Triathlon keeps running smoothly

On a weekend when several sporting events – the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500, a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers playoff game, and the Potentate golf tournament – have been packed into a three-day period, organizers of the 27th annual Wilkes-Barre Triathlon decided an earlier start was the way to go.

But it had nothing to do with the aforementioned events.

The committee decided to move the start of this year’s race a half-hour earlier, from 8 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., to accommodate the traffic created by the many churches in the Back Mountain area.

“We got together with a lot of the local police, fire and ambulance agencies that we work with during the race and decided that moving the race up a half-hour would be a good idea,” said race director Joanne Gensel. “Safety is always our biggest concern.”

Another concern for Gensel is accommodations for the hundreds of athletes coming from out-of-town to participate in the event. This year’s race has 563 participants – up from last year’s number of 494 and 520 in 2006.

With the flag dropping on the Pennsylvania 500 on the same day, Gensel says hotel rooms have been hard to come by, forcing athletes to seek other options.

“Some hotels are asking for a minimum two- to three-night stay, if they have rooms at all,” she said. “We were afraid that would be a deterrent, but the numbers (of entrants) have been great.”

Gensel also credits Misericordia University for offering dormitory rooms to athletes who don’t have a place to stay. The university has had the agreement with the triathlon for the last few years. There are also local families who act as host families for athletes needing a place to stay.

In the future, Gensel says the triathlon will be scheduled for the week after the NASCAR race, setting next year’s race for Aug. 9. A move wouldn’t have been possible for the 2008 triathlon, she said, because the timing company LIN-MARK had already been booked for the race.

This year’s course varies little from the one competitors have seen in the past.

The race will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Harveys Lake Beach Club in Lake Township. The swim portion of the event is 0.9-mile out-and-back in the usually choppy water of Harveys Lake before a 24.8-mile bike race through the scenic streets of the Back Mountain.

The athletes will head to the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus in Lehman Township for a second transition area, where they’ll drop their bikes and head out on the final leg of the race, a 6.8-mile run to the finish line back at the campus.

Gensel, who starts planning for the next year’s triathlon almost immediately after the last competitor crosses the finish line, admits she couldn’t do it without the help of a long list of volunteers.

“We’ve had overwhelming support from the community this year as well as in the past,” she said. “The number of volunteers this year should meet or surpass last year’s numbers.”

And that, according to last year’s race winners, is one of the largest draws to the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon.

Last year’s female champion, Kelly Ochreiter, makes her home in Shavertown – not far from the triathlon course. But she says one of the things unique to the event is the way it’s organized.

“It’s just put together so well,” she said. “One of the things I’ve come to realize since I’ve started running races outside of the area is that other races don’t really compare to this one in terms of the volunteers and the organization. I think that’s why they get such a great response year after year and the same people keep coming back.

“There’s just a sense of community and support that you get when you’re here.”

“It’s a beautiful area,” said the resident of Columbia, Pa. “It’s a unique course and the people are great. The town basically shuts down for this race. People open their homes to you. It’s all just a great experience and that’s why I’ll keep coming back.”

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