This will be my first year racing pro and was wondering if anyone knew the best route to finding a homestay for races? The first one I am looking for is Florida 70.3 in Haines City on April 13th. Is there any type of official process or is it more of a “I know a guy who knows a guy” type of situation?
Thanks,
Justin
I was talking to another pro this past weekend about this and he mentioned one of the ways is to contact the local tri clubs. They’ll typically reach out to members and can find you something.
Have you tried contacting the race director?
Heather takes care of all the homestays for the Pro athletes for us (WTC). Contact her. You should have her info if you have an Ironman Pro Card.
as a pro you are entitled to all the free stuff you want. When you go to the race in question, just walk into the nearest neighborhood and knock on a door and tell them you’re a pro triathlete and ask if you can crash on their couch. Problem solved.
This will be my first year racing pro and was wondering if anyone knew the best route to finding a homestay for races? The first one I am looking for is Florida 70.3 in Haines City on April 13th. Is there any type of official process or is it more of a “I know a guy who knows a guy” type of situation?
Thanks,
Justin
maybe ask Heather to work on the prize money instead of the home stay list?
I don’t know who are more exploited… NCAA basketball/football players or WTC pros
Heather takes care of all the homestays for the Pro athletes for us (WTC). Contact her. You should have her info if you have an Ironman Pro Card.
When you go to the race in question, just walk into the nearest neighborhood and knock on a door and tell them you’re a pro triathlete and** notify them that** you can crash on their couch.
When you go to the race in question, just walk into the nearest neighborhood and knock on a door and tell them you’re a pro triathlete and** notify them that you are Krepster and you will **crash on their couch.
I was talking to another pro this past weekend about this and he mentioned one of the ways is to contact the local tri clubs. They’ll typically reach out to members and can find you something.
Yup, the local tri clubs are often very happy to try and assist whenever possible. I recently confirmed my homestay for IMOZ after having contacted the local club. It goes without saying, but creating a good first impression through a well constructed and polite email is important.
As was mentioned start withe RD or Heater for IM events. One bit of advice, don’t count on getting one. Depending on the event they may be very limited or not even available.
When you go to the race in question, just walk into the nearest neighborhood and knock on a door and tell them you’re a pro triathlete and** notify them that you are Krepster and you will steal** their couch.
I want to know a race location that doesn’t have locals willing to put up athletes. I would buy an RD being lazier about securing these, but if an athlete does his due diligence either through local community and/or RD, I cant see how they wouldn’t get him a homestay.
I was referring to getting one through the race organization.
Yeah fair enough, cus I’ve heard WTC is pretty shitty about securing homestays through various athletes. Low priority for sure would be my guess. But go through local tri clubs. And here is a great opportunity for the pro’s. This is where a pro can approach the local community and say “hey I want to have a Q/A session with the club”, you’ll have likely instant positive feedback and mojo going.
In all fairness, it’s not just WTC, but another well known and popular race organization couldn’t get one for me either…
EDIT: My bad, I just remembered the “other” race organization I mentioned above, I pulled my name off the homestay list since I ended up taking my family with me. So it wasn’t their fault.
I wasn’t trying to knock WTC, I just know of the 10 or so elite’s I talk to, the chances of an homestay at Rev3, is higher than WTC. And no not trying to turn this into a WTC bashing, just that I had assumed it was known that WTC’s homestay policy/effort is just less than other races.
Tri-Clubs in the area would a good start. If it is a WTC race, there will be minimal support. If it is a Rev3 race, they do a pretty good job especially if you are willing to split/share with other pros.
If you can’t get in touch with the actual race director or organizer as opposed to the Pro Member WTC contact, then I would start with tri-clubs.
Thanks for the info! It seems like contacting the local tri club will be the best first move as the bulk of my schedule consists of WTC races. I can imagine that RD’s are pretty busy getting things together in the weeks leading up to the race and finding a new pro a place to crash would not fall high on the priority list…
Generally, email the race director. For Ironman races, email promember@ironman.com.
I can remember racing Wilkes-Barre back in in '88, and my father telling me he spoke to Tinley, who told him the guy he stayed with across the lake dropped him off by boat. Now, that’s pro-style!