Event Description
Lake Aspen is once again headquarters for the 2019 Valley of the Sun triathlon. The swim and transition areas occur within the shaded business park. A fast, mostly flat bike course with a few rollers winds between orchards, while the Naches and Yakima Rivers add to the countryside beauty. Runners will treasure the paved path of Yakima Greenway allowing a quick, fast out and back course.
The Valley of the Sun offers two distances, sprint and Olympic in 2019. The Olympic course is an extension of the current popular sprint race. Choose either the Sprint (750m swim, 12 mile bike and 5k run} or Olympic (1.5k swim, 41k bike and 10k run) distance as an individual or 2-3 person relay team.
Course Information The swim begins just off a rock cropping just steps from the transition area. All Olympic competitors start at 7:30am, including male / female individuals and teams. All Sprint competitors follow at 8:00am, including male / female individuals and teams. One common transition area is used for the swim-bike (T1) and bike-run (T2) transitions. All athletes enter from the south and exit to the north through the tree lined path, then head out of the business park headed south on 16th Ave, turn right on to River Road, cross Fruitvale and follow River Road to South Naches Highway a quick left before the “twin bridges ”. Bike heads toward Naches on the South Naches Highway, with turnaround at Young’s Grade and Ranger road returning to Lake Aspen transition area. Runners exit the Business Park to the north (left turn) for a short distance on 16th Avenue then race onto the Yakima Greenway. Sprint athletes turnaround before 40th Avenue while Olympic athletes cross over the old train trestle between Yakima and Gleed before returning to the Lake Aspen finish line on the grassy lawn.
Finishers will be greeted with music, light refreshments for athletes and the awards ceremony following as soon as possible after the conclusion of each race.
