I’ve never done a race report…and let me say at the outset, in the interests of full disclosure, I know race director Robert “Vigo” Vigorito and my wife and I are best friends with the expo managers for this race, Don and Mindy Soranno (none of whom have seen this race report before I posted it). This was my first Challenge race after having done two full Ironman races (Wisconsin 2012, Mont-Tremblant 2013) and eight 70.3/half-iron races (Vineman, Eagleman, Raleigh twice, inaugural Poconos, Monticelloman, Outer Banks, Kinetic). This year I am training for IM Chattanooga and to date had trained up for the 70.3 distance, completing Eagleman and Raleigh three and four weeks before Challenge Atlantic City (CAC), respectively. For CAC, I planned to just do the swim on a relay team and cheer on my buddies doing the bike and run. After having great races (by my standards) at Raleigh and Eagleman, I decided to take on the full distance at CAC with only one ride longer than 65 leading up to the race (and over my loving wife/CAC relay member/fellow triathlete’s objections that “ ego is writing checks body can’t cash”).
Two days removed from the good finish at CAC that I had hoped for before the race, I can say that this race far exceeded my hopes and expectations. All in all, I had a fantastic time and would do this race again in the future b/c with proper training (and a better swim course, see below) I believe that I could improve my time by 60-90 minutes under the same weather conditions (yes, that means with the strong headwind wind on the highway). Below are my comments and suggestions on the pre-race and post-race activities and each leg of the course:
PRE-RACE
Check-In: The check-in process was fantastic—use of an un-utilized hotel registration desk was a great idea and the flow through to the expo worked very well. Swag was terrific (Messenger bag, 2 water bottles, clip to carry shoes, bike tool, Profile Design bike number holders).
EXPO (again, best friends with expo managers): In my admittedly biased opinion, the expo was the perfect size. Oftentimes at big races there are multiples of every type of store (general tri supplies, shoe companies, wheel suppliers, etc… Just before a big race is not the time to buy anything new to try out on the course and all of that stuff gets overwhelming. I liked what was there and didn’t find anything missing or that I needed. There were even new types of vendors I hadn’t seen at other races, and loved the guy selling the massage chairs and shoulder massagers…if people didn’t try those out before or after the race, wow, did they miss something special.
PRE-RACE MEETING: Truth be told, I skipped it. I’ve done enough races that I know what I need to know, and my friends who did attend filled me in on the rest. Only constructive comment based on what I heard was there were apparently some borderline guarantees about the race being wetsuit legal at the pre-race meeting…and it didn’t end up wetsuit legal. Whatever…weather conditions change, particularly as water levels change (which they do significantly with high/low tides connected to the ocean), so people needed to deal with it and be prepared either way.
PRE-RACE DINNER: I thought the food was fantastic and others who have done multiple Challenge and Ironman races agreed it was better than many races (multiple protein and pasta options) and particularly tasty deserts. I thought Vigo did a great job on the pre-race welcome speech highlighting the folks that made the race possible, including various charities represented, including RWB and Blazeman (John Blais’s parents brought tears to the audience’s eyes before they handed out the “Spirit of The Blazeman” award). They had Whit Raymond as the race announcer, and he was at the pre-race dinner, and I would have liked to have seen him up there getting everybody even more motivated and excited…that’s what he does for a living and he is the best in the business (Mike Reilly is of course fantastic but I really love Whit). There’s also a great Challenge Family video with the Challenge song that my friends have shown me and I wish they’d played at the welcome dinner (as well as the closing breakfast).
RACE
SWIM: I was only frustrated at the start about no wetsuits (water temps were 80 degrees) because I left my speedsuit in my hotel room after hearing “it will be wetsuit legal” (see above) and doing a test swim where it was no warmer than 74 degrees (at higher tide, unfortunately…lower tide means warmer water…duh!). Once in the brackish water – folks…that means dark/dirty…as well as “salty” b/c it’s connected to the ocean – I was glad I left my speedsuit because it wouldn’t have made any difference in performance and would’ve made me warmer than I needed to be out there. I am generally a middle-of-the-pack swimmer in the 40-44 male AG. I am consistently a 1:13-1:18 swimmer at the iron-distance swim. This swim was very, very “Challenge-ing” – many more sighting buoys (maybe a dozen or more) were needed, particularly out to the turn bridge because it was straight into the sun. The endless-pool, head-on, go-nowhere current at the turn bridge was preposterous…got pushed/sucked under one of the buoys and caught up on the rope…I find it hard to believe anyone actually swam that section of the course under similar conditions before the race. There were two shallow parts where folks were standing and walking, but it didn’t bother me…that can happen anywhere with tidal water…including at Eagleman, one of the best 70.3 races around…we all just have to deal with it (dolphin jumping works but gotta avoid tiring the legs). Shallow parts that are rocky suck – I banged my knee up badly and came out of the water bloody – but I probably should’ve been further out in the water (current, argh!). Great volunteers pulled people out of the water once we got onto the floating dock swim ramp (cut knee made it more “Challenge-ing” but the help was fantastic). I came out of the water incredibly angry because of a crazy slow time (10-15 minutes slow), the lack of buoys and ridiculous current at the turn around, and a banged up and bloody knee (my friends all said I looked MAD b/c, well, I was MAD…and I was in pain)…but most everyone else had a slower than normal time (10-15 mins) too and I apparently still ended up in a good spot for my AG…so I’ll take it.
T1: Bader field was a great location. Short run to the transition area on a carpeted path to the grass, fire hose shower to rinse off the salty water, good transition tent, porta-potties and water as you ran to the bikes, fantastic volunteers again, clean path to the bike mount and out onto the course. Took my own sweet time and still only had a 5 minute transition.
BIKE COURSE: Absolutely loved the first 82 miles of this course. Absolutely hated the last 30 miles of it. But you know what, that’s how I felt at Wisconsin and at Mont-Tremblant…probably 30 miles in both that absolutely sucked…so, I dealt with it like an ironman is supposed to. The first 15 miles out of AC to the AC Expressway (ACE) were great (nice aid stations both before and after the ACE), along the ACE to Hammonton was great with minor tailwind, and the Hammonton loop (21 mile loop that you do twice) was a truly fantastic ride (even the 2-3 mile “bad” popcorn road section wasn’t as bad the 2nd time around…I rode it before the race so I knew it was coming). Perfect aid station placement – special needs being available at miles 42 and 62 was a bonus if anyone needed it – and incredibly enthusiastic volunteers. I took my own nutrition but stopped at special needs to add water to my powder and the water was the coldest ice cold I could’ve hoped for and a volunteer helped me pour it…FANTASTICO! The setup in the cute town of Hammonton was second-to-none…way better than the city of Tremblant and anything out in the Madison hinterlands. The return to AC, particularly 14 miles along the ACE directly into a headwind, was brutal…but all iron-distance races have that at some point…the iron distance bike is just simply the truest test of MENTAL as well as physical stamina, endurance, and strength. The road markings were fantastic (including orange tape by some relatively minor cracks) and the police were phenomenal in keeping traffic at bay…THANK YOU ALL!!! In retrospect, the headwind made no worse of a biking experience than the headwind-in-every-direction at Wisconsin, the highway or major climbs in Mont-Tremblant, the highways and “the bears” at Lake Placid (I’ve ridden that course too, including in the reverse direction)…and probably what everyone feels on the Queen K at Kona. Had I trained for a full iron-distance race, rather than just 70.3s leading up to this race, I would have had a better (but still slower) last 32 miles…but I didn’t, knew that I hadn’t, so I did the best that I could and still set a sub-6 PR on the bike.
Note…there was a preposterous amount of very intentional drafting and pace-lining and obstruction…yet the penalties I saw handed out were only to truly incidental drafting or blocking…just like my experience at Eagleman 3 weeks ago…oh well, I don’t draft and have never gotten a penalty so shame on the folks who purposefully drafted out there (they are cheating!)…they should be ashamed of themselves and I called several of them out both on both the bike (“just gonna draft the rest of the way in huh?”) and on the run (“where’s your biking buddy now?”)…boom!
T2: Great transition area again…bike was grabbed by a volunteer just like at other 140.6 races (and got a cool weather-proof seat cover on it when I picked my bike up after the race…bonus!!). Short run from bike to gear bag to change tent to run out. …again took my time and still had a decent T2. Great volunteers again who put sunblock on my shoulders like I asked (why I didn’t mention my now-red arms and hands, I’ll never know…alas). Cold ice water with ice right outside the changing tent was delightful.
RUN COURSE: Run course was changed to shorten the part on the runway, which was greatly appreciated (runway running is boring!) and what we had to do was perfect because it gave us a couple opportunities to see friends, spectators, and fellow competitors we’d just seen on the bike course.
After running around Bader field quickly you run about ¾ mile to the boardwalk, getting there at about mile 1.25…perfect spot for an aid station…bingo!..there was one right as you enter the boardwalk. 1.5 miles down the boardwalk you leave it and head a couple miles out an back to Margate(?). This was fine but it was hot and unshaded like the rest of the course in early-to-mid afternoon, and there could’ve been more and closer aid stations, but it wasn’t bad at all and I saw no problems with the intersections or traffic control. At the end of the day, that stretch was fine, but I would move everything to the boardwalk next year and just do more or longer laps (as I explain below, the boardwalk was fun).
The boardwalk…what can I say…I abso-frickin-lutely LOVED IT. The boardwalk itself was much easier on the legs than pavement or even the 10 miles of hard-dirt rails-to-trails path at Mont-Tremblant or on the trail by the lake in Madison. I absolutely loved running up and down the boardwalk…I had biked it Friday AM so I knew how long it was (9.5 miles or so round trip), and what there was and was not scenery-wise…and it surprisingly didn’t bother me at all to pass the finish line so many times. Best part was seeing my super-cheering wife (no less than 6 times!!!) and all of my friends who were doing the full or the relay or just cheering us all on…not to mention all of the other spectators and onlookers (many of whom were mesmerized, mystified, and stupefied by what we were all doing out there). I saw race directors, Vigorito and Delmonte, and Challenge CEO, Felix, out there cheering people on (seriously?!?!? when does that ever happen anywhere else?!?!?). Constructively, there could’ve been more signs alerting non-race people that there was a race going on (particularly away from the hotels) and run-path ropes with cross-walk sections near the hotel stretch would’ve been helpful b/c dodging clueless adults and even more clueless kids wasn’t ideal…but it wasn’t a big deal either (I schooled one guy who complained “isn’t this a public beach?” to the turn-around volunteer…to which I said “sure, but your kids getting run over will be your fault not ours!”). Aid stations were great, terrifically well stocked (note to Eagleman…CAC kicked your booty on having cold water and ice!) and the volunteers did a phenomenal job particularly the women by Caesars/Bally’s who tried very, very hard to keep people out of our way (and the push carts too!).
The out-and-back to Margate and the back and forth along the boardwalk meant that you wouldn’t run more than 26.2 miles unless you were really veering off course…when can you ever say that on any marathon course anywhere?!?!?
FINISH LINE: The finish line at Mont-Tremblant was one of the coolest I’ve seen or experienced anywhere (including what I’ve seen at Kona), but this one was right up there in terms of style and excitement. The carpet path in the finishing shoot was classy and looks great in the photos, the timing arch was great, again, race directors right there, Felix was there cheering us on, and Whit was awesome! We got a HUGE medal and fantastic long-sleeved red-and-black finisher’s t-shirt that I will wear with pride for a long time.
POST-RACE
So, as with Mont-Tremblant, I messed up my salt intake throughout the day – thus walked a significant portion of the marathon again, oh well!! – and needed to go to the medical area after the race. Wow, were they awesome. They had 15-20 cots setup with IVs at the ready and got me (and many other people) hooked up quickly…why they stiffed me at IM-MT I still don’t understand but boy did it help at CAC. The people were fantastic, they did a great job getting the IV line in, and they made sure everyone was super comfortable. THANK YOU ALL!!! The immediately-post-race food was “fine” but it had been pitched as being “as good as if not better than the pre-race dinner” and it just wasn’t even close. Whatever…I don’t need to eat much but I would have liked to see something other than the airport food of cold salads/sandwiches/pretzels/water/tea…perhaps warm pizza or pasta and beer (Challenge is a German company after all!!)…but it tided me over until I could get a burger and some beer!! The day-after-race breakfast was very good…eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fruit, and French toast…I went to town. Whit did another great job handing out the awards (a great friend of ours, Deb Hopkins, got 3rd AG, which was so exciting for our group!), great speeches from Felix and the #1 male and female winners (as well as the #2 b/c Freddie the winner was late to the show).
The finishers’ gear (for purchase) was excellent…great hats, shirts, bike shirts, weather-proof jackets, etc. I bought more than I expected because I loved it and just couldn’t resist.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was a terrific inaugural race – kinks will get worked out, they always do—and I would like to do it again (I may try volunteer to help next year if I can fit it in my calendar, perhaps as Whit’s #2 announcer!!!)…and I would recommend it to people considering their first iron-distance race or a great alternative to Ironman-branded races. At the end of the day, I’m super proud to now be a member of the Challenge family!
Congrats Vigo, Steve Delmonte, Felix, Don and Mindy Soranno, and all of the event organizers and volunteers!