Sunday, August 3, 2003 -- Huntington, WV
First Annual Tristate Triathlon (iPO Event Id#: 5499)
Photos by Don Parks

[Details] [Coverage]
Results: [Olympic] [Sprint] [Relay]
Pictures: [Set 1] [Set 2] [Set 3] [Set 4] [Set 5]
[Set 6] [Set 7] [Set 8] [Set 9] [Set 10] [Set 11]

Soaking it up at the Tristate Tri

I would like to thank all triathletes who participated in the First Annual Tri-State Triathlon, August 3rd, 2003. I am grateful for all the help we had putting on the race including sponsors, volunteers, committee members, etc.. Everyone seemed to share the common vision that exercise leads to better health.

We witnessed people in the race biking on single speed bikes and borrowed bikes as well as the typical multi-thousand dollar bikes that are seen in larger races. We saw life vests worn in the water. We saw people fall on the bike course due to the torrential rains. We saw an incredible number of rookie triathletes out there doing the entire race as well as others who teamed up for the relay event despite never having been in a lake, nor in a bike race, nor even in a 5K race before. We saw a patient with a quadruple bypass one-a-half years ago do the entire short course while 2 more patients and graduates of the Dean Ornish program teamed up in the relay and finished in 12th place. We also saw a race for first place which ended up giving the first and second place finishers times worthy of international events in spite of the course's conditions.

Mostly what we saw were people having fun in spite of everything.

Hope to see you all again next year!

As race director I apologize for those things that went wrong (but not for the rain, that must have been somebody else's fault). The timing was difficult to do. Transition times have been placed on the web site, but there are missing times mostly due to large volumes of participants passing by at the same time and their numbers getting lost in the confusion. By trying to time the transition, we took away from volunteers who could have helped in other areas for timing. Next year we will have computer chip timing which I feel will solve everything. It will allow more immediate results and announcement of awards and will free up volunteers for elsewhere. We will have more help on the run course. I don't doubt that at least one or two people ran the wrong course on the 10K. Most especially we will solve the traffic problem on the road leading out from the lake. This was potentially dangerous. Certainly it slowed many who were biking towards the transition as others were driving their cars out. Nicer weather would have kept people from driving out early; but regardless, we will fix this.

Expect a perfectly run race next time. Tell others to be involved. And please enter early so we know for how many to be prepared. Send me your e-mail for further suggestions, both good and bad. With regards to the medals, pick them up at the YMCA (an awesome place and while you're there tell them what a great job they did with the race). If you can't make it to the Y, we will mail them to you.

With regards to the future, expect HealthyHuntington.org to be involved in races that will emphasize the roll of exercise in keeping good health. Check out the website for races such as the Diabetes Prevention Run, which we will hopefully hold in the fall and which will include a children's race. Volunteers and sponsors are always welcome and are necessary for our success.

Sincerely,
Tom Dannals - Race Director
tdannals@uhswv.com