Dan- Another superb analysis of the state of the union........errrr.....sport. I've often wondered why more emphasis/effort isn't put into having accurate courses. I recently raced a USAT regional championship that was billed as Olympic. Everyone in the transition area had the bike course as being .5 to .75 miles long. That's no small amount over 40K. Why not advertise the race as a 25.5 mile bike? Obviously everyone races the same course, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Perhaps we get too caught up in the P.R. hunt. Then again if it is a championship event accuracy should not be given short shrift.

One easy solution to the problem is to include a 180 degree turnaround at some point during the bike and the run courses. This is a simple solution to having an extremely accurate course. The downside, of course, is that we as competitors don't like to slow down on the bike leg for a tight corner. To be fair, a 180 turn is not the safest of course designs either, but it does make accuracy very easy.

As for the swim, GPS has made that part of course setup much easier (especially if the design is anything other than out and back). As a member of a club that puts on a yearly race, I've learned a few things over the years. First, a big buoy can lift a heck of a lot more weight than you'd think. When anchoring buoys, leave some slack to compensate for the waves lifting the buoy. In general, the heavier the anchor, the better. Boats with engines work way, way, better than row boats when the wind picks up (but I suppose everyone but me would've thought of that ahead of time).

sweet