Just a quick recap and race review for the MiamiMan 2007 Half-IM distance. I drove down on Saturday, turned off the Turnpike and found the park really easy. Registration took about 5 minutes, and went off to review the swim and bike courses. Here’s the raceday results:
The swim is in a manmade lake but I thought looking at the buoys that it seemed pretty long. You start on a sand shore and do 2 laps, the water was pleasantly cool with a wetsuit, mostly clear with some algae. The first turn was chaos with ~100 people all bunched up trying to make a left turn. With the size of the lake I don’t think they could really change this though. What they should do is simply add 1 more wave instead of taking all 34 and younger males all at once. Maybe do 50+ males, 30-50 males and <30 instead. Anyway, the swim I think was definitely long…if there’s one thing I am consistent in it is the swim. In ~15 HIMs I’ve always been 37-39 mins, and with a wetsuit this one was 42 mins and I was moving pretty good. Several other people said this to me as we were running back to T1. Only a couple of people went under 30 mins, with the fastest at 27:45 or something…and he won the race in 4:04.
Speaking of which…ouch. Lots of people complaining about the pavement, rocks on the path, length of the run (at least a half mile), etc. With the road layout of the park I don’t think there’s another easy way to do it, but I still have a bruise on my left foot from stomping on a big rock on the way back.
I drove the bike course just before dark and noted any rough spots. It is FLAT FLAT FLAT. The biggest elevation change is about 3 feet. Pavement is good for 90% of the course. There are a couple of bumpy areas, especially near intersections, and a couple of badly patched potholes. But for the most part the pavement is very smooth and the cops did a good job of controlling traffic (with the exception of the guy that directed a SEMI to turn left in front of a big group of us going 25+mph). What WASN’T nice was the wind. O M F G. There were segments I was pushing 275W and barely going 20mph. With the wind coming from the NE it was brutal for the majority of the course, especially on the way back. My odometer read 53.5 miles, and it’s usually accurate within 0.3mi or so on accurately measured courses.
The run course is a 2 loop setup going around the lake along a paved path, then cutting across a segment of dirt road around another lake and into the zoo. The zoo part is pretty cool, with the exception of running past the pungent rhino p00p! The water stations were well stocked every time I went by, and the volunteers were good at making sure you got what you needed. They were pretty well spaced except for coming from the top of the map. The station was actually about halfway up the long out-and-back section, not at the corner in the parking lot like it’s shown on the map. I think it was close to 2 miles between the stations, which was pretty long even on a fairly cool day (80ish) like yesterday. It wasn’t a big deal, but a lot of people on the first lap were asking where the #@$%@# station was?!? There’s an offroad section on the second part too, but it’s mostly smooth with no big divots and isn’t a dustbowl like IMFL70.3.
Anyway, overall I’d give it an 8.5 out of 10 on HIM races. It’s a good end-of-year race, though I think I’d probably do the Florida Challenge HIM instead if I weren’t doing the GFT that day. If they could figure out how to lay out transition to be closer to the water…or put down some mats along the path…or simply sweep all the rocks off them that would be great! I might go back next year to get revenge on the wind…
