Francois,

You do know that Ironman N.A. technically does not exist any more.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Nice to see the other side for a change...

Cheers/

LOL. He's a couple acronyms behind...

NA Sports

My world is crumbling.....

was that you sitting on the platform with the Ford car near the enterance to T2?

NA Sports

Still not exactly right.

NA Sports( More or less Graham Fraser) sold the licenses to the Ironman races that they did run( with the exception of IMC) back to the WTC. So for IMAZ, your compliments and apologies should be directed at the WTC.

I realize it's confusing because many of the same personnel on the ground are involved. So things appear to be the same.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

hint, hint...

http://www.slowtwitch.com/...S._Ironmans_653.html

We were walking last night along the run course and a couple (non-racers) said, "This is incredible. They really do a great job with everything."

Sorry we didn't get to see you and sorry your day didn't go as planned.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Yes. I sat there until u could actually walk somewhere else. Or limp to be more precise.

The volunteers and med staff were awesome. At the bag pick up area it was amazing to see them keep their cool given how rude some folks were. So apologies to the wtc (but you still need to address drafting issues for real and handle refunds somehow) ;)

I just wanted to add my story - After my first IM this year, I lost my finisher's shirt and cap at the finish line/food area. Not a big deal, but I was a little upset about losing them. I emailed the service inbox from Ironman.com and explained my plight, and just yesterday I got a nice package in the mail, free of charge, containing a shirt and hat. As far as I'm concerned, WTC does a great job and I'll be happy to sign up for their races in the future, high entry fees being the price for great service.

My world is crumbling.....

Mark,

I know that you are a fan of the non-WTC Ironman distances races and the like and that is great. It's great that we have options in the sport and there seem to be more good things coming this way in the near future. However, the fact is, that the WTC, and here in North America, Graham Fraser and North American Sports, really created the gold standard for big-event triathlon race management and the bar has been set very high. It's not an easy thing to do.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

[entering flame-resistant mode]

I've posted a similar message before, but have to agree.

In fact, I had very similar thoughts after finishing IM Moo in 2007. I hung around the finish line until midnight and found myself thinking "WTF, who the can possibly claim that these guys don't do a great job putting on this race?" So, at 12:05 AM I walked over to the announcer's tower and sought out Graham Frasier (and Mike Reiley) as they were climbing down from the tower at the end of their day. I personally thanked them for what had been a great experience and a great day from my perspective. NAS did a fantastic job, and I sincerely thought they deserved to be recognized for it. What also impressed me is that when I approached them all I said was "Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" At the end of a 17+ hour day, Graham stopped what he was doing and gave me his undivided attention even before he knew what I wanted to talk to him about.

Now, all that said, I'll also say that there are clearly less expensive options out there (albiet with fewer bells and whistles) and those events are well suited for many people. In fact, there was only one other time in my experience I thought an RD did such a fantastic job with a race that I sought them out after the event to thank them. That was Bill Scott at Set Up Events following the Duke Blue Devil - same organization that now does the Beach to Battleship. The Blue Devil was an awesome 140.6 race with a low-key, grass-roots type of feel. A blast in it's own way and well-run in every respect.

To each his own... there's plenty of room for both styles of events and the people who pull these things together ought to be commended. They're undoubtably a bitch to organize.

Well said Iron Buckeye. I find it head scratching that there is so much vitriol directed at WTA. They are under no legal obligation to keep costs down and the fact that most of their events sell out well before the race clearly supports their business model. In addition, the market that is looking for lower priced solutions have options. They may not be as sexy, but they are there. It's like a car buyer complaining that they are forced to drive a Chevy because evil Mercedes overcharges for their cars.

I typically do one or two Ironman branded events a year. Having done both IM and non-IM events, I find the IM events much better planned and supported. For me, it's worth the premium.

i won't argue that at all. But like Francois said, there is a lot of room for improvement. :)
M~

Things are never perfect! Jordan had a great race...but he's probably thinking he can shave off 3min in the water, 2min on the bike, 5min on the run and go close to 8hrs...

Seeing the work of the volunteers, the orgs etc. was really an eye opener (instead of feeling sorry for myself...)
They're putting an awful lot of time and effort in this. Paul Huddle working the bag area was kind of fun...It looked like he used this as a workout session, running back and forth to get the bags :-)

Cathy: I did wave when I came back from the stopped 3rd loop. Don't think you recognized me though.

And the Lions won yesterday...something is wrong...

jaretj

i won't argue that at all. But like Francois said, there is a lot of room for improvement. :)

See my thread over here.

The number of details that have to be tracked is absolutely mind boggling.

I've seen slivers of it, but I'll tell you right now that everyone working for NAS/WTC on these
is doing Yeomen's work.

This was their third race in four weeks?

I saw one of the swim coordinators on a bike in front of one of the top five women
all day. Huddle working bags. Judy worried about volunteer coffee. Justin
dealing with the swim, then mountain biking 26+ miles.

Amazing.

-Jot

Hey Frenchy,I couldn't agree more.

While there are a great many people here who seem to think that I too am an M-Dot hater the fact is that I think the old NAS crew did an amazing job at putting on their races and developing Ironman racing in Nth America.I may not agree with everything that Graham or a couple of his crew have done over the years but therre is no doubt he has created an amazing series which I'm sure the new owners will develop with equal success.

I spent more than a decade hanging out with the various IMC race directors and found all of them to be hard working,decent guys who were passionate about the sport and that race.Grahams enthusiasm for all things triathlon spilled over to each new event that he brought to the NAS Ironman series.

I commend Graham and WTC for what they have done and wish them continued success in the future.

Now if there weren't so many wankers signing up these days I might actually do another Nth American Ironman.

.

Thanks for the kind words. Huddle, Frey, et al are the hardest working RDs in the business. I worked the race with them and it was one of the best days we've ever had. The athletes were in a really good mood overall. In the morning I worked the east end of the bike lot checking wristbands. It was the best year ever as far as keeping the spectators out of transition. Everyone was happy to show their wristbands. Only had one guy give me an attitude and he got shot down immeaditely by the athletes around him. That was nice.

After the swim we got numbers on all the bikes in the lot and checked their status with the timers. This is done as a safety double check to make sure every swimmer was accounted for. Then we moved to the hot corner where we were treated to display of some scary bike handling. I must have seen 100 peole make the u-turn with their inside pedal down and their outside shoe unclipped. Amazing there were only 2 crashes there. Both were people finishing and going too fast and both were able to continue.

I was heading over to get some dinner when the call came out about the gear bag pick up. The volunteers were running behind in sorting the bags and the athletes were starting to get a bit unruly. Every available person responeded and I spent the next 2 hours sprinting back & forth shagging peoples gear bags. Got many many thank yous. Several of the WTC big wigs were out there pitching in as well. No one who watched that could still think they are just in it for the money.

About 9:00 Huddle brought us over some pizza and coke. Man it tasted good. Got back to the finishline in time to see Rudy and then called it a day. Another IMAZ in the books. Can't wait till next year.

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Gary Mc
Did I mention I did Kona

Shoot, no I didn't recognize you.

clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com