The 12th Fawn Lake Triathlon was held on August 29, 2021. RTU timed this race from 2009 to 2019.
The race has been USAT sanctioned since 2016. In addition to timing, I filled the role of USAT official.
The race organizers asked me to fill the USAT official role again this year. So, I was there bright and early at 6 am on race morning.
The event has three separate races; an adult race, a long youth race for kids 12 to 15, and a short youth race for kids 6 to 11.
The adult race started at 7:30 am with a 700-meter lake swim, 12-mile bike, and 5 km run. The weather was overcast and 73 degrees with a 70-degree dew point and 84-degree water temperature.
After doing a bike check, I watched the swim start to ensure there were no wetsuits and the swimmers were going in the correct direction.
Before the first swimmers were out of the water, I headed over to the transition area to watch the first 10 participants head out on the bike leg.
Then, I rode my 30 pounds of steel 52-year-old bike onto the course to watch for drafting. Even though the road looks flat, the first mile is uphill, and it does start to burn with unwarmed legs. I wondered if the participants had the same feelings.
I got to a location where I could watch most of the field pass by 1 to 4 times. When the front biker passed me the fourth time, I headed back to the transition area. The return trip accented the downhill, and I started freewheeling without issue,
I watched the transition and then watched the leaders cover the entire run course on my bike. While returning behind the leading males, I made a mental note of the first four women.
After the men finished, I headed back out to watch the front end of the women’s field. When complete, I felt comfortable that all of the front runners completed the entire course.
The adults raced clean without any penalties. One competitor did not complete the swim portion, and one of the cyclists only made one loop. We discovered the latter issue when their bike speed was 33 mph, nine mph faster than the front runner.
The older youth race started at 10 am with a 225-yard pool swim, 6-mile bike, and 2 km run. Participants swam in lanes in the pool. So, the organizers started the race in 6 swimmer waves.
I repeated the watching process. There were a couple of penalties, with one biker going off course and another receiving assistance from their helicopter mom. Both penalties bumped a participant from third to fourth place in their gender.
The younger kids’ race started at 11 am with a 75-yard pool swim, 3-mile bike, and 1 km run. Swimmers started in waves of 6. That spread the field with the required seven start waves.
With the younger kids, I’d rather yell instruction than penalize. There were too many violations to list, including assistance, abandoned equipment, and riding in transition. Since I knew I didn’t catch all, I didn’t record any. I attempted the same on-course observations.
The biggest issue with the younger kids’ race was the transition area was not fenced. So, there were parents, spectators, and others roaming and standing around. Most standing around thought they needed to help the kids rather than just encouraging them. I’d like to see them fence the area for future years with only participants on the inside.
There is a tradeoff of giving young participants a learning experience and strict adherence to rules that are not safety-oriented.
Post-race, helmetless bike riders looked at me as if I had a third eye when I asked them to wear their helmet. All had compelling reasons why they were not wearing a helmet. If they were smart, they would have removed their bib number from their shirt. The offenders included the first woman finisher in the adult race. Her excuse was, “I’m riding my bike to go get my helmet.” My response was, “you should know better.” I should have DQ’d all of them. It’s a tradeoff of a small tri not wanting to piss off customers and strict rule enforcement. I was probably the mean jerk race volunteer,
They may ask me to help again in 2022. Maybe the organizers need to stress helmet safety in their race email and pre-race announcement.