has anyone done this race? what did you think?
i am considering doing it as well, so would be curious to hear input
.
I did the race last year. Beautiful setting, great time of the year to be out in Eastern LI and nice way to end the year. Swim is out and back in a very clean lake (no waves, navigation,/sighting issues, etc). Bike course is on excellent roads with some rolling hills (nothing too crazy) and alot of wind. The signature aspect of the race, however, is the run course which is two loops, the second half of which is extremely hilly.
Last year was the first year of the race and their were a couple minor snafus (aid stations on run did not have gels (or gatorade, I think) as advertised, only one aid station on bike, local crazy/homeless guy running around changing the direction arrows on the bike course, etc) but the folks who ran the race seemed to know their stuff (they put on a bunch of other well run races on Long Island) and I would bet it will be all ironed out this year. Post-race food spread was very good, too.
If you go to the bottom of this page and do a search, keep “this forum” and “all words” and type in Mighty Man. When the index comes up, go to page 4 and there were a bunch of postings from Aug. 11. I started this thread and considered very seriously doing Mighty Man, but just couldn’t fit it in. There are some good comments on the area from Frank and David. I’m again looking closely at it…and again it seems like a superb location…and again it seems over-priced. As for the latter, though, maybe I’m just getting immune to the shock-effect of expensive races, because it’s not bothering me as much this time around to think about throwing down $175 or $200 for the experience.
If you are looking for a challenge, then this is the one for you, based on last year’s times – of 220 finishers, only 8 were sub-5, and only 31 were sub-5:30. Of the 220, in fact, less than 50% were sub-6, which is a very low value. I would view it as a great late-season test of fitness, much as I view Columbia as an ealy-season test of fitness. The hills on the run will of course be a constant, and in all likelihood so too will be the wind during the bike. And hats off to the RD for being up-front about the run’s hills, and not trying to “sell” a course by minimizing its challenges!
See you there?