The small and local first race coincided with Reston's 20th Anniversary. It came out of an ad hoc committee. Reston Homeowners Association (RHOA) and the Fairfax County Police Department approved the Triathlon to take place September 9, 1984. Norm Happ was the Race Director. The joint efforts of the Reston Runners, the Reston Master's Swim Team, the Reston Bicycle Club, plus the sponsorship of local merchants and corporations made it possible.
The course consisted of a one mile swim in Lake Audubon, a 23 mile bike ride and a 6.2 mile run finishing at South Lakes High School.
Entries were limited to 125 persons with registration fee of $35 dollars. Rules included those of the United States Triathlon Federation as well as ones established by the Reston Triathlon Association; $2 million in liability insurance was provided.
Applications were put out in March 1984. Over 350 people applied. This required looking at the original entry limitations. The final decision allowed 200 entries. There were 164 finishers.
Awards were presented to the top three contenders in each age group, and the top two in each age group were invited to compete in a triathlon championship race.
A booklet listing competitors was given to each participant. It included a map of the course and a list of sponsors.
The results of the race was a set of lists with swim, bike, and run showing competitors and elapsed time from start to finish. There were no split times and no rankings.
Rick Uhrig used a FORTRAN program to provide more sophisticated results, and he and Ed Hass were recruited to the Race Committee to generate official results for the next few years up through 1987.
On the 20th Anniversary of the Reston Triathlon (September 9, 2004), Rick Uhrig remembered the following:
"Sunday, September 9, 1984 dawned like most other late summer days. But this particular morning something new and exciting happened in Reston, on the shore of Lake Audubon, as 165 athletes assembled for the start of THE Reston Triathlon. (In succeeding years revisionists would rename this ‘the 1st' to disambiguate it from its many sequels). Shortly after the sun broke the horizon all 165 competitors lined up for a mass start -- the first and only wave of the day.
"Two hours, twelve minutes and zero seconds after the start, Arnold Rieder crossed the finish line to win. Amazingly, if Arnold were racing this year, he would be at the bottom end of the 35-39 age bracket! And of course Jane Newell crossed the line in 2:23:26 to take her first of (I can't count that high) consecutive victories in the race.
"Notable age group winners that day in 1984 were: Tom Voeller 2:29:48 (1st, 30-34) (I'll miss seeing you this year Tom), Joe Stowers 2:41:36 (1st, 50+), and Jim Desrosiers 2:18:06 (3rd, 25-29)
"There were 8 men aged 50 and above at the race that day, and all were lumped together into a single age group. There were no women 50 and above.
"The oldest male in the race was Fletcher Hanks, 66, who also happened to be the race director for the Oxford Triathlon (now the Cambridge Triathlon). Fletcher was an important figure in the race, as he loaned his bike racks that first year. The oldest female in the race was Anneliese Schmid, who as the sole entrant in the 45-49 age group won handily with a time of 3:29:50.
"Only one person dropped out of that race, at some point during the bike leg. So in the end, 164 of the 165 starters finished the race. The last finisher crossed the line at 4:38:34.
"Two legs of that 1984 course were very similar to the race of today -- the run was essentially the same. (At least by my memory, though the official 1984 course map shows a slightly different start). The swim was at the same location, but it was swum in the reverse direction (clockwise, rather than counterclockwise as we swim it today).
"The bike leg, though covering many of the same roads, was vastly different... The 1984 to 1994 bike courses were much hillier than the later courses -- twice up Hunters Station and 3 times up Twin Branches."
Triathlon Contributions: The Great Place, a youth outreach program of Reston Interfaith.
Budget: The budget for 1984 was $7,937.00.
Sponsors: Pizza Hut and the Bicycle Exchange.