IMC 2011…no water. This running out of water on the bike and run course never would have happened if Joe Dixon was running the race.
Garbage all over town on the morning after. Joe would of had a crew pick it up and you would never have seen it.
Bikes riding in on a still open bike course at 6:30. Would not of happened with Joe
Streets that should of been opened closed off well into the night so that locals did not have to drive sidewalks to get around. Joe would of had those down the minute they were due to be taken down.
Ambulances would have been parked and ready rather than on the other side of town when a rider was down.
We pay too much money in entry fees as well as all the time and other money spent on training for our races. To go without is not right. Graham Fraser can’t cut out the important things. Graham is a nice guy but he can’t run that race without Joe. Joe ran it for years and he knows what he is doing and he is there race morning for all the racers. You don’t see Joe driving around town in a car or sweeping rocks with his foot on Richter. Joe send out a crew with a broom and makes sure he is around to handle and direct qualified staff to do it.
If you have something to say then please tell Graham directly so we can get this changed for next year.
Here is Grahams email graham@nasports.com
on a hot day (34 plus C on the out and back and approach to yellow lake) there were athletes in 13 to 15 hour range complaining of no water for five (yes that would be FIVE) aid stations - from the early part of the rollers to past “The Bear”…which is unforgivable!!! Several were complaining of being out on some of the run aid stations as well though i believe this was corrected quicker.
While Joe is a great director it think the problem is bigger than simply a new un tried race director and novice run course captain - this course should not have 2800 athletes on it period!!! - - they give the same bullshit race briefing about drafting, riding next to each other etc etc and yet the plan and simple maths is as we all know is this is impossible to achieve.
I volunteered on the swim course kayaks and would suggest that it has become down right dangerous to have 2000 swimmers exiting that course between 58 and 90 mins…
I took a lot of flack for this suggestion earlier in the year suggesting WTC RAISE ENTRY FEE’s - however GUARANTEE a maximum number of athletes on course of around 2200 - raise fee’s to say 1000 to compensate for the loss of revenue by reducing athletes on course - costs will decrease due to catering for less athletes …if you are doing an ironman you are in for 7 to 10k anyway so what’s another 300 to 400 in entry fees to guarantee LESS athletes on course?
**Garbage all over town on the morning after. **
FWIW - I cycled to OK Falls and back along Eastside Road on the morning after the race, and it was spotless - in fact we came upon one last clean-up crew still picking up garbage at 8:00am just outside of OK Falls. Remarkable really when you consider the bike and run traffic along there during the race.
I made sure to thank the guys picking up the litter when we rode by.
I guess they missed the in town stuff. Cups and gels all over main street at 8:30 as well as Husky Corner. Glad they got the other stuff done I guess it was just the in town stuff. Still if Joe was running the show it all would have been done as he would have had a bigger crew to cover it all.
I agree that they had too many out there but they did not do the math to calculate the water. Even though there were a lot more athletes they ran out way too soon. If they had 2000 they still would have been out of water. Neither Graham or the new RD calculated this correctly. How about the no Sports tops on the Performance Drink? They did not bother to order the tops !!! Saved money yes but what a hassle for athletes on the bike.
I hate Cheap…do it right or don’t do it at all.
i agree with you on that -.
Saved money yes but what a hassle for athletes on the bike.
I hate Cheap…do it right or don’t do it at all.
Why it that so many comments on this subject matter turn out this way - like RD’s purposefully sit down and every thought that they have is how to make more money. I can tell you, that, that is most often a thought process that does not even enter their mind.
I have no idea why there were different tops on the Perform - maybe thats the only way they came?
As for the Perform itself, if you take IMC as a bit of a test of this drink, there was an almost universal rejection of it. They have crates and whole palettes of the stuff left over. Why?
Everyone knows that you have to replace the tops on those drinks. Yes it sucks to do it but its done at other races. To say he did not know??? Come on. When Gatorade shipped Sport Toppless Drinks before Joe got it put right. If they did not know they would of known when they arrived and should have gotten the tops…Joe would have. I know all discussions turn to money and this was a money issue and inexperience. Graham has been around for awhile but other people have run the races and know what to do. We have had heat out on the course before with people using water to dunk their heads but nobody goes without water because enough was not ordered and supplied to the stations. There is a math to it and Roch Frey, Joe Dixon and many others can handle it regardless of how many athletes they can make sure there is more than enough so nobody suffers.
I like Graham but he is a big part of what happened here. If this happened on Joe’s watch (it would not but lets say if) everything would fall on Joe. Its unfortunate that this happened. I heard from 6 people who do not know each other and they all said bring in the Challenge Race they care about their athletes. Did Graham show up to the Volunteer Dinner? He has not in the past so did he this year? That is just another thing that needs to be done.
Have you ever gone to an Outback Event Race (Joe and Sarah run them) They don’t cheap out on race packages and they always have more than enough aid and food. They take great care of their athletes and it shows. I did not get the feeling at IMC this year and I know I am not the only one.
Sounds like you are a Graham fan and want to defend him. I understand wanting to defend a friend but you have to take a look at the whole picture. This was preventable and should never had happened.
The only aid station that I went through that had the screwtops was the first one - all of the others had twist tops.
Don’t know why there is a rejection of the Perform (I personally like it and it gets the job done).
If there is a bunch left, I’ll take it. 
Saved money yes but what a hassle for athletes on the bike.
I hate Cheap…do it right or don’t do it at all.
Why it that so many comments on this subject matter turn out this way - like RD’s purposefully sit down and every thought that they have is how to make more money. I can tell you, that, that is most often a thought process that does not even enter their mind.
I have no idea why there were different tops on the Perform - maybe thats the only way they came?
As for the Perform itself, if you take IMC as a bit of a test of this drink, there was an almost universal rejection of it. They have crates and whole palettes of the stuff left over. Why?
sounds like the 1998 Allsport fiasco as well. that stuff was lightly carbonated… And it was 100 degrees during the run first big race (ironman) where I believe hyponutremia became
a news story I’d never heard of it until that day quite a few athletes had that problem. Of course it was hotter than it had ever been at imc for sure for the northern climate folks at the race luckilly I’m from the south and it was august so had a good race. BUT allsport that was nasty stuff.
Of course the Bad old outdated exceed at ironman hawaii(can’t recall the year) I heard they got a good deal on old stock. Then the MetRX year at hawaii. Yikes I never got the stains of that red stuff
out of my tri-top after the bottle caps(cheap bottles that year) kept popping off and it would spew out all over my chest.
I’m a gatorade fan always have been since 1991 ironman hawaii my first… I now some don’t like it but seems to work well with me and they were such a great sponser for years.
I sure hope ironman goes back to them at some point they have in the past after the above fiascos…
well put!!!
When Jordan did his talk on Wednesday at Whole Foods - he made a great point about Perform/Gatorade etc. Most people can stomach almost anything, it’s pacing and such that makes the body reject WHATEVER it gets. I thought the Perform was great - like the pink/red better than the other stuff, but really, it worked well.
As for the tops - the 6 or 7 bottles I had on the bike all had the right tops. Worked as well as anything else. The whole day for me was problem solving anyways - lost all my chews - holy crap - I actually ate BANANAS just like Mark Allen and Dave Scott might have done back in the day. Stuff still works!
IMC was still amazing, and I’ll continue to see all the good things of the day even though a bunch went sideways for many people. IMC ROCKS!
Brent
**As for the Perform itself, if you take IMC as a bit of a test of this drink, there was an almost universal rejection of it. They have crates and whole palettes of the stuff left over. Why? **
Because it is absolute crap. I am testing it for the run up to Kona. I hate the stuff. I will be measuring and mixing my own GU Brew for Hawaii.
PS: Gatorade is also crap so whatever. But most athletes are at least used to Gatorade.
Yes Graham was at the Volunteer dinner and spoke a bit about the issues and gave props to them for trying to handle them.
Glad you brought up the litter, I could not believe the amount of trash I saw on the bike course it was a 180km of athlete bottles, gels and wrappers tossed to the ground it was truly disgusting! Sure the aid stations I expected to see this and saw the great volunteers cleaning up, the areas between were embarrassing.
I couldn’t believe how many spare kits or even entire bottle racks were on the road. Being slowtwitch anal and refusing to use tire bags and instead taping everything is fine IF YOU TAPE IT CORRECTLY. But it was nuts - I think I counted 10 profile design rear bottle holders, and another dozen tube tires/co2/inflator packages.
I think Perform would have been taken better if it had actually been available everywhere a year in advance. Now the powder is finally at all the running room stores and a bunch of other tri stores - but only lemon lime - and it tastes nothing like the RTD bottles. My first taste of the red stuff was on course.
Maybe there’s so much left over because no one could drink the shit(?) Twist off caps? Or, no cap at all? Really? How long has Powerbar been a sponsor of Ironman? Does it take years of R&D to develop a cap that you can drink from? You’d think based on the participants that we’d be expecting a freakin’ super duper efficient drinking cap but I’d take a simple cap that you can actually take a sip from and not spill the sugary tasting vile shit all over myself, I would guess that most would be in the same boat. Right, maybe that’s the issue? It tastes shitty. Sugar coated/flavoured shit.
(not a fan of the pink font but i think my point is clear)
I couldn’t believe how many spare kits or even entire bottle racks were on the road. Being slowtwitch anal and refusing to use tire bags and instead taping everything is fine IF YOU TAPE IT CORRECTLY. But it was nuts - I think I counted 10 profile design rear bottle holders, and another dozen tube tires/co2/inflator packages.
Extraordinary!
How does this happen?
In 30 years of riding bikes and racing tris over thousand and thousands of miles, I don’t think I have dropped or discarded one item, ever in a race or training ride. Ironic, because I double flatted on the IMC bike course in a ride that I did a few days before the race and being the good guy that I am, I carried both dead tubes and the used C02 cartridges back with me to Penticton and then put them in the garbage!
What’s that old back-country hiking saying, “Carry out what you carry in”. However, in a race like IMC you don’t even have to do that - there’s an aid station every freaking 10 miles on the bike to drop stuff!!
Maybe there’s so much left over because no one could drink the shit
A suggestion.
Spend some time looking at the ingredients labels of the many, many different sport beverages out there. If you do this, what you’ll see is many of them are all the same, made up of the same basic ingredients.
I am not saying people are not having problems, many are, just saying that often the actual drink no matter what it is may be a constant. No pun intended, but my gut feeling is that, many of the problems that people are having is simply from overexertion and we know that as exertion levels go up, gastric functioning starts to go down. Many are in over their heads( and their stomachs!), but few seem to want to admit that.
Steve, in fairness to some athletes, the main ingredients may be the same, but the food coloring/dyes used can affect different athletes adversely. Of all sports drinks Perform affects me the most. I can drink it and I force it down, but for some reason, my stomach has a harder time with it than coke, powerade, chocolate milk, gatorade, Infinit or Redbull (items I use in either training or racing). I can still get by with Perform, but its not as pleasant…I make do with it when it is serves on the course…others have a lot of difficulty for whatever reason…I did like you and read the main ingredients, and you’re right…it’s pretty well identical to the other stuff out there!!! I think part of the problem is that you just can’t get it at the corner store, so there is less opportunity to get used to it (at least here in CAnada)
Dev
This to nobody in particular…
I am at a loss to understand why everyone is bitching about the Ironman Perform used at IMC…As far as I can tell it tastes just as good/bad as all the other crap/awesome tasting stuff out there…I had never used it before so I tried it on a ride or five before Ironman week and it was just fine…Maybe everyone is just getting far too picky…
I also do not understand why,if people have already gone through two aid stations without water,why they chose not do drink the Perform instead.Surely one would start to worry about the water at future aid stations and drink whatever they could get their hands on until some water was found further down the road…Maybe people have stopped thinking proactively…
I’m not excusing the guys at IMC this year but if there was still Perform available then it would have worked for all of you…