Music City Triathlon
This Sunday, September 17th marks the annual Music City Triathlon here in Nashville. It's starting from a new location instead of the Cook's Recreation Area of Percy Priest Lake. Nashville Shores will now host the event and offer competitors a different race route for each discipline. The Music City Triathlon is the second oldest annual triathlon; beaten by none other than the IronMan itself.
Having trained along those same roads for many years I will say the bike route is now harder than in the past. It essentially covers the same route as before, but now they'll have to contend with sections of Bell Road and South New Hope Road never raced on before. There are a couple of hills along those sections that aren't too long or steep, but it's not smooth sailing to the finish.
The only concern about the new routes is traffic along Bell Road. Vehicular traffic across Percy Priest Damn has always been busy, which is where the running route takes them. It gets even busier on the other end of Bell Road for the bike section near South New Hope. Hopefully there will be a lot of people marshalling the course. I've rarely had a problem riding along that road, but when there's hundreds of racers clogging up the lanes then tempers can flare up.
Although, there was that time a car load of kids smoked me with a huge bazooka water gun on Bell Road near New Hope. I was out of the saddle going up the hill towards New Hope when I heard a car slowing down behind me almost to a stop. I remember thinking, "this can't be good." I look to my left and see a car load of kids with one of them hanging out the window. That punk unloaded his bazooka water gun with a direct hit to the face! Oh, then the chase was on! I sprinted after them towards the stop light, but unfortunately they beat the light and sped away. After being angry for about five minutes I had to laugh at getting nailed.
In years past I usually ride from home to go and watch racers get out of the water and start the bike portion. Then I'll ride around the course getting good action shots on the bike. I don't know if I'll take pictures this year, but I'll at least go and watch. More than likely I'll camp myself at the top of the hill on South New Hope Road. I look forward to seeing the faces of riders as they're coming up that hill within the last 2km of the bike route.
If you can get out of bed early enough after tasting wine all day Saturday at Wine on the River then come out and cheer on the triathletes.
Having trained along those same roads for many years I will say the bike route is now harder than in the past. It essentially covers the same route as before, but now they'll have to contend with sections of Bell Road and South New Hope Road never raced on before. There are a couple of hills along those sections that aren't too long or steep, but it's not smooth sailing to the finish.
The only concern about the new routes is traffic along Bell Road. Vehicular traffic across Percy Priest Damn has always been busy, which is where the running route takes them. It gets even busier on the other end of Bell Road for the bike section near South New Hope. Hopefully there will be a lot of people marshalling the course. I've rarely had a problem riding along that road, but when there's hundreds of racers clogging up the lanes then tempers can flare up.
Although, there was that time a car load of kids smoked me with a huge bazooka water gun on Bell Road near New Hope. I was out of the saddle going up the hill towards New Hope when I heard a car slowing down behind me almost to a stop. I remember thinking, "this can't be good." I look to my left and see a car load of kids with one of them hanging out the window. That punk unloaded his bazooka water gun with a direct hit to the face! Oh, then the chase was on! I sprinted after them towards the stop light, but unfortunately they beat the light and sped away. After being angry for about five minutes I had to laugh at getting nailed.
In years past I usually ride from home to go and watch racers get out of the water and start the bike portion. Then I'll ride around the course getting good action shots on the bike. I don't know if I'll take pictures this year, but I'll at least go and watch. More than likely I'll camp myself at the top of the hill on South New Hope Road. I look forward to seeing the faces of riders as they're coming up that hill within the last 2km of the bike route.
If you can get out of bed early enough after tasting wine all day Saturday at Wine on the River then come out and cheer on the triathletes.
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 9/12/2006 02:13:00 PM
1 Comments:
Well, the bike corse was easier than in the past, and the traffic was non existant and it was a very well run race.
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