MKE is one of the best venues/races courses I've seen...and I've raced or watched races on 4 continents and 10-12 countries.

Wish I hadn't tore my calf and ended my racing career. USATAGNC is one of the most competitive races in the US year after year after year after year.

Probably the only race in the last 6-8 years where I showed up and wondered if I'd make the top 10 in my AG. At 70.3's it was always will I be top 3 or top 5. Top 3 at AGNC never crossed my mind.

So competitive, so deep, so fast & so much fun + a wave start so it's head to head racing not rolling

Yeah, I am M35-39 and we went off at 8:53 last year in the oly, and the young guys went off at 7 and shortly after. The humidity, wind, and temps picked up as storms were moving in and made the run miserable. I get that you're competing against your age group and they all start at the same time, but as someone who wants to finish top 10 OA, I hate that two years in a row I'm going to be passing hundreds on the bike and dealing with hotter conditions than those M25-29 and M30-34...I'm 9:05 this year.

100% agree. & the score ratings follow. Someone racing from 7-9 & another from 9-11 might be right next to each other even though the second athlete raced in tougher conditions. I like racing in your AG but it makes sense to me to have some sort of elite start for people trying to finish up front. A lot of local races do it.

With the forecast, folks should be smart on the run. Probably ~10-15s/mile adjustment needed with high-70s & a 70 dew point. Don't treat it like it's 50-60 & dry. Throw away what you think is a good time & just compete.

I was just checking the schedule and M 40-44 is the last AG to go off (9:35AM!)! Anyone know why it's setup this way? That's a killer wait with transition closing at 6:55AM...

Can’t believe I don’t see more weather freak out posts! I’m trying to keep a positive mindset.

I was very glad for the shady spots while spectating today - hot stuff

Really doesn't seem too difficult to me. Keep qualifying the way it is. Define elite under a certain time threshold (keep it tight) & require proof when you sign up. Doesn't make sense if the National Champion is crowned from an earlier wave if someone finishes super close but started an hour or two later. It happened last year in the sprint. 1 & 2 were separated by a second. Who knows what happens if they start together. Maybe 1 wins by even more. Maybe 2nd, who ran ~2 minutes faster, catches them.

Lots of people burned themselves on the bike and the start of the run. I saw a lot of walking out on course. Volunteers were out in force with ice, though. I think the heat index was 94F when I finished and there is not a leaf of shade on that bike course.

I agree- it would be cool to see the top athletes compete head to head. Here is a simple idea- have your “AG waves” and add an “overall” wave. Give athletes the discretion to select.

Yeah I think USAT should think about something like this, but I also think a lot of very good AG athletes want to compete for AG awards. Some people just don't want to turn pro. I did a race earlier in the season as an "elite" and awards went 5 deep. I was just outside and would have won my age group but I knew the deal going in & wanted to compete in the smaller field. I think people wouldn't want to sign up if they were exempt from age group awards. Say you have a field of 20ish and we acknowledge the top-5 then a bunch of AG podium types walk away with nothing. I don't know how to reconcile that but think they should all get the shot to race each other. It's rare to have such deep fields.

I guess I would advocate for an elite start and make the standard something like 2:10ish/2:25ish (top-100 or so) but keep everyone eligible for age group awards. Then if you have someone later in the day who does better they pass someone who competed earlier. I think the current system is fine because you compete age group and start together and get awards based off of that. Slight differences in conditions, & in competition, matter for the very top athletes going for the overall win.

Anyways, was my first year at AG Nats & I gotta say I loved it. Good organization. Good energy. Great competition. The weather ended up being decent today but, with the forecast, I think the Super Sprint was the right call. That bridge and descent into T2 would have been deadly if the weather was as bad as originally projected.

download the USAT app. It's just like the IM app in the way it operates.

IDK what was going on with the app this weekend, but it was terrible. My husband said so many people he talked to said they missed seeing their athletes because the tracker was so off. I came in about 10 minutes ahead of my predicted time and my coach almost missed me.

I did the open sprint wave on Sunday, and the tracker currently says that that wave is still waiting to start. But for some reason, I show up in the championship category of my AG, which I shouldn't be.

Download it, but it's got issues. I wish they'd put them up on the website.

So if you are talking about run finish on Saturday, the tracker had a problem. The first split reader on the run (1.2 miles) was way short of 1.2 miles (somewhere around 1.0 miles). I am guessing that happened because of a rookie mistake -- they wanted a time at 1.2, but that was on the back portion of the first out and back -- so the split got triggered when we were on our way out to the point (and then when we crossed the reader the second time on the way back it was ignored because we had already triggered the split). Check out your first split -- I think everyone's was way faster than reality.

So once you have too fast of a time for the first split, you get way too slow of a time (and therefore pace for the second split) assuming that the second split was the proper distance. Then the predicted finish time (based on the second split pace) will be way off.

I think USAT does a great job with its races (e.g., AGN and Multisport Festival), but this is one area where it struggles. I wish it would hire the required expertise either in house or a timing subcontractor.

On the other hand, I have a little more sympathy for the tracker on Sunday. They made the change to Super Sprint at the last minute and it would be a lot harder to accommodate the change (e.g., repositioning split readers, reprogramming the computer, etc.). Yeah, maybe there could have been a contingency plan for this, but . . .