Those races are one's to be avoided....................no volunteers, poorly organized. I hope you survived!

Post: Those races are one's to be avoided....................no volunteers, poorly organized. I hope you survived!

That's what I suspected. I have only talked to people who have done their sprint races and thought they were okay.

I haven't done one of their races because of concerns over the small fields (29 finishers in 2002) and lack of support. I could imagine collapsing of dehydration in the middle of nowhere.

Thanks for the info

Sorry for the delay in my post, but the family joined on the IM trip to Bigfoot and made a long vacation out of it. So here are my thoughts:
Good News: It was my first IM and I won the event in 10:51 with second place finishing about an hour behind. So at least for a day or two I was hero for the family and had a great feeling about my performance (exceeded goal by 2hours!) The key for me was a non-threatening swim in a warm (72 degree) lagoon and a very flat bike course. I have a lot of marathon experience (18 over the past 4-5 years, along with several ultras) so once I hit the run I felt confident on a strong finish. The course was well marked (no splits though), so I didn't get lost, and there were enough volunteers on the course. Aid was minimal, but adequate, since I carry Sustained Energy/Hammer Gel for fueling. Harrison was a beautiful location for a race and we enjoyed our stay there. Cool sweat shirt and vest for all finishers.
Bad News: We arrived on Friday afternoon and weren't able to find anything organized about the event until Saturday night. It took asking several people around town about the event, which many didn't know about and some actually thought it was canceled, to find out about a race meeting scheduled for Saturday. The local community has a real problem with the tri series because of the use of public roads, congestion and would prefer it not be there. I saved a letter to the editor appearing in the local paper the day after the race that said they should "send the triathlon packing". With that said, we finally made it to the athlete meeting on Saturday and things looked like they would work out. They said to be ready an hour before the 7:00 am start on Sunday. We showed up as directed, but nothing was set up for transition. At about 6:30 they started getting the racks put together and we rushed to the water for the start. There were only 11 competitors on race morning. After coming out of the water 2nd, I took over the bike lead about 15 miles into the race. I carried on for the rest of the day on my own building the lead until the finish. Smallest event I have ever been in, so it's a good thing I like myself, because that is a lot of "me" time!

So, while my experience ended up being very positive, it would be difficult to recommend this race. I felt very uneasy having such a large entry fee and time commitment devoted towards an IM race that felt to be on the edge of not happening. The small group of volunteers and the Race Director are passionate about the event and its place as part of the "My First Triathlon" series, so I hope they can keep it together. Participation in the IM race was down from 29 for the prior year. The shorter races seem to be growing, however.

Moose,

Thanks for the update on Bigfoot. Congrats on winning. Not many people can say they have won an Ironman length event (Of course, only 11 finishers does help).

I think some of their problems with the lack of community support is they have a tri almost every weekend with their "My first Tri", "my almost first tri", "my next tri", "my last tri"...

I just got back in the door from Pentiction so didn't see your race report until today. Did the wait in line to get a spot for IMC 2004.

This race was not suppose to go on. Tri B.C. and the town of Harrison had told the race director to not put the race on. All of his races are extremely under attended in regards to volunteers and aid stations. The race director refuses to come to terms with tri b.c.'s requests and did not receive permission from Harrison to put on his races. He made a ton of cash last year off his races as surprisingly they were well attended by people that did not know better. The races are over priced and I wouldn't travel any distance to do any of them, let alone travel 20 miles! He was still collecting money from people even though he knew his races were not suppose to be run.............god knows if those people ever got their money back? You were lucky as you would have been one of the first people through the aid stations............can you imagine those near the end? I'd like to hear their comments.