Did this race this morning. Overall it was an well run event with a unique course. Given the number of participants (approx 750) and the amount of traffic control needed to pull off a 20 mile bike through the heart of Columbus, I’m skeptical we’ll ever see this race again. But, in the event we do here’s an open note with some constructive criticism for the folks at HFP Racing:
If you could accept Bike-to-Run transition bags from athletes on Saturday, throw them on a truck and take them downtown to T2 for us it would be a huge help. It took me well over 2 hours on Saturday to pick up my packet, check my stuff at both transitions, drive between the two transitions and get back home. Seems like this would take one truck and a couple of volunteers to pull off.
I heard there was a last-minute change that pushed the Olympic swim course into a two lap affair. Please figure out how to get back to a 1500m swim course so you can send waves off more closely spaced. I understand why you let the pros finish their two laps before staring others, but for those of us doing the sprint, standing around for 1:20 waiting for our wave to start was way too long. Some of the Olympic racers didn’t get going until almost 8:00. 1:30 to get all the waves in the water is WAY too long. Better communication regarding which wave is starting next would also be appreciated.
It looked like the sprint and olympic bikes were generally segregated into different physical areas of T1. It would be awesome if you could throw a fence up between them and let the sprint racers have access to their portion of T1 until just before the 8:00 sprint race start. I had to show up at 6:30 this morning for a schedule 8:00 sprint start (that really ended up being an 8:20 start) just so I could get into transition before it closed and put one water bottle on my bike. That’s a big pain.
My god, please move the swim into deeper water. This trend of setting the swim course up parallel to shore is annoying - especially when it’s so close to shore that athletes are scraping their knuckles on the bottom of the lake. What happened to the good old fashioned out-and-back swim course?
You need more bike catchers at T2. A LOT more. The volunteers were great and doing their best, but there just weren’t enough of them. Either that or configure things so racers rack their own bikes at T2.
The aid stations on the run ought to have ice. Warm water and Infinit doesn’t quite do it at 85 degrees.
Re-pave High Street (Kidding. Well, not really. But I know you can’t)
I don’t want to sound like I’m whining - it was a fun event and very well done. This is an event with some unusual logistics and it went off pretty well for the first time through. There were just a few annoyances that could make things light years better for the athletes in future years.
Congrats to HFP for trying this. A huge effort for a company of their size and with their schedule to put on a big city, suburb to downtown triathlon in the middle of the summer. As a long-time Cbus resident it was a thrill to race down High St after swimming at Alum Creek. Everything else went about as expected. The downtown run, transition and finish area were sweet.
I agree with the need to get the sprint racers on High Street earlier. I did the sprint and the traffic was definitely picking up. There are so many intersections where something could go wrong despite the efforts of the officers manning the major intersections. The previous tri that went from Alum Creek to downtown happened in the late 80s and didn’t use High St. The Cbus has grown a lot since then.
I did the tri that went from Alum to downtown in the 80s and it was definitely one of the highlights of my year to be able to do a similar tri 25 years later. Thanks to HFP for taking the chance!
I agree, they did a great job. Just wanted to point out a few minor tweaks that could make the thing stellar, but overall they did well with a very tough logistical challenge.
I really wanted to do this race but work got in the way. I did make down to the arena district around eleven. I hope they can do it next year so I can get in on the action.
What a great race and great venue, I WILL do it again! Hope it happens again next year. I didn’t really understand the logistics involved in this race until we got on N High St, all I can say is way to go HFP!! It was insane out there, It seemed as though there was a cop everywhere needed directing traffic. The volunteers were awesome, much thanks to them. Was there some things that could be improved? Sure but all in all, it was exactly what I was expecting(except for 85 degree bathwater).
I was surprised by how shallow the water was, waist to knee deep in places. That helped be a little though, I was freaking out when I stepped off the bus and heard the announcer say “no wetsuits” . Today was the first time I been in open water without a wetsuit, good way to get broke in though. I loved the bike course, did about 23 MPH on bike. NHS did get rough in some spots and a little tight but was still awesome. I really enjoyed the two loops of the run. No ice but the water worked for me, just through it on myself. They did have ICE cold bottled water at the finish which was very nice(and I finished the 35-39 OLY in 2:37).
Had a great time in C-bus, I will be back fo sho if its a go next year!
I really wanted to do this race, but I’m at the tail end of IM louisville training, so I passed. I look forward to next year. Hopefully they take some lessons learned and improve. HFP typically does a great job.
HFP is putting on a Sprint/Olympic race in the Cincinnati area next weekend if anyone is interested.
The warm open water swim, slight downhill bike ride and two loop run with plenty of finish motivation made for an awesome first attempt at the Olympic distance.
Hats off to HFP for tackling a logistical nightmare.
To be clear, I have no inside information. I just know how much it costs to provide traffic control at an intersection via off-duty police. If you compare the number of intersections HFP had to cover for this event to any other typical Sprint/Oly race the revenue/expense equation doesn’t seem to add up. There was another tri in Columbus a couple of years ago that went down State Route 315, it died (in part) for the same reason. HFP’s event last weekend clearly received huge financial support from Giant Eagle and only Giant Eagle knows whether that support will continue. Like I said in my OP, I hope it’s back for years to come. I just have my doubts.
Hey Mark, If I recall that was a classic Scott Tinley/Scott Molina dual at the Bud Light World championship qualifier. This was back before the convention center was built but T2 was at the Hyatt. I think we came down Worthington road and down to Summit into dowtown Cbus?
If I remember, the womens field had the Puntous twin. Liz Hansen and Jan Ripple.
I remember the tickets for 2 free Bud Lights after the event and the Rob Mackle blowing up his swim cap by placing it over his head/nose at the carbo loading dinner.
I saw you at the event yesterday, first time since Solo Man in Kona quite a few years ago with the Kureks as race crew.
I have to say, part of the reason I stayed away was my fear of the logistics. It sounded like a lot of fun racing through city streets though.I think it is good to have a very visible race, the finish was right out the door of my work building. No one outside of triathlon ever knows races are even going on, when they were setting up the finish area Friday it actually made people aware there was a race.
The cost gets huge for a race like this like you said, talking to the Fat Rabbit guys about the race at Antrim, their costs were over $15k just for the police.
That and I did the real triathlon at it’s roots race in Lima. They have been putting on the YMCA/Kewpee Burger race for over 20 years. Always less than half the bike racks needed so I threw together two nice little bike racks for me and the wife the night before out of scrap lumber. Door prizes, plenty of pizza and Kewpee burgers for post-race food. Though they got away from their roots this year and used chip timing, used to take 6 weeks to get actual results as the guy running it had to hand compile them.
I enjoyed the race as well. The contents of my swim bag emptied out in the truck when they moved the bags so it took a long while to find my stuff(goggles and swim skin). I wasn’t really happy with having to either ride a shuttle at 5:30 am or finding a ride back to the car either. It was kind of a pain.
Still, I had a good race and really enjoyed myself. I thought the run course was particularly nice and not too tough.
Great first time event for sure! We had four of our pro guys racing. Honestly pre-race I thought there was no way the logistics would work out without some sort of disaster. But hats off to HFP for another great event! Everything seemed to go really well, and it was a cool venue. I would agree on a few of your recommendations…swim further out, truck the bags out to T2, and if anyone has pull with the city lets get High St re-paved
The last minute switch to the 2 lap swim was a bit of a distraction, but didn’t ruin my day. But then, I wasn’t standing aroung waiting for one of the late sprint waves either.
Agree that the logistics of getting riders from Alum Creek to d’town made me nervous and that I was amazed at how it came together. That being said, I fear that we all may have been one crazy driver with anger management issues away from disaster.
Recognize that this was not directly HFP’s fault but High St from Worthington through the Short North was brutal. I was really looking forward to being able to put my head down and fly on this section but despite best efforts to be looking ahead for the next pothole, crack, bump etc there were some bone jarring encounters. Was suprised I didn’t see more athletes off to the side with blowouts. Also forced to ride outside the cones in areas of SN due to cars parked in the riding lane.
The idea of trucking the T2 bags from Alum to d’town didn’t occur to me but good idea. Although, if you were riding the shuttle on Sun morning, you really didn’t need to check your T2 bag on Sat. Just drop it off before getting on the shuttle.
I live along High Street and was surprised that I never saw any kind of notice going out to the effected neighborhoods just giving residents a heads up that this event would be going through their neighborhood so they could plan their comings and goings to avoid High St and/or come out and spectate.
Loved the run. Running past the commons with the spectators and band playing really helped the bike to run transition and gave a boost going into lap 2.
The observation that the race could possibly not be long-lived seems unpopular but in my opinion, realistic. I also found myself wondering how many years GE would continue to pony up sponsorship $$ for an event of this magnitude logistically if participation doesn’t increase.
I should have won the Felt bike. See what can be done about that.
John - The “other” event that went down SR 315 died because of the actions of one person. It had nothing to do with what you wrote. Maybe quit speculating about that event and Giant Eagle’s future and instead of approaching everything from the negative instead become a positive voice for Giant Eagle and events of this magnitude in Central Ohio. Events like Giant Eagle are exactly what we need in Central Ohio and as a race organizer I know the amount of planning, coordination, time, and effort that went into producing an event like Giant Eagle. Hats off to Shannon, Sandy, and the rest of the HFP crew for bringing an exciting triathlon experience to Columbus. Let’s support this event.
