Triathlon: Keeping the Economy Afloat

Interesting story out of San Diego about the surge in triathlon participation and spending on the sport. No doubt the last couple of years have seen amazing growth, but will it hold through 2009? I've got to figure there will be some flattening of the spending curve. Just this week I set out to sign up for Wildflower Long Course. This is a great race on a great course and the timing is perfect for me as a lead-in to IMCDA. But after filling out all the forms, when it came time to press the button to make it happen, I instead closed the browser. It wasn't so much the $220 entry fee that gave me cold feet, but all the other costs that turn a six-hour race into a thousand-buck extended weekend. Planes, car, gas, bike transport, food.... With Coeur d'Alene already costing twice as much, I just couldn't justify the expense. So instead I'll stay home and build my own half-iron race that weekend. I'll head up to Klineline in Vancouver so it's a real open-water swim. I'll have my gear with me and have bike and run courses from there all mapped out. It won't be as intense as Wildflower, probably, but it'll get the job done. And that thousand dollars saved? Oh, I spent it already on a Computrainer.