you have to run 300 meters or so up to the spiral ramp, then up the ramp, then into the hotel, where you enter the bag room, they will help you get your bag, then into the sex-designated changing room, with a lot of chairs, then out the door, onto the roof top, toward your bike, then down the other side. the pros were allowed to ride down the ramp, not sure about the age groupers. revers the situation coming back in. you dont habe to run down the ramp to start the run, you run back out accrossthe roof of the parking garage and into the city, where you run toward the capitol and then onto the college campus. it take a while, but is run pretty smoothly and is a beautiful place/area/etc.

such an awesome race and experience.

tommy

Madison are longer. You run up the ramp (it's not that bad) and into the convention centre. Into the ballroom to change then back out to the parking to get your bike. You get to ride your bike down the ramp. Then on the way back in you ride up the ramp to the doors and back into the ballroom to change for the run.

Last year they had a prize for the fastest combined transition times. I think it was 7:xx or something.

From what I've seen at the Duke Blue Devil and IM Florida folks take more time getting everything just right in the TA. A 5 minute transition isn't a big deal for a 12 hour race, but in a one hour race that 5 minutes is the difference between 1st and 20th in the age group. Plus, riding 12 or even 25 miles with a bike shoe rubbing isn't that rough while riding 112 with the same is a nightmare.

Saw a guy at Duke gunning for the fastest Transition time. Took his bag from the rack and headed straight out onto the bike. Changed into his biking gear while riding. Had a T1 time of something like 40 seconds. Ironman world record? It has to be close.

The IM-WI transitions were excessively long by any standards due to the set up. As described above you have a long run after the swim to get to the ramp, run up the several levels of the ramp entrance, into the ballroom (not the hotel), grab your bag, into the changing room, out of the changing room, around the corner to the bikes, then run your bike to the bike exit. Be a little careful in T2, as you have to bike up the circular exit ramp to get to the bike dismount and that caused a few people I know to have some leg cramps. T2 is another run through all the bag room into the changing room and then out the building and through a different exit ramp onto the street. I believe the overall quickest transition was over 7 minutes, which is still pretty long. Maybe that's why they awarded a bike frame or something like that to the dude at the awards ceremony!!!

And they gave the person with the slowest combined transitions, a pillow and blanket. ;-)

Also, beware of the gear bag and changing areas, they covered them in plastic, and they were very slippery. I talked to one guy much later, who said that he slipped and fell, felt awful, but finished, then spent a number of days in the hospital with a couple broken ribs and a collapsed lung!