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USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback
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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.
Last edited by: Rocky M: Nov 12, 18 15:32
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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I think this would come across a lot better if your lede was the last three paragraphs in the entire post ...


Rocky M wrote:
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.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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I enjoyed the race, I thought the volunteers did great, the aid stations were fine, and there were plenty of porta Johns.

If a participant didn’t bring something that should be on any triathletes race day checklist, don’t blame the race itself.

People get flat tires. Not sure why that was a knock against the race? The roads were fine. The few corners that were a bit slick were slick for everyone that rode the course so we all dealt with it. I saw a few crashes when people went too hard into a turn. If you risk a turn that fast, you risk going down.

To agree with you on a few things, the 4 person draft pack you mentioned was something I saw and I’m willing to bet it was the same 4 that you saw. I did however see several officials on motos through the ride but unfortunately not when the draft group was there.

There was one section on the bike where a large 18 wheeler blocked the entire road but it wasn’t near an intersection and it really only affected 5-6 of us for maybe 15-20 seconds. Shit happens... risk of an open course.

The run course has plenty of room to pass in plenty of places. The thin areas were there but not really to the extent you described.

Awards did take a long time, I agree. And sitting in the sun waiting wasn’t ideal. The race is labeled a ‘National Championship’ though and it would cheapen the title to make awards less significant of a process. My suggestion for awards would be to maybe change the order though. The race that went first had awards presented last.

Any race could be improved and I think you could genuinely explain your ideas to the race team by giving honest suggestions on what could be better. For the amount of people there, it really went well. (In my opinion)
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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I was down in Miami for the event, too.. unfortunately on the first lap of the run I was suffering from some pretty bad heat exhaustion symptoms, so I withdrew after the first lap.. thank goodness I did, because I was nauseous and had a bad headache until about 9pm Sunday night... if I had suffered through another lap, I probably would have ended up in ICU.

I enjoyed the race, aside from having my first DNF... The start was perfect, rain, cooler temps...
The bike was fine until the second loop when 1) bike and car traffic increased. 2) a car nearly drove into me at one of the rural intersections around mile 30 and 3) the sun came out, humidity went to 1000%, and the grime on the bikes dried (not so pretty).
The run was tough and was easy to understand looking back to it... I was not quite with it while I was out there so it was a bit of "WTF, why are we going out here in a parking lot" deliriousness...

Overall, the race organizers seemed to put on a good race, even if the race didn't turn out well for me. My wife told me... that we will not be traveling back next year for Miami Man... and I think I'm okay with that for now... although I imagine soon I'll be hungry for redemption.... or maybe not?
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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Interesting, there's a whole other thread about how the refs seemed to be on point for bike portion of the race. It did seem that seeing the motos was not deterring people from continuing to draft, but many athletes received penalties on Sunday.

Some sections of the run course are indeed narrow but as you noted there is space to go around people through the grass. Considering there was a stretch entirely on grass, this is something you should probably be able to manage. There were some really crappy sections thanks to the rain but that is out of the organizer's control. I didn't see anyone struggling to figure out the cone situation. Yes it was a ridiculous amount of cones but it wasn't rocket science to figure out where you should go and they had plenty of volunteers helping to guide you. This was a step up from last year.

Bike corners. Most were fine, but there were two, maybe three with some debris on them. You just had to take them carefully. I was towards the front of the race and even the fast people were taking the corners with care. As far as flats, they happen. I haven't heard any stories (yet) of locals tacking the roads like they have in the past, so that was a positive.

Bathrooms. Also a step up from years in the past where there were two porta potties total. The location wasn't entirely ideal but it was set up so that you could get to them as you walked towards swim start. In the past they were by the lake outside transition but this year it seems like transition was much larger and reached much closer to the lake which was probably why they didn't put them there. As far as toilet paper, it seems like a lot of it fell on the ground and was spoiled by the monsoon that passed by near the race start. You should always bring your own.

Aid stations. They were getting slammed by athletes who were desperate for any ice or anything they could get. Many athletes were taking 3-4 cups at a time so it's easy to see why the aid stations started falling apart. Every station I crossed seemed to be trying their best. The organizers should have probably doubled up on their ice order though. As far as Gatorade concentration, every single race struggles to get the mix just right which is why I always attempt to get a cup of both water and Gatorade.

The site and race suit legality. The site flat out lied. 2017 was not wetsuit legal but historically the race has been more often than not. There was a whole thread on the water temperature on here that should have shed some light on that for you. This also boils down to your preparedness. And yes, their website looks like early 2000s way too cluttered mess. That being said, if you found the participant list link below the registration options then you could clearly see the start lists.

Awards. Can't argue with you on that one. I told all of my buddies that if they weren't going to win their AG, to please not be dumb enough to podium. They seem to want the whole race to be over before they start the awards even though the people getting them finished hours before. It's dumb. It is what it is though.

Why wouldn't you bring your own race number belt regardless? What if the one they were going to give you was total crap? That being said, my packet was missing the visor. I asked Multirace about it after the race and they kindly got me one.

I've had a lot of gripes with Multirace in the past. All things considered, I think this was one of the better editions of this race.
Last edited by: jazzymusicman: Nov 13, 18 6:59
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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It's a USAT sanctioned event...what did you expect? USAT is garbage and so are their "national championship" events.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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There were no Gatorade at the finish line for many of the later long course course racers. I think if you were a 6+ hour finisher, you were on the borderline of getting some Gatorade at the end.

I did the oly. I had Gatorade when I finished. When I came back later to watch the later long course finishers come in, there was just water for them. That's really inexcusable for a hot/humid day like that and especially for a race that is labeled a "Championship" race.

Running on the grass sucked. Running through the zoo was awesome with all of the animals out cheering for us :)

I had no issues with the bike course.

For the swim, it was a nice touch of them to bring all of people's discarded shoes/slippers/belongings from the swim start to the finish line area, all laid out nicely.

I thought the swag was great, for a triathlon. I had shirt, visor, stringbag, and racebelt. Most triathlons, I just expect a bib # and a swim cap in the goodie bag :)

All of the volunteers I came across were great.


__________________________________________________________________________
My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Conky] [ In reply to ]
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Agreed. In my experience, I'm more used to a WTC template, where it is more common to have everything smooth, logical and like clockwork. I realize the Miami 70.3 was not good, & this race was touted as the better of the two--but I would give this a C+ rating & at this point, do not see myself going back until Nats moves. It was "meh" but I have done much worse.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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I thought the organizers did fine. Getting hit with that downpour right before the start was nuts.

The drafting was out of control I watched about three packs of drafters wiz right by me. One of the drafters turned to me as they passed and said, "Crazy, isn't it?" I said, "It's drafting and it's bullshit."
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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There was no water on the bike course at least after my first loop. I kept riding down the line asking until they told me they were out. I had no hydration from mile 28 to 42. I began to cramp really bad. I gave up hope of using my concentrated fuel so I grabbed Gatorade on the second loop so I could get back to transition (they did have water at the end of the second loop, but I already dumped the Gatorade in my aero bottle). It ruin my race....dehydration is a serious issue.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [zoom] [ In reply to ]
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Based on the description of the run course one could reasonably expect some stretches on hard-packed dirt, like service roads, packed gravel or at worst well-worn trails. That wasn’t the case. There were stretches that were full-on cross country running on untouched grass with no trail in sight. I don’t know that I care too much but I like an honest presentation of what to expect.

And the claims about whether wetsuits were allowed in recent years were just flat wrong. Whether they were lies or a failure to update a webpage I don’t know.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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Rocky M wrote:

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.
They're volunteers, you have to cut them some slack. I work event staff sometimes and I'll brief my volunteers if I'm on the run course... but I've seen it all from people setting up 25yds. off the course bunch of cups on a table chilling in the shade sitting playing games on phones... to setting up on both sides of the road, cups in hand, calling out what they have, cleaning up trash that misses the cans... ready for double the amount of athletes coming their way. Most fall in between those two, but they really need to be told what to do as many of them don't know jack about triathlons or aid stations.

I write on my Gatorade jugs with a marker the mix directions... a 1 gallon jug of concentrate, 5 gallons of water and a bag of ice in one of the Gatorade coolers is the precribed mix from Gatorade. I've found it's generally more acceptable to use half a gallon of Gatorade concentrate vs. the full gallon, so that's what we have our volunteers shoot for. We've had volunteers pour in straight concentrate and fill cups... I'm sure that's what you experienced.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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I did the International aquabike and felt the traffic situation was very dangerous and I saw zero marshals on the short course. I didn't notice too much drafting to be fair, but many riders ended up having to pass stopped traffic on the left and drivers were definitely losing patience by the end of the course. I had to come out of the aerobars for most of the last mile through the two traffic lights because cars were just shooting right past the cops out of frustration. I was actually surprised that no one was hit by a car.

Also, I am curious what time the awards were finally distributed? We sat around until like 1:25 and then I just didn't care anymore.

I am glad I had a decent race this year so I don't feel the need to return next year. It's an OK venue, but it could definitely be better.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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I think much of your criticism is overly harsh. But not without some truth, for sure. I thought it was well run, but with some areas they can address to make it better. I didn’t notice any serious drafting on the bike, but I was 9th OA duathlete, so we were in/out of the course before the bulk of the athletes hit the two loops. I definitely saw draft Marshalls several times each loop, and on the out and back, once when one of the OA triathletes passed me and we were both passing a bunch of slower riders, so there was a lot going on at that moment. There were a lot of inexperienced riders who had trouble staying right and I had to slow more than once on the second loop because I got squeezed out against the centerline by a drifting rider. I didn’t think the road conditions were bad at all, considering the course. I drove it the day before and some of the dirt/gravel from farm use got there overnight. I don’t know there is much more that could have been done. I rode conservatively through the corners as the course was still very wet until the last homestretch for me.

Honestly, the bathroom situation is the one area that I’m in full agreement with you for. They were ill placed with long walks to either end of the finishing shoot to get to them from the race area and transition. A nice bank of them on the swamp-side on the bike exit/entrance of transition would have been a great area to have some. That area was not heavily traveled and was out of the way of any action.

I think they can address the run course issues fairly easily. Some with better ground marking. Some with slightly altered routing. But the logistics of the aid stations would get more difficult if they split up the in/out route. In that heat in November, where most non-FL athletes are no longer heat acclimatized....aid stations every mile was a VERY good thing!
Last edited by: TriBriGuy: Nov 14, 18 16:53
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [IronMandie] [ In reply to ]
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I’m sorry, but that is just an execution error on your part. Take whatever fluids are there and adjust. Dehydration is bad, of course....but was totally avoidable by simply taking what WAS available.

Honestly....reading some of these comments, maybe I’m just hamstrung in my opinions by being an old curmudgeon who raced a lot of early races in this sport without most of the stuff you all are complaining about. We just got to the start lines and got it done. It’s a race, not Disneyland.
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [Rocky M] [ In reply to ]
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My third year at this race.

I'm glad these comments are being aired. Some are valid, some are silly but USAT has committed to the Multi-Sport Festival and hopefully, they'll take note.

Here's my take..

The check in was a cluster. I was not asked for my USAT card or identification. Nor was I asked to fill out a medical info sheet. We needed our race # to pick up our packet. They had two ladies with about 40 sheets of athlete names and bib #'s. You gave them your last name and then they searched for you...crazy slow. They could have provided a big poster board(s) with the athlete names and #'s. Or, two or three tablets that you could search your name on.

Swim...great venue. Clean water and no alligators!. They could have extended the carpet on the swim exit. The bottom was rocks and coral...sharp.

Bike...The Bike-Out / Bike-In section was dangerous. The tree roots next to the road were overwhelming. I was in bare feet and had to basically stop and pick my way across. I would not have wanted to do that stretch with bike cleats on. I had no issues with the course itself. Bike marshals were on the course. Saw a few random drafting assholes but it was not rampant from my perspective.

Run... It was a combination of pavement, gravel and grass..and some big puddles. Except for the sections that were flooded from the earlier rain, the course was fine. Someone mentioned the out and back in the zoo being a problem because we were all on one path....it wasn't an issue. I had no problems passing folks on that section.

Cost...I thought $400 bucks was pretty steep. It was not a top-notch race production.. It was good race, but not worth $400.

Awards Ceremony...it was long, no doubt. they could have a staging area set up so the award winners are queued up and ready to go when their names were called. But, Mult-sport means multi-awards....no matter how they do it, it's going to be a long process.

Random thoughts...
  • There were race support staff ripping recklessly around the venue with their four-wheelers.
  • Two-Ply TP in the Portapottys was heaven.
  • Nice touch to bring back all the stuff left at the swim venue...
  • I asked for two waters at every aid station on the run...never stopped running and never missed leaving with two waters. The kids were awesome.




Overall, I'd give the race a C+/B-. You could tell there was something missing with the race production...To me, the check in process is like the canary in the coal mine. If it's buttoned up and quick, chances are really good the race itself will be.



"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz
Last edited by: stringcheese: Nov 15, 18 5:47
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Re: USAT Long Course Triathlon Nationals/Miami Man Organization feedback [stringcheese] [ In reply to ]
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Myself and my wife got an email about medical forms. Just print it and check off any medical conditions etc. and exchange it for your packet.
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