Heard some bad things about the water last year. Like huge stumps or something that people kept swimming into. Mud and murky stuff, hard to see your arms let alone your hands in the water. Brutal swim....Other than that windy last year.

Good luck...

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Team Zoot Northeast

Hello:
I have ridden the bike course several times and I can tell you that the roads are good and you will likely have at least some wind from every direction (its a double loop). Its a different swim then last year, so thats unknown (from the shore it looks fine). The run is flat with no shade. Best of luck, I'm doing the sprint. Tim

i'll be there.
only kinda ready, only kinda tapered, definitely not my 'a' race but i'll be there.

Anyone have a sense of what water temps are like? I know the athlete guide is saying 70F, but with the cool spring we've been having, I can't imagine that'll be the case.

I did it the first year and it was a really nice race. The bike course was flat with nice wide shoulders and little traffic. 3/4 of it was on fantastic road surface and the other 1/4 was so-so with some pretty rough patches. I heard there were snakes in the water last year, so I will not be back, however.

I'll be there (second time). I don't think it's a different swim location, just an improved venue. I didn't have any trouble last year, except not being able to see. I never hit any stumps. They switched the waves around a little, so I'm curious to see how that plays out.

Like someone else said, bring sunscreen for the run. No shade at all.

Last year I swam in a sleeveless wetsuit. I'm going to do a practice swim tomorrow to see if I should go with the fullsuit.

Last year it was a fun, well-run race. I'm looking forward to it.

-Nick

I received an e-mail from the race organizers about a month back, saying that the swim will be in the same place last year, but that they were making efforts to pull out all of the offending stumps, and a few other things to improve the swim.

The stumps were bad because by the time the last half IM wave was swimming, the water was completely churned and black. You only found the stumps when they found you first, either your hand, your arm, or your torso. It was more than a little disconcerting. Good luck with the water this year.

Otherwise, it is a very nice bike course, essentially flat, with two quick loops for the half IM. The run course is also pretty nice with two out and back loops. Hopefully this year, they will have some one with more experience directing runners at the critical intersection where the two out and backs split off. It was rather entertaining last year when after the first half dozen half IMers started down the correct first loop to the left, for some unkown reason, the volunteers then proceeded to direct everyone else to the right. Arguing with the volunteers just cost you time, and most people trudged on fairly calmly, and ran the loops in reverse order.

Also cool last year, were actual podiums for the finisher awards. If you are one of the blessed ones with exceptional speed, don't be shy and step up.

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Behold the turtle! He makes progess only when he sticks his neck out. (James Bryant Conant)
GET OFF THE F*%KING WALL!!!!!!! (Doug Stern)
Brevity is the soul of wit. (William Shakespeare)

I'm in.......last year the water was bad. RD said they cleared stumps and added sand to the entry ramp to keep the mud to a minimum. I'm not ready but so what, let's do it.

Last year I swam in a sleeveless wetsuit. I'm going to do a practice swim tomorrow to see if I should go with the fullsuit.

Let us know what your results were.
I'm trying to decide btwn wearing my sleeveless wetsuit and being comfortable, and wearing my sleeveless wetsuit and freezing.

Yeah, I have not tapered either. More like a long organized training day. Hell my longest ride of the year has only been 3 hours. But looking forward to shaking off the cobwebs and seeing if spending time on the trainer this winter has helped.
Will be wearing a full suit no matter what. Would need an outboard motor to keep up with NMath in the water.

I will first say that any RD planning a 1/2 for early may in NJ is taking a risk with weather. Looks like this year could be cold, even though today looks nice.

I've done this race two years in a row. The first was in a different and better lake than the second, but the second year's run course was better, while the bike was basiccally the same both years.

Overall this is a fast course and has what I like to call a local 1/2 feel to it. It's nice. Oh, and the bike course was slightly short last year.

Good luck.

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Fortitudine Vincimus

I did the sprint/oly? in '05 and the 1/2 in '06 (PB despite feeling under-trained). I decided to sit this year out to see if the RD could get it together. '05 was a nice venue so I don't know why they changed. '06 was bad: no swim warm-up, awful swim conditions (I still can't believe I didn't end up in the ER after that dip in the cesspool), unannounced change in wave order (after a delayed start), bottle hand-ups in random locations, & incorrect mile markers on the run. There are some other issues but all races have them and I am sure it is very tough to put it all together. I would love to see this race succeed as it is a great, local, early-season ass-kicking that helps re-focus the training. Until I know that the RD can organize an event, I will just use the day to get in some quality training.

Best of luck to all of you & be sure to share your thoughts on the '07 version.

So how was the race??

windy

Yeah the weather on race day was pretty windy and that affected the bike course as well as the run course as the run is generally on roads through open fields. The swim was odd in that it was a three loop course and to say that the water was dirty would be an understatement. I think that the few mouthfuls that I swallowed came back to haunt me on the run and gave me some GI issues.......thank god for the mid-run potta-potties. How did everyone do? 4hrs 32mins for me.

Water was disgusting, with really none of the promsied changes from last year. Other than the oppressive wind, the rest of the course was pretty good. Also, we are stil wating for our results to be posted; very late IMHO.


Slower than U

It was my first Tri this year and only my 3rd HIM. I thought the weather conditions were tough. It was in the upper 40s to low 50s at the start with 20mph winds. The swim was a 3 loop water polo match in water with a lot of silt. No Stumps. My wave was slow getting off the ramp so I wasnt even wet when my wave started. The fact it was 3 loops made for a lot of congestion.
The bike was good except for the wind. Nice roads little traffic only one area of dubious roadway and one turn that could of been better swept. Saw no accidents and only a few flats. Took one water bottle exchange with a good handoff. If no wind it would of been perfect.
The run was flat into the local marsh land so once again windy. Good aid stations except no mixed drinks:)
The food afterwards was not great but I was in no mood to eat either.
I would not pay extra for the dry release shirt again...low quality for the price.
Overall I would say the race was good..the swim will continue to be a problem but everything else was well thought out and safe. Worth going to for an early season event.

Hi:
This was my first time at Devilman and I did the sprint. I thought the RD was joking with the pre swim map of the buoys when it read: Swim No walking between the buoys. That was no joke, the whole lake is very shallow and at one point I saw someone standing up in waist deep water in the middle adjusting his goggles. At least the mud bath was warm and the entrance and exit mats did protect my bare feet. Yes, there was a lot of wind with gusts up to 30mph and while it did slow me down some I was very happy that with a Zipp disc in the back and a Zipp 404 up front on my Cervelo P3C that I was not blown all over the road. I'm 5'10" and 175 pounds, I think my beer gut has finally found a purpose in life: center of line ballast. The run was fine, but on a hot day it would be a drag as there was no shade.

I placed 3rd in the whole farts division (read: make it to the finish line and you place), however its now Tuesday morning and the final results have not yet been put on line. In todays digital age most race results go up on the same day, and with real time stats during the really big events. Tim

good job on the 4:31!
that's a full hour faster than me...

as other people have said, the water was gross gross gross. i just q-tipped my ears last night, hadn't yet, and there was still silt in there. i'm thinking that was what made me have to, uhm, stop a few times during the race.

since i wasn't really trained for it, except the run part, i decided to race it watchless and just go by feel. (my bike computer was on, i just didn't reset it - so on that leg it wasn't totally by feel). it was a good race strategy, but man am i curious what my splits were.

also - the transition areas seemed really long. my sense is that part of t1 will actually be in the swim time. i'm hoping i broke the mendoza line on my swim, the running part might put that in jeopardy!

-charles

"Results for NJD to be posted on/around Wednesday. Thank you in advance for your patience."

I think yesterday the Web site said Tuesday. Gotta wonder why they abandoned Lin-Mark for timing, as Mark & Linda get their race results up the day of the race without fail.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Did the sprint. I swam in first wave, so the swim course was not crowded. Had GI issues on the run and for several hours after. Course was mega windy. My feet went numb during the swim and stayed that way until mile 2 of the run - it was cold. The bike course is pretty nice. I saw no drafting on my part of the course. Was impressed to see young riders (age 20-22) following rules on passing/no drafting. Running in that wind sucked almost as much as riding in it. Good tune up race for early May.

This race was timed by Lin Mark. They have this event on their web page, but no results. Tim

I'm not sure that Lin-Mark does the timing for Piranha-Sports events anymore. I think Lin-Mark just handles the registration/entry list. If you check the Devilman web site, it states "Results provided by Piranha Sports".

Based on their websites, Lin-Mark uses the "WinningTime chip system" and Devilman used Championchip timing chips.