At 1:3o PM on Saturday, September 30th, the parking lot in front of the Marina Services Building in General Smallwood State Park was empty except for my Volvo wagon. The only indication that there might have been a triathlon in the park was a long white trailer with “Set-up, Inc” stamped on the side that slowly pulled out of the parking lot. I stood next to my car surveying the scene. The race was over and the park was cleaner than when we had arrived on Friday morning.
It seemed hard to believe that only a few hours earlier there were almost 500 bicycles lined up on aluminum bike racks while their owners swam in Mattawoman Bay. I smiled at Brad (race announcer) and Laura (my girlfriend) then climbed into my car. One last sweep of the adjacent parking lot and were on our way back to Reston.
The Smallwood Triathlon was the second triathlon that I produced in 2006 (the first was the Luray Triathlon in May).
I first approached the staff at General Smallwood State Park at the end of 2005. I was looking for a race venue. There had been a triathlon called “Spud” at the park up until 2004 so I knew the park was a good venue. I met with the park manager with my proposal for a brand new race – the General Smallwood Triathlon. “Sounds good,” he said of my proposal. “We just need to schedule around the bass tournaments.” This was when I first learned that bass fishing is a big sport – almost like NASCAR in that there is lots of money, lots of sponsors (e.g. “Kelloggs boat”) and lots of events.
The week before the race I had to make a change to the swim course. 2006 was an unusually bad year for hydrilla in Mattawoman Bay. I had hoped that it would clear up a little before the race with the cooler weather but no such luck – the area where we had planned to stage the swim was choked with weeds. Working with the park, we came up with an alternative swim course albeit approximately 400m from the transition area. Not ideal but better than no swim.
A few friends and I met up with Greg and his team on Friday morning for set-up. Setting up primarily involves building bike racks, attaching snow fencing to rebar, marking the bike / run courses and preparing for packet pickup. I had enticed some friends over to my house earlier in the week with food in order to stuff the packets so that was taken care of. The first athletes began arriving at 2PM to pick up their packets.
My friend, Brad, from California who was the race announcer made the food run to Walmart: 50 cases of Gatorade, 50 cases of water, 30 bags of pretzels, 30 loaves of bread, 15 jars of peanut butter, 15 jars of jelly and 30 bags of Oreos among other things.
Race morning was cool -air temperature was in the low 50′s with water temperature around 70. I kept my jacket on all morning.
Race morning is hectic for everyone. Greg’s Set-up team was busy making last minute preparations. The Marine volunteers were setting up the swim course, body marking, moving volunteers to the bike and run courses and sinking a picnic table.
Sinking a picnic table?
Well, because of the swim start location, we needed an exit point out of the water onto the floating ramp that served as the ingress / egress. Yep, we sunk a picnic table which my friend, Rick, who just happened to be wearing a wetsuit, stood on for the duration of the swim to keep from floating away. Note: we removed the table from the water after the swim in case you were wondering.
Everything went very well on race day. The staff and team made this race run like a well-oiled machine. Everyone seemed happy – athletes, volunteers, race staff and the park.
I was tired. It had been a long, stressful week. I was happy, too.
A very special thanks to the following folks:
- General Smallwood State Park – Patrick, Nakia, Stan, David and other staff
- Smallwood Volunteers for park cleanup and parking
- Rainmaker Publishing as Presenting Sponsor
- The Marines from Chemical Biological Incident Response Force at Indian Head for volunteering – Hoorah!
- Crossroads Hospitality for providing the host hotels – Sleep Inn, Comfort Suites, La Quinta Inn, Country Inn & Suites
- Other sponsors: EnduraCoaching, Bonzai Sports, Optimum Fitness Results
I’m meeting with the park this Friday to talk about plans for next year. The race will be even better next year – I promise.
Cheers,
David
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David B. Glover
Experiential Writer, Elite Athlete, Coach and Race Director
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine
Personal Web: www.davidglover.net
Business Web: www.enduranceworks.net
©2008 David B. Glover
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