Although my artifacts collection is substantial, I am certain I have more lying around the house. I'm still looking!
Also, I found the checks/credit card payments for 23 of the 24 years (missing 1993.) It is interesting to see how the entry fee increased over time. (I believe I was a member of Tri Fed for a year or two, which may account for the dip in 1986.
One thing interesting about all the artifacts is that many of them have sponsor's names printed on them. Where there is one or more sponsors name on an item, I have documented that in the spreadsheet (except for the printed matter). So this may help uncover who the sponsors were.
Memories:
I did my first Tri on June 24, 1984 at a health club in Tyson's (pre Tyson's II). I was in software development then and had a lot of programming experience. I used a PC at the office (two 5¼ floppy drives, maybe no hard disk, 32 or 64K of RAM) to develop a FORTRAN program that read in the raw data and then calculated, ranked, sorted, and formatted results for printing.
"The Reston Triathlon" (1984 was the only race with a definite article instead of a number) was my 2nd triathlon. When the results came, it was just a set of sorted lists (for swim, bike and run) showing the competitors and elapsed time since the start of the race. No split times and no rankings. I excitedly whipped out the FORTRAN program, made a few changes, typed in the raw data for the Reston Tri, and let the computer generate the results. I sent the results back to the Reston Tri address (it may have been the PO box) very quickly, within a day or so, with a note stating that this might be interesting. Within a day I received a call, I believe from JR Davison, who wanted to know how I had done this. I was recruited for the race committee and helped with the results for at least the next few years. Looking at the collection of results, I can say that I generated the official results for 1985-1987. In 1988 and subsequent years other programs were used. At that time Ed Haas was leading the race results and scoring.
I remembered the dropped spindle very well and the mess with the race results. I participated in the effort to try to clean that up. I am trying to locate some information that would help me zero in on the year -- still looking.
In 1984 I lived in Tyson's Corner. I learned of Reston Runners and then the Reston Triathlon from a friend of a friend who joined the same health club and attended some of the same yoga classes -- Lea Gallardo. Without Lea's recommendation to join RR, I would have very likely missed the chance to participate in the inaugural 1984 race.
Though I don't see Lea more than about once a year these days, at that time we were good friends and saw each other quite a bit at the health club. Even though she could not swim, Lea decided she wanted to do the Reston Triathlon. [The Reston Tri results database shows she completed the race in both 85 and 86.] It is with great pride, and perhaps even greater humility, that I announce that I taught Lea to swim. I always get really strange looks when I say this to anyone who knows Lea, because it seems that no one now believes she knows how to swim. I doubt she ever really enjoyed swimming, and I suspect she has spent little if any time in a pool since that 1986 race. But she did complete two of the early Reston Triathlons.
On July 23,1989, the one (and only) Reston Youth triathlon was held. It was held on the north side of Reston. (Part of the run was on an unfinished or undeveloped part of Wiehle Ave.) Jane Newell organized and directed the race, with about 100-150 youth participants. That was one of the few races I was not eligible for, so I volunteered. I had forgotten all about it until I inventoried the water bottles in my collection.
In 1989 I was still (from where I am now) young and fit, and ran close to the front of the race. I remember seeing Joe Vicedomine as he was returning. He looked great and was way out in front. I was stunned to learn when I finished that he had not won the race, and even more stunned when I saw him finally return, well after I had finished. I felt so bad for him. He was clearly the best that day and deserved the win. He was apparently the unfortunate victim of race marshals who had left their post to chat in order to avoid boredom, and so was not properly directed to make a turn on the run. His run time that year was 1:00:32. Ouch.
In 1993 twelve of us were recognized for having completed all 10. I found the names in a newspaper article, and then tracked them down in the Reston Tri Web site.
In 1994 I moved to Reston and became a father. A few years later I became a soccer dad, and a year or two after that a parent coach. All this has dramatically reduced the amount of time I have for training, which is reflected in my times and weight. Life happens.
In 2007 I caught Neil Medoff on the track, and the two of us finished together. Both of us knew that we were the only two who had completed all 24. Moments after finishing Neil turned to me and asked, "are you going to do the race next year?" To this day I am unsure whether that was an example of Neil's dry wit or wishful thinking. But yes, I am planning to do the race again. My bike and I have completed each of the 24 Reston Triathlons together.
Over the years the course has changed somewhat.
So far I am up to 152 artifacts, including: