Kevin, I've done 6 GFT's over the years and loved every one of them! I think what hurt the GFT the most was when IMFL started back in 1999. I've done one IMFL and decided not to ever do it again because of the blatant drafting on the bike. That is why I love GFT because the hills will limit the drafting. Ever since IMFL started the numbers have been falling at GFT. If Fred wants to continue with a 140.6 race I think he should think about the following:

1) Simple easy website and advertise the race here on slowtwitch
2) Offer a discount to Tri clubs who participate and somehow get that word out to all the Federations
2) Need community support down at waterfront park in the form of entertainment and different choices for food
3) Having Finish Line in Downtown seem to have more spectators then down at Waterfront Park
4) Bring back the 3 lap run course around the Lake but add more lights on the back side.
5) Bring back the 1 lap bike course from 1998. It was mostly flat with a few bumps including SugarLoaf
6) Partner with WTC and let GFT be a build up for one of its races whether its a 140.6 or 70.3

I really hope a solution can be found because it is a great event.

Rex

I've done the race 3X.

1. Give free entry to a few high-caliber AGs, so then winning time is 9:XX and 10:XX again;
2. Return the 3 loop run course and maximum 2-loop bike
3. Update the website
4. Better marketing with local community
5. Downtown finish
6. Tie-Dye T-shirts
7. Keep the "Greatful Dead" of the tri world vibe.
8. Get rid of the medals and engage a local artists or school to come up with something unique each year. E.g., top 10 in each AG get a hand-painted finisher plate (painted by local kids, maybe in hospital or local art school)

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Damn, that's a cold ass honkey.

GFT was my first full. Good course, well-run race. Alas, I got stuck on the KQ treadmill, and haven't done an independent full since B2B in 2010.

Personally, I think the race is too early. It's early enough that it's still pretty hot in FL but cool every where else. IMFL is just a little bit later, which seems to make a difference for temperature and humidity. Why not early December? Would the week before Christmas be ridiculous?

I think you are the exception, not the rule. I would say most people enjoy the legal draft. Being passed or passing people or groups makes it feel like you're actually racing.

When I'm in a race and there isn't anybody within a football field of me, it's a real morale killer. It feels like I'm doing boring training.

My question to Mr. Sommer is what do you want to GFT to be?

I am a newbie/wannabe triathlete having completed only two triathlons to date. One with enough success to become addicted, and the other with enough challenges to smack the proper amount of respect for the sport into me.

The things that most of you are talking about are beyond me, and quite frankly I would not make a decision to race or not based on the how many loops are in a particular course, how many hills are in a course, or whether or not I am surrounded by other racers through most of the course, I am slow so being alone is a given. I want to be inspired!

I have watched every Ironman World Championship that is available on youtube, multiple times, starting with 1981, and the thing that keeps me coming back for more is the theme of overcoming the seemingly impossible. Whether is was the gentleman with polio in 1981, Julie Moss crawling across the finish-line in 1982, the Dick Hoyt pushing his son Rick 140.6 miles in 1989, John Maclean becoming the first person in a wheel chair to complete Kona in 1995, or Jon Blais log rolling across the finishline in 2007, these as well as all of the others inspire me to one day cross the finish-line of a 140.6 mile triathlon as well. It may never be Kona, and god willing I will not have to over come the same challenges to complete my race, but I want to finish.

The volunteers/fans along the route, as well as the finish-line also provide a level of inspiration. The continual "Great Job!", "You Got This!" and so on during a marathon this past February kept me in great spirits, and reminded that my family and friends would be there at the end, and if I didn't finish the race, the past few months of training and time away from my family would be worth less than if I finish. Not worthless, worth less.

All of that being said, the footage of GFT that I have watched does not inspire me. Last year's GFT overall winner won with a time of approximately 12 hours, and crossed the finish-line to hardly any fan fare. Another video, from 2007, showed someone cross the finish-line with hardly anyone around to greet him. Not exactly inspirational.

I served in the military and have run half marathons and a full, so the importance of training is engrained in me. If I am going to dedicate so much of my life to accomplishing this goal, and take time away from my family. It is important to me to know that I will be supported on the course and rewarded at the finish-line.

So, back to my original question. What does Mr. Sommer what the GFT to be? If he wants newbie/wannabes, I'd like to think that I am not the only person wanting to be inspired out there.

1. Team up with the Challenge Athlete Foundation
2. Highlight past first time finishers and what they overcame to cross the finish-line
3. Hook up with Bob Babbitt and see if he would do a Breakfast with Bob at the GFT
4. Do not sell out to WTC, Hits, Rev3, or Challenge
5. Encourage the local community to become more involved, finish-line on main street if that will help
6. Create a volunteer race credit program. MultiRace in SFL gives $10 in race credit for every hour of volunteering at a race. Yes please. It worked on me and many others.
7. Leave loops in the course if it will reduce the number of overal aid stations and increase the quality of each remaining aid station. In the words of Christopher Watkins "I need more Cow Bell!"
8. Consolidate your race offerings into only a couple of mainstream, recognizable, options
9. Provide course maps. I download and print every course map that I can get my hands on
10. Revamp the website
11. Examine Challenge Roth's success. 14 hotel ROOMS in the entire town, but almost 5,000 people arrive to either race or support racers every year. Mirinda Carfrae stayed in a retirement community leading up to Roth.
12. Maybe there are some out of the box solutions to reducing costs for athletes, and increasing community involvement.
13. Is there a local college that has dorm rooms available?
14. High schools that have students in need of volunteer hours?
15. Is there a local video production company that would be willing to video the race, edit it, and post it on youtube for marketing purposes. If not, maybe the the college with the dorms or the high school with the volunteers has video production classes and students in need of a project for a grade.

Hopefully some of this helps.

You forgot Race# 1390.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx8ae4TfwrE

Thank you for reminding me.

The same year Macca DNFed and bailed into Mark Allen's car. Three years later he would be the champ!

I was there! Brings back great memories. At the pre race dinner, there was a talent contest and anyone who participated got 1/2 off the entry price. Some guy got up and played "ironman" on the trombone with his son on the drums. Too funny except when the next guy got up and in front of multiple young families acted out what seemed to be his really bad college acting class skit of him being raped in a prison or something like that.
Weird and disturbing!
I have no real suggestions except for what someone else mentioned and that is social media sells everything these days. Anyone get spam in the last 48 hours from ironman or the ironman store? How bout anyone who has done GFT n the last ten years qualifies as an AFA or All Floridian Athlete. Now that would be special.

I haven't done an ultra/iron distance race or plan to, but had done some of Fred's other races, the HIM in March, TriAmerica 2k-60k-15k in 2007 and will be doing the TriAmerica again in Oct on the same day as the Ultra. Can't beat his prices on early sign-up dates. I post them on the local FB tri-run pages.

Being from the coast I love the area for racing, even Sugarloaf and the other "bumps"! I like how he's trying to keep it a busy day with doing a 15k and 5k run the same morning. My wife will be running the 15k while I'm out there. Same for other friends doing the TA race, their spouses will be running.

I think the run might need to be addressed as others have said. A friend did it 3 years ago for his 1st and really didn't like the run in the pitch black trail areas. Running around the lake seems like a great idea.

Website(s) needs a revamp for sure.

Time of year, maybe early in March would be better, I don't know. This year for the HIM race (march 22nd) turned out to be the hottest day of the year up to that point so it's a toss. Mid November or early-Mid Dec could be worth a shift. I know HITS is in Mid Jan and Rev3 HIM is early-mid Nov and MiamiMan HIM is also in Mid Nov.

I like the idea someone stated of him adding/changing to a 4k-120k-30k race. Something I would consider doing.

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<We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak>

• Contact UCF (both sport management and the B-school). GFT is a small business case study. Could become a senior project or even a master's degree project.
• Do research. Collect actual data. Focus groups, online surveys & so forth. Speculation & intuition doesn't appear to be working right now. Why are people NOT doing the GFT?
• Resist the urge to make the course like Ironman Florida. An actual hill in Florida! Amazing. Embrace it.
• The "independents" need to talk to one another. Links could be created to assist with marketing & promotion. Create a massive data base.
• Work with USAT & the regional federation. Work with the training center.
• Resist the urge to discount. You're giving away inventory. Discounts cheapen the product. Consumers than expect it all the time.
• GFT is family friendly. Mom and/or dad do the race. The kids get the Mouse House or Harry Potter.

GFT was my first ultra triathlon in '94. It'll always hold a special place in my heart.

Good luck.

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#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

Eric Graveling; Deltona, Florida
10:23:28


My picture; but your right about the finish & fan fare.

I've never done The Great Floridian but was considering it over a WTC 140.6 next year so hopefully its around. I think if you could partner with another company such as Challenge or Rev3 that their brand recognition would help. I've done the Florida Challenge half which I think is half the GFT's bike and agree drop the "tougher than iron". Is the bike tougher than IMFL? Yes. However, having done IMFL, that is possibly the most boring ride. The rollers in Clermont weren't terrible and I could fight my fatass up Sugarloaf so I don't see why anyone else couldn't. Having year round racing temps I also like the recommendation of moving it to possibly Jan or Feb. Hopefully it's still around next year, and if so, I'll be there.

It's hard to compare the fanfare with Ironman because they draw 2,000+ participants, and therefore friends and family and people of the community who are come out to see the 'spectacle' . So the question becomes how to get more spectators at a small event, and make it feel like a 'spectacle' event though it's much smaller. There is a music festival in Clermont at the same time, could the two events benefit from working together instead of independently? It would take coordination as having live music and a race announcer going at the same time would create it's own problem. Having a downtown finish (as others have mentioned) while the music festival is going on would inherently help with the lackluster finish. After bringing the two events together, spread the word locally to build hype, similar to how Ironman does it; with posters and banners through out town and the neighboring areas.

I say keep the hills, at least one iteration of them, like the early years. The hills in Florida are what make this race unique.

Up the distance beyond Ironman, 200 or so miles and live up to the 'tougher than iron' slogan.
Make the race more family friendly by allowing outside support, possibly in designated 'zones' on the bike.
Allow outside support and limited running('pacing') with friends/family through the waterfront park section.
Go back to loops on the lake rather than back and forth on the trail.

Racer #1!

Bradford Rex was the man.
Now we need some Joe Bonness pics winning

If two people are both registered for the event, then there is nothing stopping them from running together. Pacing is a non issue in that case.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Now I could get into a Florida "Coast to Coast' crossing triathlon. Kind of like the old Liberty to Liberty tri, that started at the statue of Liberty, and then ended at the Liberty Bell in Philly. Very cool event.

I did the GFT as my first full in 2003, and have been back almost every year except 2011. A couple of suggestions:

1) There were *always* a bunch of people walking up Sugarloaf, and sometimes Snowhill. Sometimes on the first loop, always on the second loop. Personally I preferred the years where the first loop was in the hills and the second loop was out Northeast or to the West, both of which are partial flatlands.
2) The downtown finish was more fun, but I think all the lakefront bars nearby are closed...might not be so much fun these days. The new pavilion is really nice, and a lot better than finishing in the middle of a dirt field like a couple of years back.
3) Distance-wise the 140.6 is the reason I keep coming back. Changing it to something slightly different but still close to "iron" wouldn't bother me much, but I think would take away from the accomplishment for first timers.
4) Overall concentrating on getting people to the finish line is key. I can't tell you how many times I heard people get off the bike and say something like "I can't believe the hills and the heat. I'm not sure I can walk to the finish." Part is the heat. Some years on the bike the water stops looked more like triage units, just without the doctors, beds, IV bags. Okay they just looked like people struggled to make it to the next stop and just sat down in the grass. Moving to mid November or late April would take the heat out of the equation. Making only "part" of the bike course tough would get people off the bike and still able (and willing) to run. Putting it in May or September is absurd, no one would show up. I wouldn't...and I live 40 miles from Clermont!!! I quit doing IMFL 70.3 because of the temperature, and went back to the "slightly" cooler GCT.
5) For quite a few years the GFT was the US long course championships. Participation dropped off a LOT after that went away. Consider teaming up with Challenge or other groups for co-marketing promotions, but don't sell out to them!
6) The run course around the lake was more fun but tougher. The cars were annoying, but the themed water stops were always fun (where did that go??). The shade on some of the out and back trail course is great, but there was something special (ed) about being on the far side of the lake and seeing the finish line lit up across the water.

I do like the idea of doing a 140.6 across FL, the shortest distance is from Crystal River to New Smyrna or Port Orange at a bit over 100 miles. That would be a logistical nightmare but sounds fun! There are a couple of cross-FL races, but I don't think the GFT should do anything like that. But it needs some marketing push and maybe a few week's time change (or to mid-April) to get a significantly higher participation and especially a higher finishing rate. Plus then it can stay around for a few more decades. I need to ensure the Jenkins Jinx continues to thwart Grogan's attempts to finish the bike course.

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This is my biggest concern coming and doing the GFT. I did The Florida Challenge half this year for the first time. Sommer Sports advertised water on the bike every 10-15 miles. I planned on that and only had a bottle of Infinit on my bike with plans of picking up water at the first aid station. The first AND ONLY water stop was just over the top of Sugarloaf. Thankfully there weren't a lot of us coming through together and the 4 person team could hand off bottles. The price was right but I wasn't given what was advertised and that rubbed me the wrong way. I did overhear people saying that MOP/BOP racers got another aid station that was put up late. Even then they advertised 4 aid stations and only supplied 30% of the racers with 1.

The other thing is that the aid stations are more like pit stops. You need to be prepared to come to a complete stop if you expect to get something. Since I do the aquabike as a catered training day, this isn't a big deal, but it would bother me if I were facing the full for time. And I have stopped at a 7-11 during the GFT bike leg for more fluids...something I haven't done in an IM.

That's a HUGE problem.

Could you imagine at IMFL having to STOP to get your fluids/nutrition? Their would be outrage.

If the GF can't even do that, that's a serious issue.

Also, that picture a few posts up is crazy bad ass.

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I did the half this spring also. I carry one aerobottle and always drain it completely by the first water stop on Cherry Lake Road. In 11 years of doing races out there (10GFTs) that was the first time a water stop had no water. I came around the corner to go up the last hill towards the water stop...no water. I lucked out because I'm a MOP swimmer, so the water uHaul passed me on SR19 just before the second stop. I picked up a bottle but should have stopped and grabbed two. I was cramping from dehydration by the time I got to Sugarloaf, and never recovered. I'll emphasize again, this has NEVER happened to me on the GFT. I never found out exactly what went wrong that day...

I've had no problems grabbing a water bottle on the bike course, but I carry my own nutrition. I've never tried to grab more than one bottle from any aid station at any of my 11 iron distance or 20+ half distance, so I can't judge whether the 4-5 volunteers at each aid station would have a hard time handing out extra items. I've always been in a position to grab a bottle, even back when there were well over 1000 racers.

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I did the GFT in 98-2000. Stayed at the famous Vacation Village. We did a loop to the north that was hilly, came back into town, and then did a loop to the west which was flatter. Going over Sugarloaf once is a plenty. I think moving it to a little later in the year is a good. Cooler temperatures and no drama whether it is being wetsuit legal or not. 140.6 is hard enough for people without adding hills and heat.