I just got back from Miami a few hours ago--what I witnessed yesterday was utter riding incompetence by well over half of the athletes. If they were not blocking in the middle of the road, or drafting in packs of 4 or more (literally saw a pack of 4 guys there that were inches between their wheels going the same speed)...then there were those who just did not know what "on your LEFT" meant. I did not see ANY draft marshals until 20 miles into the Long Course Tri.
Sadly, this run course is too narrow to hold such a race. There was not enough room for more than 1 large person on the path in each direction. Passing people meant going into the grass & possibly catching a foot on a root. If there were an average 150'ish pound person you could pass having one foot on the path and one on the grass, but that wasn't the case most of the path sections. Fields/grassy areas sure, but that asphalt path was too narrow & it was frustrating to yo-yo the pace while some walked, or even walked on the grass next to someone walking on the path.
Orange cone nightmare...the "parking lot" section a bit before the turn around / 6 mile marker...could have been right at 5 miles--I've never seen anything like it. Hundred of cones everywhere! So many where dodging each other not knowing where the "course" really was. At one point there was what looked like 5 cones wide for several rows, just before a left hand turn just before an aid station.
Corners: bike...not swept. With wet roads for a large part of the race, gravel on pretty much every corner. I had a lady go down right in front of me on a straight away & did the butt landing & spin/roll with a look of absolute death on her face, maybe she hit something, but I did see a total of THREE people on the ground during the bike. She unlikely had anything left of her suit on the butt. I hope everyone is okay.
Flats....multiple flats on the sides of the roads. I felt aside from the corners, the roads look relatively clear of debris except on the backside where there were a lot of patches in the road--bumps, and gravel.
Bathrooms. Why the hell would they put the bathrooms away from the transition area? They had one porta-john at each end. The rest were out on the road opposite of the finish line & behind multiple barriers/fabric fencing. Pre-swim, 4 out of 5 bathrooms I hit in the row of porta johns, had ZERO toilet paper. Miami Man--you need to have someone on toilet paper detail next time.
Aid stations...some aid stations were good, some were really baaaad. As in, they were too busy talking & chatting while cups sat on a table. Some were yelling what they had & then pulled their arms away just before you grab it and missed entirely. Others, were under the tent yelling what was on the table, as they were behind the tables, holding up cups. So...we are supposed to go under the tent, grab what we want & continue? They were not trained properly. They need to be ON the edge of the course so we can continue forward progress. Also, they need to add Coke to the list aside from water & Gatorade. One aid stations mixed the Gatorade so thick, it was like syrup & I spit it out, instead waiting to the next aid station where I had to drink a lot of water to get the taste of the thick Gatorade out of my mouth.
Leading right up to the race, they had said to bring your wetsuit, it'll be be wetsuit legal, always has been. Many were caught out when they didn't bring a swim skin (I did luckily) and some raced in their race suit bottoms (not a great option for females who have a 2 pc with pockets in the back, even lycra will drag a lot if they're not of compressive nature like a swim skin.
We were told to not bring a race number belt, we were to get a special Miami Man race belt. Glad I brought an extra one, I did not get one, but still--I would have had to buy one there if I had not. Unless I pinned it on the jersey under the swim skin, but you risk tearing the swim skin with pins there.
Awards...likely the most painful part of this event. It took hours to get through these. When there was live music playing, they could have started the awards. The shorter early race results should have been compiled & awards distributed after a few sets of music. Many people had flights and had to leave, missing their stage & award appearance. This needs to be fixed for future editions, as many friends had to leave back to Miami for this very reason.
Website...the website needs some work. Navigation to the participant's list early on was not intuitive. I contacted them & told them they need to change that because it was hard to find. I even asked other athletes who went & they said the same thing--website sucked. I wanted to know how many were in the AG and race OA, before signing up, because if there were only a few and if a very small number showed up, I'd have passed. For that reason, I chose the Long Course Tri instead of the Long Course Duathlon--the duathlon was just too tiny of a field to make the trip. You want good competition right? So I went for the deepest field of all the races.
A few pros...the tech shirts were nice, the water was clear and quite enjoyable to swim in. There seems to be ample aid stations for fueling. The swim course was actually sort of fun, but too much traffic on the 2-loop swim which merged Aqua-bike, Oly & half distance racers. There was plenty of space between racks and down the middle, but the assigned numbers on each rack were too close together--very little room to get the bike in/out if you have a taller bike. Probably the best perk or pro of the race was the pizza. They had gourmet pizza delivered from Mamma Mia's, a local Italian place that makes their own dough, sauce & everything else in house. They are expensive (because I ate there 3 times on this trip & saw how much they cost).
Anti-doping...I talked to a top placing OA long course duathlete & he got pulled for doping tests. Duathlon of all things...he & I agreed it was a great thing that he got pulled for the test, at least USAT has FINALLY gotten the clue they need to step up their game in this area, I can't help but think some credit may (or not) go to the Miami Man race organization. After all they stepped it up on the gourmet pizza, I figure they may have had a hand in ensuring this race had some controls in place. Bravo to whichever groups were behind this. Good to see (although I'm not sure if anyone else got pulled for testing).
There were some really nice things about the race, but it seems like it is one of those races that sort of grew too fast & wasn't ready for the numbers--a bit overwhelmed if you would. A race that is on the cusp of the next growth level, but just hasn't quite nailed it (the details) yet. Hopefully, they will read this & make some changes. Was it horrible? Heck no. Was it awesome, far from heck no. But they do some real stand up stuff for athletes and you can tell they are putting in a concerted effort Example: (a friend couldn't race last year & they asked if he just wanted to transfer to another year/this year...) Yes, they approached him and asked--you don't get that much these days. So I know they care about the athletes and their growth--it just sort of happened faster than they were ready for.
Sadly, this run course is too narrow to hold such a race. There was not enough room for more than 1 large person on the path in each direction. Passing people meant going into the grass & possibly catching a foot on a root. If there were an average 150'ish pound person you could pass having one foot on the path and one on the grass, but that wasn't the case most of the path sections. Fields/grassy areas sure, but that asphalt path was too narrow & it was frustrating to yo-yo the pace while some walked, or even walked on the grass next to someone walking on the path.
Orange cone nightmare...the "parking lot" section a bit before the turn around / 6 mile marker...could have been right at 5 miles--I've never seen anything like it. Hundred of cones everywhere! So many where dodging each other not knowing where the "course" really was. At one point there was what looked like 5 cones wide for several rows, just before a left hand turn just before an aid station.
Corners: bike...not swept. With wet roads for a large part of the race, gravel on pretty much every corner. I had a lady go down right in front of me on a straight away & did the butt landing & spin/roll with a look of absolute death on her face, maybe she hit something, but I did see a total of THREE people on the ground during the bike. She unlikely had anything left of her suit on the butt. I hope everyone is okay.
Flats....multiple flats on the sides of the roads. I felt aside from the corners, the roads look relatively clear of debris except on the backside where there were a lot of patches in the road--bumps, and gravel.
Bathrooms. Why the hell would they put the bathrooms away from the transition area? They had one porta-john at each end. The rest were out on the road opposite of the finish line & behind multiple barriers/fabric fencing. Pre-swim, 4 out of 5 bathrooms I hit in the row of porta johns, had ZERO toilet paper. Miami Man--you need to have someone on toilet paper detail next time.
Aid stations...some aid stations were good, some were really baaaad. As in, they were too busy talking & chatting while cups sat on a table. Some were yelling what they had & then pulled their arms away just before you grab it and missed entirely. Others, were under the tent yelling what was on the table, as they were behind the tables, holding up cups. So...we are supposed to go under the tent, grab what we want & continue? They were not trained properly. They need to be ON the edge of the course so we can continue forward progress. Also, they need to add Coke to the list aside from water & Gatorade. One aid stations mixed the Gatorade so thick, it was like syrup & I spit it out, instead waiting to the next aid station where I had to drink a lot of water to get the taste of the thick Gatorade out of my mouth.
Leading right up to the race, they had said to bring your wetsuit, it'll be be wetsuit legal, always has been. Many were caught out when they didn't bring a swim skin (I did luckily) and some raced in their race suit bottoms (not a great option for females who have a 2 pc with pockets in the back, even lycra will drag a lot if they're not of compressive nature like a swim skin.
We were told to not bring a race number belt, we were to get a special Miami Man race belt. Glad I brought an extra one, I did not get one, but still--I would have had to buy one there if I had not. Unless I pinned it on the jersey under the swim skin, but you risk tearing the swim skin with pins there.
Awards...likely the most painful part of this event. It took hours to get through these. When there was live music playing, they could have started the awards. The shorter early race results should have been compiled & awards distributed after a few sets of music. Many people had flights and had to leave, missing their stage & award appearance. This needs to be fixed for future editions, as many friends had to leave back to Miami for this very reason.
Website...the website needs some work. Navigation to the participant's list early on was not intuitive. I contacted them & told them they need to change that because it was hard to find. I even asked other athletes who went & they said the same thing--website sucked. I wanted to know how many were in the AG and race OA, before signing up, because if there were only a few and if a very small number showed up, I'd have passed. For that reason, I chose the Long Course Tri instead of the Long Course Duathlon--the duathlon was just too tiny of a field to make the trip. You want good competition right? So I went for the deepest field of all the races.
A few pros...the tech shirts were nice, the water was clear and quite enjoyable to swim in. There seems to be ample aid stations for fueling. The swim course was actually sort of fun, but too much traffic on the 2-loop swim which merged Aqua-bike, Oly & half distance racers. There was plenty of space between racks and down the middle, but the assigned numbers on each rack were too close together--very little room to get the bike in/out if you have a taller bike. Probably the best perk or pro of the race was the pizza. They had gourmet pizza delivered from Mamma Mia's, a local Italian place that makes their own dough, sauce & everything else in house. They are expensive (because I ate there 3 times on this trip & saw how much they cost).
Anti-doping...I talked to a top placing OA long course duathlete & he got pulled for doping tests. Duathlon of all things...he & I agreed it was a great thing that he got pulled for the test, at least USAT has FINALLY gotten the clue they need to step up their game in this area, I can't help but think some credit may (or not) go to the Miami Man race organization. After all they stepped it up on the gourmet pizza, I figure they may have had a hand in ensuring this race had some controls in place. Bravo to whichever groups were behind this. Good to see (although I'm not sure if anyone else got pulled for testing).
There were some really nice things about the race, but it seems like it is one of those races that sort of grew too fast & wasn't ready for the numbers--a bit overwhelmed if you would. A race that is on the cusp of the next growth level, but just hasn't quite nailed it (the details) yet. Hopefully, they will read this & make some changes. Was it horrible? Heck no. Was it awesome, far from heck no. But they do some real stand up stuff for athletes and you can tell they are putting in a concerted effort Example: (a friend couldn't race last year & they asked if he just wanted to transfer to another year/this year...) Yes, they approached him and asked--you don't get that much these days. So I know they care about the athletes and their growth--it just sort of happened faster than they were ready for.