This is my first RR posted to the site, after years of lurking, but what the hey,
A little background,
The Motor City tri is run by 3D and takes place on Belle Isle (an island park in the middle of the Detroit River between Detroit and Canada).
There were posts last year after the race concerned about how the event was run and the cleanliness of the park. I entered with a little concern after reading posts from last year.
Race day,
The weather was perfect, which can offset even the most terribly organized event.
The setup and course are a little unorthodox with the T1 and T2 separated by about a mile. After picking up my packet and setting up the T2 area by registration, we all walked down to the beach. After setting up T1 at the beach, there was a rather long, but quickly-moving, line to get body marked and pick up our chips.
After a quick course review by the RD at the beach, we were off into the surprisingly clean detroit river. Being in the under34 Oly group meant I was chasing all of the high school, club, and ex-college swimmers who decided to race. They had changed the course this year to keep it more protected from the current of the river. After a 30m sprint into thigh deep water, we were off. The only interesting point was the one buoy at the upriver turnaround that was far enough out to be in the current, which had many people either struggling to swim upriver around the buoy (like myself), under the buoy but around the rope (like my friend and ex-miler from Michigan) or skipping it entirely at the last second. The only other problem was that someone ripped off my timing chip. I guess there is a first time for everything. Otherwise surprisingly clean and clear water.
28:xx
The bike is run on the old Gran Prix course that loops around the island. It is a 4 loop course with well paved roads and 2+ lanes closed for bikers. The loops while a little boring the 3rd and 4th time, definitely improved my wife’s enjoyment of the day. P2C fit by Tom D. still running like a charm.
1:00 ish
The run is a 2 looper heading down part of the Grand Prix course and then on a paved nature trail. Good mix of sun and shade with aid stations every mile. Only issue was the short-staffed nature of the aid stations with only 1 or 2 people at them trying to hand out drinks. I usually picked up my own off the table. All the volunteers were encouraging and upbeat. Best part of the run was finally catching my friend and ex-UM swimmer after spotting him 5 minutes or so on the swim.
51:xx
Finish 2:23 (nothing impressive for the peaceful tribe)
PR for me while still living off the miles I put in training for IMAZ. Best part about it is that the Achilles problems and IT band pain that popped up after IMAZ seem to have gotten much better.
After crossing the line, let the RD know about my chip, showed him my watch time, and gave him the race number of someone else in my wave who crossed with me. I was surprised to see all this correctly loaded into the results page. The volunteers collected all of the wetsuits/stuff from T1 and brought them up the finish. They even put my wetsuit back in my transition bag, since I forgot in the heat of the moment.
I would certainly recommend the race to anyone in the area. Having done Chicago twice (and swearing never to do it again), it was nice to find an “urban” course with a little nature thrown in. The venue is one of a kind and improving as they are planning on bringing back the Grand Prix. 3D did a great job with the atypical venue.