13 PEOPLE | CULTURE | HAPPENINGS | TRENDS beach bites The 2013 Wilmington YMCA Triathlon was won by Matt Wistoff with a time of 1:02. The fastest female, Jennifer Leiser, clocked in at 1:10. For athletes, the triathlon is over in about one hour. But a team of Set Up Events employ-ees, YMCA staff and volunteers from the Wilmington region spend three to four months preparing for the race, then 48 hours setting up and tearing down. “Typically we arrive at the race site on Thursday night,” says Andrew Silbereisen, director of operations at Set Up Events. Race set up begins early Friday morning and continues until late afternoon. Fencing is placed around the area where participants transi-tion www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM between the swimming, cycling and running portions of the race. Inside the transition area, 150 bike racks, which hold eight bikes each, are assembled into rows. Large inflat-able arches are placed to mark the start and finish of each leg of the race. Tents, which serve as water stations for partici-pants, are set up along the 12-mile cycling and 3.1-mile running courses. On race day, more than 100 volunteers work these stations by holding disposable cups out to participants so they don’t have to slow down to get water. A small, yet crucial, part of race set up is measuring the tempera-ture of the Intracoastal Waterway, where participants complete the 1,500-meter swim. “If it is below 78 degrees, it is a wetsuit legal race,” Silbereisen says. If the tempera-ture is between 78 and 82 degrees, participants are allowed to wear wetsuits, but they will not be eligible for ranking. If the water is above 82 degrees, par-ticipants are not allowed to wear wetsuits due to a risk of overheating. The routes for the cycling and running portions must be approved, and law enforce-ment officers must be stationed at Swim, Bike, Run 33rd Annual Wilmington YMCA Triathlon By PAM CREECH Wendy Lamb takes a moment to get water in the 2008 Wilmington YMCA Triathlon bike transition area set up in Wrightsville Beach Park. WBM FILE PHOTO
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