I’ve been daydreaming about a fully closed tri park suitable for Olympic distance races. How many bike and run laps wouild you find acceptable? Maybe 5 for the bike and two for the run? JUst thinking.
Now, when you say ‘enclosed’ do you mean indoor, or do you mean separated from regular roads/traffic?
I meant outdoor but closed to all traffic. Maybe a lake in the middle with running and biking courses wrapped around it. Bleachers at the Transition area and parking within the loops. Even, dare I say, permanent toilets that flush!
I think a cyclocross triathlon would be a good idea. Maybe everybody swims, runs, and bikes on a cyclocross course for a set amount of time and the person who does the most laps wins. But an enclosed Olympic race may be fun too. Good idea.
This would be a great idea, and the area could br used as a park as you will not be able to use all the area. You could also maybe include the Rails to trails network.
I was thinking more road oriented, but that’s a great idea. It might be as easy as adding steeplechase obstacles to the run and having an unpaved track following the bike course. I think I’ll spend my work day figuring out how much land this would take. It could also make a training camp destination like nothing we’ve seen before. It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time. A tri training and racing mecca.
I think you’d be hard-pressed to make a single-use spot like that financially viable. Montreal has an ‘enclosed’ area that they hold the Esprit tri on every year -up to IM distance, great race. But they use the Olympic rowing basin, the F1 track, and the surrounding infrastructure. These are all existing facilities; if they had to build it, no way could it work.
Make a few calls and see how much it costs to pave a 10m wide, 8 km loop of road…I bet it’s HUGE…
Nice idea, tho, when you’re bored at work… 
Yeah it would be crazy expensive. Perhaps the road doesn’t need to be as wide due to lack of motor traffic. We race in single lanes around here. Anyway I’m just dreaming. But, that’s what I did before I stated my business 12 years ago.
I already have your park. It’s called White Rock Lake. It’s in Dallas. It’s the biggest lake in the country inside the limits of 1 city.
Temperate climate, established bike and run courses. It’s perfect.
Except for the whole ‘waters too dirty to swim in’ thing. If I ever get that part figured out, Dallas is the new tri mecca.
I’m thinking maybe jetty off a 1/2 mile section. Hey, we gotta spend those stimulus funds somehow!
Otherwise you need a large warehouse, a large number of endless pools, computrainers, and treadmills.
Isn’t that how almost every ITU race on the planet works?
I think so. The difference would be that it’s permanently closed to traffic. Completely free to train and race 24 hours a day! It would be compact and spectator friendly. Did I mention real toilets. Come on that’s got to be enough of a draw to bring people from around the world.
Nice idea. Until the park director decided that the bike course was not “safe” we had the perfect triathlon venue here at Stony Creek Metropark north of Detroit. Huge lake in the center. A six mile long ring-road around the park. And a walking path circling the lake. It was great for Oly races, just four laps on the bike and one lap for the run. There’s even 15 miles trails for biking/running. I still train there, since it’s so ideal, but I truly miss that race… snif.
Not a bad idea, and maybe not that far-fetched. Location is key.
I would think a multi-sports complex might be feasible. I’m thinking of something like the water-ski camp locations you see. They have some pretty big land area, just map out the pavement.
Having recently been through NY’s Sampson State Park, someplace like that would be ideal. It is a retired airbase and former marine operations training center…marina, lake, miles of unused roads/taxiways/runways, campgrounds on site, etc. Unfortunately there are a lot of former military installations like that which are no longer in use.
A couple other ideas…old automotive proving grounds or racetracks. This economy has opened up a lot of both.
With the right big investor, a multisports complex/campus is feasible. Look at the Nike campus, or some other sports training facilities / hall-of-fames.
I’ve been to countless golf/tennis/shooting “resorts”…why not a multi-sport
Make sure than when you build it, it’s got removable obstacles like “WIPEOUT” the TV show so you can have one race, the real one, then maybe before or after have a goofy one to please a larger public.
You know, kinda’ a PG-rated Roman Colliseum of tri sports and giant puffy/rubber human-bashing equipment.
For example: on the road course it goes onto a 10ft wide conveyor belt that’s moving the opposite direction while you have to get the timing right to miss (a) the giant balls swinging at you and (b) the gloppity-glopp that spills on the conveyor every 60sec?
(I’m waaay too bored at work).
Anyone an architect?
Sounds expensive. You either have to build a lake, or buy lakeside property with water nice enough to swim in.
Cool idea though. How many races could it hold a year? How many times would people want to race on the same exact course if it was located 5 hours plane trip away?
If its primarily a training course, do you sell a park pass on a daily, monthly and yearly rate? If the money is made on the park pass (vs. the race fees) then you’d want to locate it very close to a hub of thousands of triathletes. Where are there thousands of triathletes that wouldnt mind driving 30 mins to a tri park instead of just going out their front door. How much are people willing to pay for this?
I think these are some of the questions to look into—market research 
BTW—In Sacramento, there is a 32 mile paved bike trail, Lake Natoma is right there, and there are tons of dirt trails (either along the bike trail or near the lake). The lake is closed to motor boats (this is key), so you get a lot of rowers, kayakers and open water swimmers. FWIW.
These are valid points you bring up and definitely ne4ed consideration. I am really curious as to how many laps per discipline would be acceptable. This would help me determine how much land was nescessary. How about participant density. How many people per mile to avoid drafting on the bike. Of course ITU style MIGHT be a possibility. It just goes against my greater sensibilities.
One of the issues with number of laps (especially on the bike), is that the pro racers will have to contend with the slower age groupers. So any number of laps will create this headache, I would think.
You could ask 1000 triathletes how many loops would be acceptable, but if they get into the race and have to fight their way past slower age-groups on lap 2, despite what they said previous, they will be pissed and might not come back. Perhaps look at some triathlons that have loops and see how big of an issue this is. I raced the Golden State tri in Sacramento and it had 3 loops on public roads, and what I’m talking about wasn’t much of an issue, but the number of racers was rather small I think. With any number of loops, you would probably need to come up with a number of max capacity for race entrants to stay safe on the course.
If you make the bike course somewhat hilly (rolling hills) you might make it a really great bike racing course. Maybe have a shorter loop for crits. The more friendly you can make the site to sports other than triathlon, the better your chances of success.
Possible sports to target:
Cycling (road racing, crits, time trial series)
Sailing (depending on wind conditions)
Kayaking & Rowing (these would require larger lakes)
Yep, I think with the right course, the number of laps wouldn’t matter.
Thinking of the Fly-by-NUght duathlon at Watkins Glen racetrack, you could get a lot of riders out there. Of coure, it was 3-4 car lanes wide, and 3.2? miles long, and hilly. Would make an awesome crit course though.
I think the cons of repeated laps for a race could be outweighed by the closed course, consistent data, training environment. And we all like data right?
I was thinking a 10k bike loop would be enough to keep people from getting lapped. Maybe a mass start or two waves to keep the passing down. That way you don’t have the elites getting a 30 minute advantage on the last wave. I really should write this stuff down.
I meant outdoor but closed to all traffic. Maybe a lake in the middle with running and biking courses wrapped around it. Bleachers at the Transition area and parking within the loops. Even, dare I say, permanent toilets that flush!
Check out the stands at this small hometown race…left upper corner. Short of IM races I have not once ever seen full stands at any race…and even then it is only if the weather is good.
