on your mark, get set, TRI
police tape for the winner to break?
Are you ending the race at a crime scene?
There are many people that need to be paid. Guards to watch the swimmers, people to block or warn traffic about the bikers and runners. There are a lot of cost when you really stop and think about it. The tracking hardware and software cant be cheap. Someone has to run the computers also. Then you have websites and promotions. Photographers, food, people to watch the bike when they are on the racks. It's got to cost a lot to hold a good race.
“If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?” ~Chuck Palahniuk~
I believe you could set up a "private" tri with a few people without much problem. Agree on details, map the course, etc. Race at your own risk, provide your own aid, etc.
When Anton gets back he could add a lot to this. There was some talk a year or two ago about a trifuel tri at a central location.
"If we help someone else up a steep hill, we get nearer to the top ourselves." ~Unknown~
~Garen~
http://baldhungariantriproject.blogspot.com/
f1oored-
police tape because it's cheap.
it seems to me that all those people you mentioned could be vols. like a two day event, sprint and oly on sat and a 70.3 on sun, people who work on sat run on sun, and vice versa. what about just giving every wave a different color arm band, or something, and then have someone with a stop watch who just records his color group. my idea has some problems but it just seems as hard as the demi-gods here work they deserve to have a race that they don't have to take a thrid job to afford.
I am planning on setting up a free tri for all the neighborhood kids this year. My kids really want to do one but the only things offered in our area are super short and geared to really little kids. But my kids are still to young to do a sprint. I am working with our local swim club to organize a reasonable tri for this age group. There is no reason you could not do a private tri, as noted by gfd. Just keep in mind, there is a fair amount of risk involved for participants and you don't want to be responsible for someone getting hurt or for the legal exposure. I don't like spending all that $$$ on race fees, but I think they earn every penny of it.
That which does not kill me makes me faster...
i'm sure alot of people would like that, but organizing a triathlon isn't as easy as it seems. you need to have medics if somebody gets hurt/any medical problems show up on any of the THREE sections. on the swim, people could drown (which happened many times this past year--even in one of my own races!), on the bike, people crash and get seriously injured, and on the run, people can be seriously affected by dehydration. Also, there is costs to rent out places. You can't just go into a park with 100+ people and start racing. There's special permits that are required from the town to host events like triathlons. There is ALOT of liability for whoever is running the event. If you just randomly go and organize it without any help or permission and somebody gets hurt its on YOU. It would be great to have a race where you just TRI and dont have to pay alot, but unfortunately that's not the way it goes. That's why triathlon is considered such an expensive sport! at least its fun
"You can never be too rich or too skinny."
-My doctor
couldn't the insurance problem be solved with a waiver, like "if i get myself killed it's my own fault, and agree to pay the organizer a hundred dollars." (that will keep people from dieing, make it so they can't afford it)
there are so many lakes, all public, (the place is called LAKEland) that it would seem to be fairly easy to borrow one, plus there are "lake to lake" bike ways that only bikes can use, it just seems to me that if we all wanted to we could come up with our own tri series, but then again who knows?
couldn't the insurance problem be solved with a waiver, like "if i get myself killed it's my own fault, and agree to pay the organizer a hundred dollars." (that will keep people from dieing, make it so they can't afford it)
there are so many lakes, all public, (the place is called LAKEland) that it would seem to be fairly easy to borrow one, plus there are "lake to lake" bike ways that only bikes can use, it just seems to me that if we all wanted to we could come up with our own tri series, but then again who knows?
One word: LIABILITY
Waivers don't really mean anything in the U.S. Even the most "bulletproof" waivers (like the ones at skydiving centers where you essentially sign a 4-page document detailing how stupid and foolish you're being and absolving the skydiving center of any liability whatsover) will be sued when the slightest thing goes wrong.
The place I used to skydive had a 10-acre landing site with ONE tree. They had people on the ground with radios giving the new skydivers directions (turn RIGHT, turn LEFT, etc.) to land them in the landing area, the enormous white X which was hundreds of yards from the tree. Every year somebody still hit the tree, and half the time they sued the drop zone for their own stupidity.
I used to like to do triathlons in Canada when I lived in Seattle because they were literally half the cost of US triathlons. When I asked why, they said "because the liability waivers up here MEAN something". I don't know if that's still the case up there or not.
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
Dude, I'm totally in. DIY Tris? C'mon, it could just be like a group run but a tri instead. I'm in MI but I can imagine how fun it would be to just meet somewhere by one of the lakes, swim, have one person watch the bikes, and then have the course be a loop back to where the bikes and cars were.
I'm new to this stuff, and don't plan on winning any races. It' a win for me to just say that I did it. If anyone is in MI and wants to do something like this during the summer in place of a brick on a Saturday or Sunday, I'm happy to help coordinate. And I volunteer my wife to watch the bikes ;)
Heck, we do group bricks in my tri/bike club. We're 2/3 there already. Although, we usually do bike/run or bike/swim. As before our 7-8am ride it can be a bit dark to meet up at the beach.
Also, how would you handle the bike coral? It can be kind of risky to leave a quite a few tri bikes laying about.
When we do our group bricks (Sat, Tues, and MTB/trail run night on Thurs) we leave probably $30-50k worth of bikes and equipment back at the bike shop. (I swear on big group ride days, I'll bet it's close to 100k of bikes flying about at over 25mph...fun times!....)
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
— Winston Churchill
We do group bricks up at the lake too. We just have someone be the bike watcher. One of the folks on my Team in Training team last year builds bike racks, just like the ones in races (you can see a couple photos of them here. So we could even rack our bikes just like on race day.
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
i have a lake here that is 5k around sperate walking and biking paths, with open picknic areas, right next to the dock/swim landing, plus i have several people (some kids and adults) who would watch the bikes and all. with it being 5k you could just do laps and go on the honesty principle.
They have a nice break-down of costs here.
http://www.trisportcanada.com/entryfees.php
Entry FeesPeople often wonder (and ask!) exactly where their entry fees go. While it is true that Trisport is a business, and running races is how they earn an income, putting on a race costs money and putting on 10 of them costs a lot of money! Here is a short list of some of the expenses incurred at each race:
* TAX - GST, federal, provincial taxes all included in your fee as well as tax on everything purchased.
* Race Day Insurance - $6 automatically goes to OAT
* Trisport staff - 12 paid crew members responsible for race implementation and set up/tear down.
* Volunteers - we do have the occasional “true volunteer” however most volunteer race crew is now paid by Trisport. We do this to ensure that all stations are properly staffed to make your race experience the best possible.
* Police to control roads and traffic flow. Many are under the assumption they do this for free. Not true! On average just 1 officer is $50/hr at a minimum of 4 hrs! Some races have an average of 6 paid officers per event. ($200 (min) X 6 = $1200). Again that is just an estimate. Some races require many more officers and many more hours.
* Police Cars - For every police car on the course they charge an extra $150 (average) for that car.
* Race Venue - (some sites cost more than others) Big dollars!
* Parking at race venues is paid by Trisport
* T-Shirts and screening
* Prizes and Plaques- on average each race has 150 plaques per event.
* Porto-Potties
* Lifeguards
* Physician on staff and at the event
* Ambulance
* Ryder Truck Rentals plus fuel ($$$). Fuel for 6 other event vehicles.
* Food
* Safety Pins (believe it or not, Trisport will fork out over $1000 through the course of the year to supply safety pins for race numbers)
* Race Numbers
* Swim Caps
* Barricade Rentals
* Timing Officials, Trisport pays extra to have timing splits at each event. $40,000 / yr goes directly to timing costs.
* Accommodations for officials, race crew and timers at each event. (at least 15 people).Trisport produces some of the best races in the world, and you can be guaranteed that each race will be professionally run. I hope this gives you some idea where your race fees go.
jono














how hard is it to start a tri?
$500 for you to do all the work?
where does the money go?
there are alot of 5k's around here that cost $20-$30, so a local group got together and stared putting on a bargain series, four 5ks 15 bucks, and it's a collective competition, all of your times are added up and the one with the best time wins the championship, you have to buy your own t-shirt ($3) and there is no prize money.
why can't there be a bargain tri, no frills, just a starting line, a bike rack, some water, and a some police tape for the winner to break?
would anyone else like this?
oh and yes i do think think think of my utterly witty titles.