The series of summer events at Lewis Creek continues this weekend with the Best in the West Triathlon, Sept. 5-7.
The event, now in its fourth year, has grown steadily and pre-registerations numbered around 400 last week, director Blair Bronson said.
Like last year, the event will include five individual triathlon competitions: Sprint, Olympic, Half-Ironman, Try a Tri, and Splash and Dash.
The largest of the five is the Sprint race at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, which is composed of a 500-meter swim in Foster Lake, 12-mile bike ride and a 5K (3.1-mile) run, mostly on flat roads along the lake. With water temperatures expected to be in the low 70s, wetsuits will be optional. A duathlon comprising the bike and run portions will also be offered. The bike route runs along North River Drive to Northside Drive, then back to the park, followed by the 5K east and south of the park on North River and Quartzville roads with a turnaround between the two bridges on Quartzville north of Highway 20.
The Half-Ironman also begins at 8 a.m. Saturday with a 1.2-mile swim, followed by 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run – half the distances of a full Ironman. The bicycle portion will run west from the park, along North River Drive to Pleasant Valley Road, on to McDowell Creek Road, then to Berlin Road and Lebanon, on to Lacomb Drive and back to Berlin on Bellinger Scale Road. The run portion will follow Quartzville Road from Lewis Creek Park to Green Peter Lake, then return.
Bronson said the Half-Iron race will also serve as the Pacific Northwest Long Course Championship and the event as a whole is part of the schedule for the Willamette Valley Triathlon Club championship series.
The Olympic Triathlon event will also serve as the Northwest Collegiate Conference Championship, with athletes from Oregon State University and the University of Oregon, University of Washington and Washington State, and the University of Idaho and Southern Idaho University, with some possibly from Boise State. The collegiate competitors will start before the main field in the Olympic evnet, which begins at 8 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, with a 1500-meter swim in the lake, followed by a 40K (just under 25 miles) bike ride along North River, Pleasant Valley and McDowell Creek roads to a turnaround point a couple of miles south of Waterloo, then back to the park, where contestants will finish with a 10K (6.2 miles) run following portions of the 5K and Half-Ironman courses.
The Try a Tri, introduced last year in response to requests, is a beginner-only race for adults and will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday and feature a 300-meter swim in the lake, a five-mile bike ride along North River Road, which will be closed for the event, and a 3.1-mile run or 1.5-mile run, which will be up to the contestant.
“We had pretty good participation last year,” Bronson said. “We have a bunch of youth participants (this year).”
For children under 12, there is also the Splash and Dash at 11 a.m. Sunday, which includes swims ranging from 100 to 200 meters and runs of 1 kilometer (approximately .6 mile) to 2K, depending on age.
North River Drive will be closed during the run and bike portions of the races, from 8 a.m. to early afternoon both days, for safety reasons.
Volunteers are still needed for both days, Bronson said. Life guards, course marshals, aid station staff, registration and finish line personnel, clean-up crew members, photographers and motorcyclists are needed. To learn more about the races or to sign up to volunteer, visit http://www.bestinthewesttriathlon.com/ and click on the Volunteers tab.
Bronson said Best in the West has grown at a rate of about 100 participants per year, which, he said, has given organizers a chance to deal with parking, traffic control and other challenges posed by increased attendance and participation.
“It’s good,” he said of that progress. “As race director, I’d like to see more participants out there. But it’s been a really good growth rate so far. I’m looking for it to continue in the future, to see those numbers go up.”
He said that the event should have a positive impact on the community as well.
“Sunnyside Campground is about half full and it had hardly any occupancy (following Labor Day) before the event came in. There’s more people in the hotels and motels, more people buying gas and going to restaurants, more people coming into town to boost the economy.”