Race Coverage

More Cowbell...

Wednesday, 01 February 2012 02:00

By Darin Wieneke

YWCA Winter Indoor Tri - The YWCA has been putting on indoor triathlons for a number of years now and they are perfecting that format. On Sunday, the YWCA hosted its Winter Indoor Triathlon, they also have fall and spring indoor triathlons, at the Midtown YWCA. The race featured sprint (600 yard swim-10 mile bike- 2 mile run) and mini-sprint (400 yard swim-8 mile bike- 1 mile run) formats, as well as a newly added Youth Splash and Dash for kids ages 9-15. As a participant and observer of these races over the years, I have to give credit to the YWCA team for tweaking their races every year to make them more participant and fan friendly. The hospitality area, where everyone is welcome to share in snacks and poster making, is one great feature of the race....

It seems to be paying off as there was an incredible amount of fan and volunteer support at this weekend's race. My 14 month old daughter Kaia and I cheered on participants before making our way into the children's swimming pool area to play and "practice" her zooms, blast-offs and other swimming drills. Throughout the 30 minutes we were in the children's swimming pool, we could hear the sounds of cowbells in the distance encouraging racers onward.

It was a great environment for triathletes. If you have not participated in an indoor triathlon, you should give it a try at some point. If you are not an experienced triathlete, it is a great way to improve your skills in a controlled environment. If you are an experienced triathlete, it is a pretty inexpensive way to test your winter fitness and get you dreaming about the Blaine (new triathlon on May 19th), Land Between the Lakes, Buffalo and other early season triathlons. There are plenty of additional opportunities to do an indoor triathlon this year at Optum, YWCA, LifeTime and a number of other venues. See the MTN calendar page for more information.

FYI, the sprint tri was won by Dantzler (totally cool name!) Smith (44:19) and Bridget Arnold (46:57). - RESULTS