I'll start first. It was a lot of fun!

Air was around 40 at 7am according to the car, but 34 according to Dark Sky. Well, chilly.
The race start moved to 8:30, the sun was already up and started to warm up a bit. As a downside, it was shining strong right in our faces during the swim on the way out and it wasn't easy to sight anything.

The coldest part of the day was waiting before the start. Fortunately we were able to warm up right next to the waiting lines before the start and the water was 68. So overall - not too bad.

I was lucky with selecting the right clothes for the bike. In addition to usual sleeved tri-suit I had a winter cycling jacket, winter gloves, a hat under the helmet and warm socks. It was right enough to feel comfortably cool and not cold during the ride. For the run I got rid of everything, changed socks and basically ran in the usual summer outfit. Again, it was comfortably cool, not cold.

Some of the athletes were not bothered by cold at all! Sleeveless tri suits all the way. New Englanders could be very cold-resistant!

The race itself was pretty nice in my opinion. Simple loop on the bike with usual New Hampshire hills. Very good roads, nice views and no busy towns. A bit short of 40K though. Run was hilly and short as well. But I think it's because they tried to squeeze one 5.1 mile route without much space. They probably didn't really want to include that ridiculous hill in the middle, this is not X-Terra :) May be a non-Rona edition of this race with 2 loops will have more balanced running route.

I think I did pretty well, hitting much better numbers on bike and run than last year, but competition was way too high for a small local tri :) I got 39th overall and 6th in my AG, which is lower than I usually do in local tris.

Congrats! Sounds like you did it perfectly. I want to learn from you

I’ve done cold tris and definitely didn’t dress appropriately as I ended up with hypothermia twice. Once dropping out after the bike and had memory loss of the next 4 hours. The next time it took over 8 hours to warm up So I NEED to do better

How long was your T1? I just imagine the time to put on socks over wet sandy feet and think uggggg lol

T1 was 4 min and there was almost no running involved. The transition was right on the beach.

The socks were not such a big deal, you can just roll them over. Where I lost more than a minute is gloves. They're old and crappy North Face running gloves and apparently I took them off in a hurry last winter. The internal fabric was all cramped up and wet fingers just didn't want to get in. Next time this is the part I'll try to do better.

Also I've spend 30 sec trying to put the vizor form Aerohead on. But this has nothing to do with weather, I just haven't used aero helmets for more than a year :)

I would save the beanie under the helmet transiton time and just leave your swim cap on for the bike. This takes care of a lot of the cold. Use duct tape and close the vents on your shoes so you don't have to put socks on. No point drying off...that will happen pretty quickly.

I also had a hard time with gloves. Anyway, my takeaways from the race is that I still can’t swim. And neither can Nate. Maybe this can be a thing ... slowtwitch, fix our swims!

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Hehe, I wish to be on your place, I still cannot bike apparently. :) How much NP do you need to do the time you’ve done there?

Nice!! Thank you

I can’t seem to get my aerohead visor not to fog up. Probably 75% of the time I end up ripping it off in transition just before getting on the bike Lol

I think it was only 216 or so.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I wear glasses, so that visor is a huge pita for me. I took it to the wind tunnel, and the visor only helps in heavy crosswinds, so usually I don’t wear it. But when I do I put anti fog spray that I use for my goggles on it and it turns out ok.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

That was such a fun day. I'm from around here so I didn't add anything extra that I wouldn't have worn if it had been 80° out and I was a little chilly early on the bike but basically fine. Being out and seeing people I hadn't seen in months and months and doing something relatively normal also just made me feel better than I've felt in months.

I would agree, or if you want something over top, one of the clear cycling rain jackets. Essentially a vapor barrier just like the trash bag. You're already wet, just keep the warmth in. If it warms up, ditch it at an aid station or just get rid of it at t2. Sometimes hard to find one that fit really tight though.

Hey - in my defense I swam 4x in the two weeks prior to the race - all open water - and that was it since March. I do agree that my swim is pretty bad, though!

I had a bad T1 - hard time getting gloves and arm warmers on. I opted for the trash bag under the suit, which I eventually ripped out in the first part of the run. I was fine temp wise and had a fun time. Without any run speed training it was a bit demoralizing to see guys running 3-4 min faster in only a five mile run. Oh well, till next year...

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Congrats to everyone who raced! It was a cold morning in northern Vermont.

I just looked at the results since a local guy we know did the race. Looks like there were literally hundreds of participants. Did you feel safe in regards to the pandemic?

I'm watching closely as you all pave the way in this new crazy world. Thoughts on how things were done to keep safe from spreading the virus?

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

We're just consumers, it's RD who's paving the way. :) Millennium Running has done a great job enforcing all social distancing protocols ( staggered start, super-wide transitions, no large queues), bringing volunteers and eliminating queues.

Overall I felt quite safe. Amount of interaction with other human beings is roughly the same as in a supermarket. Everybody instinctively puts masks on and keeps distance. About the same as in Boston area, I don't know about anti-mask areas they show on TV.
Even better that it's all outdoors.

I think there were roughly the same amount of volunteers and police presence as in smaller tris before Rona.

I felt very safe for the entire event. I think the organizers did a great job mitigating the risks associated with coronavirus. The bikes were spaced out well on the racks (I think they had racks for like 1500 people even though there were only approx. 400-500 participants). The bike course was a single loop and the run course was an out and back which helps minimize congestion on the course along with the staggered start. On the start, they had the first 100 participants line up next to numbered cones spaced 6 feet apart in rows based on bib number. The first person in the first row was released and everybody sort of followed one behind the other while maintaining social distance. The next 100 then lined up and the process repeated. They were quick to enforce social distancing and mask use as athletes tended to loiter near the finish. For as many people as there were I really didn't see any small crowds, and I certainly never felt crowded or at risk.

Felt totally safe, Millennium Running did an excellent job. They had only 5 bikes per rack and one bike from each wave on the rack therefore you were the only one at your race when you entered transition (one could actually get spoiled with all the space. Everyone wore masks up until race start, once we started never felt crowded at all. Beautiful course, all the legs were a little short and the run was hard but fun to be out there.

I had no concerns in this regard. Very large/open space, everyone kept their distance. It was fine. The time trial start was cool, they had a grid of cones out, one for every participant to stand by, that I think was definitely more than 6ft from the others. The spacing on the swim start kept transition from being crowded.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Didn't read through the thread responses, but I'd wear a speedo and nothing else, because fuck it why not!!!

always dress appropriately. Coming out of the water you'll be all lathered up and think "today is my day!". It's not, you're going to suffer. Dress accordingly.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Cause hypothermia and stuff.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I agree. I did the Full at Bear Lake Brawl last Saturday and the water temp, rain and wind made for a freezing experience. I was very glad I took the time I did to dry up and change into warm and waterproof clothes in T1. As it was the conditions made for terribly slow times but it was totally worth it. I may not have finished if I hadn't made sure to have the proper clothing.

BTW, you can look up on YouTube the PTO video on the Pro race (70.3) at Bear Lake Brawl. It's a pretty well done.

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