Good organization, ungodly tough technical bike course and a mostly hilly dirt road run course. Very fun. Also their is a race called the TTT the same place on the same weekend. 4 tris in 3 days, concluding with the little smokies half.



Styrrell

This race is very hard. The bike course has about 5200 to 5600 feet of climbing on it. The run probably has about 1500 feet over the two time out and back.

It's a cool race - the Little Smokies 1/2 is at the tail end of the TTT - a three day team triathlon which is actually 4 tris over three days (Day 1 sprint, Day 2 Oly & modified Oly, Day 3 1/2 IM).

The only thing is it's in the middle of nowhere - I drove from Columbus and it took about 2 hours.

It was a great race - i'll probably go back again - it did kick my ass pretty hard.

Challenging and fun, this race. Last year I was more than an hour slower than my PR half IM, but it is much more rewarding than all the boring flat and fast courses.

My bike average speed in the 2004 LS half was actually about 2mph slower than my average for the entire 112 miles of the 2003 IM WI. Granted, LS was at the beginning of my season, but I can concur with those above who say its a damn tough course. Just rolling hill after rolling hill on the bike, and several hills on the unpaved run. The swim is totally flat.

It is a beautiful place to race, though. A well-run event by HFP. And its run in conjunction with the Triple-T weekend-long event. For as hard as the half was, I felt like a slacker around those guys.

Don't hesitate...do it. HFP is a class operation with excellent events.

Little Smokies is an event that will easily move up very high on your list of those you talk about. Take to heart the guidance offered about gearing for the bike. One section of grade in particular will be hard to forget. The run course is no less daunting. You'll know you've been somewhere when you hit the line.

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Train hard...race well.
www.jimmishler.com
"Jim, I happen to agree with you" DougStern

i also had a blast at this race last year, and i also agree with the others that the bike course was very tough! great post-race barbeque too! i remember 3 negative things from this race though, 2 minor and 1 not so minor.

1. i guess the park rules strictly prohibit garbage. as such, there was no bottle drop on the bike. rather, you had to stop and have someone refill your bottles for you. not a huge deal, but i saw some of the 3-day racers had pre-filled bottles waiting for them at the refill points so all they had to do was grab them and go. clearly, this was a better option than refilling them. everyone should have been told to do this.

2. aid stations ran out of water on the later portions of the run. i understand many volunteers bailed on the organizers at the last minute and that was the reason for this. again, not a huge deal, but i think worth mentioning.

3. this one was, in my opinion, a safety issue. the bike turn around was at the bottom of a huge steep descent. no advance warning besides other riders on the way back literally screaming to people to slow down and be careful at the turn around. you had to be very aware of anyone coming behind you as you stopped, because not everyone was able to stop quickly. many missed the turnaround and backtracked. i had to come to a complete stop from 75 kph. this would have been easily fixed by making the turn around 500m or so further up the road at the top of the next climb. who cares if the course is 1k too long anyway?

that said, however, it was indeed a great race.

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"I'm happy when life's good,
and when it's bad I cry.
I've got values but I don't know how or why."
- The Who

<<This race is very hard. The bike course has about 5200 to 5600 feet of climbing on it. The run probably has about 1500 feet over the two time out and back. >>

perfect, I'm signing up. Thanks everyone for the comments.

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don't just do something..... sit there

good call!

If you like hard courses you will love it. I forgot about the running out of water on the run course. That did bum me out a bit - but obviously not much... ha! i'll hopefully see you there as well!

Oh! I thought this was about the sausages.

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Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

Should be worth noting that, yes, HFP's volunteers did bail that morning, but that they were able to manage the race pretty well with their own regular staff pulling double duty. The unstocked aid stations on the run (if I recall I passed two before the guy came around on the ATV with fresh stock) was an annoyance, but overall this was a great race day, and I think that's a testament to the fact that the organization was able to execute a plan B pretty seamlessly.

Just want to add on to what everyone else has eluded to here. I did the TTT race solo last year and it TOTALLY kicked my ass. I was fine up to the Sunday race....(LITTLE SMOKIES 1/2).... that pushed me over the edge. The little smokies half is rough, but challenge yourself and do the Triple T. I garauntee you, it will humble you and leave you questioning yourself. Isn't that why we do this?

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-scott t

I just posted my race report to GRR.

I'm not sure if the elevation profile linked up - i'll try to get it up here.