I paid way too much for a 1st time race this weekend. It was the Gorgeman Half (well almost) IM in Hood River, Oregon. The venue has infinite potential, the race promoters/directors displayed infinite amateurishness.
Complaints are as follows:
Pre-race: Website lacked course details or any valuable details for that matter, no course maps at packet pick up (day before race), no confidence was instilled that they directors had a clue. No chip timing, no splits, no frills, not even basics as far as I am concerned.
Swim: Race started an hour late, ZERO buoys on the swim course. The swim had potential to be great. We got on a sternwheeler, rode up the mighty Columbia River and jumped off. Unfortunately, the only course instructions were "head toward the pilon (for shipping traffic) and make a left toward shore". There was pretty good swim support in terms of kayaks, jet skis etc.
Ride: Again, a chance for greatness, if you like climbing and descending, which I do. The good news is that there were supposed to be 2 bottle feeds, it was fairly hot and with 4200+ feet of climbing, we needed them. The bad news is that they had the first one at mile 10, I hadn't a drop to drink yet and the second one, well...I'm not sure where it was. We climbed (more or less) for about 25 miles to Cooper Spur ski area. I expected a bottle at the top, seems logical and I thought that is what they expected to do. Nothing. I found out after the race that there were bottles a few miles down after a fast descent, not ideal placement. Furthermore, they weren't handing them out, per se. They were short of volunteers and the bottles were there, but you had to ask for one from the guy who was also doing traffic control.
Run: Great course, huge support gap. Again, hot day, screwed on bottles on the (long (2:39), but short (52 miles)) bike, needed fluids. I admit I knew that aid was NOT going to be plentiful. 4 water stations, no food, no mile markers. I carried a bottle out of T2, thank God. Many others didn't expecting aid every mile or so.
Post Race: ZERO food. I raced for 4:30, others 6:30+ and NO FOOD! I will admit, there was a marathon run in conjuntion, loosely affiliated, that had water and some juice afterwards, but not close to what you would expect. ZERO awards ceremony. They ran a sprint in tandem and somehow screwed the pooch with results. Mind you, there were only about 40 sprinters and 60 1/2 IM racers and a handful of teams. A good race director should be able to keep track of that in his head. My girlfriend (did the sprint) spent a bunch of time trying to sort out the results and they still posted them wrong the next day.
Most racers were disgusted with the lack of support and lack of information. All this for $100 (March pre-reg), $125 (May pre-reg) and $150 or $50 for the sprint. I figure the race was worth about $75. We paid premium race prices for a no frills, rookie event. Infuriating.
Oh yeah, I still have no idea who the race director is, I never saw him. How about that for a calming presence??!!
Complaints are as follows:
Pre-race: Website lacked course details or any valuable details for that matter, no course maps at packet pick up (day before race), no confidence was instilled that they directors had a clue. No chip timing, no splits, no frills, not even basics as far as I am concerned.
Swim: Race started an hour late, ZERO buoys on the swim course. The swim had potential to be great. We got on a sternwheeler, rode up the mighty Columbia River and jumped off. Unfortunately, the only course instructions were "head toward the pilon (for shipping traffic) and make a left toward shore". There was pretty good swim support in terms of kayaks, jet skis etc.
Ride: Again, a chance for greatness, if you like climbing and descending, which I do. The good news is that there were supposed to be 2 bottle feeds, it was fairly hot and with 4200+ feet of climbing, we needed them. The bad news is that they had the first one at mile 10, I hadn't a drop to drink yet and the second one, well...I'm not sure where it was. We climbed (more or less) for about 25 miles to Cooper Spur ski area. I expected a bottle at the top, seems logical and I thought that is what they expected to do. Nothing. I found out after the race that there were bottles a few miles down after a fast descent, not ideal placement. Furthermore, they weren't handing them out, per se. They were short of volunteers and the bottles were there, but you had to ask for one from the guy who was also doing traffic control.
Run: Great course, huge support gap. Again, hot day, screwed on bottles on the (long (2:39), but short (52 miles)) bike, needed fluids. I admit I knew that aid was NOT going to be plentiful. 4 water stations, no food, no mile markers. I carried a bottle out of T2, thank God. Many others didn't expecting aid every mile or so.
Post Race: ZERO food. I raced for 4:30, others 6:30+ and NO FOOD! I will admit, there was a marathon run in conjuntion, loosely affiliated, that had water and some juice afterwards, but not close to what you would expect. ZERO awards ceremony. They ran a sprint in tandem and somehow screwed the pooch with results. Mind you, there were only about 40 sprinters and 60 1/2 IM racers and a handful of teams. A good race director should be able to keep track of that in his head. My girlfriend (did the sprint) spent a bunch of time trying to sort out the results and they still posted them wrong the next day.
Most racers were disgusted with the lack of support and lack of information. All this for $100 (March pre-reg), $125 (May pre-reg) and $150 or $50 for the sprint. I figure the race was worth about $75. We paid premium race prices for a no frills, rookie event. Infuriating.
Oh yeah, I still have no idea who the race director is, I never saw him. How about that for a calming presence??!!