Katy Triathlon

Katy Triathlon

Katy Triathlon

( 1 review )
100% of reviewers recommend this race

Marc

Katy, Texas, United States
7 32
2016
"Fast and Furious"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Marc 's thoughts:

The Katy Triathlon has been ongoing for the last 24 years. This was my second time participating in this race. The race has some changes every once in a while to account for the rapid growth of Katy Texas. The change this year was adding 2.8 miles to the bike course which had a large portion of it on newly paved asphalt or concrete making it very fast.

The packet pickup and expo: This is held in the conference room of a local hotel each year. The race organizers take the USAT rules serious and they post clear instructions on what's required to check in yet I still saw people arguing with them on why they needed their USAT cards. Avoid the argument and bring it with you or you'll be headed home to get it or trying to figure out your login to get it on your phone.

There isn't really any expo for this. Just the packet pickup and a set of tables to check your items to make sure you got all the correct stuff. The swag for this race was the Race shirt, a unique looking running bottle, pen and some discounts to local places such as Cycle Bar.

The race:
Parking can get tight for this race because they main lot at the front of the neighborhood is closed for the vendors and the transition setup. They have a competitive pool, elementary school and another community center (farthest) for parking.
Transition is in a concrete parking lot at the Firethorn visitor center which is nice for keeping your feet clean after your out of the water and headed out on your bike. There are plenty of porta-potties for the size of the race located by the vendors and a few near the race start.

The swim leg is an out and back in lake Firethorn making a square shape rout. Fort his race everyone starts in the water with a countdown start. They group the racers into large waves. Elites, 40+, 25 and under, 26-39 so you will have a decent number of people in the water with you.

The bike leg as I stated earlier in the review is for the most part on roads that have been recently repaved or are new concrete roads. The who older roads that are still in ok shape is the section of the bike rout down US 90 on the way out and the feeder road along I-10 on the way back. There were a few racers who took a wrong turn at a roundabout (seriously a roundabout why do they exist) the police on the course parked in a manner that made it look like that was the way to go. If you weren't following someone or knew the area and how the bike course was suppose to go I could see how it was misleading.

The run leg takes place around lake firethorn which is a crushed gravel path and then goes to a sidewalk around a drainage lake. There are two spots where you run in the grass. One is the halfway point and the other is just before the final stretch to the finish you run in the grass for the first part of an out and back so you get the full 3 mile distance. The water stations are well manned by what seams like half of the Katy ISD school district with lots of cheering when the runners go through and plenty of cups being held out on both sides of the trail.

The finish for this year was changed from the first time a did this race. It was an improvement with a strait sprint finish down a chute on the main road full of cheering people rather than how it used to be with a last second zigzag into the parking lot.

The vendors were all present for the after party with local micro brew beer, pizza, sandwiches, smoothies with some of the other sponsors holding small giveaways etc…

Checking out was also per USAT rules. The race directors had volunteers at multiple openings for the transition checking each person going in to be a racer as well as on the way out that the bike and gear they picked up belonged to them.

I would recommend this race to anyone looking for a first race or a fast sprint. It's got the small down feel with a lot of great support.

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