Helicopter in Transition

Triathlon Forum
1

Interesting experience at Spirit of Racine yesterday. I was part of a relay (running leg), so I was standing there watching the lead men come into transition when we noticed the helicopter (Comcast has had (delayed) race coverage the last year or two) was awfully low over the transition area in order to catch the leaders in transition. Unfortunately the idiot piloting the 'copter was WAY too low and started kicking up sand everywhere. Despite people trying to wave him off, he hovered there and completely destroyed major portions of the transition areas. Bike racks were knocked over and broken (luckily all the bikes were out on the course), wetsuits were everywhere, shoes, socks, hats, nutrition were scattered and there was no good way to determine whose stuff was whose. Luckily some of the race organizers and some volunteeers (and other people doing the relay) paired shoes upm tried to find socks, etc. But it was a mess. All we could think about was how miserable it would have been to come back into transition not knowing this had happened and not being able to find a sock, hat, race belt, whatever. Not sure if any of this was ever communicated to the racers, so I figured people might want to know.

All of this is NOT to blame the RD, who was pretty upset and had apparently had to call the FAA to get the helicopter to finally move from hovering over transition.

Who knew that in addition to all the usual perils of tris, you know have to add helicopters…

2

I was racked in the middle away from the pro end. When I came in to T2 I had volunteers running with me explaining what happened and there to get me what ever I needed for the run. The RD and volunteers did a great job fixing what that knuckle head pilot did. Doesn’t he know the camera has a zoom lense on it?

3

It did make things interesting. My family was doing the relay, so my mom and brother were in transition helping try to put things right.

Thankfully, I had all my stuff back in place for T2. Had to look around a bit after the race to find my wetsuit, as did a bunch of people.

There was a bunch of stuff that they couldn’t figure out where it went though.

4

The exact same problem happened the very first year of IM Lake Placid. All the T2 gear racks got knocked down by the low-hovering helicopter, and what was worse, it had previously rained so some bags got dumped in the water puddles and people had wet running socks and wet running shoes. I was volunteering that year and recall we had to grab a ton of volunteers to re-assemble the racks and sort out the gear bags. Even so, we had a lot of upset people in the T2 tent who were looking at wet stuff for their marathon.

I guess it goes on the list of bizarre things an RD needs to plan for.
BrokenSpoke

5

Thanks for the info, and thank you for all that tried to put things back. I was racked beside the pro’s. My stuff was several spaces over, wet suit and goggles over by fence when I went to pick things up afterwards.

6

I saw him fly really low following the leaders during the swim and run too - should be a pretty good foootage . Anyone know which channel and airdate?

7

I agree with all the comments. The helicopter pilot was very unaware of the mess he/she made in the transition zone, however race volunteers were AWESOME. I went to rack my bike and the rack was dismantled and the volunteers held the bar so I could rack my bike…also it was nice they hung up my wetsuit and luckily my race belt and hat were still in place. Race was very well run —awesome volunteers.

8

I luckily was able to find everything and the volunteers were very helpful. My running sunglasses were a few rack positions over but I found them pretty easily. My sister and husband also helped clean up the transition and it was probably the most fun my husband has ever had at a race. He is like a three old and thought it was so cool when the helicopter came in and blew everything away.

9

Luckily, my stuff in transition was fine. However, I was damn-near blinded by sand during one of his nap-of-the-earth fly-bys on the beach. He was making one hell of a mess.

10

My experience with the helicopter was out on the run course - I was coming in on my 1st lap and Mirinda was finishing and the main reason I could tell was that there was this loud noise coming up behind…so my thoughts were “stay in front of mirinda, stay in front of the chopper” so while this is a new one: I WAS PACED BY A HELICOPTER.

I interviewed mirinda after the race and she also thought it was bizzare…I can’t imagine running a half with a chopper above your head the whole time…But it is cool that there is tv coverage of it. For doityourself coverage - I will have the interview with her and some other stuff on my site (and youtube.com/iwilltri) as soon as I get unpacked…