Again, we are putting on an extreme Tri. It is extreme because of many things, not just terrain and total elevation gain. Planning, weather conditions, water, open roads/highways, wildlife, and beyond.
The headphones reference of course is a typo and will be removed. I thought I eliminated it from everywhere. Obviously not but I will. Participants will be educated on ALL potential issues we can think of with Alaska State Parks during our athlete briefing.
I am aware of how tourist season works. I'm aware of weather, water temp, traffic patterns and wildlife. I am not from Alaska but my friends are and they've lived in that area a while. I have also done a year's worth of work on the race and talked with countless people in all cities. I don't claim to know it all and I certainly don't claim to know more than someone who lives there but I'm not totally ignorant to the things you speak of.
Front lights and rear blinking lights are required, as it states in the guide.
As for bears.... First, taking into account all the Alaskan residents and officials I've spoken with, a bear encounter is very rare and statistics support that. You never know though, right?
There are plenty of cases of spray making a bear situation MUCH worse. From the Alaskans I've spoken with a horn works better and bells sometimes work sometimes don't and typically are better to just make sure you don't startle anything. Seems as though every situation is different and common sense and awareness seems to be the best defense.
We are most likely not going to make it mandatory for an athlete to carry anything to do with bears. There's too much risk of self injury, injury to others, or it just not working in the situation. However, we will list out precautionary measures and products they can carry if they want and may even have them for purchase, at cost, during packet pickup.
Having MTB medical response that is trained with wildlife in those 5-6 miles and throughout the course will help if anything were to happen. Of course there will be a plan for everything you speak of. We run a tight ship and we are 13-14 months out. I'd say for being that far out considering all we have accomplished this far, we have done a pretty good job.
Myself, Tim DeBoom, and a friend are coming down this July and swimming the course, driving the bike course and running the run course there and back (52-miles) training for the Leadville 100. We would never put a race on blind. In over a decade of race directing and 60+ large scale events never once have we done that.
You also mentioned not every athlete will finish. Yes, of course, there will most likely be at least 1 if not many more, that, for whatever reason, don't make it to the line, as is the case with every race in the entire world. I simply meant that a bear on the trail will not stop everyone from finishing the race.
Feel free to email me at aaron@akxtri.com with any further issues you have. Also.... If you want to be part of the solution, let me know, we can always use more people on our team. Thanks. Have a great weekend.
SummitAK wrote:
The reference to IM Whistler is right on point. Except for the exposed ocean swim and mountain running segment, your course will be very similar, except with much less vertical bike climbing and no closure of a very busy highway.
The IM Whistler run course was also in a ski resort community. I was on course at Whistler for the bears. There were multiple points of ingress and egress for that situation. PR and course time wasn't the consideration in my post. It was addressing access and safety. The run segment I mentioned is 5-6 miles (longer if avoiding railroad track crossing shorter if an emergency dictates a crossing) with a single maintenance access about halfway. It runs cliffside along the toe of the mountains along Turnagain Arm.
I wouldn't even have commented, but your wildlife tips read like they came out of a park brochure and I think participants in this event deserve spot-on information, that is applicable to what they can expect on race day. Do you really intend to allow participants to use headphones? Or carry bear spray?
Traffic will always be a crapshoot. This is the only road for access to Whittier, Seward and the Kenai peninsula. It is the busiest road in the state during the summer. Fishing, tourism and recreation boost traffic a huge amount. With the variable salmon run openings you can have people trying to pad their quota by spanning midnight which makes for strange traffic hours. I think there is sometimes a dipnet opening that time of year too, which brings out all kinds of interesting characters. There is an on-again, off-again cycling TT between ANC and SWD that typically alternates direction by season. It is held on a Sunday morning and now requires a good taillight for participants (also disallows discs, but that is another story).
You mention having a ticket and accommodations, but it sounds like this is for 2017. Are you going to pre-drive, pre-swim, pre-bike or pre-run any of the course in Summer 2016 for an idea of conditions for next summer?
Your statement about everyone finishing can't be guaranteed. The weather alone will dictate much of the day as it does at any triathlon. Though I agree, many will have the time of their lives.
arpalaian wrote:
Again, "Extreme Tri." You're in Alaska doing a long course Tri. Elements, wildlife and traffic will be things you come across. It's 140.6 miles, no way to eliminate it. Heck there's been bears at IMCA.
We will educate everyone to our best ability and they will finish and have the time of their lives.
I'm pretty sure that there's very few doing this race that are concerned about their finish time being anything close to a PR. If they are, they may want to look elsewhere. The extreme tris are about the experience. If I had to wait 5 min for a bear to cross at a safe distance I wouldn't be too upset about it.
True that 2 legged creatures are probably the biggest issue, that's the case with most races. That's also why it's on a Saturday as every Alaskan resident and official I've spoken with says traffic is worse heading north on Sun than Sat. So we switched to the better day. Also why we are starting at 5am.
