Interesting so few are talking about drafting if it was that bad. We always hear it about IMFL, so if you are saying it was worse, where are all the ST police?
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I’ve done IMFL twice (2004 & 2006) and I saw nothing there that even comes close to what I saw yesterday.
OK, it is 5:17 so maybe the race is sold out anyway, but between the discussion about the complexity of logistics, bad set up for spectators and now the various points about draft groups, I’ll hang on to my $1200.
I was able to sneak onto the bike course and sat on the side cheering people on. But I left in disgust after seeing all the drafting. A few guys went by encouraging each other and discussing tactics, i.e take shorter pulls, don’t pull through so hard. Things I only hear in a break of a bike race.
I hope these guys are proud. But since they blatantly draft, they probably blatantly dope and beat their dogs.
OK, it is 5:17 so maybe the race is sold out anyway, but between the discussion about the complexity of logistics, bad set up for spectators and now the various points about draft groups, I’ll hang on to my $1200.
Sorry Dev, we are tracking in on another thread, and it still is open. But, you now have a race folks are saying has better drafting than IMFL, and has a 15.5 hour cutoff. Why are ST folks not flocking to the race?
IMLT, we know you want to do it
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Wow, seriously? Is this what the sport has come to. There must be coaches also promoting this stuff? Totally disgusting!
I was able to sneak onto the bike course and sat on the side cheering people on. But I left in disgust after seeing all the drafting. A few guys went by encouraging each other and discussing tactics, i.e take shorter pulls, don’t pull through so hard. Things I only hear in a break of a bike race.
I hope these guys are proud. But since they blatantly draft, they probably blatantly dope and beat their dogs.
Where were the officials?
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I was able to sneak onto the bike course and sat on the side cheering people on. But I left in disgust after seeing all the drafting. A few guys went by encouraging each other and discussing tactics, i.e take shorter pulls, don’t pull through so hard. Things I only hear in a break of a bike race.
I hope these guys are proud. But since they blatantly draft, they probably blatantly dope and beat their dogs.
I will be doing the Golden State Tri draft legal race here in Northern Calif from tbfracing.com and have already started to talked to a buddy about our race tactics. Told him if he slows down on the swim and lets me draft him,
then we can both draft like crazy to stay away from the weaker swimmers, and then is would be balls out on the run. But, this is legal.
Where were the officials?
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I was able to sneak onto the bike course and sat on the side cheering people on. But I left in disgust after seeing all the drafting. A few guys went by encouraging each other and discussing tactics, i.e take shorter pulls, don’t pull through so hard. Things I only hear in a break of a bike race.
I hope these guys are proud. But since they blatantly draft, they probably blatantly dope and beat their dogs.
Where were the officials?
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That was one thing I noticed, there were not many course martials. Lots of support bikes, cars, very little refs though. There were a ton at IMLP this year, but while I was volunteering on the bike course I barely saw any which was surprising.
I saw one lady on the bike course motionless and blood pooling on the road…I hope she is ok. Seemed after the first loop and seeing a few of the crashes that folks took it a bit easier in that section…staying away from the middle gap between the cement.
Nasty spills!
thought the swim was interesting, but would have liked to be warmed about the muck going into the end.
there was no warning, and i was stuck in the diarrhea like muck in the water before getting pulled out. quite an excellent feeling when finishing the swim.
there was a shower like station when you came out, but i think it was just the hudson water. wash poop with poop.
Wow, seriously? Is this what the sport has come to. There must be coaches also promoting this stuff? Totally disgusting!
Makes me wonder if it is the same team (from NY is as specific as I would like to say) that had a team car out on the bike course at IMLP in 2006, doing mechanicals and flat changes for their team.
Made the same mistake and then decided to keep swimming…of course it was pitch black at that point in the water…errie feeling. Talked to someone later who said they mentioned it in a briefing…maybe just not the one I went to. 
or my ears were still ringing from the band!
I saw one lady on the bike course motionless and blood pooling on the road…I hope she is ok. Seemed after the first loop and seeing a few of the crashes that folks took it a bit easier in that section…staying away from the middle gap between the cement.
Nasty spills!
I had officials around all day. Was the same crew on the bike, so not sure how many other officials were around.
Did you get any information about the woman (younger, it appeared; say under 45, as a guess) who crashed on the first loop of the bike? She was laid out on the ground in the middle of the southbound (return) lane, had blood streaming from multiple places on her head, and generally did not look good. She was being attended to as I passed by, and another athlete near me told me after the race that they’d tended to her on the ground for quite a while, because she was still down when he came back northbound on the second loop. I’m hoping hers was one of those injuries that looks worse than it is, but many of us were talking about her after the race, hoping she was okay.
Re: visiting the med tent wanting treatent for normal post-race conditions, I dunno – I might have been one of the people in that group, but it was a judgment call. These weren’t what I would call normal race conditions. It was brutal out there, and it was nearly impossible to replenish everything we were sweating out. I was incredibly faint from miles 15 through 18 (worse than a normal dark period during IM; I literally kept banging into the barrier on the GW Bridge, because everything was spinning), and dragged myself to the finish through sheer stubborness. I adopted the motto, “Try different things at each aid station. Eventually something will work.” It sort of did (I didn’t collapse, and I eventually got rid of the worst of my dizziness), but I knew I needed to get my head below my heart when I was done. The finish line volunteer asked me to walk around with him. That was not happening. I ended up in medical. I didn’t need an IV (lost 7 lbs relative to my pre-race weight, but my vitals were fine). All I needed was a chance to lie down with my feet over my head, and get my core temp down (they packed ice bags around me, and OMG, it was heaven). I was recovered about 15 minutes later. You tell me – did I do a bad thing? There were plenty of empty cots in the med tent when I was there, and I offered them my cot twice if they needed it. They told me to sit tight and relax. The 15 minutes I spent there took me from extremely faint to capable of walking around and grabbing a ferry to NJ. Misuse of the med tent?
that is not misuse of the tent.
there were many walking normally looking fine but just wanted to be checked out - and at times when we were full out.
Any time we can hydrate someone orally we do - IVF were going into those who came in passed out, not turning around with feet up/ice, unable to take in orally without puking…
glad you turned around easily
Sounds like you didn’t drink enough on the bike…once you lose about 2% body weight, at least for me, things start going downhill. For this race, during bricks I would weigh myself before and after and measure my intake…thus I knew based on conditions how much fluid I had to take in.
Still didn’t stop my feet from imploding on the run…but the nutrition plan worked well. too bad that doesn’t count for much more than that…
I was able to sneak onto the bike course and sat on the side cheering people on. But I left in disgust after seeing all the drafting. A few guys went by encouraging each other and discussing tactics, i.e take shorter pulls, don’t pull through so hard. Things I only hear in a break of a bike race.
I hope these guys are proud. But since they blatantly draft, they probably blatantly dope and beat their dogs.
I will be doing the Golden State Tri draft legal race here in Northern Calif from tbfracing.com and have already started to talked to a buddy about our race tactics. Told him if he slows down on the swim and lets me draft him,
then we can both draft like crazy to stay away from the weaker swimmers, and then is would be balls out on the run. But, this is legal.
Where were the officials?
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Lol. What officials? Do you think they care? They got your money and you’ll be an Ironman! Rest is details. Most of the officials are there for the pro race.
Go take a look at some you tube videos from Ironman Florida. It’s eye opening.
Fun day, great to finish my first Ironman. Will definitely do another Ironman… but not NYC. Logistically race was enough of a pain that relaxation wasn’t maximized in the lead up and expense wasn’t spared. From a spectating standpoint it was a nightmare with my wife and friends spending most of the day chasing me around in a cab. From what I hear there’s better Ironman venues out there and next time will be one of those.
On the positives for this race: the section coming over the GW bridge is absolutely breathtaking - it’s an awesome view and something really cool to do in an Ironman, the energy level from the volunteers was impressive given that many of them were getting to the race before us and leaving after, being able to walk from the finish line a couple of streets over and be in a NYC bar where people are coming up to you and asking to shake your hand was pretty cool (also to be expected, but over half the bar had no clue what was going on), obviously a fast swim has it’s perks, and finally finishing an Ironman (and my first) is a pretty damn good positive