Wondering from those of you who live there, what is the state of the tri scene there these days? I know there is activity near the coast, but how about central or north Alabama. Tri-find shows a good many Duathons, and some sprints, but not a lot of Olys, and the few sprints seem to fall late Summer/early Fall. I do know about the big show in Tuscaloosa however. Any locals have input?
look at the bordering states, particularly TN. In north Alabama, you are closer to Georgia and Tennessee than to the coast. If you are in Birmingham, for instance, you have 3-4 hours to a big oly in Memphis, 2 hours to one in Chattanooga, and 3 hours to one in Nashville. There’s a good low key sprint about 2 hours north in Tullahoma in June also.
Team Magic puts on some good races…
http://team-magic.com/
I live in Huntsville. We have Team Rocket Tri club here. We put on an April Duathlon and an August oly (Rocketman). There is also a beginner’s tri that is popular for local newb’s. Good cycling and running scene here. Lot’s going on in B-ham too, x2 on the Team Magic.
Good places to train here. Lot’s of rural area’s once you get out of town.
Someone mentioned Team Magic races. They are nice as long as you dont actually want to race, as all of their races are lame TT starts. Unfortunately though they are the largest triathlon race producer in the area, so you kind of have to put up with it.
We used to put on the Grandman Triathlon along the coast when I lived in mobile. There are lots of races along the coast starting in the April time frame. It is only a 2.5-3 hr drive…
In central AL the lake guntersville tri was pretty good long ago, but I don’t recall it being a mass start.
Grandman’s a well-run race, and even better since it relocated from the ‘usually calm waters of Weeks Bay’'. The Pensacola Beach/Navarre Beach sprints are also quite lovely and frequently offer pleasant crosswinds if you’ve got concerns that a bike course that never goes more than five feet above sea level would be too easy.
It was calm the first year…
We always wanted the course to be where it is now. Just took a few years to convince the city and county to let us do it…
The tri scene there is HUGE, but instead of Swim-bike-run,…its drinking, chewing and screwing farm animals.
just joking, I know nothing of alabama.
As a strong swimmer, I really liked the freak tide deal, but that had to be rough as an AD to see conditions end up like that.
Dumb fun on the way to or from races down here: keep a count of the roadkill armadillos. Just Because.
It was hard. We had a lot of people drop out on the swim that year. Little known secret: We let them race anyway (results didn’t count) and just made them wait a few minutes after the last swimmer came in to start the bike leg. We were pretty thankful for all the lifeguards and kayaks we had that year. They earned the T-shirt for sure!
Try this link. All the info you need to know:
Thanks folks. I grew up in Alabama and lived there briefly after graduating from college. At the time, although I’m sure I was pretty unaware, there didn’t seem to be much of a scene (cycling or triathlon). That’s opposed to where I am now (SC), where it’s hard to drive a mile without seeing a cyclist or triathlete. I’ll check out some of these suggestions. Looking at spending some more time down there so my children can see the grandparents, and looking for some race opportunities as well. I appreciate all of the good feedback. I have bumped into an old friend who just opened a multisport store in Montgomery (Montgomery Multisport). That is only one city away from the family, and I am hearing that they have plans for 3 or 4 events next season - welcome news.