Anyone have any suggestions? Our friends and family are such a big part of this entire process. Feedback on your supporters' experience and how to improve would be greatly appreciated. Happy Holidays!

The biggest thing an organizer could do by far, in my opinion, is provide decent, reliable, real-time athlete tracking. When I did my first Ironman in Austria back in 2012, the pillock I'd put in charge of having my family at the right place at the right time cocked it up and I didn't see anybody for the whole 2nd half of the marathon (and they didn't see me). The athlete tracking was pretty poor and didn't help matters. Or maybe I ran too fast... ;-)

That is why the MyAthlete product was so great. Too bad IM would not support it.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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The number one thing to do for your family/Sherpa is to take their input seriously on race selection. There are race venues that my wife is 100% behind me doing and others that would bore her to tears. Another thing...never take your spouse to the crappy IM welcome dinner for pasta on paper plates with plastic forks sitting on a folding chair. I take my wife out to a nice sit down restaurant...all the better in a foreign country to take in the local atmosphere. On that note, I never book a place with a kitchen. This is my wife's vacation too, which means no cooking for her. We are going to eat out every night and enjoy it.

I've never used a race tracker or such, but I did IM Switzerland this summer and they had a program on their website where you input your anticipated swim, bike and run times, and it spit out a printable page that showed your expected arrival time at every key location on the bike and run legs for each loop. If you were ahead of or behind schedule, your Sherpa could adjust the printed time by that number of minutes and know exactly when you would come by. That said, I don't need or ask for my family to wait hours at some place so they can wave at me as I zip by on the bike if it's a two loop course. I want them to be happy and will suggest things for them to do while I am doing my thing. But I do want them/need them at the finish, and we carefully go over where we will meet up after I cross the line.

This. IMHO, the best thing an organizer can do is make the race easy enough logistically that the athlete doesn't need to rely on friends or family and they can spend the day doing what they want to do. Therefore, the locale is a huge piece of the puzzle.

Like mentioned above, let the friends and family sight see & such and just be at the finish line at the anticipated time, whether that is 10, 12, 14 or 16 hours later.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Let them do whatever they want and make it clear they do NOT need to follow your race on race day. My wife would get stressed out if she missed me coming into transitions and then we added kids into the mix....not a good scene. So now, she can do whatever she needs to do on race day and never thing about me once. If they happen to be around when I come in, its high fives and kisses for everyone. Otherwise she can do whatever she needs to do to manage the kids and make them happy.
Personally I think Rev3 was onto something teaming up with amusement parks. That makes the experience fantastic. :)
Sorry I am not more helpful.

This is some great feedback and suggestions. What are those who want to participate in race day? How could RDs and Sponsors create experiences for spectators to participate during the race. Local food from the best city restaurants, charging stations, interactive experiences and shopping. I think the sport, city and sponsors could underwrite these costs and and provide a great experience. It's a win-win for the community, sport and the spectators.

What about those who do not travel to the race but want to follow. Video feeds, better tracking, etc. Technology could be affixed to equipment to make this more accessible to specators as well as document a racer's big day. I think there are lots of opportunities from a technology perspective. Does it diminish the integrity of the race? It may in some ways but I think the disruption is also good for the sport and future participation. It's a delicate balance.

I enjoyed watching the Kona coverage on NBC last Saturday. It is a show with a story-line vs. a spectator broadcast for the race. It's a large production but I wonder how this show rates in terms of viewership. I think there is an opportunity to leverage technology, interaction, self-documenting, etc. to provide an overall awesome experience. This is very outside of the box for the sport but why not?

I don't do Ironmans and the Halfs I do are between 4-5 hours for me to finish. I guess I'd approach a full like I do Halfs, I know what kind of race and pace I'm going to be doing before hand. I give my spectators a time schedule of sorts... my wife goes to all of my races and will go do something as opposed to sitting around twiddling her thumbs for 2 plus hours while I'm off riding my bike in a half. Last half my wife went to breakfast and did some shopping during my bike. I'll even go over race course logistics with her and others that might come to watch me "race". Navigating race sites and knowing a good spot to spectate from may not be intuitive for a spectator. Triathlon stinks as a spectator sport so I don't mind if people do or don't come out to watch me.

not much can be done unfortunately, one im i did had a shuttle to mile 50 on the bike, but really, all that is, is your family seeing you for three seconds, my parents are retired and used my first three im as an excuse to get out of town and explore new cities, wife if the only one who really cares about it, my fourth im, i did completely alone, drove 8 hours there myself, stayed three nights and did the im with no spectators, that was my favorite way to do it, didnt have to worry about anyone the whole time

The best support crew experience my wife has always had is to stay at home and have a few days to herself to do what she wants, just like me having a few days for me to do what I want. My wife hasn't been at any of the 4 IM's I've done in the last 13 years including Kona. Anybody racing IM should realise they are only there for themself, don't delude yourself into thinking you are doing it for someone else. The best way to improve the spectator experience is for it to have nothing to do with the race.

seems like the best way to improve the experience is to make the support crew obsolete. Nobody needs to stand around for 9, 10, 11, 12 ...17hrs. Sleeping in, breakfast, some adventure tourism with updates via the internet seems like a great way to spend the day before catching the finish in the afternoon....evening...night.

And $800 for the "proposal package". Frankly, I'm surprised WTC doesn't charge people to view their athlete crossing the finish line.

For the spectator experience to inprove, Ironman needs a fundamental shift in it's attitude towards the event (or at least the face it gives the public).

Allow things like letting your kid cross the finish line with you, don't charge the athlete that wants to propose to their S.O., set up free viewing areas (maybe coordinate with the venue city).

Making it more spectator and family friendly will mean more athletes bring their families, which will mean more schwag bought, money spent on the local economy, etc

Suggestions for making a better experience for the support crew. Hold the race or at least the finish line in an area where the crew can hang out, a park, lake, amusement park, etc. Nothing worse than standing around for hours on end trying to entertain kids of all ages. Maybe rent some bounce houses for little kids, have some decent food there for purchase. Heck even a projector with a sheet and a family friendly movie with some popcorn. It doesn't have to be extravagant what you want to do is help the spouse out by entertaining the kids for a little bit. Games (hide and go seek, potato sack races, scavenger hunts, etc) for the kids.

Definitely having kids activities is tremendous!! Venue is also important as an amusement park or like Moody Gardens helps out as well.

Also have shade/cooling if it is hot outside.

Like others said, all about the location. Would be nice to offer some sort of catered spectator buffet or something