The 12th Annual Lost Loon Triathlon
Benefiting The Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association

Our first Lost Loon & it was fantastic!!! :) Thank you soo much, Willy & Co for making this possible! The Rabid Badgers loved every minute of it! Great loons & great times were had by all! We found our inner-loon yesterday.

Willy - The wife and I did the Lost Loon in 2010. It was our first ever multi-sport event. 10 triathlons later, including a 70.3 ... I want to thank you for making this event available.

As a avid indoorsman I endorse this event as the one triathlon worth giving up an afternoon nap for.

Well, it rained. But not as much as they said it would, so the 6th Annual Lost Loon Triathlon got off right on time at 2pm last Sunday afternoon. The race, a family-oriented event, happens every year in May at Long Hunter State Park just east of Nashville, TN.
Teams compete in three disciplines:
a 9 mile bike ride, a 2 mile canoe paddle, and a 4 mile run. This year, because of the rain we’ve had in the area, the course was slick and often flooded. Only one bike wipe-out happened - and that was Race Director Willy Stern - who quickly got back on the bike and completed the race in a respectable time.
Team BornToPaddle.com also made a great showing this year. Although I can’t tell you exactly what our time was - I forgot to set my watch and since this is a for-fun-only event there is no official race clock - I can say that we had a great time and came in to squeeze the loon well under 2 hours. And we absolutely kicked-butt in the canoe leg, passing several boats and plowing our way to the beach in record (for us) time.
Seventy-five teams competed (up from 60 last year). And tons of money was raised for a great cause: The Harpeth River Watershed Association. The HRWA in middle Tennessee is dedicated to preserving and restoring the ecological health of the Harpeth River and its Watershed. The HRWA is committed to re-building and maintaining the ecological balance of our watershed diversity amidst the various human uses of the landscape. You can learn more about the HRWA by visiting their web site at: http://www.harpethriver.org
The Harpeth is one of our local favorite places to paddle. We kayak the Harpeth several times a year. The great thing about the Harpeth River is that it covers so much territory, that we have a variety of put-ins and trip lengths to choose from. The sheer beauty of the Harpeth makes it an awesome paddle everytime. So we are very happy to compete in the Lost Loon Triathlon every year and help to raise money to protect our local river and ecosystem.
Team BornToPaddle would like to thank Race Director Willy Stern and his team for their hard work in putting on this event every year. We love the event, our fellow competitors are a ton of fun, the race t-shirt is awesome and the nearly unlimited amount of pizza after the race is spectacular.
If you’re looking for a great family event, that everyone can participate in and “win”, we heartily recommend you sign up early for next year’s Lost Loon Triathlon!

On Sunday, I competed in my first triathlon, the Lost Loon, benefitting the Harpeth River Watershed Association, another great nonprofit devoted to preserving and restoring one of our area’s beautiful waterways. It feels cool to say I’m a triathlete, but that moniker is a little bit misleading. It was the lowest stress team triathlon you can imagine: 9-mile bike ride, 2-mile canoe race, 4-mile trail run, and I just participated in the bike and run portions of the race. Because of the deluge of rain we’ve been having, Lone Hunter State Park’s Couchville Lake rose to meet us: In portions of the trail, we ended up wading in water up to our shins. But once you’re that wet, it just gets more fun. One of the best parts about the race was crossing the finish line: Race organizer extraordinaire Willy Stern required all finishers to squeeze a loon stuffed animal that was hidden in a tree. Join Willy and friends--and me!--for the seventh annual event next year!

I had a fantastic time at the Lost Loon Triathlon. It had all the fun of competitive events and none of the stress, making it one of my all-time favorites. Plus, you don’t even have to get wet for the water event! Afterwards, while eating way too much food at the potluck feast, I met some great folks from the greater Nashville area. My 14-year-old son is looking forward to participating next year, solely on my enthusiastic description. What better recommendation is that?

I had a fantastic time at the Lost Loon Triathlon! If there is such a thing as a 'laid-back' triathlon, this is it! The event was well organized, family-friendly and a lot of fun. My favorite part was crossing the imaginary finish line and squeezing the loon stuffed animal that was hidden in a tree. The event also supports a great cause -- the Harpeth River Watershed Association. I would highly recommend this race to anyone who enjoys the great outdoors!

It was really fun. I got to do the bike ride. I mostly ate pizza and some bread and cake. The biking was pretty hard but not too hard. It was in nature. There are a lot of other kids out there. It is fun because you get to try lots of different things. I've canoed before with my dad in Michigan. And I've run in a race before. Here is what I would tell other kids: It is really fun!

It's a great event for the whole family. As standard urban dweller, we don’t often get a chance to do the outdoor thing. It’s a rare opportunity to get out into nature and it's a good workout, even for those of us who aspire to be weekend athletes. You can get through it without being too sore afterwards. It can be competitive, particularly for those who want it to be competitive. It breaks out by ages; it's hard for us to compete with the 20-and-under crowd, who seem to be at the front every year. I am always exhausted when I am done. One year, I think it was the first year, I was not a little bit upset after we held our own on the bike and the canoe. Carrington, my wife, and I decided to walk the trail portion and came in dead last. That is more humiliation that I had bargained for! We like taking our kids-age 1, 2 and 3-to the Lost loon. There are enough other families and friends milling about to look after our kids wise we are competing. It's great for families.

The Lost Loon is a lot of fun. The canoeing was hard because of the wind but the biking and running or walking was extremely fun. It is not very competitive but mostly about family fun. Well, except for the people up front; you could see them on the bike loops and some of them were pretty into it. I did it with my dad. You don't really have to be experienced in canoeing or biking or running/walking. They also give out a canoe paddle, but not to the winners. I liked that because it meant that the slower teams all had a better chance of getting something at the awards ceremony. I would highly recommend the cake and the pizza. I also had some of the homemade cookies and a power bar. I will definitely do it again next year. Why? Because it is a lot of fun. I appreciated the race t-shirt but mine was too big. I use mine to sleep in. One more thing: I enjoyed squeezing the little loon when we finished the race. It squeaks.

My family has participated in the Lost Loon every year since it started. It's fun for the whole family (kids age 6, 8 and 10) to bike, run and canoe together. Willy puts on a heck of an event every year rain or shine. See you next year!

It’s fun and you get to experience things that you probably have never done before. This could be canoeing, or hiking in nature. That's cool. You get a lot of exercise. It's not just for athletes. You can walk, as opposed to running. You can only do part of the course if you are tired, like not doing all three loops on the bike. The Gatorade was good--also the pizza. My advice to other kids thinking about doing the Lost Loon: Just do it! You can bend the rules and just do the parts you want to do!

It's good exercise and it's really fun to do. It was really fun to go on the water in the canoes with my mom and daddy. I ran but I didn't bike. My dad bikes. It's out in nature. There are a lot of people and they can help you. It's not scary. You can go at your own pace. There are a lot of kids and a lot of grown-ups. The food is great. I liked the pizza and the bread that my mom makes. My favorite part was the awards because we ran when we weren't supposed to which was kind of weird. So they gave us an award which was a canoe paddle with rhinestones on it.

- Ry Dukes, age 7, Nashville

I came in from New York. It's definitely worth coming in from out of town for the race if you want to spend the time and the money to have a really fun time. Once you do it once, you will want to come back. I was surprised at how loosely organized the event was.

The Lost Loon is great fun and you don’t have to be a great athlete to do it. The rules are pretty flexible. If you stop half way and turn around, nobody cares at all. It’s okay if you want to want to walk or to go slowly. The age range is from about 2 to 80; I saw a mom pushing her toddler in a stroller on the course.

The trophy ceremony at the end of the race is interesting. Last year's winner picks the award for this year, but nobody knows what it will be until the end of the race. It could go to the muddiest team. They call it out and everybody laughs and claps. The real winners—if you can call them that—they don’t seem to care either. Nobody much follows the rules. There is tons and tons and tons of pizza--way too much. And it’s good pizza too. There is also a pretty decent fire to huddle around if it’s cold.

The Lost Loon is a bicycle-canoe-trail run triathlon fundraiser for the Harpeth River Watershed. It's not certified or timed - totally & completely for fun. I did the cycling portion -- 9-mile ride, 3x over a 3-mile loop through the park roads & parking lots. The highlight was a killer downhill to a hairpin turn around and back up the steep hill from a virtual standstill because unless you are a trick rider you couldn't hit the turn too hard because it's a hairpin - you'd wipe out.

The canoe portion was a challenge -- the skies had cleared, and the sun had warmed things up a bit, but canoeing in 20+ mph winds is a challenge. There were whitecaps on little old Couchville Lake! In case you don't know anything about canoeing & wind -- you really can't afford to let your canoe get sideways to the wind. If the wind is fairly strong, you've got to actually head directly into it or have it directly at your back. There's no cutting across the wind in a canoe. if the buoys for which you are aiming aren't placed precisely with the wind, or if the wind, say, changes -- you are up the proverbial creek. [haha]

Mix together a couple dozen canoers with varying levels of expertise and high levels of excitement, copious rocky shoreline, and forceful waves -- you've got a recipe for disaster. But, there was no disaster. Just a bunch of canoes going literally every which away and a bunch of people paddling madly, pushing off from rocks & shorelines, using paddles to pole through sand, laughing, yelling, and getting very wet. Not a single canoe dumped, and that just goes to show you. Not sure what it goes to show you, but it must go to show you something.

The last leg is a 4 mile run in the woods - that part was up to my running buddy, and she did it fast, of course, because she is speedy.

That's it. There are no chips & clocks, the course is not certified. There is free pizza & cake, and a sort of potluck of powerbars, gatorade, and the best homemade oatmeal raisin cookies I’ve ever had.

It's a lot of fun to do. For the past few years I have been on a 10 and 11 year old team. You can do it at any age you want and it just is a lot of fun. Kids are just as important as grownups and it is just all fun!! Also the food is great. Anything from homemade bread to Papa John's Pizza. It's a great feling when you are done!

It was fun and cool and awesome and stuff. But I am only 10 so what do I know. Seriously, it was really fun to bike 9 miles.

My race partner and I were both new to the Loon and we had a blast in spite of the threatening weather and the winds of biblical proportion on little Couchville Lake. To be sent off into the elements by emcee and race director Willy's good natured, zany personality and to be greeted upon finishing with enough free pizza and oatmeal cookies to feed multitudes made for a great day. It was a free race, but having such a good time and with such a worthy organization as the beneficiary (Harpeth River Watershed Association), I reached for my checkbook and I will be back in '08.

So we came in third. No hard feelings, but next year I want to see some random drug tests.

The Lost Loon is one of my favorite events of the spring! Our family has only missed one since it began, and this was the first year for our 3 year old daughter to join the competition. She was so proud of the half mile loop she did on her "big girl bike" with training wheels. And her 10 year old big brother wowed us all with his competitive spirit that kicked in after saying he was only going to do 1 loop on the bike on the drive out to the event. He ended up doing 2 loops (6 miles) on the bike, the full canoe portion with Dad and little sis around the lake, and the full 4 miles on the trail run/walk!!!

A beautiful outdoor location, a family friendly event, and you get a little exercise, too. All while supporting the extremely worthy Harpeth River Watershed Association. It all makes for a fabulous, fun-filled, healthy day!!!

Race perfect!!!! With one exception: need a new loon...

We had a great time! It was our first Lost Loon and we're already plotting an improved strategy for next year's event. Since we were the first to show this year, we were branded as "Team #1" - a curse! Next year we might arrive first again, but we're going to hang back and get a number with less pressure attached. Thanks for a great event!

It was a great experience. My 5 year old participated with me on the bike and the canoe and he loved it. Awesome family atmosphere. Will definitely be back.