I may have to do that one. I don’t think my pride will allow me to finish with a DNF. I will probably see how I do in Oceanside next year first. I want to do that one because it’s driving distance and I spent a few years stationed at Pendleton.
I’ve been considering T100, but it’s all about the conditions. I can do hills and I can do heat. I just can’t do both.
I think I need to do sweat testing. Despite the heat, I never really felt dehydrated. It was all about the electrolytes. I kept drinking the whole first lap of the run, just constantly. The cramping is what killed my chances.
Anyone have issues with lack of ice or cups in later hours?
My wife and kids have always volunteered at StG and they’ve reported the last couple years have had some resource issues.
Last year they had two water coolers to fill cups with (which was way slower than years past when they had a pallet of gallon bottled water to fill with), and this year they had just one cooler and were very limited in ice. And then started running out of cups, so they were told to just fill the cups even more full (people still take 2). Which means she’s running back and forth getting the cooler filled with no backup there.
Plus there’s no way they can fill cups fast enough using the cooler spout so she’s dumping the cups in from the top to fill them. Of course, She washed her hands and lets face it city water is chlorinated like a swimming pool.
And at some point they stopped putting ice in the cooler so they could keep the cans of coke cold and told her “the water from the hose tap is cold enough”. They do have a filter on the hose for those wondering.
But it’s definitely a stressful fire drill when the weather heats up.
Anyone have issues to getting water etc in later hours?
It certainly could have been better. I was really disappointed there wasn’t another aid station on Snow Canyon. That’s a brutal climb to only have one at the bottom and one at the top. Figure roughly 7 miles between the two. Most of us age groupers were on that climb for close to an hour.
I found the aid stations running short on ice in my 2nd loop and I was in the top 20 percent of finishers so for sure they ran out after me. My first loop I had all the ice I could get but once it heated up and more people hit the run it became scarce. So extra hard for the latecomers.
Sorry to hear about your DNF. It must be a real disappointment. Curious to see how you will bounce back, because it’s not a matter of “if” for sure!
They had ice in kiddie pools, but not volunteers handing it out in cups so similar to the help yourself hat dunking buckets.
Water, Coke and Mortal seemed to be very available in cups.
Congrats on a well executed race? Did it feel any “cooler” going from pavement to golf course (less radiating heat). The pros definitely have a big advantage getting most of their day done before it gets hot.
@VegasJen congrats either way. The victory is signing up and being on the start line. Oceanside has hills but no heat so you’re likely good there. Last year St. George was the weekend before and I think that makes a massive difference. Also if you want hills but cool (and a flattish run) Victoria70.3 is an option, but involved flights.
I loved this golf course. The grass was def cooler and like a nice pad for the downhill!
I thought the hat dunk tubs were amazing despite simple. They should have more of these if possible.
It felt the opposite to me. Stepping from the paved pathway to the grass felt like going from dry heat to humid heat. I swear I could feel the humidity wafting up from the grass.
I felt humidity coming up from grass at Hawaii 70.3 in 2022, but in St. George 2024, I felt the grass felt cooler just cause there is no humidity there, but I guess it depends on how much humidity the grass aborbed in the last few days before the race and temp differential between air and ground.
I second that; if anyone from IM is reading, bring those again at all hot races!
On another note, crowd support was really good, tons of happy people out there on the run course. Obviously those who don’t support having the race in StG wouldn’t show up, but the large number of locals showing up and volunteering makes me question why the contract for more editions is not renewed.
It was a great event, very well organized, and I wish I could do it again.
I have served in an elected position in a small southwest town. I can say from first hand experience that sadly, people make poor decisions that are contrary to what the community wants and placate to a vocal grumpy minority. Look at it like your typical HOA. Often, it’s only those who have an axe to grind who will dedicate the time and effort to run.
There is a small minority group of (otherwise, often great, outstanding people who will give the shirt off their back to you) that just don’t like to see the way their world has changed and are pushing back against anything that upsets their day.
If they can catch the vision of what they are supporting, then their tune will change. I think Ironman has some real PR work to do on issues like this. I saw that Colleen Brown, wife of the IM featured athlete who had ALS and did St George Worlds a couple years back (and has since died) just completed St George in honor of her husband. Those are the kinds of stories that soften hearts and turn things around.
I think Ironman needs to direct and empower their race directors to get deeply involved in the community. It is a HUGE threat to their business model to have local public sentiment turn against them. They need to find influential people (school coaches are an obvious choice) in every community and build stories around them competing in Ironman races.
Every high school and middle school coach should get an invite to race an Ironman has an honored athlete over a period of years. How many kids and families would that inspire in every community.
Here’s that longer race report, if anyone’s curious:
(Contains about 150% more profanity than usual.)
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Great write up loved it! Kudos for sticking out that run you were out there in peak heat!
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Jen, take a look at 70.3 tri-cities in eastern Washington. Itll be warm, but no humidity, downstream swim, rolling bike, and flat run. It sounds like it might check your boxes! I had a blast out there last year.
Thanks. I’ll take a look. I lived in Vancouver for a couple years and the job I had took me all over WA and OR so I am somewhat familiar with the tri city area. Might be nice to get back up that way.
That’s a very good race report, thanks for posting! The below in particular - a huge win:
Could I have gone harder? Probably, but I felt good, I was properly fueled, my stomach was behaving, and I was ready to empty the tank on the run.
Still, am I the only one scratching my head here:
After exiting the water, I got my wetsuit ripped off by the wetsuit strippers before jogging through transition. I wasn’t chasing a PR, so I took a few minutes to calmly use the porta-potty, get all my bike gear on, spray on a good layer of sunscreen, pack my swim gear into my bike bag, and leave. I spent 11:04 in T1.
vs.
For this race, I brought my Trek Speed Concept to St. George for the first time, after doing the previous races on my Specialized Aethos road bike. I considered bringing the Aethos again, along with my S-Works Evade 3 road helmet—the former because it’s great in the climbs, the latter because it’s cooler than my Giro Aerohead aero helmet—but in the end decided that if I was going to ride at a lower intensity, then I should make up for it by chasing every aero gain I could, no matter how marginal, and try to get a few minutes back.
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Do you think a not all black tri suit would have helped at all?
No, that’s fair, my transitions are slow. I wasn’t like sitting around or wasting my time, I just don’t like to rush because then I make mistakes.
Probably, but the only other trisuit I have that isn’t black is sleeveless and I thought that’d definitely be worse. I just signed up for Boise, which is also likely to be hot, so I might get a different suit for that one.