Just finished my first half (just jumped up in distance), the FL 1/2 IM. Holy crap it was hot, and the run wasnt nearly as shaded as advertised (forgot my hat in the transition, burned the top of my head… and i have a full head of hair). I was really cool running with some awesome pros, i passed lori bowden on the run. By “passed”, i mean i was running out on the course as she was running in (i was on mile 2, and she only had 2 left). Overall it was a good day. I also met the woman whose stomach i have on my desktop, the pic with the tatoo of the word “Triathlete”, it was pretty sweet. I learned one major lesson. I need a tri bike, there is no getting around it. My road bike (trek 5500) doesnt fit me that well for tri position, and because of that, i got some knee problems and major ass problems on the bike (because the angle wasnt steep enough for how low i was going, the seat really was positioned in an odd way, so that it was very uncomfortable. i actually got chaffed to the point of bleeding… on my ass). Other than that it was a lot of fun. My goal at the beginning was somewhere around 5:30. My goal by mile three of the run was, dont end up in the medical tent, mainly due to the guys i passed surrounded by volunteers who looked half dead. Overall, im gonna try to work out my biomechanics this summer, and therefor get a stronger run (injury keeps preventing me from training to a strong run), and hit another half after the summer. IMO, its a good distance, long enough that its seen as a serious endurance event, short enough so you dont contemplate suicide.
P.S.- i actually did this race for fun just to get the feel for it, take that hardcore triathletes!
no one else wants to add their experience this weekend (maybe no one is back yet). Bjorn, i know you were there, and smoked the bike course like a fatty blunt (avg 27+ mph). I have a question, is it common practice to allow people to forgo the swim if wetsuits are not allowed (the water temp was 85)? This sounds stupid to me, i got really burned by some people near the end of the bike, but they were going so fast, i was wondering, how did they not catch me earlier? Someone later told me they didnt do the swim, so started much later. I think thats lame, there was a blind guy, and even he did the swim.
Hmmm. A WTC half-ironman with a swim or “wait” option. Now we’re talking!
But I think the chances of that occuring are right up their with George W. Bush announcing tonight that he’s firing Don Rumsfeld, appointing Michael Moore as SECDEF, and withdrawing our troops from Iraq immediately. Maybe there was a special relay team division???
If thats true then it is pretty lame. The original idea behind wetsuits was protection from the cold. Everyone knows they are really a swim aid but it seems like now they are required by some “triathletes” just to complete the swim? My 4 year old daughter has some bright orange “floaties” she uses to help her swim. Maybe the promoters should keep a stash at the start and hand them out to the wimps who wont swim without their wetsuit! Whats next for those toughguys. refusing to do the bike because there are hills/wind or maybe the run is too hot “I will just skip it and see you guys at the finish” Do they tell there buddies on Monday, “did that triathlon over the weekend,yup, skipped the swim because they wouldnt let me wear my 8 mil thick floatation device, skipped the bike because it was windy as hell and they wouldnt allow me to motorpace behind my wife in the minivan and skipped the run because, dam was it hot and I havent really trained that much anyway. Post race feed was good though, Since I didnt actually complete any of the course I was there early and ate most of the good food! Cant wait for next year!!”
<<<Someone later told me they didnt do the swim, so started much later.>>>
Nah. If a swim needs to be cancelled for safety reasons, it would apply to everyone. And then a run is usually thrown in place of it. If the water is too warm for wetsuits, then everyone either swims without one, or settles for a DNF.
There will be slow swimmers who are faster cyclists, and will fly by some of the faster swimmers. Same deal on the run. You even see it with some of the pros; one or two will come out near the front of the swim, then drop a number of places on the bike, and then repass on the run. All depends on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses.
I’ve done races where the swim was actually borderline dangerous conditions. (not just water temp wusses who needed their floaties) The RDs let the people who abandoned the swim go out and complete the bike and the run, but you would not recieve a time of place for the event, and would be DNF on the results sheet.
Seems fair as long as the moving DNFs stayed out of the way/started behind the people who were still racing, and stayed ahead of any course time cutoffs.
well, my parents told me that after all the swim waves went off, there were a lot of people milling around, then they kept announcing, “those not doing the swim please meet at such and such a place”. It sounded like the swim was optional. Not canceled, it was perfectly flat, and i had a great swim, and felt real good, it seemed to be optional. That being said, i think that those who didnt do the swim didnt get an offical time, because either that, or a lot of people DNFed/didnt show up to the race (by looking at the unoffical list of times, and comparing it to the number of people registered)
We ran on white sand, grey sand, brown sand, rubber mats, carpet, synthetic “wood” decking, real wood decking and steel end strips (on bridges), grass, dirt, gravel, mud, asphalt, concrete, pine needles, and mulch. Did I forget any?
Who else stumbled at the far end of the transition area where the black astroturf camoflaged a big hole?
I thought the whole venue was kind of weak: Bike racks on the beach in the sand; albeit with a little astroturf spread about. Everyone’s gotta love having to remove the powdery mix from your drivetrain, bottom bracket, etc. Swim was a little weedy but ok. Bike course had some VERY rough sections. Little sign of marshals which, of course, led to lots of joy riding on the left and drafting. Run course was Xterra lite - everything but a swamp crossing. Registration process was understaffed, unorganized and chaotic which led to long lines.
All in all, if WTC plans to move Ironman Florida to Disney much work needs to be done.
This was my first official M-Dot race and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I understand that it was the first year for this event, and normally I’d be perfectly happy with it. I was just expecting more from an official ironman event. Perhaps this just means that the bigger events I’ve done (ie…Columbia, Lobsterman, Timberman), were extremely high caliber so I shouldn’t have expected more??
The 2 mile beach run at the end should be classified as cruel and unusual punishment. Nothing like seeing your mile times slow down to a crawl.
Yep I agree the run on the beach in the loose sand was very tough and demanding at the end of this thing…what a race…saw lots of launched water bottles and some pumps and even a couple of tires out there and one crash on the very rough bike course. What a draft fest too…jeezzz and toward the end of the ride with traffic coming at you a lot of people blithely riding on the left but not passing just sitting there peddling as if they didn’t have a care in the world. I liked my time but didn’t like the way things were organized. Getting out of T1 was tough …hard getting past the cyclists that were just strolling along…had to pick up the bike and run it past these people to get the hell outta T1…wow…
so it was really Lori out there…I thought I saw her while I was waiting in the line for the men’s room but wasn’t sure…very cute too…LOL thanks for the confirmation.
Yep I hit the durn thing too…and whamo…almost took a tumble !!! pretty funny but annoying to me at the time 'cause when I get hot and tired i tend to get a bit surely…(spelling? )…well I get testy!!!
i second the hole or whatever covered up at the end of T2. i rolled my left ankle on the way out, right near the porta potties. not too severe, and i kept running, but it is a dangerous thing to have for a tri of this size. and it definitely could have happened to quite a few people since the transition path pretty much had to take everyone (well maybe not the pros) through that general area.