I volunteered at a new local race on Sat. I have never in my life seen such a collection of vintage steel gathered in one place! Race was the “Sanford and Sun Triathlon” first race for the new Mid-Michigan Multisport Club. Held on Sanford Lake about 10 miles from Midland MI, it was heavily promoted in the area and drew a huge % of first time athletes. Organizers expected maybe 250 athletes and sold out at 400. Race company was 3Disciplines, Kenny and his crew put on a large number of races in Michigan and Arizona and as usual did a fine job.
Nearby Midland has a strong recreational cycling base as it is an endpoint for the Pere Marquette rail trail and the community is fairly active physically. I worked the “mount-dismount” line and got to see all the bikes as they went in and out. What a collection! We had lots of Mt Bikes, Hybrids, Cruisers and the like. We also had so many 1970s and 1980s road bikes I lost track of all the brands I saw that day. After the race while tearing down I was able to take a better look at some of these. I was not aware there was that many sets of Suntour Components still on the road. I also saw some components sets that appeared to be proprietary to the bike brands. I really wish I had had my camera with me. Some of the older touring bikes had some very unusual handlebar set ups. I would say there were no more than 30 dedicated tribikes out of the 400 at this event. FOPers were all on tribikes with discs and aero helmets. MOPers were mostly the old road bikes and BOPers were the MT Bikes and Cruisers. Regardless of finish time everyone had fun and it was a great family race. Ages on the course ranged from 12-80 years old, the 80 year old put in a good finish, faster than many younger guys.
The race had great community support, the raffle prizes were outstanding for a small race with a Trek bicycle given away and also a wheel set I didn’t get a good look at. This was in addtion to the usual gift certificates, nutrional products, caps and t-shirts that are given away at most of our local races. I would say they gave out 50 or so individual prizes. It was nice that they included the volunteers in the raffle, I won some vitamins from one of the sponsers.
Mid Michigan Multisport Club was pushing this race as a way for new athletes to get involved, I think they accomplished this. They also had all first time athletes sign a seperate sheet and will purchase a race photo of their choice from the offical photographer. They just need to go online and select the photo, this is a nice bonus for the first timers.
As for the course itself, I didn’t get a chance to look it over. Swim was in Sanford Lake with wetsuits allowed at 76 degrees. Bike course was local roads open to traffic but from what I heard fairly deserted. Run Course used the nearby Railtrail. I heard nothing but good comments as I tore down transition and had several people approach me to extend their thanks to me as a volunteer and also to pass on favorable comments.
The only bad thing was the Bike and run and finish line were side by side due to the layout of the park, Kenny Krell from 3D expressed his dislike of this to the athletes but he was working with what he had. Good news is that the park is scheduled for a major upgrade and restructuring this winter and this should not be a problem in subsequent years.
All in all a very nicely put on race and my hat is off to Mid-Michigan Multisport Club and 3Disciplines for a fine day and great job getting new athletes interested in the sport.