Was anyone else here?
It was a pretty good race, no complaints about the weather. The lake was a mess, I thought the olympic swims were a little long but not horrible.
Did anyone catch who the top 3 co-eds were at the awards? I had to leave before then.
I was there for my first one and it showed me how fat and out of shape I really am!! We don’t have climbs like that in Central Indiana corn fields!!
Swim course didn’t seem longer, I just think it had something to do with wading/walking through the water before you could even start to swim…you typically walk slower in teh water than swimming it. How about that warm water??? Wow!
Weather was perfect, I was worried because of the forecast all weekend with nothing less than 30% all three days.
Does anyone have climbing data? For the bike and run course? Maybe from a Garmin. I did it on veloroutes.org, but the mileage isn’t adding up.
http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=52166 Sprint (5 miles, 29% max grade on climb) http://veloroutes.org/r/52175 Olympic AM & PM (Out and back) (25 miles, 16% max grade on climb) http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=52179# Half IM on Sunday (Two laps of this) (56 miles, 22% max grade on climb) If anyone has the actual data, please post or let me know were to find it. Really interested in the run course, I have never hit a trail run either and was a rude awakening! Great preperation for IM Lousiville heat on Sunday!! (if you were lucky enough to be out there that long like I was!!!)
I was there. 
In 10 points, this year’s TTT:
The peat-moss effect: It was warm(er) than in past years. A little cool in the mornings, and it torqued on up to mid-80’s with full-on sunshine by Sunday afternoon. Humidity 100% all weekend. Suffering took place.
Sump Pump: It was wet. Thursday, it rained. Friday, it rained (sorta) leaving the pavement a little damp for the prologue. Friday night the crazy ass tornado storms rolled through, felling some trees in the process that were on-course. HFP did a GREAT job of adjusting: 1) The Sat morning ride was abandoned in favor of riding 125 (the Saturday afternoon course). I’m not at all pissed that involved not going up Thompson Hill. 2) the run, which usually starts on grass up to the fire road trailhead was ditched in favor of running us up the pavement to the trailhead. Did I mention the humidity?
Costanza: The lake was cold. It was fed by Turkey Creek, which comes off the mountains. The lake water itself was pretty warm (per Jaret’s post) a couple days prior. By the time all that Thu / Fri rain fouund its way into the lake, I’m guessing it dropped 20 degrees between Friday and Sunday. T’was frigid. Like double bag-it frigid. Olympic swims were a little long, Half swim was a little short. IMHO. Given that I logged the same times for each. Wonder if they even moved the buoys. Hm.
G?Q?: The tri-top tanks were ridiculous…C’mon, now. There were some ill-fitting shirts on some ill-fitting bodies. That is all.
Mud. Theme of the weekend…in the lake. In the campground. In the finisher tent. On the run. Anyplace that wasn’t paved was mud. Amazingly enough, once you got out of the grassy area and on-trail, the footing wasn’t terribly muddy and less washed-out than in previous years.
Student discount: Colleges came out to play. The best value in triathlon has been discovered by the value-conscious crew. There were 100+ college athletes there, mostly from the big 10. MSU, OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a few other colleges had major numbers of folks there. Remarkably quick, the lot of them, too.
Accident-free: In other TTT’s, people were crashing / captiulating left and right. This TTT, I only saw / stopped for one rider down (#400, hope he’s OK, I know his Reynolds isn’t) in race 4, end of the 1st lap. I didn’t get the final IV count after the Sunday night run, but it seemed…less…traumatic than others. This course will spit you out, and the field seems to have won this round…
Unintelligible, inedible: The pre-race meetings, and announcements, were unintelligible. Mostly because there were bags over the speakers due to the rain. No one knew what the hell was going on. And the food got worse. In the past, you could graze between races Saturday and be OK. Not this time…a PB&J and sprite, plus a pretzel, weren’t gonna be the diesel in my tank.
Thanks: The volunteers were selfless…from directions, to wetsuit stripping while you’re cramped, to spending hours out on course waving a flag, to incessant refilling of non-drinkable lemon-lime heed bottles, they were always smiling, and right-on-time.
Why?: The comraderie was amazing, as always. The elites / quicks were all offering words of encouragement to the back of the pack. And every BOP’er was cheering on the fast folks even though they have hours left on course. And for most of us, the random stranger that you walk with right after the aid station for 50 yards, or on a random uphill, that’s from someplace else, having their own race, shares their world with you. And you get to spend 5 minutes with them in that micro-world that is that friggin trail. Awesome.
I have the climbing data for the run course from Garmin FR 305. Although the route was the same each race, I got different elevation numbers for each one. I’m pretty sure it was getting bad reception since it asked me if I was indoors at least once each race. PM me your email and I can send them to you.
Ahh yes the good ol are you indoors trick. yeah my 305 beeped at me several times to get moving but I know i was moving just not real fast. hence the reason Wanksta’s time is gonna be so slow as well he had to drag my sorry ass up all those switchback trails! We sure don’t have any hills I mean MOUNTAINS like that here in Indy.
That was a pretty good summation of the weekend. MSU had about 15 people racing (I don’t know how we convinced that many people that it was a “fun” race). And yes, we (college students) have discovered how disgustingly cheap this race is and plan on bringing more back next year. All I know is that we will be doing lots of hill repeats on both the bike and run to train for it.
I was there. In 10 points, this year’s TTT:
The peat-moss effect: It was warm(er) than in past years. A little cool in the mornings, and it torqued on up to mid-80’s with full-on sunshine by Sunday afternoon. Humidity 100% all weekend. Suffering took place.
Sump Pump: It was wet. Thursday, it rained. Friday, it rained (sorta) leaving the pavement a little damp for the prologue. Friday night the crazy ass tornado storms rolled through, felling some trees in the process that were on-course. HFP did a GREAT job of adjusting: 1) The Sat morning ride was abandoned in favor of riding 125 (the Saturday afternoon course). I’m not at all pissed that involved not going up Thompson Hill. 2) the run, which usually starts on grass up to the fire road trailhead was ditched in favor of running us up the pavement to the trailhead. Did I mention the humidity?
Costanza: The lake was cold. It was fed by Turkey Creek, which comes off the mountains. The lake water itself was pretty warm (per Jaret’s post) a couple days prior. By the time all that Thu / Fri rain fouund its way into the lake, I’m guessing it dropped 20 degrees between Friday and Sunday. T’was frigid. Like double bag-it frigid. Olympic swims were a little long, Half swim was a little short. IMHO. Given that I logged the same times for each. Wonder if they even moved the buoys. Hm.
G?Q?: The tri-top tanks were ridiculous…C’mon, now. There were some ill-fitting shirts on some ill-fitting bodies. That is all.
Mud. Theme of the weekend…in the lake. In the campground. In the finisher tent. On the run. Anyplace that wasn’t paved was mud. Amazingly enough, once you got out of the grassy area and on-trail, the footing wasn’t terribly muddy and less washed-out than in previous years.
Student discount: Colleges came out to play. The best value in triathlon has been discovered by the value-conscious crew. There were 100+ college athletes there, mostly from the big 10. MSU, OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a few other colleges had major numbers of folks there. Remarkably quick, the lot of them, too.
Accident-free: In other TTT’s, people were crashing / captiulating left and right. This TTT, I only saw / stopped for one rider down (#400, hope he’s OK, I know his Reynolds isn’t) in race 4, end of the 1st lap. I didn’t get the final IV count after the Sunday night run, but it seemed…less…traumatic than others. This course will spit you out, and the field seems to have won this round…
Unintelligible, inedible: The pre-race meetings, and announcements, were unintelligible. Mostly because there were bags over the speakers due to the rain. No one knew what the hell was going on. And the food got worse. In the past, you could graze between races Saturday and be OK. Not this time…a PB&J and sprite, plus a pretzel, weren’t gonna be the diesel in my tank.
Thanks: The volunteers were selfless…from directions, to wetsuit stripping while you’re cramped, to spending hours out on course waving a flag, to incessant refilling of non-drinkable lemon-lime heed bottles, they were always smiling, and right-on-time.
Why?: The comraderie was amazing, as always. The elites / quicks were all offering words of encouragement to the back of the pack. And every BOP’er was cheering on the fast folks even though they have hours left on course. And for most of us, the random stranger that you walk with right after the aid station for 50 yards, or on a random uphill, that’s from someplace else, having their own race, shares their world with you. And you get to spend 5 minutes with them in that micro-world that is that friggin trail. Awesome.
Good post!
Miami of Ohio was representing well, and so was UD.
I saw the crash on the half, that turn was pretty tricky and I also entered it wayyy to fast, could have lost it on the first loop there.
The mud was bad for the first two races, I wore trail shoes on both the first runs and switched to trainers for the second Olympic.
The lake was indeed cold in a lot of spots, and warmer in others.
And yes, the tops were a bad fit. Hard to get off, the stitching on mine is already coming apart, and the zipper fob was too large and annoyingly bounced on the run. Oh, and they opened up like a parachute in aero, and very poorly fit the ladies.
I was upset they ran out of cups on the last run for the aid stations, I was the desperate looking guy trying to get my mouth under the tap for the coolers on the second lap.
First time doing it, I loved being around triathletes for an entire weekend.
Awesome summary! The weekend totally kicked my butt (to the tune of an almost 8 hour HIM on Sunday) but, alas, just like an IM or childbirth I have already forgotten the pain and am plotting my return next year!
How humbling that was to be a BOP’er again! I haven’t been an BOP racer for a few years, a MOP in big races and FOP in local races - but TTT - nope, I was solidly in that bottom 1/4. Still loved it!
The only thing that would keep me from returning was the bugs! Were they worse than usual? I had black flies stalking me on Sat. pm run and bike & run on Sunday. We camped and didn’t notice them at the campground but man, they were BAD on the course!!
I’m happy to say #400 was my teammate and he’s doing fine after 9 abrasions, 4 stitches, 19 X-ray images, a CT and a temporary neck brace. He actually wasn’t the only person down there and was dodging someone else that had fallen in front of him in a slightly more graceful manner. Interestingly, his bike is unscratched and was nicely blocked by the rest of his body in the fall. We went back to mark that corner, so hopefully that helped others. Props to the woman behind me that road through the ravine with me and through the grass to avoid the carnage.
While I didn’t get a thermometer in the water my own estimation of the water temp was freaking cold 
8 dolphins dives, 2 back strokes and I was underway.
I thought the Half swim was a little short too.
I don’t have it at work, but I have climbing data for the bike and run from my Polar.
I’ll post it from home later.
.
Glad to hear he’s gonna heal up okay! And big time kudos to you guys for hollering to warn others especially when that yellow car had stopped and made the slot for safe passage even narrower!!!
Thanks again…I know I got the message!
Paul
I was seconds behind that wreck, I thought the yellow car had something to do with it. That turn was tight, but if a car was coming, almost impossible to see it.
Mad props for marking it up with orange slow, that really helped people know the danger of that curve if taken to seriously.
I’ll stop posting on this, but I just wanted to say how impressed I am with HFP racing. I had raced one of there events before (My first Olympic in 2007) and they put on one of the best races and here are some reasons:
3rd time I did this race. I love it every year. I get pretty over triathlon after regular races but this one really makes me love the sport. It is just, different.
Michael
Running out of cups was in no way the fault of the volunteers, they did awesome at the aid stations and I loved the support you got from everyone the entire length of the course.
Has anyone found pictures or results posted anywhere?
Hey, that was me asking my buddy Dave about my appearance in my “sausage casing”. It was great meeting you and yours on the run and chatting away the miles. If you guys are ever in Jersey look us up.
The race was great and Shannon and his crew did a good job adjusting on the fly. Two things I did learn this weekend…
#1. John Kenny is a beast.
#2. I’m still slow.
I’ll be back next year, God willing. Hope to see you all again.
Thanks for keeping us company on the death march!
I thought those volunteers were great - so cheerful and I’m with you guys - how many 15 year olds would think to pour the water right into your mouth instead of just packing up and saying sorry, no cups no water!
Great job to John Kenny on smoking all 4 races!
When you’re the man like he is, you can finish like this. Really impressive out there.
http://michaelbutcherphotos.shutterfly.com/13422#13294
password is hfpracing if prompted (which is not a secret since it’s on the results page)