I am not doing the race this year but the past two years- yes they will bring your wetsuit to the finish. It works like this: two of your bags go to T1 transition area with you. One of them (called Morning Clothes Bag) gets stuffed with everything you need on race morning but do not use to swim or bike. Drop this off when you exit the transition area to go to swim start. After you swim and are transitioning, stuff EVERYTHING except your bike into that second bag and leave it at your rack. Both bags will magically appear near the finish line. Have fun!

Do you recommend using a 11-27 cassette? I did the race last year on a 11-23, but if it's a lot hillier I may "upgrade". Thanks!

Is there is a good line to take on the final few miles on the crappy roads. i.e. can you ride on the outer edge of the road to avoid the potholes? Thanks.

PS - are there any updates on the water temp?

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4 x Kona Qualifier

Unfortunately there is no one line better than the other. Your best bet would be to drive it to get a feel for what you are looking at. As for the water, don't have an exact temp but based on the other lakes and ponds in the area it should be nice and comfy with a slight chill at first. I have found it to be perfect temps to swim in the past few days.

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I got nothing.

Thanks, Nick. I did the course two years ago and have a vague recollection. As for the water temp, do you think it will be under or over the 78.1 wetsuit-legal temp. Thanks!

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4 x Kona Qualifier

I would expect it well below 78.1... Though just speculation. There are high temps here this week though. I would be hard pressed to believe it will be higher than 70 though.

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Thanks. I am in Narragansett for the week, but I had no idea how the heat would affect a smaller pond like Olney.

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4 x Kona Qualifier

FWIW, don't forget that this is a WTC race. Wetsuit legal cutoff temp is 76.1, not 78.

I road the bike route the last few days and did the entire route this weekend. I would concur with most of the comments regarding the rolling hills on the second half. I live a few miles from Route 102 and it is pretty good shape. I question whether or not you will be able to get the full benefit of tri bike over road bike for this course. One thing is for sure, Central Pike/Ave is a complete mess! Watch out from start to finish going down this section of road (Central Ave) it is in really bad shape.

Tri bike for sure. The hills are not bad at all.... Rolling, but fast.

Reading the athlete guide - the worst part of Central Ave is a no pass zone too (which is good as I'm sure people would have been crashing into one another trying to avoid holes). Though - every race I've done, there are always people who ignore the no pass zone (generally riding in a group anyway....).

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UGH!! Lincoln Woods was closed today on Wednesday 7/6 due to high bacteria counts. here's hoping its open again by Sunday.

They say they'll be re-opening the beach tomorrow.

Oh yeah... That gives you the warm and fuzzies.... Please please please.... Bacteria drop to just below the hazardous level.

Three words... Post Race Diarrhea.

Actually if you look at the readings on the official Rhode Island Health Department website thats not how it works... I forget the unit of measure used... but the levels go something like this..

6 - Normal, Beach is open
500 - Giant spike and the beach closes.
6 - Levels return to NORMAL (NOT just below the closing point) Beach reopens.

I'll feel fine about swimming there if the beach is open.

Speaking of which... the levels this morning look promising and I expect the beach to reopen shortly.

http://www.ribeaches.org/...cfm?beachID=RI304386

Levels are back down to 7 from a spike of 548

Yeah... Don't know much about corruption and Rhode Island much, do ya...

Gee, and you did not notice something "Strange" about the closures????

Lets play a little game and see if you can "FIND THE PATTERN"

6/22/2010 - Beach closed - re-opens 6/23
7/22/2010 - Beach closed - re-opens 7/23
8/25/2010 - Beach closed - re-opens 8/26

Hmmm... Just a "coincidence that they "test" 4 times per month, and roughly every 4 weeks the beach is closed.... Hmmmm

This year.

6/7/2010 - Beach closed - re-opens 6/8/2011
7/6/2010 - Beach closed - re-opens 7/7/2011???

Yeah... No... I don't see a "pattern" forming... nor would there be any "pressure" to re-open to collect money... especially in this economy... Yeah... Politicians would never do that...

And what are the possibilities and coincidence that the beach closes roughly EVERY 4 weeks during the summer????

Nah... They wouldn't possibly do that to give the "impression that the water is safe.

Like the water quality there... "smells like s^&t" to me.,

Actually its highly likely I know a lot more about Rhode Island than you presume I do... I've lived a large portion of my life here and am very familiar with how the state operates.

I also think your theory is flawed. While you have a point that the beach has closed around the regularity with which they do the testing your pattern does not extend very far at all.

In 2011 the beach has been closed twice.

In 2010 the beach has been closed three times

In 2009 it didnt close at all

In 2008 it was close once.

Hardly evidence of a pattern or some grand goverment conspiracy.

Anyway... I'm not interested in continueing this debate any further. Think what you wish. I'm currently focused on positivity, and I'm very very excited to be back to racing after spending the entire beginning of this season rehabbing from a run injury. So I'm going to focus my thoughts on what I can control... CRUSHING DREAMS!!!!

LOL well growing up in Mass and having friend who are/were RI politicians and lawyers who work closely with the RI State Government.

Funny how you fail to see that the beach closes basically every 30 days during summer last year, and the pattern has continued this year.

I can understand since they are testing 4 times a month that the frequency may not be greater, but when you see a pattern

2010
Test
Test
Test
CLOSE
Test
Test
Test
CLOSE
Test
Test
Test
CLOSE

2011
Test
CLOSE
Test
Test
Test
CLOSE

Hmmmm... Yeah... No coincidence there.

Not to mention that on the website, they show the beach re-opening the next day. Funny. When I see other lakes, ponds and bodies of water get closed, they are often closed for days to resume normal. Mass is also different where they require TWO clean days in a row before they will re-open a closed body of water. How interesting that Rhode Island "opens" it back up within 24 hours. Yeah... No issues there.

I'll just have to focus on setting a PR swim so I don't spend as much time in the water!

Ok... I'm bored while I wait for it to get stupid hot before I get my last bike workout in before the race... so I'll go one more round with you....

Pattern? you are only looking at two years worth of data. I suspect because after those two years of data the data no longer supports your theory. Funny... theres almost ten years of data available online. None of which you talk about.

Also... whats the motivation for this grand every 4 week corrupt government conspiracy? Theres no admission charge to Lincoln Woods, no parking fees, and no fees to use the beach and pretty much no income to the state or town from the beach except for the little concession stand there. So whats the motivation?

RI Politicians certainly have a history of being corrupt... but I'm pretty sure they have better things to do than create eleborate water testing schemes. I'm pretty sure they would rather get kickbacks from towing and construction companies. Its much more lucrative. Seriously dude... its three days out from race day. Howbout showing some support for your fellow triathletes racing instead of spreading nonsense theories with no factual proof. There is NO grand scheme here. Even our largest and most lucrative beaches... the ones that charge and get 20 bucks a day for parking and outrageous concession fees get shutdown by the water testing folks. Almost always after heavy rainfalls or other weather related incidents. The water testing folks do their job. PERIOD.

Ok... Its 88 degrees now... time for me to continue to acclimate to our recent heat wave and get out for one last short bike/run brick. I've got dreams to crush... even if its only the dreams of the BOPs and MOPs. They still count!

Let me simplify this for you.

This body of water is "supposedly" tested week during the summer.

Since January 2010, there have been FIVE months of tests and EVERY MONTH has had a failure. In 18 months, in EVERY MONTH this body of what was test, it has FAILED AT LEAST ONCE.

100%. 5 for 5.

I could care less what the water was like back in 2004. Nor do I know that it was tested. What I can see is for the last two years, in EVERY MONTH the water was tested it had a FAILURE.

June failures are HIGHLY irregular as well. Late July and August, make sense... But to have two years and two Junes with back to back failures? That is BAD WATER.

SECOND Pattern is the fact that it appears every 4 test fails. Over a two year period, that is very suspect to the point where it appears that it is NEVER really clean, but they are just covering their a$$. Last year in particular I would have expected Test 4 in July and Test 2 in August given the weather.

I suppose we can find whomever is responsible behind the grassy knoll... Are you guys done now so people can actually talk about the race?

Someone mentioned throwing a 27 cassette on, interested to hear if a lot of people and using different gearing in anticipation of the hills.

Not so much a "conspiracy theory" as it is there are a lot of "no-show" government hack jobs and would not surprise me to see that proper testing was either not done, or that they re-opened it after a failed test just as a matter of fact that a "day" passed. I swim in a sh&thole up here that fails for either e coli or cyanobacteria (algea blooms from fertilizer and nitrate the gives GI problems) and when ever there is a failure, they test every day and need to have two "clean days" before reopening, and these failed tests do not clear in a day. Cynobacteria tends to be more prevalent with heavy rains (washing fertilizer and animal waste into the water)

If you are running a standard, 27 should be fine. Good luck in the race

I went to school at Bryant (bike course goes right by it on Route 7) so I rode most of these roads for the past 4 years. Yes there are a few decent hills, but it really shouldn't be too hilly of a course....wind could play a factor in sections though

Why in the world did they switch the swim to this cesspool, isn't Rhode Island known for it's sea coast?

Did the pond re-open or not?

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