Hi, I’m looking to moving to Dallas,TX area (near downtown). As a “Triathlete” , what areas should I consider? … easy access to train … I’m sure run should not be a problem, but I’m very concern about swim … specially biking. Any feedback will be highly appreciated.
Thank you so much! cheers!
Eric
East Dallas around the White Rock lake area aka Lakewood. I live in Lakewood neighborhood and work in “Uptown” which is really next to downtown only 6 miles away.
3 Bike/Tri shops, 2+ running shops nearby. Tom Landry Center for swimming or join Dallas Area Masters to have access to various area pools.
White Rock lake is the most popular running area and cycling if you are looking for shorter rides with minimal car traffic other wise many cycling/tri groups head out from White Rock lake on weekends for the long rides.
Super…thx a lot. I will be working in downtown area. Any area that i need to stay away from?
In “general” stay away from West and South of Downtown. That being said i did live once South of downtown in a flour mill that had lots of hookers strolling by.
North in “general” is the highest real estate areas like University Park. Uptown is the more hip condo area with more single people. East is where you go when you get married but are still young and hip enough not to want to live out in the burb in your cookie cutter house.
Ok… this is a good start. I migth be visiting next week. …Again, thank you so much!
We live in Lake Highlands. We have great access to White Rock Creek trail which is a short ride from White Rock Lake. Lake Highlands is NE Dallas.
Honestly you can live in any of the 'burbs and be okay too: Plano in particular which has a nice Tri shop and wider roads.
In Dallas just stay off the main roads and all should be okay. I’m shocked at how some cyclists don’t comprehend this basic principal. I’ll see groups of cyclists on Royal Ln when they could take Northhaven the same E/W direction and be a whole lot safer.
x2 on what DFWTri said. We’re on the east side of the lake in “Lake Highlands” and my wife & I can both work downtown about 8 miles away. We can easily take the train or drive, and my office is informal enough to occasionally bike commute on some bike trails going from white rock lake to downtown.
Several gyms have pools to swim solo, and then the JCC and Landry center both have masters swim groups at their pools, and you have the Dallas Aquatic Master’s (DAM) to choose from for swim options.
Around White Rock if you live in downtown. Plano/Frisco have better roads since you can hop on Preston/281 and get about 100 miles with 30 miles in one direction with no stops.
We will soon have a house to rent right next to White Rock Lake if you are looking at the April time frame. Also I 3rd that close to the lake is ideal if you want to live in Dallas proper. We would still be there if we weren’t in Boulder (where everywhere is nice to ride)!
In Oak Cliff which is southwest of downtown. easy trail access to White Rock Lake 10 miles away. Makes for good rides. Uptown/Lakewood/Oak Cliff are best areas. Uptown if you don’t have kids. Lakewood/Oak Cliff if you do. Oak Cliff has a little more crime than Lakewood but renovation and rebuilding is in full swing and prices are a little more reasonable than over in East Dallas. All in all, you can ride a bike to good riding just about anywhere in town. If you like to MTB there are great trails in the Oak Cliff neighborhood too.
Pool wise there is a Y downtown with a 20M (I think) pool the Landry center has a great pool that I think is 25M indoor, while LA Fitness is right on 75 and has a 20M pool. Finally you can pay to go to SMUs outdoor pool which is along 75 and just north of uptown area for a great outdoor olympic 50M pool.
You can’t go wrong in either East Dallas or Oak Cliff. PM if you are interested in any other details. As a side note, I live in OC, work in uptown (6.75 miles away) and I can generally get to the office by bike or car in about the same amount of time.
Are there any 70.3 (or non-Ironman branded equivalent) races in the DFW area? The closest I could find were Galveston or Austin. I just moved to Allen and I’d like to enter a local race of this length. Thanks!
Tyler has the Tyler Tri Half, Marble Falls HITTS has all the distances, and Redman (Oklahoma) does as well. Most everything local is olympic or sprint. They do have two races that are X-50 north of DFW (1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, 9 mile run)
Tyler has the Tyler Tri Half, Marble Falls HITTS has all the distances, and Redman (Oklahoma) does as well.
…and every one of these races is more well put together than IM Austin. I’ll exclude Buffalo Springs from the criticism as I have never done it, and its a generally well liked race. However, I’ll never do IM Austin again… and am opting for Redman for my late season race this year.
Add to the list the small race in Grand Prairie (south DFW at Joe Pool Lake), which is fine for a smaller 70.3
Most everything local is olympic or sprint. They do have two races that are X-50 north of DFW (1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, 9 mile run)
Disco X-50 at is a good race, I did it last year and other than the weather sucking which they can’t control, I thought it went well. Dallas Athletes puts on this race and a few others and I feel they do a good job. http://dallasathletesracing.com/
Playtri sucks stay away from their “stores” and races.
PrairieMan is about the only Half-IM i recall in the area put on in September at Joe Poole lake.
The races in DFW seems to have fallen off. Most are really Sprint and Local oriented. With US Open gone there is nothing drawing anyone outside DFW to race here IMO. I wouldn’t consider anything here even top 5 in state.
PrairieMan is about the only Half-IM i recall in the area put on in September at Joe Poole lake.
The races in DFW seems to have fallen off. Most are really Sprint and Local oriented. With US Open gone there is nothing drawing anyone outside DFW to race here IMO. I wouldn’t consider anything here even top 5 in state.
Agreed, which is embarrassing. Dallas has a big triathlon community just many other big cities, and yet we don’t host a premiere event M-Dot or otherwise. It’s wishful thinking, but i would love for Challenge to come in to DFW and do a half/full that competes with IM-Austin.
The problem is where are you going to have one “in” DFW? Most of the lakes are surrounded by two lane roads that lead to houses so you can’t shut them down. The Open is now crap, the one in Irving sucks, and I hate doing pool swim races.
I didn’t see it mentioned, and I haven’t done it, but there’s also the Oil Man triathlon down near Houston. Its the Regional long course championship this year.
NOLA 70.3 isn’t a bad drive, either, if you want something other than Galveston 70.3.
like everyone said, there aren’t many longer races actually in Dallas. Even Although, they are mainly races with pool swims, you can find local sprints almost every weekend. Olympics distance races seem scarce, and aside from the Prarieman race and the two X-50 races, you won’t find long course stuff.
PrairieMan is about the only Half-IM i recall in the area put on in September at Joe Poole lake.
The races in DFW seems to have fallen off. Most are really Sprint and Local oriented. With US Open gone there is nothing drawing anyone outside DFW to race here IMO. I wouldn’t consider anything here even top 5 in state.
Agreed, which is embarrassing. Dallas has a big triathlon community just many other big cities, and yet we don’t host a premiere event M-Dot or otherwise. It’s wishful thinking, but i would love for Challenge to come in to DFW and do a half/full that competes with IM-Austin.
I agree, i lived most of my life in Dallas and got into tri there in 2008-11 (before switching to road racing) and that was some great racing during that time. Texas Man had the 70.3 for 150 bucks up at lake ray roberts, huge turnout at the sprints and olympics that were all over the place and in general there was some really strong competition. Now it has tapered off and prices have gone up. With Ironhead gone and playtri still sucking that just leaves dallas athletes to carry the flag.
I think at Ray Roberts you could host a half distance easily and possibly a full without too much local impact. Lake ray hubbard could also be a contender as you can fairly quickly get out of traffic but a run course would be difficult. Lake Grapevine is a great swim/run venue but a lot of roads would have to be blocked off. Eagle mountain lake is an option as well, but again it has a similar issue to lake grapevine. I think ray robberts is a perfect venue for a half distance race as the swim/run venue is perfect and bike options are pretty easy to setup.
The training has gotten harder there too. I lived in Flower Mound and it used to be some of the best training i have seen, now its exploded and just too busy. Only place i would live in dallas and consider it a good training location is Denton or Justin.
Agreed Mike, I hated to see Jack step down from Ironhead and the new company come in. They did an OK job with Prairieman last year and old Jack actually raced the event which was cool. However, I feel Dallas Athletes is the last good production company we have left in DFW.
It’s crazy I keep hearing in general that triathlon is leveling off. I imagine because of economic factors with participation etc., but it sure seems like there is a big enough community for a race.
As far as “where” we could do one… DFW is a huge metroplex and there are plenty of places for a premiere 70.3 event.