San Antonio Hams

Today’s Small Texan Triathlon was sponsored / organized by Britton Bikes of San Antonio, TX, and had 137 entries.   

The route included a swim (actual distance was 1480 meters) in the Boerne City Lake (just north of Boerne, TX), a 45k bike ride that went north up thru Waring, TX, and back, and a 10k run that went over the dam behind the lake cross-country, then out on Ranger Creek Road to a turn-around point and back to the park. 

There was just enough water left in the lake (which is also used for Boerne’s water supply) for them to swim, once the swimmers waded out about 30′ from shore.  The swim route was altered from the planned 1500 meter course due to shallow waters in the lake. We had joked about whether “mud wrestling” qualified for a USAT sanctioned triathlon (it doesn’t). 

The event organizers had “swimmer helpers” waiting out in the water at the finish shore when the swimmers returned, to help the tired swimmers change from a horizontal swim position, to walking upright once more on the rocky / muddy bottom of the lake until they reached the concrete ramp. 

There were a large number of kayak mounted lifeguards along the course to help some of the more tired swimmers, or to chase a “lost” swimmer back onto the proper course. 

The guy who finished last (#120) must have swam at least 1.5 miles instead of the 0.9 miles, due to his zig-zagging off the course on a regular basis.  No swimmers were lost to sharks or other problems, everybody was accounted for before the lifeguards left the water and the route floats were picked up by the larger boats.

The Small Texan is a special international distance race. Swim a mile in a clear refreshing lake, bike 45k course that will provide you with the opportunity to test your legs on typical hill country terrain and finish up with a 10k over flat to rolling hills! “Texan” style awards to be given out after the last athlete comes back. USAT Sanctioned event. Swim 1500M in Boerne Lake, bike a 45K loop course on flat to rolling terrain and run a 10K out and back on dirt and asphalt. There will be one water hand up on the bike course and support every mile on the run course.

Some entries were relay entries, and one entry was declared to be an “Aqua Bike” which was explained to me as “they are only doing the swim and ride part of the event.”  The weather was clear skies, slight breeze (with one gust that knocked over my antenna tripod) and temperatures that hit the low 90’s by the time the event was over.  We were told there were actually about 150 athletes participating, but only 137 “entries” due to some being in the relay or “aqua bike” categories. 

I also met Ken Mayfield (former chair of Tour de Cure event in San Antonio) who was there as part of a family relay team.  One of his daughters swam (20.5 minutes, was #5 out of the water), he rode the bike portion of the event (his favorite sport), and his other daughter ran the 10k.

The fastest entry #82 today, finished his swim in less than  20 minutes and the ride portion of the event in about an hour and 10 minutes. I didn’t note his exact finish time for the run portion, but it also was less than an hour.  Last year, the fasted swimmer was just under 10 minutes, but the water was much, much deeper allowing them to dive in and not worrying about the detour around the shallower areas.

Hams operators were recruited / organized by Gordon K5SUZ, and the repeater we used (145.19) was provided by the Kendall Amateur Radio Society (KARS – KB5TX).  Hams who worked this event included Gordon K5SUZ, Lee N5NTG, David KD5MTJ, Dale KB5YSJ, Linda KC5QPQ, Gary (Grumpy) WF5Y, Gary K5GST and JS Smyth KF5BYC (a new ham, motorcycle marshall). 

Following the event conclusion, we shut down the net and then all of us (except Dale & Linda) drove back up the course to Po-Po’s Restaurant (on IH-10, just north of Boerne) for a well deserved lunch.   Unfortunately for us, everybody in this part of the world also decided to eat at this popular restaurant at the same time, so we waited for more than an hour to get seated, and another 30 minutes before our food was served.   But they gave us lots of non-alcholic drinks at the bar up front, plus lots of their famous biscuits w butter or honey to snack on, once we were seated, to help make up for the delay.  Gordon K5SUZ also picked up the tab for all 6 of us, over the mild objections of the rest of us.

Here are some photos that I took during today’s event.