Answer… 2 Triathlons with overlapping courses at the same time!
8 of Hill Country REACT‘s members worked the Texas Triathlon, state finals, on the north shore of Canyon Lake last Saturday morning (10/18). They used the SARO 147.14 repeater with no problems reported. Only one medical problem was called in, a slight case of “road rash” by one rider. Otherwise the medical team was rather bored, all in all.
Further east down the lake shore, about a mile from our starting point, at an area frequently used by the Army or Air Force for their recreation purposes, a 2nd Triathlon called the Randolph AFB Rambler 120 was started. Fortunately their riders only overlapped our course by a few miles, and their riders were moving in the opposite directions, but we still had to coordinate with the deputy sheriffs handling traffic control so they knew which riders where which group.
The athletes swam around in Canyon Lake a couple of miles or more (water temp around 74 degrees) and then they ran / hobbled, crawled up the bank to the bike compound where they (maybe / sorta) dried off and hopped on their bicycle to ride on state highway and county roads for 25 miles. Temperature was fantastic this morning, starting out in the upper 60’s and ending up around the mid 70’s by noon when all the riders were off the course.
The 200+ athletes took anywhere from 30 minutes to 75 minutes to finish the swim portion (in batches, each athlete had chip strapped to ankle so they compete accurately against each other even with staggered starts).
Before the ride portion started, one relay rider (his partner was out there doing the swimming part) needed to change out his pedals from the normal type to the shoe clip type, but the pedal had been screwed in too tight for his tools to undo. But never fear REACT is here! Ray KE5KHN, aka “Motorcycle 1″ got his tools out and asked the two other (non-REACT) motorcycle riders to assist. Remember the old joke about how many guys does it take to change a light bulb? Well, now we have a new one about changing a bicycle pedal. See photo for answer.
Then the bike ride started.
“Motorcycle 1″ called net control to report he was leaving the start line with the first batch of riders. He continued to call in reports as they reached major intersections around the course, but had not finished back before the “Turtle” had departed.
The last rider left the finish line with me following behind them as the “Turtle” around 9:15pm. I followed them around the course, letting net control know where I was about every 5 miles. When we were about 15 miles out on the 26 mile course, one rider developed a flat rear tire and didn’t have the proper equipment to fix it.
But just as we were about to call for a SAG, this mystery rider shows up out of nowhere with all the tools, C02 Cartridges and spare innertub needed to fix the other rider’s bike. Wow! And then it turns out, this mystery rider (from Houston, TX) was up here this weekend training for the upcoming BikeMS Houston – Austin ride next April, and had just completed the BikeMS San Antonio to Corpus (Bike to the Beach) ride we had just helped with 2 weeks ago. Small world! The mystery rider stayed with rider #47 for about 7 miles until his planned route deviated from our course, and he waved goodbye and rode off into the sunset.
The last rider, not #47 because he got his second wind back, finished about 11:30am, about 3 1/2 hours after the first swimmer had entered the water that morning. But then they had to park their bikes, put on their running shoes, and go run another 10-12 miles to finish.
Free food, free t-shirts, free fun was had by all. 8 of our team members participated in this event and we had a great time. Most of us had our REACT uniform shirts on, and we may have convinced two motorcycle riders with ride marshalls with them, to get their ham radio licenses and consider joining the REACT team up in Austin where they were from.
