We will have a big crew there! We had a blast last year and the team is pumped to return.

With multiple days of events, athletes have the unique opportunity to be both competitors and spectators/cheerleaders (unless you’re one of the brave souls who does every single event, then it’s all competitor). I can tell you that spectating got all our athletes pumped up to compete, and made it extra meaningful and exciting when they toed the line for their events.

Also notable, the mixed relay was one of the coolest events I’ve had the privilege of witnessing/coaching.

We have a baby due early April so I won’t make it down his year, but I’ll be FaceTimed in during at least the mixed relay!

-Conrad

---

https://www.workingtriathlete.com/

be great to see you again Steve, it's been a long time. I'll be there doing the Olympic distance Aqua Bike on Saturday. Funny thing, I've known Tim since he was in college in the mid 80's but have known you even longer, since high school. We are getting old.

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

It is high time for the race announcing team to include women. I’m guessing you’re not the one picking the announcers, but the lack of women at the mic in a sport increasingly appealing to women means USAT may be behind the times in this respect.

---

Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018

It is high time for the race announcing team to include women. I’m guessing you’re not the one picking the announcers, but the lack of women at the mic in a sport increasingly appealing to women means USAT may be behind the times in this respect.


Thank you Sharon - Great point. I agree.

Jill Blankenburg will be Announcing alongside Tim Yount and myself next month. I had the opportunity of working with Jill at last year's Event and she is very good. She has got the call from IRONMAN for a number of races this year. I had put in a good word at IM about Jill after working with her in Irving last year. She is REALLY good!

I have been locally mentoring a few women for both Live Announcing work as well as Commentary.

. . . . and for what it's worth I have had Races/Events tell me they specifically want a Woman Announcer and not me, even though I am available. In those cases I have referred the RD to one of the women that I am mentoring or another really good Announcer if it's a bigger event like Jill!

So . . times are changing. I am helping to facilitate some of that change and I am actually seeing it happen. As it should!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Not this year unfortunately. Have some injury & health items that are preventing training. Maybe in 2024 (and maybe it will be closer to the SE region)

I wonder why they moved the event one week early. It's going to be 30F tomorrow morning in Dallas. Its' still damn cold. I will look at the weather and sign up if it looks warm. It was great last year though.

Luckily the race is not tomorrow.

This years race is only one week earlier than last year. It was quite hot last year.

Everyone seems to complain about venue and timing.

Venue is superb. No complaints but water is damn cold!!

be great to see you again Steve, it's been a long time. I'll be there doing the Olympic distance Aqua Bike on Saturday. Funny thing, I've known Tim since he was in college in the mid 80's but have known you even longer, since high school. We are getting old.


Mike - Great that you will be there. Look forward to catching up!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'll be there again. It's a great venue - one that I actually like as a duathlete and triathlete. This year, I'm adding in the super sprint tri, super sprint du and now possibly the aquabike since I see that my coach (Mike Plumb) is racing it - and earn the "multisport masters belt buckle" for participating in at least 5 events! In a perfect world I'd prefer a separate venue for the duathlon since the location choice doesn't have to be driven by a body of water to swim in. I wonder if having the festival a week earlier than last year will impact numbers negatively.

---

Straightenin' the curves; Flattenin' the hills
------------------------------------------------------------
Coached by Mike Plumb @ TriPower MultiSports
https://www.strava.com/athletes/1149072 - https://www.instagram.com/thoswoods/

I wonder if having the festival a week earlier than last year will impact numbers negatively.


Just had a planning meeting with the Team from USA Tri late last week, and entry numbers for this year are running about 15% ahead of where they were last year with a month to go.

This is on par with pretty much everything in Endurance Sports, as most races/events be they running, triathlon or cycling were down by about 15% last year. 2023 is the year that numbers get back to where they were in 2019. Early trends from some larger running races in Jan/Feb are that, that is the case.

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I wonder why they moved the event one week early.
---

I wonder if they moved the event to later in the year if it would garner more hype. Having a Championship race in April when I won't even get my bike outdoors until maybe May is anti-motivational. It seems like a Champ race would be better placed at the end of the North American tri-season, not at the beginning.

---

---

---

Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

So there is a draft legal event in Clermont 1st of march for almost 15 years now. It's been elite development focused (it for last 5 or so years has added a specific AG level race), but one of the funnier things I always hear is how so many Northerns who dont even get outside on their bike before the event, actually look forward to the weekend to get away to nice weather. I kinda like the early season "sprint" focus and then allow the late summer and/or fall be a LC focus. But your not alone in not being able to get out and ride and feel properly prepared for the event (especially a DL format).

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Wasn’t there an Olympic distance tri last year? What happened to that?

Was there an Oly distance last year? I kind of doubt it. The format was such that you could compete in multiple events. Doing an OLY would kind of wreck that. I suppose you could have done it at the end but that would have been a suffer fest.

There was an “non championship” Olympic that had ~80 total people according to the results. With it not counting and low numbers, that may be why it’s not on for this year (if it’s not scheduled).

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I was a 2022 participant and have been wondering for about 8 months now, What is up with scheduling this in back-to-back weeks with Ibiza? About everyone I met at the event last year had been on Team USA and done Worlds in the past. Why hold the National festival so close to the World Festival? Yes, I know that this was on the calendar the day after last year's Multisports Festival and that Ibiza did not get final dates until about three months later, but it was known that Ibiza was most likely going to be some time in May. That is what I was told when I asked about participation in Worlds while I was still at the 2022 event so why not spread out the festivals a bit? All the people who were at the 2022 even were all the people who were doing Worlds in 2022 and all the people who were wanting to do Worlds in 2023. Is there going to be anyone at the event this year or will everyone have to miss it so that they can go to Ibiza?

Okay...The guy that won my AG last year did the Boston Marathon 5 days before Nationals. So there are those exceptional people who can do two big events in the same week, but most people can't due to work, travel costs, recovery times, etc. I wanted to be there in 2023 but it came down two having to choose between Boston, Nationals, and Worlds. Nationals was my 3rd choice of the three even though it was 95% sure I would be back in 2023 when I left the race last year.

I was a 2022 participant and have been wondering for about 8 months now, What is up with scheduling this in back-to-back weeks with Ibiza?


I'm just part of the Announcing Team - but speaking in the general here about Endurance Sports Races/Events and scheduling. A BIG part about this is the permitting process with the local municipalities. Sometimes you can't go on the weekend you WANT to you go on the weekend that you are TOLD to or is available to you.

There are A LOT of moving pieces with larger scale races/events like this, and with triathlons this is always TIMES THREE! :-)

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'm in. I had a blast last year and look forward to this year's events.

---

Live long and surf!

Nationals is advertised as the qualifying event for Worlds, but it was held last year before Worlds was scheduled so the cart was ahead of the horse. I think about everyone qualified for Worlds since the top 18 in every AG qualify and there were less than 18 people in some AG's. Athletes were asked to commit to Worlds before they left the award ceremony which was really just paying a deposit to hold your place so you would have the option of committing after the Worlds festival got scheduled three months later if it didn't conflict with other things on your calendar. It seems like there is a huge disconnect between planning the National qualifying event for Worlds and the Worlds event.

I had a positive experience at the National Multisport Festival last year. That was largely because it brought together team member and friends in the sport who live in other parts of the country that I normally only get to communicate with on-line. I also met a lot of new people in the sport that I have kept in touch with over the past year. A few of my team mates and a few of my new friends in the sport went on to do Worlds. It was clear what their draw was to the event and what their goals were. I just don't see the same focus from USAT or the same clarity in their goals. USAT appear to be very focused on logistics of holding a good national event, but don't appear to be focused on the people that they want to attend their national events.

Can someone answer this question? Can I use a tri bike for Aquabike in this USAT Multisport Festival? I looked USAT website and googled but couldn't find any info. It doesn't say 'Draft Legal' so I assume I can use my tri ike but I want to make sure. Last year, I did Oly(Sunday) and a friend of mine did draft legal Sprint(Saturday), so I spectated the Sprint race. An old dude showed up with a tri bike and sadly, he couldn't race. I bet he thought it was just like one of those local Sprint races and didn't pay attention to 'Draft Legal' part.

Yes, the Aquabike is non draft, so a tri bike is fine.

---

Todd Suttor

Working Triathlete Elite Development Team
Professional Triathlete
Instagram

Thank you! I was going to do just open water swim($45) but what the heck, I might as well do the bike portion since I like cycling and that bike course is just fantastic.

Registered for Aquathlon on Thursday afternoon and not loving the forecast of thunderstorms...