I had three very close calls on the bike course at IMLP. At the first lap at the turnaround on Haselton, this guy swerved hard left from his line after the aid station and very nearly took me out. On the second lap heading back into Wilmington on Haselton a dude apparently was stopping to pee, but instead of just stopping on the road and then walking his bike, he road into the sand on the side of the road, and then toppled over right in front of me. I had to take extreme evasive action to not ride right over his head. The most dangerous one was a descent with cones on it, and I had to choose between a 40mph+ collision with a dude who was swerving into my line, taking on the cone mano a mano, or going to the left of the cone into traffic. As there were no cars, I chose option C, but I wasn’t digging it too much.
I agree with your observations, and yet I still had a PR! Go figure!
The swim was awful. I was so far off course it cost me way more time than i had planned, which made the difference from breaking 14 hours and not. The headwind on the 2nd bike lap didn’t help either!
I’ve been to Lake Placid for the IM every year since '99 and have done the race the last four years. I planned to drop out after the bike this year due to a running injury so I took it easier than normal on the swim and bike. The swim was chaotic on the first lap. It’s not a normal triathlon swim. The bike was very crowded on the out and back during the first lap but was fine after that.
There has definitely been a change in atmosphere at the event since the early years. There are many more spectators and many of them are very organized (specially designed t-shirts, etc.). The biggest change I’ve seen is the number of team jerseys among the competitors. It seemed like most of the participants were a member of a triathlon team or club (myself included). I also saw more groups of athletes hanging out and training together. IM triathlon is definitely more of a “club” sport than it used to be.
I think there is more trash on the course because there are more athletes and there are more inexperienced athletes who drop stuff by accident or just don’t have the same mindset as some of the more experienced athletes. Doing an IM is just something else that they have bought and part of the purchase price is getting to throw your gel packets or water bottles on the road where ever you want. The help will clean it up.
Since I had plenty of energy from not doing the marathon, I hung around the finish a lot more than in recent years. It’s impossible not to be inspired by the scene. There is so much positive energy.
However, it’s all become too much of a crowded circus for me after nine years. I did the Monday night triathlon put on by High Peaks Cyclery. Absolutely loved it! I’ll be back to LP next year – not during IM week – to do the Monday night tri and train in the beautiful mountains.
I agree about the swim this year. I was just beaten the whole way. For the second half of the second lap, I was right next to this guy who kept hitting me. I kept trying to get away, and 10 seconds later he’d be at my side again. I started to think he had some sort of beef with me, the way he kept pummeling me. I hit a swim PR by 2 minutes (1:00:35), but missed the sub-60 I was aiming for.
And yes, definitely a slower race in general. Last year I did 11:29:XX and finished in around 450th place. This year I was faster (10:59:56, last one under 11), but I finished 202 overall!
The line at registration Monday morning was the craziest thing, in my opinion.
Here’s an idea. Stop loading the bikes down like pack mules heading out for a week in the desert.
Classic! I HAD to take a picture of one guys’ bike in transition on Saturday. Elegantly taped in sequential order to the top tube in front of the seat were 10 - 12 GUs, alternating flavor from layers of Lemon/Lime & Strawberry/Banana to a couple of layers of Chocolate & Vanilla. It was brilliant! I’ll see if I can post it.
Nice post. My experience at IMCDA x 3 was similar to yours. I remember looking around and thinking, “I really don’t want to be a part of THiS anymore.”
It was a strange feeling, but something different than burnout. Call it “Mild Disgust”.
Luckily for IM’s sake, we are being replaced by 100 folks who want to experience the crowds and trash.
Yeah, it was a wierd weekend for me. Many different feelings after investing so much of my life in IM over the past decade. I’ve done everything that I saw others doing this weekend (except getting the IM tat or purposely trash the course) so I understand, and I think the organizers understand that they need to please the newbies because most of their customers won’t even last a decade like I did.