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The 2013 Great Abaco Family Fitness Weekend turned out even greater than I could have imagined!

About a week before the event I started getting nervous, as many participants were signing up at the last minute and three days before the event there was a surge of registrations.  We had enough spots for 200 persons, however the triathlon turned out to be insanely popular!  We ended up having to Fedex (from Hawaii) additional triathlon straps for the Chronotrack Tri Tags, but we managed to accommodate everyone!

DSCN1987For the 1-mile Open Water Swim, along the innately beautiful Treasure Cay beach, we grew from 5 participants to 30!  That’s a 6-fold increase!  The winner from 2012 was present to reclaim his title in 2013, and we hope to see Peta in 2014 again!

The next day we had the Sprint & Olympic triathlons – which grew from a combined total of 18 entrants (including 3 per relay) to 60 participants!  That’s a 333% increase!  We had to setup extra bike racks and manage transition a bit differently, but we now know how to handle the larger crowd at the Coco Beach Bar parking lot, and look forward to hosting an even bigger and more exciting 2014 triathlon event!  We even had a 10-year old girl complete the Sprint triathlon, finishing at the same time as our Olympic champion, Simon Lowe!DSC_0202

The kids’ race was AWESOME!  Toni managed to get the kids fired up with an impromptu dance/stretch/spaz session and we had 30 kids run a mile!  Some took it seriously while others had a ball and ran every which way, they all had fun!

The 5k/10k was the one that worried me the most in terms of the registrations – especially the late registrations on the morning of the race.  While we did have a few, we weren’t inundated and managed to have a respectable 70 persons enter the combined events.   We did not time the walkers last year, but in terms of runners we had 24, I’d say we doubled that.

Overall I was very pleased with the event – a bit more preparation in terms of speeches, courses, and volunteers and I think we will be a strong event.  Treasure Cay was SOLD OUT of rooms, and they have already booked us out 50 rooms for next year, as 45 were directly attributed to our event.  If you’re planning on visiting on March 21-23rd, 2014 – I’d recommend you book your room soon!

Thanks to everyone that came out and supported – volunteers, sponsors, spectators, staff, and of course participants!  A special thank you to Sabine, Ray, Avis, and the rest of the Treasure Cay Staff, as well as the TC Fire Department and the RBPF.   Thanks to Jason, Toni, and Jen for dealing with me and getting me through the event – I’m sure by the end of the event I had run my own marathon!

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