Triathlon set for Sunday at Cypress Black Bayou

The sound of 1,100 athletes will fill the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation Area as they race ib the Louisiana heat Sunday for SportSpectrum’s 30th Annual River City Triathlon.

This weekend, athletes from across the country will converge on the popular nature park for one of the oldest triathlons in the country.

“People suspect that this event has been around so long. It is an event people want to do . . . . We have racers from 20 different states this year, but most of them are going to be from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and surrounding states,” said Matt Brown, race director.

The race begins at 8 a.m. with a half-mile swim and then racers will bike 18.2 miles around Cypress Lake before closing the race with a 3.1-mile jog through shaded park roads.

“It is a fairly challenging course. It has some nice hills in it,” said Brown. “The biggest challenge this year will be the heat. I hear it is supposed to crank up to 102 this weekend,” said Brown.

Brown believes race competitors will have issues with the heat, however, Brown also believes the athletes competing have prepared for this.

“Most of these athletes have been training all summer long and it has been a fairly hot summer. I think they are acclamated to the weather. Where it is going to hurt some people are those who have not trained enough in the heat,” said Brown. “Obviously there are going to be some issues with dehydration.”

Brown, who has been involved with the race both as a competitor and organizer said the course had not changed much over during its 30-year history. Brown claims the race has been around since the early days of triathlons.

“It started three years after the real iron man started. We are one of the oldest triathlons. Thirty years ago, triathlons just started and no one had a true (required) distance. Back in the early years, we were experimenting with distances. Some of the races were a one-mile swim, a 20-mile bike and a 10 [kilometer] run. We decided to have a sprint distance (shorter distance race) especially this time of the year because it’s hot,” said Brown.  

Notable racers competing in this year’s event include Ahmed Zahar of Dallas who will seek to defend his crown as last year’s champion. Triathlon veteran Sandy Triplett who has competed in every River Cities Triathlon since the race began in 1980.

As part of a pre-race ritual, Saturday, DiamondJacks Casino will host the Annual Carb Loading Dinner from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The dinner will cost $15 per person and organizers have opened the event to the public.
Six-time World Ironman Champion and Ironman Hall of Fame Inductee Dave Scott will appear as the River Cities Triathlon’s guest of the year. Scott will speak at the dinner from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.

Area youths will also have a chance to compete in a scaled down version of the race as part of the Tenth Annual Ironfish, where kids will swim 100 yards, bike five kilometers and run two kilometers. The kids will compete in two age brackets — seven to ten and 11 to 14.

“We will have between 250 to 275 kids. It’s always a lot of fun to watch those kids,” said Brown. “They are all out there with a big smile on their face. If you have never seen it, it is a lot of fun to watch.”

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