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Veteran athletes battle Mother Nature to claim Tejas Tri
June 21, 2002
from Greg Pennington, race director
Wow-what a wild morning this past Sunday at the 3rd annual Tejas
Triathlon! The ill-timed thunderstorm at 6:15 am came right as
participants were parking, getting body-marked, and putting
their bicycles in the transition area. The lightning, thunder,
and wind caused everyone to scurry to shelter. Many of us
huddled under the gazebos near the lake to wait out the storm.
As Race Director, I continued to give out announcements with
weather updates and postponement information. With input from
traffic control officials, 3 USAT officials, and 2 veteran
triathlon directors (Andy Stewart and Dave Rainey), the decision
was made to convert the triathlon into a swim/run event.
Although many folks decided to leave early, the event turned out
to be fun for all those who stayed!
Mark Van Akkeren, a college triathlete out of Austin, exited the
water first and held the lead until the final mile when Roger
Wacker of Houston passed him to take first place with a time of
27:21 to 27:46 for Van Akkeren. The women's race saw the return
of Sally Taggart to the Houston multi-sport scene as she
finished in first place with a time of 28:51 with Shannon O'Neal
coming in a close second at 29:26. The top Master's male and
female were Tommy Elder (30:18) and Lynnie Terry (31:23). One
interesting sidenote, especially as it relates to the future
stars of the sport, is that Kelsey Tucker, age 12, finished 4th
overall in the women's division with a time of 30:57, and Austin
Turnbull, age 15, finished in a tie for 4th place overall in the
men's division with a time of 30:09.
The change to a swim/run event was entirely due to safety issues-
it is the commitment of USAT and race directors to ensure that
the multi-sport events are planned and carried out with safety
as the focus. Some participants wondered why the event could
not be rescheduled or even cancelled (with their entry fee
returned). The various moving parts to putting on a triathlon,
as well as scheduling issues with the community and those
entered in the event, combined to make this an impossibility.
The following statement was posted in an email to those
participants who registered on-line:
Due to the fixed costs of producing an event like this (t-
shirts, equipment rentals, police support, water bottles, canoe
support, lifeguards, timing service, entry forms, USAT sanction
and officals' fees, etc., it is
impossible to offer any type of refund or transfer as a result
of the weather-caused delay and change to the event. Entry
forms stated that there can be no refunds or transfers-this is
because of the fixed costs mentioned above. With all of the
fixed costs and moving parts in creating a triathlon event, it
is impossible to recreate the event at a later date. So, in
order to avoid cancelling the event entirely, the decision was
made to have the swim/run event that enabled us to host a safe
and fun event for all
participants. We are sorry for any inconvenience that was
caused and hope that you realize
that the weather was outside of our control.
PS. For those who chose not to stay or come out that morning,
ChampionChip
Timing has asked you to mail back the championchip you received
at packet
pickup to the following address:
ChampionChip Mid-South
7638 Old Spanish Trail
Shreveport, LA 71105
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