first off, let me say i totally respect the charity dimension of the Nautica Malibu Tri (raises money for pediatric AIDS research) and realize that everyone there was doing his or her best, especially the volunteers...personally I had a fun race with no real problems, but the overall shoddiness of the experience has made me put fingers to keys
here are my beefs:
1) They (badly) mis-measured the swim course, turning what should have been an 800m course into apparently about 1150, 1200m...great for swimmers like me, but not careful race management by any stretch of the imagination
2) They didn't have nearly enough volunteers mid-pm on Saturday, and the ones that I was exposed to weren't exactly clued in, one wanted to keep my USAT card because she thought it was some sort of coupon...and Lord help the relay folks, some of whom waited more than 45 minutes in the sun to sign their waivers.
3) Positioning bodymarkers people on the 3 foot sidewalk which is the only way into T1 can lead to a big backup of annoyed racers wanting to set up their bikes. Why not do it the easy way, with body markers inside T1 or at the T1 egress?
4) Having a seperate "Celebrity" wave and a seperate "Celebrity/VIP" tent post race strikes me as wrong in a way that's hard to articulate. Yes, Duchovny was there. So was Tate Donovan. Yet I suspect they'd be there even without a velvet rope, and I doubt too many stars stuck around for the post-race "Celebrity Brunch"...but I also realize the folks who bought $200 dollar tix to eat a omelette within sight of Mark-Paul Gosselaar might not have otherwise donated to such a worthy cause, so maybe this isn't really a valid complaint, just sort of a bemused shaking of the head.
Now, part of the reason I write this is because I also did the City of Los Angeles (Oly) Tri the week before and the experiences couldn't have been more different.
Everything about (my experience at) the City of LA Tri was efficient, organized and mellow, though I realize that was just my personal experience and others may feel differently.
Anyway, next year I'm voting with my feet and wallet and will skip Malibu...sorry for the rant.
i wish everyone safe training and fast racing
here are my beefs:
1) They (badly) mis-measured the swim course, turning what should have been an 800m course into apparently about 1150, 1200m...great for swimmers like me, but not careful race management by any stretch of the imagination
2) They didn't have nearly enough volunteers mid-pm on Saturday, and the ones that I was exposed to weren't exactly clued in, one wanted to keep my USAT card because she thought it was some sort of coupon...and Lord help the relay folks, some of whom waited more than 45 minutes in the sun to sign their waivers.
3) Positioning bodymarkers people on the 3 foot sidewalk which is the only way into T1 can lead to a big backup of annoyed racers wanting to set up their bikes. Why not do it the easy way, with body markers inside T1 or at the T1 egress?
4) Having a seperate "Celebrity" wave and a seperate "Celebrity/VIP" tent post race strikes me as wrong in a way that's hard to articulate. Yes, Duchovny was there. So was Tate Donovan. Yet I suspect they'd be there even without a velvet rope, and I doubt too many stars stuck around for the post-race "Celebrity Brunch"...but I also realize the folks who bought $200 dollar tix to eat a omelette within sight of Mark-Paul Gosselaar might not have otherwise donated to such a worthy cause, so maybe this isn't really a valid complaint, just sort of a bemused shaking of the head.
Now, part of the reason I write this is because I also did the City of Los Angeles (Oly) Tri the week before and the experiences couldn't have been more different.
Everything about (my experience at) the City of LA Tri was efficient, organized and mellow, though I realize that was just my personal experience and others may feel differently.
Anyway, next year I'm voting with my feet and wallet and will skip Malibu...sorry for the rant.
i wish everyone safe training and fast racing