Months and months of hard work and preparation will finally come to fruition this week for 麻豆社国产Triathlon race director John French.
French helped save the race from extinction back in October and told The Chief it's been a blast organizing the 14th annual event.
"I've really enjoyed taking on the role," he said. "We've got a lot of returning volunteers and they already know the systems and procedures of how to make the triathlon work."
The 麻豆社国产Triathlon features a 1,500-metre swim in Alice Lake, followed by a 37 km bike ride from Alice Lake to Don Ross Secondary School and concluding with a 10 km trail run on the Cheekye Fan trails.
French said overall the course looks to be in terrific shape.
"The run portion with the improved section of the Ray Peters Trail is great," he said. "The 麻豆社国产Trails Society did some fabulous work and the cycling course is also in good shape. As for the swimming, Alice Lake's temperature is lower than in previous years, so unless we get a super mega heat wave, that should be good, too."
French pointed out that high temperatures in previous years prompted race organizers to recommend that swimmers not wear wet suits but he said that likely won't be the case for this year's race.
It has also been under French's guidance that the 麻豆社国产Triathlon has been able to make its presence known on the Internet and through social media.
"I'm really happy about the response we've gotten online," he said. "That was one of the things I wanted to accomplish and I think we've done that with the Facebook and Twitter pages."
French also pointed out that registration is already up from last year, with 293 individuals taking part in this year's race as either solo or team participants, up from 212 at last year's race. Also notable is the number of locals taking part in this year's race. Only 30 麻豆社国产residents took part in the 2010 race and 2011 already has far more.
"I don't really know how to account for that," French said of the increase in local participation. "But I'm definitely happy about it."
French said several locals could make quite an impact on race day.
"Volker Schneider has been to a lot of big races and he's been working really hard," he said. "You've got Derek Gagne, whose wife actually won the free entry we gave away at Mountain FM and also Peter Hotston who, now that he doesn't have to worry about organizing the race, can just race."
Entrants have signed up from all over B.C., as well as Alberta, Ontario, Washington State and even Australia.
French added that he would also like to see more relay teams sign up for the race.
"We definitely have room for more teams," he said. "They bring a lot of life to the event and make it a lot more fun for everyone involved."
Organizers are also looking for volunteers and French said that they would even accept volunteers signing up to help on the day of the event.
"If someone were late to arrive and just showed up and wanted to help, we would definitely take them," he said. "We'd prefer to have people get in contact with us before the race so they can get all the great perks that come with being a volunteer for our race but we would accept them on the day of."
The 2011 麻豆社国产Triathlon gets underway on Sunday (July 10), with swimmers hitting the waters of Alice Lake at 9:30 a.m.
For more information about the event, visit www.squamishtriathlon.org.
