ianpeace wrote:
People, hear me!
If you do one triathlon this year, do a local, inexpensive sprint, and do it beside a first timer whom you coaxed into the sport #TimeToTri.
If you do two triathlons this year do Wilderman. It's everything this sport should be!
Couple of things to make you feel like an insider:
- The locals pronounce the "wilder" in Wilderman like Wilderness - not like the Wild, Wild West
- North Dakota is a flat place but this course utilizes the trails of the Pembina River Gorge and speaking of pronunciation, if you wanna sound cool keep the "b" silent and let it roll into "Pemina". Not that you need to sound cool, everyone there is super nice.
- Choose a gravel bike as you weapon and hope it doesn't rain. If it's gonna rain then maybe a hardtail MTB
- Don't think of this as a triathlon - think of it as a Swim, Bike, Adventure Race - sections of the "run" require nav, tenacity, patience, good karma, and the willingness to become one with nature.
- Oh, and none of the locals will ever speak of the wind - I guess because it blows there all the time. Go in anticipating a 14mph steady breeze that way when it's only blowing 9mph you'll think you've received a gift.
Thanks Matt for all you do up in the sport, I had fun last year!
Ian
Thanks for the kind words!
Your first line is especially important, not only for building up the sport, but for supporting local races. A lot of people won't race local because they don't think the field is deep enough--but the only way to deepen that field is to do the race yourself.
Extreme North Dakota Racing (
https://endracing.com) | Northern Plains Athletics (
http://northernplainsathletics.com)