It was a joint effort of the Toughman franchise and Heartland Endurance Sports. A good time was had.
My wife appreciated the laid-back atmosphere of the non-IM-branded events. We decided we wanted to do this race again.
So, at the earliest chance, I registered for Toughman Indiana-Noblesville for 2017.
In the early part of this year, apparently Toughman dropped the event, and one of the business partners with Heartland Endurance dropped out, so T.J. Tryon--who had been part of last year's Toughman event--refashioned it as the Noblesville Moresman Triathlon. It was slated for May 20, 2017.
The race conditions this time, however, were tenuous, as the weather outlook called for severe thuderstorms, and they were apparently moving in right around the start of the race. The night before the race, T.J. cancelled the event due to weather.
While many folks were angry--the cancellation did seem premature--it was understandable: the weather outlook really WAS pretty bad. Even if you kill the swim due to lightning risks, lightning can also be a hazard on the bike and run as well. He said he would try to reschedule.
On June 30, I received an e-mail: the triathlon had been rescheduled for September 30. I was elated. I was going to get a chance to do a long race this year. After all I'd been through, this was going to be enjoyable.
In the first week of September, however, I found out that a good friend of mine--Col. Ronald D. Ray (USMCR), a decorated war veteran of Vietnam and former Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Reagan--was going to be inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame on September 30, with the ceremonial dinner on September 29.
I wouldn't miss that for the world. There will be other triathlons.
Still, I had friends who were racing the triathlon, and I was eager to follow their progress.
At 1:23AM, T.J. Tryon sent the following email:
In spite of the conditions being perfect--excellent weather, no rain, low-moderate wind, and water temps at 72F--he cancelled.Good morning,This is the last thing you want to hear, and the last thing that I want to have to say, but I wanted to make sure that you were the first to know that, at 11:17PM tonight, we were forced to make the decision to cancel the Noblesville Triathlon. This race will not be rescheduled. We failed you, and we know an apology will not suffice at this moment.Please give me and my family give us a few days to get through this, gather our thoughts, and we will be in touch.
People who had spent good money, driven or flown, checked into hotels, and packed their gear for a race, would wake up to a cancellation for no good reason.
Fellow triathletes: do not register for anything that has T.J. Tryon's name associated with it. If you want to race similar events, there are plenty of them in Indiana and Ohio if you wish to stick to that region. Indianapolis has an active triathlon community, as does the state of Ohio. They have plenty of races for every distance from sprint to Olympic to half-Iron. They have duathlons and aquabike (swim-bike). They have century rides.
And they have reputable organizations with years of race production experience to get it done right. On the high end, you have Ironman (Muncie and Ohio), but there are others such as America's Multisport and Racemaker Productions. And they, by all accounts, put on good events. In Kentucky, Headfirst Performance puts on some excellent triathlons.
Perhaps T.J. needs to work for some of these organizations and get a better feel for what it takes to pull off one of these events so he will be able to comprehend the organization required to do it. It is likely that he is in over his head (that would be a charitable assessment). But he has done enough damage to the racing community and needs to, at the bare minimum, re-assess his competencies in this area.
