sbrrepeat wrote:
The water was bitterly cold but I was okay until my wetsuit came off. I sat in the warming tent for a good half an hour but was able to continue; sadly some others in the tent were not so fortunate.
Interesting how much this varies from person to person. I was prepared to be freezing coming into T1, had arm warmers, gloves, long sleeve jersey and other warm gear in a bag ready to run into the warming tent with. Instead, I came out of the water, put on my singlet and was on my way with no issues or other stops, actually was pretty hot on Montezuma and on the 2nd lap. Only real difference between a normal tri was I didn't wear my top under my wetsuit and I put on socks and bike shoes instead of normal sockless tri shoes. Big contrast to Tahoe in '13 where I was freezing on the first half of the bike.
I guess this is the one area where it helps that I'm fat now compared to when I used to actually race
sbrrepeat wrote:
There were no timing mats at the outstretches of the bike or run course and I saw some people cutting the course. Whatever.
I didn't see anyone cut myself but it looked like it'd be really easy to. They could have gotten by just fine with 2 timing mats but they should have been at the top of Montezuma and the run turnaround instead. Granted I'm not at the pointy end, but in a race like this you'd really only be cheating yourself so as you said, whatever.
Also re: the bathroom thing, I saw a few athletes who clearly had to 'improvise' given the infrequency. The aid station and bathroom thing certainly left something to be desired relative to an WTC-branded event, but I'm pretty sure my entry fee was a whole lot less than a WTC event as well so I take the good with the bad. Obviously room for improvement there though.