Oddly quiet today. Normally after a race we have a thread still ongoing from the day before regarding the play by play, another thread by those elsewhere asking for feedback on the event to decide whether or not they want to do the race and another one or two about it positively or negatively... and sometimes some fast typers getting their race report out.
Steve (darkhorse on here) and I drove the bike course and hopped around the run course. Some things we noticed from the perspective of an RD/spectator. Any thoughts from those that raced as to how the event unfolded for you? Hope your day went well!
1) lack of top end
- at one point we got out of the car (~mile 40) and were sitting around watching one athlete go by maybe every 20 seconds or so. I asked to see when these folks had crawled out of the water.... first one or two we spot are between 62 and 74 minute swimmers. This after maybe only 100 athletes tops had gone by our position.
2) spread out bike course at the front end (i.e. very clean racing)
- this is related to point 1. We were on the course from mile 25 to 100. In that time frame we saw _just_ three instances of drafting. One lady with a mirror (we caught her being suspicious 2-3 times... waiting to hear about legality of mirror and if we have any photo evidence on go pro), two mexicans (seriously, you race side by side in the same jersey and you think we are dumb?), and a northern colorado tri club fella. The latter two drafters backed off quite sheepishly when we rolled by slowly with the camera square on them. Back to the original point... this course was SPREAD out. There were times it would be a minute or two between athletes and this was maybe 200 athletes deep into the field. Was so very surprising but very encouraging from a fair racing perspective.
3) absence of refs at the front end
- while we saw little reason to have any refs at the front end we were shocked to not have seen a single zebra all day long. Any thoughts as to why this is?
4) safety of the course out east
- I am RD for a few events out here. At one point we got off course to jump ahead. When we came back into the course we weren't sure we were on the course or not. <--- that should _never_ happen. We entered the course (yes it was an open course) from an unmanned and unmarked intersection. We found about 9-12 others like this. Yes they were seemingly benign intersections but please have a cone with a sign saying what's going on. Or a NHS high school kid or 2 manning the intersection. My concern here is what happens when someone comes along on the cross road and wants to get to the other side when the mass of the field is there?
5) 79th street hill
- 14-ish% grade at mile 100. Highly entertaining. Some folks being good little angels with watts and getting up it as easily as they could... others providing sheer entertainment value by charging up it as if the fastest up it would win a million dollars.
6) Larimer/Weld/Boulder County sheriffs deparments
- super awesome job on traffic flow and athlete control (aside from one very skittish deputy in Larimer). Can anyone comment on traffic hold ups later in the day? Particularly 287 and Hwy 52?
7) run course
- it was busy but not as busy as foreseen. Still saw several instances of faster athletes having to do the sideways run to get thru the throngs of people and speed up and slow down to get around crowds. Occasionally you'd get big ROTC like groups jogging in a pack together taking up the path. 4.5 feet per direction is too skinny for a two lap 2000+ person run course IMO. A one loop course? http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6395067 (yeah yeah, it's .65m short and goes thru CU and OSMP property... just an idea).
8) run course affecting vehicular traffic
- ZERO. The whole run was done "below grade" by use of the creek path system. If you were on a road a block away from the event you had no idea the event was going on. This was astonishing. In other words the town swallowed up the event and hid the extra pounds well!
9) bike course
- flat, not challenging (weather alone _could_ make it challenging - in last 10 days we've had high temps range from 100 to 58 & rain). Taking it so far east that on a hazy day you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Boulder and Iowa is a bit of a slap in the face to calling this IM Boulder. When we were hanging out up in Loveland it was gorgeous. Green vegetation, foothills, some views of the high peaks, horse farms.... then the course turned east and it was dry, brown, dusty and there were oil and gas wells every where you looked. We can do better.
10) swim
- rolling swim start continues to work well. It's tough for those racing and knowing where you are, but for full events i think it's good (no way for sprint, oly or half)
11) swim course
- no part of the swim going directly at the sun = WINNING
36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App
Steve (darkhorse on here) and I drove the bike course and hopped around the run course. Some things we noticed from the perspective of an RD/spectator. Any thoughts from those that raced as to how the event unfolded for you? Hope your day went well!
1) lack of top end
- at one point we got out of the car (~mile 40) and were sitting around watching one athlete go by maybe every 20 seconds or so. I asked to see when these folks had crawled out of the water.... first one or two we spot are between 62 and 74 minute swimmers. This after maybe only 100 athletes tops had gone by our position.
2) spread out bike course at the front end (i.e. very clean racing)
- this is related to point 1. We were on the course from mile 25 to 100. In that time frame we saw _just_ three instances of drafting. One lady with a mirror (we caught her being suspicious 2-3 times... waiting to hear about legality of mirror and if we have any photo evidence on go pro), two mexicans (seriously, you race side by side in the same jersey and you think we are dumb?), and a northern colorado tri club fella. The latter two drafters backed off quite sheepishly when we rolled by slowly with the camera square on them. Back to the original point... this course was SPREAD out. There were times it would be a minute or two between athletes and this was maybe 200 athletes deep into the field. Was so very surprising but very encouraging from a fair racing perspective.
3) absence of refs at the front end
- while we saw little reason to have any refs at the front end we were shocked to not have seen a single zebra all day long. Any thoughts as to why this is?
4) safety of the course out east
- I am RD for a few events out here. At one point we got off course to jump ahead. When we came back into the course we weren't sure we were on the course or not. <--- that should _never_ happen. We entered the course (yes it was an open course) from an unmanned and unmarked intersection. We found about 9-12 others like this. Yes they were seemingly benign intersections but please have a cone with a sign saying what's going on. Or a NHS high school kid or 2 manning the intersection. My concern here is what happens when someone comes along on the cross road and wants to get to the other side when the mass of the field is there?
5) 79th street hill
- 14-ish% grade at mile 100. Highly entertaining. Some folks being good little angels with watts and getting up it as easily as they could... others providing sheer entertainment value by charging up it as if the fastest up it would win a million dollars.
6) Larimer/Weld/Boulder County sheriffs deparments
- super awesome job on traffic flow and athlete control (aside from one very skittish deputy in Larimer). Can anyone comment on traffic hold ups later in the day? Particularly 287 and Hwy 52?
7) run course
- it was busy but not as busy as foreseen. Still saw several instances of faster athletes having to do the sideways run to get thru the throngs of people and speed up and slow down to get around crowds. Occasionally you'd get big ROTC like groups jogging in a pack together taking up the path. 4.5 feet per direction is too skinny for a two lap 2000+ person run course IMO. A one loop course? http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6395067 (yeah yeah, it's .65m short and goes thru CU and OSMP property... just an idea).
8) run course affecting vehicular traffic
- ZERO. The whole run was done "below grade" by use of the creek path system. If you were on a road a block away from the event you had no idea the event was going on. This was astonishing. In other words the town swallowed up the event and hid the extra pounds well!
9) bike course
- flat, not challenging (weather alone _could_ make it challenging - in last 10 days we've had high temps range from 100 to 58 & rain). Taking it so far east that on a hazy day you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Boulder and Iowa is a bit of a slap in the face to calling this IM Boulder. When we were hanging out up in Loveland it was gorgeous. Green vegetation, foothills, some views of the high peaks, horse farms.... then the course turned east and it was dry, brown, dusty and there were oil and gas wells every where you looked. We can do better.
10) swim
- rolling swim start continues to work well. It's tough for those racing and knowing where you are, but for full events i think it's good (no way for sprint, oly or half)
11) swim course
- no part of the swim going directly at the sun = WINNING
36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App