katojohn wrote:
Did this race as well.
Swim course was approx. 2000meters for most of my tri-club mates. Revised course due to some constructions in the area. Wave Start for AG: 6 Athletes every 4 secs.
Bike was 90 kms (maybe 100-200m more), quality of road was like a "carpet". Was happily surprised by 29-30 marshals, saw many people in penalty box. On the way back (after 45kms) wind was "pushing" you forward.
Run course about 20.850meters, aid stations in running session was fulfilled with iced water, iso, colas, red bull, gels, etc, one of the best refuelling I have ever seen.
But the fact that officially 1105 Age Groupers had wrong time in swimming session (bibs started counting their time when the first AGs started swimming (07.10)) not individualy, make a result confusion, placing extra time (from 1min to 20 minutes) for these 1105 AG. I started swimming 07:20 but my bib was counting since 07:10 (went to the time keepers after I finished the race).
As a result, in ceremony awards, no slot allocation for IM 703 WC@Taupo. Paul Kaye communication skill talent, at his best. They decided to offer extra 40 slots for that AGs that their results were based on bike/run (on top of the 812 AGs that their results were as it had to be (swimbikerun).
So:
40 Slots for 1105 Age groupers (bike/run results)
40 slots for 812 AG (swim/biker/run results)
plus 25 extra slots for women.
Does anyone know if slot allocation is complete? I really did not "feel" like I deserved a slot given my slow run, but I'm probably on the edge of a potential rolldown in my age group depending on how many slots we get. My age group is around 5% of the field, so I expect roughly 4 slots so maybe two in each category, so it depends on how many studs in front of me already have slots or don't plan to go to New Zealand in November. The longer I am removed from the race, the pain of suffering out another 21.1km run is less traumatic (hard to believe 21.1km used to be an easy run, these days it feels like a marathon to me).