_ 2017 Lake James 50 Mile Triathlon:

- The race will take place at the beautiful new Lake James State Park – located about 40 miles east of Asheville and about 65 miles northwest of Charlotte along I-40 (near Marion, NC).

As with all the other venues that comprise the 2016 Centennial Endurance Challenge, there is lots of parking only a short distance from the main race site – one of the really nice amenities that we enjoy in staging these events at North Carolina State Parks.

The swim for the Lake James 50 will take place in beautiful Lake James. The triangular shaped swim course will start and finish on the beach.  Lake James is a fairly deep lake with very clear water and being that the lake is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the water temperature on May 14th is very likely to allow for a wetsuit legal race.

The 40 mile bike course basically encircles Lake James. The transition area sits at an elevation of about 1200 feet above sea level. The bike course reaches a maximum elevation of about 1450 feet, so there won’t be any major climbs on this course, but there will be a few pretty good “hills” to negotiate. The biggest climbs will be inside the park. Only a handful of right turns on this 40 mile course and some spectacular scenery. 

The 9 mile run course is an “out & back” design comprised of two loops. The run course begins at an elevation of about 1200 feet and reaches a maximum elevation of about 1350 feet. All together, there will be six climbs on this run course each featuring an elevation gain of about 150 feet. This run course will definitely reward the strong runners. As with all the races in the Centennial Endurance Challenge, the entire run course stays inside Lake James State Park and does not venture out onto public roads.