My wife is coming to watch me have a great race at IMFL this Saturday. She’ll have our 2yo twins in-tow, and our 10 year old.
Does anyone familiar with the race have any input that could help her spectate? Or maybe advice about what to do for 5ish hours during the bike? We’re staying about a 10-minute walk from T1.
Thanks!
Nick White #1900
in 2012, we had a group of 5 doing IMFL. We all used myathletelive gps tracking (no affiliation) to help the 20 spectators with us to know where we were. My wife and youngest watched the swim from near the beach, then they hung out for 5 hours doing whatever and then set up at the run-out of T2. They moved to near the run special needs bags later and then at the finish line. The trackers worked pretty well but the GPSs battery died for a couple of the group that finished later in the night.
My friends came down in 2011 when I raced and they told me they rode go-carts and played putt-putt while I was on the bike.
My wife is coming to watch me have a great race at IMFL this Saturday. She’ll have our 2yo twins in-tow, and our 10 year old.
Does anyone familiar with the race have any input that could help her spectate? Or maybe advice about what to do for 5ish hours during the bike? We’re staying about a 10-minute walk from T1.
Thanks!
Nick White #1900
Depends on where you are staying, but generally speaking, the beach in the morning is awesome for the start, but it is pretty impossible to see both swim exit and bike out (just not that easy to get around) but you can see swim start and the exit/start at loop two.
With kids, I would say forget seeing the bike ride. See your athlete roll out and then see them on the run start. That bike course is not spectator friendly for someone with little ones. You could drive around and see someone a few times, but it wouldn’t be easy.
Run is where you can do well. It depends what you want and where you are staying. Everything for the first mile (which occurs 4 times) is pretty well packed most of the time, but if you move beyond that, it would be easy to setup a chair in the grass and easily see your racer 3 times and have plenty of time to be at the finish. For instance is you were at mile 2. You would see them on their way out, assuming something like a 9 minute mile, they would be back at mile 11 an hour twenty later, then again, you would see them again at mile 15, 35 or 40 minutes later. That would give you nearly two hours to pack up and walk down to the finish.
That is a good spot, but it really depends how easy the kids are to manage, how close your real base of operations will be and if you will have any help.
If you want some more information, PM me. My wife has spectated this race three years. Last year she managed it with a 6 week old (though we had some help from parents). She won’t have experience doing it with the kids, but she has experience doing it, and experience being at races with a kid (kona with a 1 year old and now help), so I am sure she will be more helpful than the dummy that just runs by and waves (that’s me).
Does anyone know about parking near the race site? My wife will have our 5-month old and his stroller, so I don’t know if the shuttle will allow the stroller (Athlete’s Guide says no bikes on the shuttle).
The best thing is for her to sleep in until about noon, get some coffee and lunch, play with the kids on the beach, then go back for a nap, then dinner, a shower, and put the twins down for the night. When you get done try to come in quietly so you don’t wake the kids.
I can’t imagine having to drag twin 2 year olds around an IM site. IM’s are just not that spectator friendly. You don’t want to have to worry about whether they are happy pre-race. Once you are in transition you just don’t have time to worry about them. And besides the fact that watching dad put on vaseline and body glide isn’t that interesting, they probably can’t see you. Once you are in a wetsuit you look like the rest of the seals. So you get the swim start, maybe 3 seconds when you are out of the water, if they run, maybe they watch for 3 seconds as you leave on the bike, then an hour or so of waiting for you to come back on the bike for 3 seconds, and then 10 seconds after the first lap and if you are lucky, they will see the finish.
I’m sure you are thinking I am dick by now. But after 8 attempts, this is how it works out for me and my wife.
So real suggestions, I don’t know that I would have them come down early with you. They can’t see you and all they can do is stand there until the start. Have her come down for the swim start. That can be pretty cool and the swim only lasts an hour. Once you are on the bike, go karts, the beach, eating, the hotel, etc. all work. If you are really intent on seeing the family during the race, pick a specific spot on the run curse where they will be, or you will miss them in the crowd. The big one for everyone is the finish, give a real estimate and hopefully she will catch you. And having help getting stuff back to the hotel is a good thing. But also be ready for her to be worn out and not so happy post-race, it is a long boring day for spectators.
At IMAZ last fall my wife came down with me early but I never saw her after i entered transition. She saw me come out, she saw me leave on the bike, she saw me get back, she saw me on both laps of the run, and she saw me finish. I never saw her that day until she got to our meet up place. So be prepared and don’t freak out if you miss her. I have no idea what she did all day, for all I know she spent the day with a new boyfriend.
MOST IMPORTANT - make sure you have a specific spot to meet post race and make sure it is a spot she can get to. IM sites can frequently change the traffic pattern the day of the race and getting to some spots may not be easy or even possible. Have her check that spot often in case she misses you finish. Trust me, there is nothing worse than being unable to find each other for a couple hours post-race. My wife and I got messed up at the Big Sur marathon and it was a two hour nightmare before we found each other.
Super soakers are popular at IMFL.
Send the wifey and kids to Andy’s Flour Power and then home for a nap during the bike ride.
There’s a section down by Thomas where the course zig/zags and they can see you 6x by walking about a block back and forth and then still have time to get to the finish before you.
PCB is awesome, the In-laws have a condo down there so I spend lots of time mooching in on that.
Checkout Fire Fly before 6pm for a snazzy dinner without the snazzy price and a kid friendly environment.
Menchi’s on Back Beach is the best Fro-Yo in town.
Peer Park has all the chains and a mini theme park.
Park at Walmart. Very short walk and a huge parking lot. With a stroller it is manageable for sure.
Thanks everyone for their advice here. I think we’ll all make it a point to see the swim start, and see me a couple times on the run, and at the finish. Hopefully the athlete tracking is working good enough to track me around the run course.