is completely unacceptable. They must work it out with the organizers/volunteers next year. I just e-mailed them about this as well. I think they are getting an ear full from me today. Will I be banned from the race next year????

Okay, thanks!

Another issue that I told some people but didn't address earlier is that they were incomplete with awards. I watched the 10-15 year-olds and I believe none received awards. And some other AGs were not complete with awards.

The 10-15 year-olds are the future of the sport? Why would they not have awards? It just doesn't make sense.

They did tell me that my award would be mailed. It isn't a big deal to me, do I really need a piece of glass? But, it's another example of poor customer service.

Last year at Kinetic Half the race course was broken down while athletes were still on the course.

Can you e-mail Setup? You know, only constant complaining makes a difference. We are the reason they are in business.