Remember the brouhaha earlier this fall regarding the disagreements between 3 Disciplines and USA Triathlon?
Well, tomorrow is the Soma Tempe Half-Ironman Triathlon and Trisports.com Sprint Triathlon in Tempe, AZ…I’ll leave the weather report out so as not to piss off our fellow triathletes who are currently…uh…already contemplating whether to go snow-shoeing or not.
The Tempe Triathlon back in May was my first 3 Disciplines race, and although it wasn’t the best race ever, it certainly wasn’t the worst. I am approaching the race, the organization, etc. with an open mind, and will report post-race on anything and everything that catches my attention, both positive and (hopefully not) negative.
Just got back from packet pick-up…hmmm…no tear-off race number in my packet. Well, at least I got my chip this time in my packet. I had overheard there wasn’t bike numbers, but not there wasn’t bib numbers. Will have to swing back by the packet pick-up and see what’s up. No swim cap in the packet originally as well, but the gentleman from Swimmer’s Edge (Guilliermo) who printed them up quickly rectified that situation. Hmmm…no color-coordinated swim caps for different waves.
<update #1> wrote too soon…race number was in there…cleverly hidden. My mistake.
<update #2> there’s mandatory bike check-in today from 2-9pm, with the area patrolled overnight by the sheriff’s department officers. Athletes with race numbers only in the transition area from 2-9pm and during the race…but if there’s no bike numbers…you can possibly walk in with one bike and out with any other one. I’m bringing my u-lock with me…
nobody’s bike got stolen overnight…I don’t like having to check my bike in the day before, but I do understand why RD’s do it. Race morning was good…lots of volunteers, and transition area was well marked. Swim started a little late, with some miscommunication between the swim coordinators and race director, as people were lined on the wrong side of the buoy than planned…no big deal. Swim course was pretty accurate, although some people said it felt long…I think it’s just because they haven’t been swimming (that would include me). The bike in/out access was a bit limited, as athletes came in and exited within the same 10-12 feet wide space atop a timing pad…I didn’t see or hear of anybody with any problems, but if the race was larger, it may be in the future…but given that the marina was not completely finished, I doubt it will be set up the same way in the future anyways. Bike course was pretty well marked, lots of space in some parts, and a bit narrow in some parts, and I apparently mis-pre-rode the course, and ended off-course twice…my own damn fault. Chalk arrows on the ground would have been nice, as well as volunteers further up the road…but I know it’s my responsibility to know the course. Didn’t see ANY draft marshalls on motorcycles, although apparently there were both motorcycle-mounted and stationary ones…but without bike numbers it might be hard for the stationary ones to gauge and record infractions. I had the very pleasant experience of only being passed once on the bike, and people were very nice moving to the right when I called “left!”, although I had to encourage somebody to pass somebody else faster as I was trying to come around both of them…and it was on the narrow part of the course. Lots of police officers and volunteers at the corners…including one volunteer at the right turn on Washington and 48th St. sweeping the corner clean of gravel…thanks dude! T2 was clean, and it’s always a nice sight to come back and see only a couple of bikes on the dozens of rack…I had a good ride apparently. Run course was well-marked…even my lactate-scrambled brain could decipher the thick long chalk arrows. Plenty of water it seemed…I passed on most of it, since I only had to run 5 miles…I figured the folks doing the half needed it more than I did. No volunteers at all at the 2 mile water station when I passed going out and back…I let somebody know at the finish and they got some people out there by the time Macca got there. Great crowd at the finish, and the announcer did a great job of getting people down the home-stretch. It hurt a lot on the run…I basically doubled my running mileage for the year…cafe lactate indeed. I have once again learned that specific training is good for this sport…
Post race conversations with fellow athletes (sprint and half) indicated very few major problems. One person was apparently yanked out of the water with symptoms of hypothermia (no wetsuit) in the sprint race. I saw EMT’s attend to one person on the bike course, and one person fixing a flat. Run course for the half seemed short by .75-1mi per lap (they did 2 laps), as my roommate had mentioned earlier in the week when he pre-ran the course. Bike course may have been long a bit according to some cyclometers…but not by much (it was supposed to be 4x14mi laps). Plenty of food at the finish line. Most “problems” were completely out of the control of 3D due to the imcompletion of the marina area, such as athlete and spectator access…although I did get yelled at by Kenny post-race because I was going to get my bag with post-race clothing. The race rules sheet had stated that post-race transition area access for sprint athletes was not permitted so they wouldn’t get in the way of the half-ironman athletes, so I had left a bag with clothing outside…but Kenny wasn’t going for it until I told him that it was his rules I was following. Nevertheless, I saw at least 20-25 sprint athletes walk out of the transition area with their bikes and equipment despite that. And that brings up my final observation…it seems that while there were enough volunteers, the coordination and education of volunteers was a bit lacking, in that many seem to be not doing anything, just standing around without direction, or had to ask somebody else for the information.
Didn’t go to the post-race awards thing at Monti’s…went over to a friend’s house instead and had some good food and good triathlon stories. Somebody else can report on that if they went.
All in all, scale of 7 out of 10 for my experience overall. It’s a race with lots of potential, and if 3 Disciplines listens to all the racers that actually submit their feedback (instead of standing around bitching about it post-race), it can be a pretty kick-ass race next time.
Dave Chen #495 (Sprint)
PS: for anybody that has wanted to race a triathlon in a singlespeed or fixed…this is the perfect course for it…I’m going 56x16 tomorrow (650c)…although if it gets windy blowing east or west I may be in trouble.
PPS: Singlespeeding the bike course was FUN!!! Going slow was not an option, although I did get bogged down a bit the last 100m into a slight headwind going up McDowell. Got lots of incredulous looks and props mid and post-race. I think everybody thought I was crazy. If they only knew…
I didn’t win crap, but they raffled off a ton of good stuff. Macca and Chris Legh spoke and said they were coming back next year for the race, so they enjoyed it too. I am completely happy with my finish time, and I am satisfied to say I am done with racing for the year.