Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of your favorite triathlon? Have you ever questioned what it takes to pull something like that off? It's definitely not easy, and it's a lot of thankless work. The timeline that I share below is only of the week before, and doesn't factor in the year of planning with different municipalities to make sure we had a fair, safe route, that all towns could agree on. It's short and sweet without much detail, but you can easily get a sense of how much work actually goes in to one. This timeline doesn't take into account the massive daily inflow of emails and phone calls from municipalities, athletes, and vendors that happen daily. Heres a little insight into the week before our First half Ironman Monday: 9PM- 12AM Conference Call- Wednesday: 9PM-12AM Conference Call with all Head Marshalls (Swim, Bike, Run, Volunteer) Thursday: 8PM-10Pm Bib # Stuffing/Registration finalization Friday: 4pm-12AM marking 56 miles of the bike course getting mostly every intersection Saturday:   6:30AM-9:30AM Ride the course to make sure its properly marked and all marking can be seen. 10Am-1pm Meet vendors at the beach and start setup of transition 1-3 PM Mark the run course and Aid station placement: 4-6pm Packet pickup including hosting an info session on the race 6pm-2:00Am build out the beach, cone off roads, put out aid stations, put our remaining signage out, build finish line. Sunday: 3:30Am-6:30am Arrive at the Beach for final prep, make sure all volunteers are in their positions, police have shown up, etc. 5:00am Athletes/Vendors start to arrive 6:30 Am race start 7:00Am-9:30am Drive lead car for first cyclist 9:30-1:30pm make sure aid stations are stocked, refill with ice, cups, water, etc. 1:30 Awards Ceremony 1:30-5pm Cleanup beach, course, and take up course markings to ensure we can come back next year! As you can see there wasn't much sleep between Friday and Sunday. I spent 17 hours in my car all weekend, marking, delivering stuff, and just making sure everything was just right. Ironically I got about 17 hours of sleep all week as well. Racing is tough, but putting on a quality event takes a lot of work, and in my opinion is much harder. Even with two great partners who pull their weight its still a struggle to get everything done, but totally worth it when you pull off a quality event. It's always nice to have your work reviewed in a positive light: http://travlete.com/2012/07/02/mighty-moss-half-iron-triathlon-norwalk-ct/