Duluth Triathlon Race Day

This morning I got up bright and early to volunteer at the Duluth Triathlon.  Today was the inaugural event for the Duluth Triathlon.  The day started off with wonderful weather for a triathlon.  It was in the low 50's as the racers prepped their transition areas, and they hit the mid 70's by the time the run was underway.

Pre-Race

I started my day as a body marker.  Like I said yesterday, I got to ask women to take their (long sleeve) shirts off so I could get their (race) number, and write it on them.  I am pretty sure I did not write the wrong number on anyone.  It was fun to ask people their age, USAT age no less, so I could put that on their calf.  One gentlemen did a triple take before he settled on the age I would end up writing on his calf.  Only one lady had the misfortune of having USAT age her up a little early...

Swim

As the mens wave took off, there was one lady who had the wrong color swim cap.  For some reason this seemed to cause her concern, so with about 4 minutes prior to her wave I ran back to the registration area to grab her the proper green colored cap.  I hope this helped her start her race off on the right foot.

Ladies Swim Wave Ready to Go

Once all of the swimmers were in the water I was able to relax for a little bit and watch them churn their way through the water.  Something I have never noticed before was the wonderful sound a group of swimmers makes as the take off at the start of a race.

As the swimmers made their way towards the end of lap two, I prepared to man the water/gatorade station at the swim exit.  Not the most popular aid station, in fact more than one athlete turned the water down because they had enough of Island Lake to keep hydrated.

Bike

Do you remember where you parked?

After all of the swimmers were out onto their bicycles, I headed over to help out with the bicycle turn around aid station in front of transition.  The course was a fourteen mile out and back that the athletes did twice.  As they came around the turn around, we were there to get them a fresh water bottle if they needed it.  After a few of the athletes came through, the sag truck pulled up with an athlete and her bicycle.  I headed over to see what was wrong, and the athletes rear tire was in sad shape.  A simple tube was not going to help her out.  Since I had my bike in the back of my truck, I ran and got my rear wheel and swapped it our so she could keep racing.  I was happy to see her make it in off the bike with no further problems.

Transition

As the bikers started returning to transition to head out for a run, I moved over to help manage traffic as the runners had to cross the road from transition to the run course.  Luckily this portion of volunteering went without any issues.

Run

After directing traffic for a while, I jogged out onto the run course to help man an aid station for a little while. When I got there, they had enough folks so I headed out to the turn around since there was only one volunteer there.  At the turn Sara and I got to hang out cheering the runners on as they were starting there half marathon out.  Shortly, another volunteer stopped out to tell us the last of the runners had gone by.  Once that happened, we packed up the cones and headed back in.  When I got to the finish line I helped cheer in the finishers and also helped them with removing their timing chips.

All in all, I got to see the race from a little bit of everywhere.  I had a fun time chatting with the various volunteers and athletes as the day went by.  I hope I was able to help a few athletes have a better race in some way.  I am looking forward to helping out at check in on Saturday for the Superior Man Triathlon.  Sunday will be race day, and I think I am ready to put up a solid time.