I almost applied for a couple jobs there a year ago. Very surprised by the history in that town. I was excited about it but ended up another direction. Good luck and yes that pool looks awesome!!

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I think you will be happy with the tri scene. In the Knoxville/Oak Ridge area, we have events ranging from Sprint distances to two 70.3 events of the course of the tri season (can likely race 12-15 events).

It's a great biking community (road & trail) with Oak Ridge being a great starting point for rides. Check out Rocky Top Multisport Club on Facebook for more insight.

We also have a strong running community, check out http://www.KTC.org.

There are some great athletes in each age group which makes events challenging and also a lot of fun to compete.

Lastly, the Secret City Triathlon (Oak Ridge) is on June 29th (https://personalbestracing.com). That 500 meter pool makes for an interesting race!

Best of luck and PM if you need any suggestions on helping with your relocation. East Tennessee is a beautiful area and a great place to live!

I've lived in Knoxville for 29 yrs and have worked in OR for 20 yrs. I agree with the other posters that there are lots of triathlons just in the K'ville area plus of course Chatt, Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, etc. Lots of running races plus a good Masters group at U of TN. A few things you should consider though: 1. That 100 meter pool is only open Memorial Day to Labor Day so after that you would need to swim at the OR Civic Center pool (25 yd, 8 lanes). Also, the 100 m pool is spring-fed which means the temp is in mid-50s in late May and it only ever warms up to maybe 70 at most. You could wear your wetsuit of course but still this is something you need to know. :) 2. While living in OR will cut down on your commute time, personally I looked at OR vs K'ville and decided on K'ville b/c OR is in many ways a dying town. Something like 75% of the OR population is over 55, which is much higher than average. It is isolated from K'ville somewhat by the roughly 15 min drive over Pellissippi Pkwy. You will prob end up coming to K'ville for most social events, and for most races. 3. OR house prices are higher in terms of what you get for X dollars. 4. OR people tend to be a bit snobbish as if you don't have a PhD you are second class. Just having a masters degree is not enough. However, OR is a very stratified town as if you were to go to that 100 m pool in the summer, you would see a few people who are middle to upper middle class, but you would also see a lot of people whose teeth look like they have never ever been to the dentist. Sorry but I would just never live in OR. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Think you've written the definitive piece here.

Just some adds from someone who has stayed in Knoxville but not lived there. Knoxville can be flatter. When living in a hilly/mountainous area, some flat training is appreciated too. Far more athletes and venues in Knoxville.

Weather wise both are ideal Spring and Fall, like most of the country. Summer heat/humidity in Knoxville is pretty tough. Winter storms, especially with ice, are difficult.

Overall, I would rate Knoxville as a well above average town for what I like to do.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Totally agree on the "some flat training"; if you ride/run south to north (or north to south, obv), the roads tend to be flatter with smaller hills, vs east to west (or west to east) which is just one hill or mountain after another. For example, Chatt and Asheville, NC, are both about 105-110 mi from K'ville, Chatt being south on K'ville and A'ville east. If you were to ride to Chatt and back, the route would be relatively flat with mostly some long grades and rolling hills; if you rode to A'ville and back, you'd go over some serious mountains, e.g. the Great Smoky Mountains.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I'm out in East Tenn, Knoxville specifically. Some other (shorter) races that I've done are the North Knox Sprint Tri, the UTK TriDeltaThon, Lakeside Triathlon of the Smokies, and there's a pretty decent riding scene out here via the bike shops including weeknight group rides (something that I had a hard time finding in the bigger cities i've lived in).

Thank you all for the info. Hows riding outside on a bike? Is there usually a shoulder? Are drivers cycling-friendly?
I've only been to Nashville and Chattanooga for Worlds. Once you got out of town in Chattanooga, there wasn't much of a shoulder. The drivers seemed okay.
I'm flying out for an interview in a few weeks, so I'll get a better feel for the area when I'm there.

RTMC (Rocky Top Multisport) is the big club in the area, with an active facebook page.
Racedayevents puts on *most* of the "local" events.

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My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com

Outside riding in East Tennessee is a risk as it is in most places these days. There are no shoulders on the rural roads and drivers a mixed bag of horn blowers, beer can tossers and proud of their middle fingers. I have lived and ridden in East TN many years and have found the earlier you can get out on the roads and get your training ride done the better off you are!

I grew up in Oak Ridge and have since moved elsewhere, but my Mom still lives in the Karns area between west Knoxville and Oak Ridge. As previously mentioned, there is a pretty healthy race scene between Endurance Sports Management and Race Day Events for local event. You're also not far from a number of races in Chattanooga and western NC.

In regards to the "big pool", it's got pretty limited hours for lap swimming (11-12 M-F only) and only during the summer. Eric was spot on that you'll do most if not all of your swimming at the civic center pool which is a standard issue 25yd pool.

There's a couple of paved green-ways in OR, including a pretty nice strech from Elza Gate to Haw Ridge that runs along the marina that are pretty good for running (some flat and some reasonable hilly sections).

I haven't done much cycling in the area outside of races. Around my mom's house in west Knoxville is a bit of a subdivision congestion nightmare to get of town. There's a lot of rural area around, so I'm sure there's some good riding, just have to find it (any maybe drive to a starting point).

Back in Oak Ridge, Haw Ridge Park has some really nice mountain bike and running trails, if you're into that.

In terms of the city of Oak Ridge, it is very much a dying town. There's not much going on there and given the history of how there was nothing there in the 1930s and how it was 100% built in the 1940s, it's not really surprising to find that it's dying. A lot of people who moved there as teenagers in the early 1940s to be part of the Manhattan project stayed, their kids stayed (my parents/Boomers), but their grandkids (me/Gen-Xers and younger) all left. Employment wise, you've pretty much only got ORNL and some associated spin-off companies. That's why there are so many PHDs in town.

Not sure if you have kids, but in the 90s and early 00s, the school system was very very good and had a STEM focus. I've heard some rumblings that since a generation of teachers have retired, it's gone downhill a bit recently.

While you're there for your interviews, you absolutely must go see Betty at Magic Wok. It looks like a dump, but it's one of a kind.

As others have said, most rural roads do not have a shoulder. If you were to ride from downtown OR, say after a swim, you could go out the OR Turnpike which does have a decent shoulder for about 10 miles or so but after that pretty much zero shoulder, unless you were to turn onto Hwy 95, which runs from OR to Lenoir City and has a nice shoulder. IIRC, if you go from OR to LC and back, it is around 50 miles or so. You can of course ride on the rural roads w/o shoulder but, as others have said, drivers can be pretty grouchy. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."