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Next time call a head. There are more good restraunts in Shreveport than Outback and even than can be found on Line Ave.
If nothing else call ahead to your friend JC for recommendations. I can speak from personal experience, he knows where the good food can be found.
I am sorry it took you so long to find a good place. You missed out.
I appreciated your comments on the race and Shreveport. After reading the posts dealing with USAT and peoples issues with them I was expecting Shreveport and AGN to have been described as just this side of a hell hole.
The feedback I heard from participants was positive about the whole experience. There were problems and if the RD is any good they will be addressed.
Is there any reason AGN should not return to Shreveport and the same course next year? As important of a race as it is and as much as so many people focus their whole year on the one race, was it so bad a situation the right thing to do for the athletes and triathlon is for USAT to move the race? Can Shreveport and Champion Lake not be a legitimate AGN race site?
If you are looking for ideal would the only answer be to build the perfect site?
I do not ask this facetiously but to hear a serious answer. After reading the disappointment some people have with USAT what would be a show of leadership in your perspective or others perspective.
"Is there any reason AGN should not return to Shreveport and the same course next year?"
first, the race is returning, so it's a moot point. but...
1. the water ought to be clearer
2. the bike course on a championship course ought to be hillier
3. the race should be easier to fly to for out of towners
4. it should be easier to get bikes in and out of there
5. the town should be smaller, so that the financial impact of the event would be more evident
6. a smaller town would also allow for more of a collegial and intimate setting. competing in europe, for an example, is often a more charming race experience, because the athletes see each other all of a smaller town during the entire week.
all that said, shreveport was fine. i'll look forward to returning next year. but "fine" is what it was. a championship course is something different. but i'll very much look forward to returning to shreveport.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
I think there are more reasons why the race should not return to Shreveport than why it should. There certainly seem to be more reasons why it should be held somewhere else (CDA for example) than in Shreveport.
1. Getting to Shreveport is a pain. Not only are you almost certain to have one lay-over, but getting your bike there can be complicated unless you fly in two or three days prior to the race.
2. The swim needs to be better. The water quality was just very poor. I dare anyone to drink that water. Athletes should swim in water that can be drank, not water that will send you to the hospital if you drank a cup full. There are all sorts of obstacles smack in the middle of the course.
3. The bike course is challenging in that it has no challenges. It is completly non-spectator friendly and has very little room for passing, with athletes being just feet away from uncoming athletes at times. It also encourages drafting which is the main issue here. All the other stuff is the same for everyone, but drafting is something that favors some and harms others.
4. The run was fine but could be better, less twisty for one. I saw a guy punch an umcoming runner because they were both on the same side of the road.
5. Better marketing of both the host town and the race needs to take place. Seems most people had no clue where to go out for dinner and the folks in Shreveport had no clue about the race.
6. USAT needs to be able to close the bike course a day before the race so that folks can ride it. Watching people ride the course with cars going by at 70mph was pretty scary.
Regardless of all the above, my main complaint is still with USAT and not Shreveport itself or the folks that live there. USAT needs to put on a better race from pre-race updates all the way through post race dinner.
It seems that the biggest complaint was the swim venue: Champion Lake. What about Cross Lake? Why can't they have the swim there? It is a much larger body of fresh water (13.4 sq. miles, 70.4 miles of shoreline) that sits just west of the city. I don't know much about it, but it is the cities supply of drinking water, and is also used for recreation. This is a logical guess, but I would think that it's a lot cleaner and clearer than champion lake.
"The more you sweat today, the less you bleed tomorrow"
Of all the issues the Water seems to be the most common thread
Looks can be decieving. The water checked out more than fine. And believe it or not you could have drank it and not died or become deathly ill or grown an extra appendage. The water was dark from the tanin. Even the total suspended solids (TSS) measure was extremely low. The silt on the bottom (technically muck and ooze) is mostly river sand. It is shallow and it is not a mile across or sideways or diagnalways.
I feel confident I can find many bodies of water in the north east and the west that look inviting but you wouldn't even want your dog to swim in them.
There could be other venues reviewed as race sites. Cross Lake being one. It has its own issues when considering the whole event.
I would love to have a discussion with sports authorities or sponsors as well as RD's and their experiences with AGN and USAT and Participants.