The 2013 Set Up race schedules came out November 1. Set Up Events runs the Virginia Triathlon Series that I've raced the past three years, along with race series from Georgia to Maryland and standalone events like Bone Island Tri in Key West, and Beach 2 Battleship. They are very organized, top-notch events, I see my friends there, and the events are fairly close. That helps to minimize cost and time away from the family.
It took me about 15 minutes to come up with next year's schedule. With the "A races" and the Boston Marathon nailed nailed down, I only needed to fill in with VTS races that fit between Boston and Worlds. The date and location for Nationals is still only rumor, but I'm hoping it's true it was moved up a weekend.
This schedule includes 9 triathlons and 1 marathon. I did 9 triathlons and no marathons in 2012 and that was plenty! There's only one pool swim on the schedule (yay) but not nearly enough Olympic races. The few VTS Olys don't work well around the big races :-( I may need to refine this and switch out a race to get another Oly on there.
04/15/13 Boston Marathon
05/04/13 Appalachian Power Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon (sprint)
06/02/13 Salem YMCA Sprint Triathlon
06/22/13 Bath County Triathlon (sprint)
07/13/13 YMCA Colonial Beach Sprint Triathlon
07/14/13 YMCA Colonial Beach International Triathlon
08/10/13 USAT Nationals Sprint
08/11/13 USAT Nationals Olympic
09/08/13 Patriots Sprint – tuneup for Words
09/22/13 London ITU World Age Group Championships - Olympic and poss. Aquathon
My thought is then to change things up in 2014 and maybe look at trying to qualify for something like the 5150 National Championships or do the Set Up Cup race series that spans all the Set Up series. But for this year, there are plenty of big challenges. I'm glad for my base races to be the familiar.
