20th anniversary but you’d think it was year one. We had to descend an aluminum ladder leaned against the pier to get into the water. luckily they had a ramp to exit the water, but that was slippery and treacherous. swim caps were only issued if you wanted one. whats up with that?
no mile markers on the run. one water stop halfway thru the 3.3 miles
check in was inefficient, they were assigning numbers manually and handing you a number. they had multiple mistakes, many people marked down as having the same number though they didn’t.
15 mile bike was 15.7.
the .3 mile swim was much more. I’m a 9 minute guy usually in the 400m and here it took me 16. the guys i went with all said the same thing. one did the 400m in 6:40 last week in clermont, yesterday , .3 in 12:00
come on.
the buoys were two balloons I swear I couldnt’ see the second one until I was halfway to it. luckily the guys in front of me were heading in the right direction.
the bike course was completely open to traffic. cars heading in both directions in A1A . I got buzzed by a ford pickup. It felt like I was out there on my own.
Too bad all in all because it’s a nice area and a good course.
Actually, it was year 1. This was the first year that the Rotary Club put on the race. The race was organized by the Space Coast Triathletes and sponsored by the rotary club in the past. Regardless of that, I think that the race director, Larry Cody, did an excellent job his first time out! I’m sure that the minor issues that you mentioned will all be corrected if the area triathletes are lucky enough to have Larry back for a second year. I actually heard that many people said that it was the best Pineappleman ever!
I don’t know how, but bad news travels fast, and it has come to my attention that mis-information was being propogated about Space Coast Triathletes(SCT), so I am going to try to straighten things out.
In reguards to the Pineappleman Triathlon. Melbourne Beach Rotary has been in charge of and responsible for the race for all 20 years. Different people have been race director of the race almost annually. But this race has ALWAYS been Melbourne Beach Rotary’s.
SCT has only been existence for 3 years. In those past 3 years we have assisted Melbourne Beach Rotary with their race to improve upon the race they had built. Let me point out that even when SCT assisted the race, there were different race directors.
This year we were unable to commit the resources necessary to help out with the race. SCT had no involvement with Pineappleman in 2005.
That sounds like a different race than last year. I really enjoyed myself last year and it was a great event.
I heard the timing system was top notch though at least. Multirace.com is a great timing company. Things will continue to improve if they can get the race director to come back next year…you will see.
yeah whatever wise guy I was being nice. the guy I rode the race with , finished top 20 well there was no water at the end, he had to run to the first water stop to get some,
by the time I finished, they had paper cups full of water sitting on a chair.
how much does it cost to get some bottled water at the finish line?
another guy I know had a woman step out in front of him at the dismount line and yell at him to stop.
he went over the handlebars.
the ‘medals’ were the cheesiest plastic pieces of shit i’ve ever seen .
mine went in the trash when I got home.
I spent 60 bucks and got up at 4 am to get to this race.
like I said I 'd go again, but I don’t think i’ll convince my friends to go.
yes the timing system was good. many things were good.
some things were dissapointingly bad.
don’t blame me I’m just telling it like it was, and hoping someone who can do something about it next year will.
Good one, Monk. This race is so great just because it’s so casual. The ladders up to the dock, the painted bleach bottle markers, varying distances - triathlon the way it used to be. Whoever is doing the organising, don’t ever change those essentials. Let the whingers who take themselves too seriously go whinge at someone else - let us have our fun.
No I jumped in the car and drove all night to compete at Team-Magic’s Buster Britton Triathlon in Birmingham, Alabama. Bruce Gennari gave me the woppin I deserved.
