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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [ericmulk] [ In reply to ]
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I would say this was the hardest bike course ever for Great Floridian. In the past there was a long flat stretch with "the Hills" being covered only once. Joe's bike record for GFT is 4:42, this year he had the fastest bike split at 5:28. He is older of course, but still has most of his bike speed.

Other notes from Joe: The swim was a little too warm for wetsuits resulting in swimmers getting dehydrated. The bike was brutal and windy. It didn't matter if you went fast or slow, it beat up your legs by the time you had to run. It was not as hot as in the past, but still warm enough to make you suffer. The flat run was three loops through the transition area, which was great for spectators, but made it hard to tell who your competition was. Especially with the 1/3 Course athletes on the course as well.

Great Floridian is not the big tent show like many other ultra distance races, but that is part of it's character. It has a old school home town feel to it. You need to be prepared to take care of your own "special" needs and not expect to be catered too, much like the early days. No one is cut throat about the competition and no big draft packs. It makes for a pleasant and supportive attitude.

As a spectator I loved the loops through town. Lots of chances to see your athlete. They even had a bus to take you to the top of Sugarloaf. Lots of family support present and not so crowed you had to fight to get a view! The Waterfront park is a great place to hang out all day. Lots for kids to do while waiting as well.


Support Crew
This information contained herein has been assembled for your assistance and convenience. It is believed to be reliable, however, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. All opinions shown are subject to change without notice.
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [support crew] [ In reply to ]
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Wait just second, my bike split was 4h25m! My split was way faster.

Seriously, are you seeing all good, correct results? The link I have has my bike split all messed up.
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [mjpwooo] [ In reply to ]
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The results keep evolving. I'm not sure what is correct at this point. I guess they are still working on it.
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [mjpwooo] [ In reply to ]
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Yes, the results are messed up. I was standing at the bike timing mat for quite awhile. Lots of athletes did not show up when they crossed the mat. They also walked a chip across the finish mat for people who had dropped out. Joe has his bike computer to verify his split. I think it is safe to say no one broke 5 hours on the bike. ;-)


Support Crew
This information contained herein has been assembled for your assistance and convenience. It is believed to be reliable, however, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. All opinions shown are subject to change without notice.
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [support crew] [ In reply to ]
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Well, until official results are corrected, I had a 4h25. Of course, I had a 1h50m T2.......:-)
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [support crew] [ In reply to ]
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support crew wrote:
Yes, the results are messed up. I was standing at the bike timing mat for quite awhile. Lots of athletes did not show up when they crossed the mat. They also walked a chip across the finish mat for people who had dropped out. Joe has his bike computer to verify his split. I think it is safe to say no one broke 5 hours on the bike. ;-)

How was his back?
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [pdxjohn] [ In reply to ]
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And is he going to return to the IM circuit now?
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [support crew] [ In reply to ]
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support crew wrote:
I would say this was the hardest bike course ever for Great Floridian. In the past there was a long flat stretch with "the Hills" being covered only once. Joe's bike record for GFT is 4:42, this year he had the fastest bike split at 5:28. He is older of course, but still has most of his bike speed.

Other notes from Joe: The swim was a little too warm for wetsuits resulting in swimmers getting dehydrated. The bike was brutal and windy. It didn't matter if you went fast or slow, it beat up your legs by the time you had to run. It was not as hot as in the past, but still warm enough to make you suffer. The flat run was three loops through the transition area, which was great for spectators, but made it hard to tell who your competition was. Especially with the 1/3 Course athletes on the course as well.

Great Floridian is not the big tent show like many other ultra distance races, but that is part of it's character. It has a old school home town feel to it. You need to be prepared to take care of your own "special" needs and not expect to be catered too, much like the early days. No one is cut throat about the competition and no big draft packs. It makes for a pleasant and supportive attitude.

As a spectator I loved the loops through town. Lots of chances to see your athlete. They even had a bus to take you to the top of Sugarloaf. Lots of family support present and not so crowed you had to fight to get a view! The Waterfront park is a great place to hang out all day. Lots for kids to do while waiting as well.

Support Crew - Thanks for all the info. I did the GFT once and i've done the Clermont half iron race 5 times, used to be called "The Florida Challenge". I mostly just stick to oly dist races these days.


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [mjpwooo] [ In reply to ]
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mjpwooo wrote:
Garmin had total climbing of 6690 feet.

Anyone confirm this number from their data file?
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [mjpwooo] [ In reply to ]
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Seems SommerSports can never get it right when it comes to results/timing.

After last year I thought they would really work on presenting an organized, smooth, and up to date race.
Not expecting real time results but come on guys. I'm amazed people keep coming back.
Last edited by: Pat0: Oct 26, 15 17:45
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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And is he going to return to the IM circuit now?


That would be a no. Although he said he might do another one sometime in the future.


Support Crew
This information contained herein has been assembled for your assistance and convenience. It is believed to be reliable, however, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. All opinions shown are subject to change without notice.
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [Pat0] [ In reply to ]
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It seems as if the bike timing mat stopped working at some point 7:15ish hours into race. The athletes who came off of bike earlier than this time frame have accurate bike times. There are many athletes with 4ish and 5ish hour bike spits who went over the mat for their 2nd lap but the mat died before their 3rd lap ended. There are even some who have 2.5 hour bike splits listed with 40+ mph listed as avg speed, these athletes got only one lap in before the mat died. I'm not sure if they can recover this lost data and fix the splits?!?!

I remember back in the. 90's Sommer Sports races were some of the first races with chip timing. They were cutting edge at that point. I have no idea how often their timing equipment is replaced or what sort of maintenance is needed to keep such equipment working optimally, but I wonder if the equipment currently used is no longer cutting edge technology like it was in the 90's when I first started doing Sommers Sports races. Just wondering how the results turned out so bad...
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [mjpwooo] [ In reply to ]
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My Garmin 500 seems pretty reliable and I go 2096 for one loop which shows that your 6600+ is approximately correct. Remember that these are barometric devices so if the air pressure changes, we can get some apparent altitude increases/decreases. Plus the http://www.ridewithgps.com course showed around 2050' if I remember correctly.

3x IMFL now retired
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [kbd] [ In reply to ]
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We can only hope that they will do the work to try to correct errors that are correctable. It seemed to me at the 1/3 awards ceremony that there was complete corruption of the timing data which would make it a nightmare to reconstruct accurate times and scores. But that is their job when they manage the timing and scoring for a large event. Many of the run times were zero's. Three of five in my AG. Yet today, somehow these times were restored - and hopefully correctly. I was told on Saturday that a lot of competitors didn't know they had to run around the roundabout's and that they never saw any timing mats; I had no problems! If they cannot manage the course layout, equipment, and sort the timing/scoring issues onsite timely, then they should hire another outfit for that particular mission and there would be no problems. THAT would help sell this race to others interested in coming back or coming for the first time.

This is not rocket science, just a mission critical job. Timing and scoring = race results. No timing/scoring = Cluster F#@! and unhappy triathletes.

3x IMFL now retired
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [kbd] [ In reply to ]
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They are somehow sorting through the bike data and fixing peoples splits. Now there only seems to be 38 athletes with incomplete bike data as Joe Bonness (actual fastest bike split) is now listed as having the 39th fadtest bike split.
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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [TriNOLA] [ In reply to ]
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I live and work in Lake County Florida. Wifey and I have done at least 20 Sommer Sports races over the last 5 years.

Here are my comments on Sommer Sports and their race management.

If I don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

I don't have anything to say...

Austin Hardy -

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Re: What to do with The Great Floridian? [Pat0] [ In reply to ]
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Does Sommer Sports do their own timing? $150 for a full is why people keep coming back
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