Stonebridge Ranch Triathlon Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Brock A.
Houston, TX

  (10-04-2009)

"would not do again due to distance from home and friend's house in richardson.

start: sprint and olympic distance caused me issues by having to wait 1 1/2 hours until my wave with no swim warmup.

swim: tough swim for me. first time for a mile open water. transition is BRUTAL. up and down a steep hill to get to T1 .18 miles away.

bike: 4 loops at 6 miles / 2 steep hills and relatively fast. front side 3 miles goes fairly slow and you can crank out on the back 2 or so.

run: my buddy did the run in the relay. said the hills were brutal and the heat kept pounding down on him.

post race: waited long time for a massage. finish was at top of country club area and shaded which was nice."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Jamie M.
Wichita, KS

  (08-09-2009)

"This race wasn't particularly memorable for me. The main thing I remember was not caring much for McKinney, TX. It's an extremely wealthy suburb of Dallas, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the ostentatious, nouveau riche mansions in the area. Stonebridge Ranch is the name of the development. It has a "beach club." In Texas. Exactly.

Stonebridge Ranch has two races, a sprint and an Olympic, and a kids' race the day before. Packet pick-up is the day before at the beach club. Playtri is the company that manages the races, and they do several other races in the area. They seem to be a good organizational group, as the structure of everything was well thought out and moved efficiently.

Transition area was large and oddly-shaped, with bike racks sets up in an L-shaped parking lot. There was music over the loud-speakers, and an emcee was talking up the crowd and making jokes. He was very helpful, I'm sure, for the first-timers. Additionally, there were volunteers walking around to help newbies (and experienced athletes) get their bearings.

Walking around the transition area, there was a good mix of high-end bikes and mountain bikes, Cervelos and hybrids. The race drew competitors from all walks of life and experience levels, apparently. I'm not sure how many people traveled for this race, but Dallas is a big metro area, with plenty of tri community to draw from for a race this size.

Swim venue was a small, man-made lake within the Stonebridge Ranch community. There were lots of overly-large, castle-type houses backing right up to the lake. There was a ridge looking right out over the lake, so the perfect place for spectators to watch the swim, and for competitors to put on their wetsuits. The water temperature was 76 degrees, so wetsuit legal. But it was too warm for a wetsuit, which I figured out about halfway through the swim. Olympic course was two laps around the lake (pretty much the whole lake, by the way).

Start was in-water, in waves according to race and division. The start was signaled by a siren that none of us could hear. We were all looking at each other asking "Was that the signal? Do we go?" Maybe a cannon, next year. All things considered, the start was rougher than I was expecting. I had one girl actually grab my shoulder and pull me back. That's to be expected to some extent; you find that at every race. But in a swim with only 100 other people, I was expecting it to be more spread out. Additionally, the last half of the swim was due east. So even though the lake was small and I had a HUGE building to sight off, I could not see where I was going or if I was aimed the right way until I was about 20 m from the swim out. There were volunteers to help people get out of the water safely, and they kept everyone moving.

The run to transition was long, with a significant uphill and then a steep downhill. And the transition area was pretty big, too, so expect your transition time to reflect those things.

Bike course was a large loop around the block (basically): two loops for sprint, four for olympic. Course was very basic--four right turns--with only one significant hill (two small, short, steep hills), with the rest of the course slightly downhill because of it. The course was fast and easy. Expect a good time on the bike course.

The run was one of the highlights of the race. The course was interesting, with plenty of support. Fairly rolling terrain, relative to the bike course. Enough to make it hurt. Enough to make you feel like a bad ass.

Post-race food was excellent, if you could stomach pizza after all that. And the usual fare was also present--bagels, fruit, water, sports drink, and so on. There was a little bit of an expo, with local vendors present--surprising, at a race of this size. Awards were plaques for age group winners. Not sure on prizes for overall winners.

The Stonebridge Ranch Tri is well-organized and worthwhile, although I wouldn't go out of my way to travel from Kansas to Texas for it again. It was a roadtrip that I did with a couple friends, and for that purpose, it was perfect. But it wouldn't be worth the trip a second time. If you're in Texas already, it's a good race, but not a destination race by any means."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008