I did this race in 2015 and loved it. Great and fun crowd support on the run.

Damn straight! There was one road crossing in the first 5 miles that almost blew me off my bike!

It was neat watching the Pros come out of the swim and run to T1. I didn't get to see any more since my wave was coming up. First time there and I loved it. Is that typical race conditions? The coffee barge lady said it wasn't normal but another guy standing there said it was pretty typical.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

If typical means windy, hot, with choppy water conditions leading to a truncated or completely cancelled swim, then yeah, it was another typical day at St Anthony's. They just haven't had good luck despite finally moving the swim venue out of the chop tank. It's also one of the reasons the race is now half the size it used to be. In my opinion, they need at least 5 years in a row with a full swim to regain their reputation. Unless you are local, it has become a huge risk to travel to St Anthony's in the hopes of a full olympic distance race. Much of the drop of attendance is from out of state.

Agree. I've done it twice (from Colo) and first time, the swim was cancelled, and this time shortened. I probably don't need to come back. But it is a very well run race, so it's too bad they keep having trouble with the swim.

Exactly. Too much risk/investment to travel from Philadelphia....especially when swim is strongest part of my event. Venue, organization, history, is great but seems to have lost big part of luster now with combined sprint distance and continuing history of swim being shortened.

The air and water temperatures were typical, the chop was not. When the wind is out of the east it really screws that venue up because of the sea wall. IMO they need to make the swim an out and back from that beach and move transition to where the awards tent is now. That would have the added benefit of giving people more time to get into/out of their cycling shoes on smooth pavement.

A few years ago, I made the same recommendations to the RD...including the relocation of transition. You see how well that went. It seems obvious, but I guess they prefer to slowly whither away. We used to have a great sprint tri at Sand Key Beach in Clearwater in June. They had bad weather problems 3 years in a row and disappeared as a result. St Anthony's will survive due to its size and the pro race, but there is no doubt in my mind that this will hurt them. However, next year is the 35th so I will probably give it one more chance, but if there is another swim issue I'll never come back.

I'm curious, if chop during the swim is always the problem, why not start it in that canal—like where we run to get back into the neighborhood? I can't imagine the current to be that bad in there. I'm sure it would be a nightmare trying to get everyone in there, but the race is already a floating start...

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Beats me. It might be pretty shallow, and the water quality might be pretty bad. I think the best recommendation is the one to make a rectangular out and back swim to avoid the chop tank, and come into transition where the awards are now held. However, I expect absolutely no change for next year.

They introduced a new RD at the Awards banquet. Maybe he will make some of the suggested changes. I don't remember his name but he said he was a Realtor and a Triathlete. Swimming is my strength too so the shortened swim kind of hurt me.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

Ok, so I am green to this sport, and while my wife ran the oly I only ran the sprint. Swim oly was shortened to 900 meters, sprint was 750 meters. And I'm glad to know that you experienced riders got hammered by a few of those gusts between the buildings, when you hit that intersection the wind just mashed you sideways. Lots of people watching/helping in the water section, I loved the chop and came in under my goal, so I was happy. Transition to bike sucked. Over 1/4 mile barefoot on concrete to transition, saw lots of sneakers and shoes lined up at swim exit, so maybe I'm just dumb for not putting my shoes there? Bike ride was nice, overcast, and no road traffic was sweet. Run was fun, crowds were great, lots of aid stations. St Pete is neat, we watched Rowdies soccer game night before race, lots to do in the area (we live nearby in Lake Placid). Only other complaint, silly I guess, is they ran out of backpacks. Wife likes them, she collects, and we registered plenty early enough, to be told we should have gotten there "earlier" seemed weak.

I will mail you my backpack if you want. I won't use it. It's rather small though.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

Wow, thanks for the offer, but I knew when I posted it, it was kind of a petty post. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, to you or the event, just wife and a few others seemed let down to get plastic bags. I will just have to sign up for next year, and try to show up a little earlier! How did you do in the event by the way? I met a lot of friendly people, that is a huge plus on these tri events in that most everyone is very pleasant to chat with.

Ended up 4th in AG. Had 3 minutes on 3rd place out of swim and he beat me by 2 minutes OA. If the swim was not shortened I may have picked up a couple more minutes on him and grabbed 3rd. Missed 2nd by 5 minutes and 1st was too far ahead to do the math. My bike is the issue but hopefully this year I can bring it around.

Let me know if you change your mind about the bag. Otherwise, it's a great excuse to sign back up again.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I ran a 90/disc. It probably wasn't much worse than your 808s, then again I weigh 185ish. But as mentioned above, you need to be on your toes going through the intersections downtown. I only had one or two gusts that registered on the pucker factor other that than, not to bad... other than the wind slowing me down. In better shape, better position... around 2 minutes slower on the bike than in the near perfect conditions of last year. Stupid wind. >:I