anyone done this race before in virginia? what’s the course like? seems fairly quick from past years results.
I’ve not done it, but FWIW the race distances for the Set-up races that I’ve done tend to be off (run is usually short - as in I beat my open 5K PR short).
ok great, not that that info really helps for this race at all.
i’ve done lots of set up races that have been right on. i’ve done several that aren’t.
I’ve done it. SEt-up runs a good race. The bike course is rolling to hilly. The run is all within the state park, there’s a fairly mean hill toward the end of the run. You make a left hander, and go down a hill and right straight back up it. We have had a lot of very hot weather here lately, and there’s a good chance that the lake will be too warm for wetsuits. It was two years ago.
There is a sprint in the spring and an oly in September that use the same course.
I’ve done it the last couple of years.
The swim is in Smith Mountain Lake which is big and very clean. Wetsuits are usually legal, but it is usually boderline. As someone else mentioned, they were not allowed two years ago.
The bike is mostly rolling with only a couple of hills that require you to get out of the saddle. Road quality is pretty good for the most part although there are a couple of stretches that a little rough. Not too bad though and the distance is pretty accurate.
The run is indeed in the park and is quite hilly as there are very few flat sections. It is well shaded though and I thought the distance was correct.
You forgot to mention you won this race last year, with a new course record too 
.
I don’t know anything about the race, but it could get in competition with the Whisky Dick Triathlon in Washington for best race name.
-C
geeze o pete’s, i’ve got to get my head out of the gutter…
FWIW
Prior to having its name changed to “Roanoke”, the nearest city of any size to the race was called “Big Lick” because of a large natural salt lick. The local realestate developers thought that “roanoke” sounded a little more cosmopolitan.
Back in a day a local mountain bike club was called the “Big Lick Hillbillies”
I did it back in 2003. I don’t know if the course has changed since then. The course had rolling hills on the bike and a few short steep hills on the run. I think the course distance seemed to be right. It didn’t seem like a fast course to me at all, but I was still recovering from a half ironman 2 weeks prior. Times are probably fast because it is the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate championship race.
Set-up does a great job putting on races. I did over 15 of their races when I lived in NC back in 2003-2004. I don’t remember ever thinking their courses were short, in fact I remember that they were usually pretty good about measuring/marking their courses.
Sorry Dustin, I can’t let you do it.
: )
Oh - and yeah, while I do think Setup Events does an outstanding job, sometimes I think Bill measures the courses by closing one eye and looking down his outstretched arm to his thumb… “Eh, that looks about right”.
I did this race twice and it is in the faster range of most olympic courses I’ve contested. The swim always seemed a little slow to me but that is probably a consequence of getting significantly off course the two years I did it. The bike, despite having some hills, is fast and about half a mile short of a true 40K. The run is also hilly but the last mile and a half are downhill so you can cruise in pretty quickly if you go out hard, and I concur that it is a true 10K (there is an out-and-back spur that goes down and up a steep hill, which I’m sure they would not put in unless it was to make the course a complete 10K). I also believe that it is a regional collegiate championship again this year, so expect a lot of times in the 2:00-2:15 range.
indeed…GO NAVY!