I did the old Fairmount Park race (with all three DeBooms, including Todd) back in '93. I wouldn't swim in the Skulkill ever again, EVER, even if you paid me the $125. Shallow, warm, brown, polluted, full of debris, etc.

I always bring up that swim anytime I hear someone bitch about the Hudson, or any other swim venue that they think is gross. Nothing on God's Green Earth even comes close.

My $0.02...

Tom H, I'm sorry you felt you had to drop out of those races. I did all three last year (plus Columbia and E-man the year before), and they're great events. What happened to me this year, after my wife not-so-gently reminded me that in-season I'm spending more money than I'm making, is that I began camping rather than moteling when i traveled to races. One night before Mooseman, one night before Musselman, the first of my four nights at Placid, two nights at Timberman, one at Quebec City, and one at Cape Henlopen. At Granite Ledges I "treated" myself to a funky motel I've used for all three years there, a place where none of the furniture in a given room matches any of the other furniture in the room. Camping works, by god! At least when you have yahoos who are loud at night, you haven't paid $$$ for the privlege of sleeping poorly. And actually, most people at most campgrounds observe the 10 or 11 p.m. quiet rules. Most significantly, though, my wife sees me as making an effort to be somewhat frugal, and she know longer gives me THOSE LOOKS when I talk about signing up for another race! Bonus! Interestingly, Keith Jordan of Endorfun (Timberman, Mooseman, the late Granite Ledges) is setting up "athlete villages" at both T-man and M-man next year, with the camping option featured prominently at Timberman (check these out at timbermantri.com). You really ought to give camping a try, especially if you are having to drop out of races. I can make it work well for me up through the 1/2 iron distance, but the big challenge will be before a full hour. right now I'm in a motel near Penticton on one of those damnable four-night-minimum stay "deals", but I'll probably switch to a campground. For Lake Placid, look into Wilmington Notch Campground, right on the bike course about 1/3 of the way between Wilmington and Placid. It's small and rustic, but the washrooms are decent and the road noise isn't bad at all.

Yes, frogonawire, mini-Mussel was $55 last year, $50 is we had registered earlier. For '05 the half-iron mussel is $110 before March 1st, going up to $120 by May 31st; the sprint is $50, then up to $55. A GREAT bargian. Plus, this year Jeff Henderson (RD) has set up his own "athlete's village", using the dorms at Hobart William Smith College for $25/night. This is a terrific option, especially as the pasta dinner, registration, and an expo (?) will be at the college as well. The college, by the way, is only about a 5-minute drive from the race site.

For wine-drinkers, Musselman awards bottles of wine from the abundant wineries around the Finger Lakes. What is especially nifty about this is that each age group was "sponsored" by a different winery, so the award announcements would say something like "the male 55-59 recipients will recieve a bottle from the Anthony Road winery", and it was fun watching people compare their bottles, some of which were very unique.

In all respects, a race such as Musselman shows how much can be offered at a relatively small cost to the athletes. These are the ones that DESERVE our support, as they are obviously working extremely hard to give us the best race possible. (The Endorfun races also come to mind prominently.)

As one of the sponsors, race directors, helpers, everyone is correct. The water quality there isn't great but according to the testing we had to do, it did pass "acceptable" to swim in. We always had to test the water the night before and the day of.

That said, many people followed up with us with ear infections, sinus infections etc. the weeks following the race.

Is the water safe to swim in? Yes. I occassionally swim , of fall our of my canoe, upstream about 10 miles near Valley Forge park.

On the money issue, it's very high but I don't know all of their expenses. Having just left an organization that put on pro bike races, there are always underlying expenses that people don't realize. If they were to get a major sponsor on board, they could probably cut the rates in half.

That said, I offered my services to assist and was told that they are all set. Should be interesting to watch how it comes off. I wish them success as philly really does need a tri.

Steve H.

Hi all, I'm the race director for the City of Philadelphia Triathlon. Thanks for your interest in the race. In just 10 days, we've gotten 179 registrants -- I think it's evidence that Philadelphia needs and deserves a great triathlon. Anyway, I just wanted to post a message here saying thanks for the comments made so far (both good and bad). Please feel free to e-mail me anytime with questions or comments. We're responding to everybody quickly. You can reach me at lars@phillytri.com. Hope to see you in June.