I was just ecstatic to see any of it live. Quality? What's to complain about? These guys were covering some 10 hours. There's bound to be dead spots and lapses. Who cares? I think they did a bang-up job. And if they do it again, you can bet I'll be tuning in (as long as it's free).

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

[/reply]but overall it was awesome. I watched for at least 5 hrs, although with breaks. one thing that I really appreciated was that it was still pretty unpretentious. they don't pretend that everything is perfect or high-tech. and they make lame jokes. but that keeps it very real; it doesn't seem all dressed up like you would see if you were watching an american football game or other big-time pro sports event. and the excitement of those guys, esp. Welch and PNF comes through. very cool.

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"At every endurance event, there comes a time when you'll say, 'What the fuck am I doing here?' And then you'll say, 'This is what I do.'"
--John Spas

I thought having live feed all day was awesome. I do think that Huddle is getting a little tired to me, his IMNA pre-race video's etc. I think the WTC in general is going in the direction of cronyism. Welch, Huddle, Babbit. Jimmy Riccitello as head referee. What next Tinley shooting off the canon and Dave Scott stealing the mic from Mike Reilly.

I thought it was exceptional. The coverage was great and while they didn't have constant coverage on the course i don't think they had the technical support you might expect from a TdF stage or other similar event.

I thought Huddle & Bob Babbit did a great job as did Welsh & PNF. While they were definately rooting for their friends, I think the truth is that the fraternity of top level triathletes is pretty small and they were definately impressed with both Faris' and Natasha's performance.!

i'll take it. it was free. it showed the race all day long. what is there to complain about?

Evidently ... almost everything.

I completely agree with you. As someone that has paid $50 PPV for a couple of horrible fights and one that last 2 minutes ... I thought the coverage was good, sometimes bearable at points ... but overall good. It cost me nothing, and the video feeds were quality. Were there things that could be improved? Sure. The coverage I watched was 9 hours long ... and it was live. I could sit down with any broadcasting team at a 9-hour live event and form a long list of "things that could have been better".

There's a lot of triathletes that need a swift kick right in their spolied arse.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
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I think they they did an awesome job. Here is what they had to deal with: 1) 10 hour event 2) guessing they didn't have a producer like a normal sports broadcast 3)pretty limited budget



That said, they did an awesome job. I agree that during the bike they probably the cameras should been on the bikers more. I also think it would have helped if they had more mobile phone setups around the course, where some could relay information on WHY an athlete dropped out. We all wanted to know what Normann dropped out, and I still have no idea. You would think if they had a central producer/volunteer (ie me for 2006) in the studio to take calls from people around the course, you could have relayed the information to the broadcasters a little quicker.

This is how good of a job they did. I woke up at 450am east coast having to go to the bathroom. I started doing Hawaii time calculations in my head, I came down and watched the last hour on my computer.

Great job. If anyone from IM reads this, and needs a volunteer in the booth to relay info next year, feel free to send me a private message.

One thing I would have liked to have seen, were interviews with te big-name racers that DNF'd. Let them tell their account and give some first-hand insight on what is really going on out there (conditions, etc), and their first-hand opinion of how the current leaders are doing and perhaps, their predictions.

I know, it is likely up to the racers to do this, and some may not want to ... but it would be very interesting, informative and entertaining.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
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The "rooting for their friends and/or clients" did get a little tiresome............Huddle seemed to lose all his steam when it became apparent that it wasn't going to be the Michellie Jones Show. And they did have to play catch-up to get some talk-about-Faris time in at the end.

But despite that, the coverage was great. I had it on most of the day and was happy to have it. I'm sure it will only get better.

As far as the 70.3 ad.............nevermind exotic Oceanside..........how about exotic LUBBOCK?? :-O

G

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It's a little like wrestling a gorilla.........you don't stop when you're tired.........you stop when the gorilla is tired.

I had it going for 14 hours - even if I pretended to have a life and not watch every second. It was great -- I would have like more live feeds, but that is the only issue I had. (other than being fat and slow).

Definately not 5 stars but I think that they did the best that they could do.

1. Have a laptop displaying the IMlive website for the announcers

2. get the freaking mikes out of your mouths

3.they should have commented at the begining on what to expect of the race coverage.

4. more shots of the racers and not the comentators, imagine if your watching a football game and they keep showing the announcers instead of the game, sheeeeeeesh.

I like that they had interviews going on with Mark Allen and others. The dude on the right definatley was annoying, did you guys pick up that the dude on the left would never look at the dude on the right when he was talking to him, very funny.

They definately have a lot of work to do but im glad that they were there for us. There were some awesome shots of the racers and i liked that.

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I have horrible back problems but I have zero problems staying in an aero position for 180k. Why? Because I ride steep and because I train regularly in that position. Simple as that.....Gerard

  I think they get better every year...I hope someday they will offer it as either a PPV on digital cable or get better resolution. Even so the resolution and coverage is still better than it ever has been.

Maybe its just me but I am really sick of it being referred to as the "Ford" Ironman. I know they are a major sponsor and it shouldn't bother me but it starts to get on my nerves. Maybe its because it is putting two product/corporate names together like tomorrow I'll go get a GM Hummer Grande coffee from the Microsoft Telecom Starbucks. I know its done all the time but I guess I am feeling whiny today.

Yeah, got a good kick out of the 70.3 ad. Only about 3 of those cities/towns are even CLOSE to being exotic. Good call on the announcers making fun of their own employers' ad. Ha, ha.

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My business-eBodyboarding.com

Giant step in the right direction. Very cool.

Lubbock is a great race, very challenging. I did it in 97 and loved it. I hope to do it again one day.

LOL you too? I loved it on the course explorer video where Welch goes on and on about it then says something like "Thanks to the really good Ford navigation system, which is soooo easy to use, we'll have no trouble finding our way to the turnaround - cause I really don't know how to get there" HAHAHA - that made me ROFLMAO.

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Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

I missed it all, damnit! Where can I see it? Ironmanlive doesn't have it anymore. I refuse to believe who won, who lost, and who dropped out until I see the footage...

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How can you complain about a free service? I watched the women's finish, live. Better than anything I have every seen taped.

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I downloaded a program that allowed me to record the streaming video. I have over 650mb's of streaming video from the event. I havent checked it out yet, but I am curious to see it in replay.

I was out saturday night and I didn't see the finish or either the men's race or the women's race. Can't wait to watch that.

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-Brian

We have a pool and a pond. A pond would be good for you, Karl. - Ty

Hook a brother up!

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Woah, me too! Need to set up some kind of tracker for bit torrent. That would be cool.

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Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

I downloaded it to my GF's computer. I think I'll have the raw data by Wednesday. If you want a copy PM me. I'll see what I can do.

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-Brian

We have a pool and a pond. A pond would be good for you, Karl. - Ty

I would rate the coverage as very good to outstanding. Given the logistics involved, and the fact that this was raw, live coverage of an endurance sporting event( something Americans RARELY, if ever see) what we got on race day was excellent.

On the Ironmanlive.com site, if you were able to move back and forth between, Kevin MacKinnon's text updates, the Athlete Tracker and Bob Babbitt and Paul Huddle's commentary, you knew almost exactly what was going on at all times.

The video shots of many of the top athletes out on the bike and run course were amazing. In fact, it should have been a great education for many of the posters here on ST, as many of the more frequent and basic questions that get asked here, over and over, would have been answered just by watching the best athletes in the sport doing it live - A picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess a moving picture is worth even more!

By the way, the silly guy on the right, was none other than Bob Babbitt the Publisher of Competitor Magazine and probably, THE most knowledgable person in the multi-sport world!!

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

exactly - better than NBC, you don't have to listen to Al Trautwig for an hour. You downloaded it, you can make your own video and I'll bet it's better than the crap you see on TV!

How about they have a camera follow each competitor and you can zero in on your favorite pro OR age grouper?!!!

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[reply]Hook a brother up![/reply]
I downloaded it, too, and ended up with 9 hrs. 25 min. of raw footage, from around 10 min. before pro swim start through the third female pro finisher. Mine is 1.2 GB.

I was thinking of uploading it to yousendit.com. It would stay on the server for a week, which would allow everyone to download at their leisure, and perhaps upload again when others request it. The only limitation besides deletion after one week is file size at 1 GB, so I was hoping to pare it down a bit, but I haven't had the time to do that yet. Will announce when I've completed the job.

I'm a heavy bittorrent user, but the problem with bittorrent for this forum's purposes is the unfamiliarity of most people around here with it. It's technically too big a task to have to guide newbies looking to download one single item, and too much to ask to have them download the software and learn about how to use the damn thing, let alone about staying on-line to share with others and all the etiquette that goes with it.

We would all be indebted to you if you put it up on yousendit.com, Mookie. Maybe edit out the man-bras or something.

I remember watching the live feed all day last year and getting a big kick out of the commentary from the luminaries of the sport - almost as big as the action itself. I'm sure Babbitt, Huddle, Welchie and company have told their annecdotes and their jokes a thousand times before. But I don't care. I really dig the triathlon lore they're passing on to the rest of us.

Maybe they should get Monty and a few other geezers out there to help out next year... :-)

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