Has anyone ever heard of a “free” triathlon? The entry fees are getting ridiculous to the point I will not enter. $200 is just freaking ridiculous. Which got me thinking. There is a lake nearby. A running /cycling trail too. Why coudn’t a “free” triathlon or 1/2 tri be pulled off? Would there be liability? Would waivers need to be signed? If there were no prizes would anyone come? How many people do you think would have to volunteer to make this happen? Marketing etc etc? What do you think? BTW I live in Nor Cal.
May I ask you a more fundamental question?
Why do you need a race? Why can’t you ask someone to help you in organizing a long epic day on your own?
What is the difference between finishing an organized event to completing the same challenge on your own?
And if you do it on your own, why can’t you have a few friends doing it too? Surely you can try to see who will finish first.
“If there were no prizes would anyone come?” I doubt many people participate for prizes. For the saving of fees you can all have new gear.
Good question.
The liability situation needs to be given very careful situation. People seem to sue or seek some form of redress through the courts if just about anything happens to them these days.
Fleck
We do that “all” the time. Because we can and because have to. BTW living in Norway 
BuDu Racing in the Seattle area is putting on a number of tri’s (and du’s) in the area for $50 each. While still not cheap, they’re a far sight less than $200. I think one of them is a half-IM, if memory serves right. And the events (for the most part) are USAT sanctioned. Don’t know why all these high-profile events have to be so expensive.
Some unnamed possibly a tri club did this on several occasions at some not really disclosed loacation which name starts with Mal and ends in Bu but “I” don’t know the other letter in the name.
They were relaxed non events because people already showed up there on Sunday mornings for a swim and possibly a bike ride. Finishing off with a run just seemed like the thing to do. This was done to the The life gaurds tended to get a little wierd and wanted to supervise the normal workout but we had a pit bull of a negotiator to quell any disturbances.
I personally think it is a great idea and even though I have a brother who is an attorney, he doesn’t practice in California and I don’t like to talk to him that much anyways.
This summer I am moving up to the Monterey peninsula. If you are putting something on I would like to join in. Maybe I can get my wife and baby to work an aid station.
I think there comes a point where the number of participants requires special stuff:
The city agreeing to let a ton of you ride and run around. (which could be avoided by right turn only courses, or having stop lights be part of the race.) The city may even require permits for large groups congregating and competing?
Aid station supplies
tshirts to prove you were there 
volunteers to manage everything
racks for bikes, bouys for swim, lifegaurds and such for safety
someone to go to all the trouble of coordinating everything
timing systems
All in all, I think that there are a lot of things that you could do without and could probably put on one heck of a great free race. But I think that most races aren’t as making as much profit as we would like to think.
Dan (Slowman) wrote an article called ‘How to be a race director’ that covers a lot of the details one may not be aware of, that may or may not apply depending on your number of participants and the flexibility of your local. PM me if you want a copy of it (word document). I’m sure Dan has it archived around here somewhere. I would post it but it is about 28 pages long.
If you do pull of a free tri, make sure to post so that we can all come.
Glad you brought this up. I’ve been thinking along the same lines as well.
I believe the Tug’s swim/run/swim races in Pacific Beach CA in the early 80’s were either free or had nominal fees. Tinley had very fond memories of them and regarded his win there as one of the best wins of his career.
Here in Orlando Dr. Beattie organizes a 1 mi lake swim every year which is free. And it’s a blast. There’s nothing like lack of pressure and pomp to chill people out so they can have a good time.
My pals and I organized the “Homeboy races” (mostly dus, sometimes tris) in college for like-minded friends. It started out as a rebellion against the racing fees ($40 for the Coors Light Biathlon Series in the late 80’s, which we thought were completely outrageous). We still talk about them after all these years. And we always threaten to resurrect them even though we’re all scattered to the four corners of the States.
Lately I’ve been dreaming about trail runs involving obstacles, run/swim/run/swim, all kinds of combinations of swim/bike/run, and the like. Just for friends, and all for bragging rights. I can’t think of anything more fun than pulling one of these stunts off.
A “free” triathlon sound like a good idea. I may try to do that.
I’ve had an idea for a different kind of race, but I don’t want to put in the time and effort to actually be a race director. And besides, I don’t think the governing bodies would go for it anyway.
Here’s my idea… it’s a swim/run/swim/run at the Michigan State Park Warren Dunes in Sawyer, MI.
The swim would be in Lake Michigan, the length of the “swim area” at the dunes. The run would be a couple of miles up and down the sandy dunes (tough if you’ve ever tried it). You could wear a wetsuit, but you’d have to take the time to put it back on for the second swim.
Maybe some of us could just show up for a casual race this summer. No entry fees, no results, no t-shirts. Just fun.
A group of us have started doing sprint triathlons as part of a training series, no affiliation, no fees and completely self-supported. The turnout has been great and the number of participants has steadily increased. There is even talk of doing a self-supported long course distance event in late summer.
With the race fees so high, it nice to have an alternative. Plus, most of the people doing a small event are the friends you train with every week, so you are going to be in good company.
this is a great idea. anyone familiar with flashmobs? just do a flashmob but turn it into a race. think of it as improv theater, only it’s on water/roads.
a bunch of people gather at the shore of a local lake, just casually talking. someone yells “go!” (oh, and mandatory eye of the tiger should be played from a car stereo) and all hell breaks loose in a mass start. swim the course, exit, and T1 happens to be everyone’s bike racks in the parking lot.
like bats out of hell (draft legal maybe?) they’re off on the local roads (i like the idea that traffic signals are part of the course…yellow light…out of the saddle!) across the city until they get outside city limits, where they dump their bikes on the field (T2…with a keg and a couple of your non-tri buddies acting as bike guards) and then start the out and back run.
big field party afterwards. bonfire. keg.
if anyone in central texas wants to “organize” this, i’m down.
Yes! Do a flashmob thing. You could rotate it from city to city, have one a month, something like “bring your bike & runners to pool X or lake Y at 9am on Sunday…”
sweet…
YESSSS! I’ll fly to freakin’ Texas to do this!
recumbant legal.
cached aid stations (behind the bush, under the mailbox).
non traditional start time (midnight race anyone?).
how cool would it be to end up hauling ass running down 6th street with 20 people on a saturday night in austin? cops barricade off the intersections on sat. nights so we’ve got our escort taken care of.
This is exactly the idea of I’ve been toying around with to handle the increasing costs of adventure racing (I still think I get value out of the $50 triathlon entry fees in Ontario).
Last summer on the labour day weekend, we road bike 100km one day, paddled 60km the next day and the topped it off with a MTB ride of 130km on the Sunday. Booyah - our own adventure race, stage style. Oh yeah, and all it cost us was a hotel room and our food!
We started talking about the variety of our own courses we could set up and do. One person takes responsibility for designing a course, invite some friends and off you go! If you want to set it up to go overnight, go right ahead. Hell of a lot cheaper than a $1600 entry fee to do a “real” 36 hr adventure race.
It comes back to the fundamental question of why race? I like to use triathlon to test my physical fitness level and therefore the competition element is very important. I appreciate adventure racing for its mental challenge (fatigue, teamwork, etc.) on top of the physical challenge and I have begun to think that I don;t require an organized and expensive “race” to achieve my goals.
If anyone comes up with a great formula for tri or AR “anarchist” races, post it and lets share ideas!
BTW - love the “anarchist” moniker for the idea!
Flashmobs? Never heard of it until today but it is a brilliant idea. The Anarchist Flashmob is taking root… Anyone near Sacramento want to help plan one drop me a line.
“Why coudn’t a “free” triathlon or 1/2 tri be pulled off?”
absolutely no reason why it cannot or should not be done. you are hereby appointed RD of said event and we all expect a non official notification of this non event so we can do the race that never had a name and furthermore never took place since no funds were exchanged.