Just returned home from this race today in Oklahoma City. I want to commend the race director and his staff / volunteers today. I thanked everyone I could find in person including the race director, but this site gets many views and the folks on ST often are on top of the pulse of this sport (when not ranting away on something trivial or critiquing some poor soles position).
This morning, just before the start, the clouds opened for a solid 45 mins and flooded everything in site. Mud everywhere, pools of water everywhere, streets rendered impassable because of deep standing water. Transition area under water. It was freezing cold and there looked to be no hope. After pushing back the start several times and the athletes seeking cover in anything with a roof, moral was low. I was with a contingent from KC and if ANY of them would have said “screw it, I’m heading home” I would have went with them. In fact, it got to a point where I was hoping somebody would say it…anybody. Even if I didn’t know them. It was totally miserable. Eventually, the RD got on the mic and said they might do a swim,run,swim as the bike course was a wreck. That was not well received even though folks knew they were doing the best they could given the conditions. Eventually, they announced the event was going to happen after all if people were willing to dismount on the bike course and carry their bikes through shin deep standing water over 100 yards in length. I was shocked they were able to pull this off because much of the bike course roads were surrounded by clay which had washed over the roads. The crew really pulled together and made this event unbelievably successful. All the volunteers and crew were upbeat and positive and cleaned all the roads…the race was great. I was almost wanting to go home and had to re-engage my brain for racing since a big part of me was ready for a warm car and a big hot breakfast. Glad I stayed to see how well a race could be run in seriously adverse conditions. It rained several times during the race and much of the run was in ankle deep water. Nobody bitched, everybody appreciated how much hard work the folks who helped to pull this race put in. I had my best race ever - which was nice, but even if I didn’t the dedication, perpetual good mood, enthusiasm and hard work of the staff and volunteers made this probably the single best race event I have ever seen. Tons of fans all over the course stood by in the pouring rain to cheer the athletes as well. Lots of RD’s could take a page from this book and their events and athletes would be much better off for it…
I was there as well and this is a very accurate account. It was a bummer to have so much rain (and to be nearly pitch dark at 7:15am when the Iron distance racers were originally due to go). We were all freezing after a while, but they came out with hundreds of garbage bag “jackets” on a moments notice. I thought the race director’s call to continue after the long delay was both gutsy and appropriate. I’ve never had to “portage” across a flooded section of road in a race before. Amazing. And the run course had sections with 5 inches deep water as a result of the continual periods of rain. But it was no big deal in the end (other than the quagmire that we had around the fininshing area). Naturally, the sun came out after we finished (or most of us, anyway - there are a few out there still at 11pm finishing the full distance event).
Oh, yeah, the weather report said mostly cloudy, but a 20% chance of rain. Ha!
If you did the 140.6 distance today…you are 100X the man I am. My mantra for half the day was “at least I’m not doing the full distance”. How somebody went 9:20 in those conditions is just scary. I can’t even imagine running through all that water and mud for 26.2…and he had a 3:18 marathon split. Same pace as my half mary split and I was water logged and fully exhausted. My garage has so many wet muddy clothes hanging from hooks, handlebars and anything available, I’m sure the neighbors are going to complain.
Ditto on that. Kudos to David Wood, the race director, for his gutsy decision, and all the staff and volunteers at Redman. It was a first class race despite all the rain and mud.
As another participant of yesterday’s EPIC race, it’s definitely worth it. A friend and I drove down from Chicago, and had a great time, despite the weather.
Many kudos to the RD and all the volunteers! My timing chip was ripped off during the swim, and when I let someone know coming out of the water, I was taken care of right away.
I will definitely return for another round next year!
UGGGG!!!
So I read, Tim Hola Dominates. With those conditions? WHAT???
I raced with Tim over the summer and I got the best of him when it counted, to win the Boulder triathlon series. I was going to do redman but my Neuroma thought it better to take a rest. Tim is Awesome, But how the hell do you go 3:59 in now these conditions you describe? Thats the 2nd sub 4hrs he has done, one on which has just a fraction of a shortened course.
That makes it all the more freaking incredible. a 1:16 run? I mean thats his personal best without the bike. He has only done a 1:16 1 other time in a straight up half marathon.
He is a great swimmer, and yet he dominates the bike too yesterday? No no no, He must be stopped! You cant do that! You cant let him have the fastest splits of the day for each event. I was mad all year that he beat me in a race when I had fastest bike and run sections and he simply out swam me. Apparently he didnt notice the mud and water. He probably looked at it like ‘Hey everyone else is going to be put off by this weather, I on the other hand will take full advantage of everyone elses unhappiness to race in these conditions’. Dont get me wrong I wouldnt have enjoyed the conditions much either.
I am in awe, and frustrated and kinda glad I didnt race those conditions.
I hope he wins 34-39 Hawaii
I dont mean to take away from your post, but thank you for the description.
Way to go Tim Hola, and everyone else who stuck it through to the end, half or Full.
Thanks for driving me to persue my best for another 14 months.
Course was accurate on bike and run based on my bike computer and GPS. Swim might have been tiny short if any at all. Weather was bad, but there was no heat, only minor wind and while the course is rolling, it lacks any major hills. So reality is temperature was perfect for going very hard, almost no chance of over heating. The bike is an out-and-back and Hola probably had a nearly 2 mile lead when I was approaching the turn. I couldn’t believe the delta between 1st and the next group of riders. He was flying on the run too and I think he’s been one of the best amateurs in the country for a long time. The 2nd place finisher could be make some major waves in this sport. He’s new to triathlon and dropped a 23 min swim, 2:22 bike and 1:23 for a 4:11 at age 20. Also keep in mind he was basically all by himself for this race. Could be the American Terrenzo.
All I can say, what a race, what a group of people that carried this through. The staff of Redman, volunteers, The City that stood behind this. Amazing. I thanked every single person I could spot, even while riding and running. They were literally sweeping the mud of the roads for us. I have never seen an event being put together and executed like this, in conditions that go beyond description here. Redman is the best event I have ever attended.
I always thought that triathletes are a tough crowd. This only reinforced that. Not one person have I heard say screw it. We all patiently waited shivering in cold. I am proud to be a part of that group.
To anyone that raced, congratulations. Job well done.
I’ll ditto all the kudos to the race staff, the volunteers and the spectators. I must admit, though, that when the skies opened up and a chilly breeze moved in, I was quickly losing interest in racing, and a return to a nice, warm bed back at the hotel sounded like a much better alternative. But I hung in there (I did the full distance race), and am glad I did. To have walked away would have sent a terrible message to those who worked so hard (for months, in some cases) and endured miserable weather to be there for us.
You can add my dittos to what’s already been posted and kudos to all the race staff and volunteers. I too, was hoping for ANYONE around me to say “let’s bail”. I even recommended they just change the event to a giant slip and slide contest. But, in the end, I truly had a blast. I can’t believe they pulled it all off. Amazing that they had the part of the course underwater on the way out almost cleared on the way back!
And, I too commend anyone who did the full yesterday. I can’t imagine doing 4 loops of that run course through all that water. Amazing.
When they started talking about possibly doing a swim-run-swim event, I started thinking about blowing it off, or maybe ask them if they could just do the marathon and I would have done that. I was looking at the rivers running through the transition area (one guy’s stuff was in the middle of a river of water that had everything submerged at one point), and thinking “I don’t know about a swim-run-swim”. Then they announced they were going ahead and I had to put my head back into race mode after all that standing around and the warm hotel calling to me. That wasn’t all that easy to do. And those lakes we were running through during the run! Pretty challenging conditions to run in, but there was no sun or heat factor at all, which was great.
You have to understand that was a very unusual Sept day in OK
This time of year we have brown grass and maybe rain but
not like that for days. When transition was being set up Thursday
there were puddles of water in the parking lot. The grounds would have
probably looked similar even if there had been no rain Sat morning but
not the rivers to run through. Glad ya’ll had a good race
Ya’ll come back ya hear
I just want to add my Thank You to the race director and staff for moving ahead with the race. Looking around at the flooded transition area (my transition towel is STILL soaking wet…), and hearing the reports of flooded roads, I was starting to feel sick that I wasn’t going to get the opportunity to race. But they held off a bit, delayed the start; and we were off and running. I thought it was a very well run event all around, and didn’t really feel like I missed out on anything at all when compared to IM Florida. If you really just want to do an iron distance race, and don’t feel the need for a bunch of hoopla; this is a GREAT way to save a lot of time and money; and still have a fantastic experience.
And who is that alien guy that did 9:20?!? He’s in my age group for goodness sake… Very impressive to say the least.
The race staff and volunteers were fantastic. Volunteers with brooms on the bike course pushing off water and that God-awful red OK clay; volunteers at aid stations in bare feet standing in mud/water and cheering unbelievably. We were ready to grab the glow sticks as soon as the rain started pouring, figured it was all over and lightning was gonna bust out any second. Thankfully, we’d gotten our wetsuits on just as the deluge started and stayed reasonably warm. Race director made a gutsy call…we rode through pouring rain for a large portion of the bike and some of the run. There was red mud everywhere! Swim course was interesting…set so close to shore that many folks walked all the way to the turn around…bike course…relatively flat but absolutely horrible condition; that wasn’t chip and seal it was just chip and mud, potholes everywhere. Ugh. So much rain on bike that felt like I should take 3 strokes, breathe left, take 3 strokes, breathe right. Run was flat, fun and steeplechase like (lots of rivers, ponds and puddles on the course including one 75yd stretch of 5" of water). Funny to see USAT officials checking for drafting penalties b/c all the water coming off wheels, you had to be a fool to get close to any wheel. They gave out lots of penalties during Oly on Sunday.
Get’s better though, we raced 70.3 Saturday and turned around for Oly on Sunday. Arrive at transition and the lake had risen 1’ over night and all but 3-4 buoys on swim course were gone. Swim director made general announcement asking to borrow a Garmin and went out and improvised a new swim course from oval to Triangle (that’s all the bouys she had)(course ended up being long, but, hey, what can you do?). Oly bike course was much better roads (and 3 miles long), but wind had come up making it a little more challenging. Mud was everywhere at venue but amazing staff had gotten everything ready overnight and run course was set to go.
Really amazing to see the volunteers long hours and hard work. Iron distance athletes had to perservere through long delays, torrential rain, horribly rough roads and xterra like run course and humidity through the roof. Those folks deserve the Ironman title. That venue is gonna be a mess for a while.
BTW, racing Oly after Half is more than just active recovery. And it was a blast.
Course was accurate on bike and run based on my bike computer and GPS. Swim might have been tiny short if any at all. Weather was bad, but there was no heat, only minor wind and while the course is rolling, it lacks any major hills. So reality is temperature was perfect for going very hard, almost no chance of over heating. The bike is an out-and-back and Hola probably had a nearly 2 mile lead when I was approaching the turn. I couldn’t believe the delta between 1st and the next group of riders. He was flying on the run too and I think he’s been one of the best amateurs in the country for a long time. The 2nd place finisher could be make some major waves in this sport. He’s new to triathlon and dropped a 23 min swim, 2:22 bike and 1:23 for a 4:11 at age 20. Also keep in mind he was basically all by himself for this race. Could be the American Terrenzo.
Ha! Willy Pickardt is far from new to triathlon… He used to be one of the best junior triathletes in the country and I believe went to Junior Worlds one year. It seems he may have taken a break from tri’s for a few years, but he was very active and VERY competitive when he was 14, 15, & 16.
::pink font:::Too bad it is not really an “Ironman” :::pink font:::
kidding
Until the triathlon sheep start embracing this race, B2B, Silverman, Vineman and other great independent races, truly great events, organizers and performances will continue to fly under the radar. They all deserve better. Kudos to Dave Wood, the staff and volunteers of Redman and the OKC tri community. Do you really think WTC would have undertaken all that effort to fulfull your endurance competition desires? Congrats to all the new Redman Ultra distance and Long distance athletes.
Alex
You pretty much covered everything. I can’t wait to go back and do this course with improved weather conditions, but doubt that the overall experience could get any better.
I raced the 1/2, and had athletes doing the 1/2, full aqua-bike and full iron distance so I was on-site from 5am to 9pm. What became very apparent to me was the thing that makes an event a “keeper” in my book…the athlete’s experience was the #1 concern of race organizers. Not money, not glitz, not selling branded merchandise, but ensuring that each athlete had a safe and memorable day to race.
The positive memories of this event will last far longer than the red mud stains…
Kudos to those who made the race possible. You done good!
As a staff member on the Redman race committee, let me thank you all for racing with us this weekend. I can’t tell you how much it means to us that people will travel so far to come and race with us in OKC (this year we had two triathletes come all the way from Australia). We work for 8 months to put together a top notch event, and always hope that we pull it off.
It seems that there is something new at Redman each year. 3 years ago, the lake had no water (well, it did- but it was a 50 yard mud march from shore to water line), 2 years ago we had terrible heat that had a lot of athletes in the med tent, and this year was the first year it’s rained at Redman. Race director Dave Wood was kidding when he said it might be a swim-run-swim. I saw him this morning and he said he doesn’t think anyone heard him laugh after he said that because everyone was a little grumbly when he said it. Cold, wet, and understandably grumbly. He was very concerned for each athlete’s safety, and wouldn’t have taken even the slightest chance at anyone getting hurt. You are his children on race day, and he’d do anything in the world for any athlete on his course. He (along with Thomas Hill, Bret Sholar and official photographer James Randell) even stay until the very last athlete crosses the finish line. This year that was at 2:40 am. Dave went home, showered, and came back to the lake to begin all over again for the Sunday races (without a wink of sleep). At Redman, we won’t pull anyone from the course. Dave’s rule is: if you trained for this race, you’ll get to finish even if it’s after the regular 17 hour cutoff of most iron distance races. The athlete is our #1 priority.
We are proud of our race, and strive to make it a first class event. If anyone has any ideas on how to make it better, please let us know. If you had a great experience, we’d like to know that too. We know we don’t do everything right, so we work hard to fix all the things that went wrong. The whole staff team are triathletes ourselves, and we want to make Redman the best venue we can.
Thank you again for racing with us. We hope to see you again in 2010.
Cheers!
But, in the end, I truly had a blast. I can’t believe they pulled it all off. Amazing that they had the part of the course underwater on the way out almost cleared on the way back!
He was very concerned for each athlete’s safety, and wouldn’t have taken even the slightest chance at anyone getting hurt. You are his children on race day, and he’d do anything in the world for any athlete on his course. He (along with Thomas Hill, Bret Sholar and official photographer James Randell) even stay until the very last athlete crosses the finish line. This year that was at 2:40 am. Dave went home, showered, and came back to the lake to begin all over again for the Sunday races (without a wink of sleep). At Redman, we won’t pull anyone from the course. Dave’s rule is: if you trained for this race, you’ll get to finish even if it’s after the regular 17 hour cutoff of most iron distance races. The athlete is our