Memorial Day is an especially fitting day for the Capital of Texas Triathlon as this coming race weekend will serve as a way to honor Wounded Warriors. There will be a Wounded Warriors dinner on Saturday night (May 26) at the downtown Hyatt which will serve as a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Racing begins the next day (Sunday) with the CapTex Kids 1-K at 10:45 at Auditorium Shores and after that’s completed, bike check-in opens.

The real racing begins on Monday morning (Memorial Day) with the first of eight separate heats of the CapTex Tri with more than 3000 triathletes expected to compete.  If you’re interested in watching this tri spectacular, get down to Lady Bird Lake early as the pro men and women get going at 6:45 a.m. in the Race to the Toyota Cup which is part of the season-long Toyota Cup national series.

Several top pros are expected to compete for the $46,000 in prize money, including last year’s champs—Sara Haskins and Andy Potts.

Following the pros, the USA Paratriathlon National Champs get going at 7 a.m. After that heat, the Open elite division begins at 7:30, followed by a special Olympic distance heat for the military, first responders and college athletes.

The standard Olympic distance is used for the CapTexTri: 1500-meter swim in Lady Bird Lake, 40-kilometer cycling leg up and down Cesar Chavez and Congress Avenue with the 10-K run mostly on Riverside.

The age groupers get underway at 7:42 with the shorter Sprint Distance  (750-meter swim, 20-K bike, 5-K run) at 9:10. Final group of the day is the first tri athletes who jump into Lady Bird Lake at 10:18 and complete a 400-meter swim, 10-K bike and 5-K run.

Best spot to view the proceedings is along Cesar Chavez, west of Congress. From any spot before MoPac, you can see the cyclists fly on by. Probably the ideal spot where plenty of spectators congregate is Cesar Chavez and the South 1st Street Bridge. From here, you can see triathletes still in the water as well as catch them on their bikes.  Because of the multiple loops, it’s hard to keep track of who is on which lap so just pick out your favorites to cheer for.

After the bike legs, head on over to Congress or Riverside for the run portion of the race—and the finish at Auditorium Shores.

Again, starting time for the pros is Monday morning at 6:45.