Bayou City Triathlon Series: Cypress Triathlon Numbers

At 3:46 p.m., Friday, August 3, I received an e-mail from the Bayou City Tri Series - yes, I did the duathlon once at Towne Lake - heralding the following:  "We're rolling back prices for Kemah and Towne Lake through Saturday!"

The mailer read, "Prices for Kemah and Towne Lake went up this week, we hope you didn't miss the chance to save.  But, summer is busy, we get it."

So for the next 32 hours, until midnight, Saturday, August 4, the event production company is offering "discount" codes to move the prices back.

What this always tells me is one of two things:  1.) registration numbers aren't where the race producer wants them to be - or needs them to be and/or 2.) numbers for a just-finished event weren't what they hoped for.

So unless an event posts a bib list or has its registration list - via "Find Partipicant" through RunSignUp, for example, I can't ever assess the hype factor of any race surrounding registration numbers.

When a race offers no proof (not this producer specifically), it is reasonable to believe that numbers are off.  (I noticed this from a Fourth of July race that had always been posting its bib list online prior to Packet Pickup.  Not this year, as numbers were way down.)

What I can do is evaluate completed races based on official timed finishers.

This, of course, doesn't take into account athletes who registered, but didn't start or did start, but didn't finish the race.

For the Bayou City Tri Series' most recent event, the Cypress Triathlon, its three events were all down by the metric of "official timed finishers".

A year ago, there were 869 adult finishers (counting relay teams as one), 309 youth finishers and 29 in the Doggie Splash N Dash.

Last weekend, all three races were off.

The adult races were off 13.2% (down from 869 to 754).  Youth finishers were down 50 -- 16.2%.  And the biggest bark came from the dogs and their owners in the Doggle Splash N Dash, which was down 37.4% (29 to 18).

2017 Cypress
Sprint Invitational 12
Sprint AG 774
Clydesdale 40
Athena 26
Male Relay 1
Female Relay 5
Mixed Relay 7
Physically Challenged 4
Adult Total - 869 (counting relays as one)

Youth Relay 2
Juniors 195
Seniors 112
Youth Total - 309

Toy Dogs 2
Small Dogs 6
Medium Dogs 5
Large Dogs 8
X-Large Dogs 8
Doggie Splash N Dash - 29

2018 Cypress
Sprint Invitational 16
Sprint AG 657
Clydesdale 27
Athena 21
Male Relay 3
Female Relay 7
Mixed Relay 16
Physically Challenged 7
Adult Total - 754 (counting relays as one)

Juniors 152
Seniors 107
Youth Total - 259

Small Dogs 5
Medium Dogs 7
Large Dogs 6
Doggie Splash N Dash - 18

Sources:  https://www.bayoucitytriseries.com/resultsandphotos/; https://nolimitstiming.com/