Bath Triathlon may evolve into something different

It’s that time of year again, when Allegheny Highlands’ residents and visitors can see some of the best of everything from, high achieving athletes to fine arts, and very fast or classic cars and airplanes. Emily Plecker, executive director of the Bath Chamber of Commerce talked to us about the first event in that line-up of “all things excellent”.

“The Bath County Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the County of Bath Tourism, Tri Adventure, the US Forest Service and Royal Elk Management will be hosting the Bath County Triathlon on Saturday, June the 24^th. That consists of a seven- hundred fifty meter open water swim, 20K bike loop on closed roads, and then a 5K run on closed runs as well.   So we really like to stress that; that is kind of what makes our event unique is that it is closed roads. You don’t see that a lot of places. We will be having Puff’s Barbeque cater the post race meal, so that’s always fun. We have about over a hundred participants registered. Participation has gone down this year, and that’s due to the fact that we are no longer a part of the Virginia Maryland Triathlon Series. The group that we were with dropped us this year because of the low numbers. So we had to go with a different group. So we’re hoping to build back up from there, or just kind of check into if Triathlons are really relevant anymore, or if it’s just for the true athletes in the world, or whether we need to be focusing on something more community oriented that you don’t have to be an athlete to participate in. So, we’re throwing around some ideas, maybe to change that event, and up the participation. We will be having Southern Rail Express doing music again when participants can get their meal. You can purchase tickets at the ticket booth so if you are coming as a spectator you can purchase a meal ticket to eat with us. We will be hosting packet pick-up for participants here at the Chamber office, at the Gristmill, 120 Old Mill Road, Warm Springs from four to seven pm. We’re hoping for a really good event. We’ve got a lot of volunteers this year; we’ve got over fifty volunteers from within the community, so we are really thankful for the people that come out to make this event happen.”

I asked what might be the best place to watch the triathletes come and go.

“We would definitely recommend the Bolar Marina there, just because that’s where the transition area is. So if people want to come see, they can watch the entire swim. They can watch them transition to the bike, come back in from bike, go back out for run. So, it’s just a central location where they can kind of see everything that’s going on from the race, catch people finishing, things like that.   It’s really the major point where the most commotion is going on during the race. I did want to mention too, Lake Moomaw’s Bolar Flats boat ramp, and route 600 and 603 will be closed on Saturday, June the 24^th for the Triathlon. They will be closed in the vicinity of the Marina from 7:30 am to 12pm. Please plan your outings around all those closures. All other ramps including Coles point and Fortney Branch will be open. It will just be the Bolar Flat ramp that will be closed, and route 600 and route 603 to a certain point. If you have any questions about that, you can contact the Warm Springs Ranger Station at 540-839-2521, and if you have any questions about the upcoming event this weekend you can contact the Chamber Office at 540-839-5409.”