Looking for anyone who raced Soma yesterday to comment - seems the bike course was maybe 53 miles. Anyone else experience that?
I did the 1/2, but I forgot to clear my computer, and check it after the race, so I have no idea. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
I’d be curious to know, since I went much faster than I thought I would.
Looking for anyone who raced Soma yesterday to comment - seems the bike course was maybe 53 miles. Anyone else experience that?
The garmin/gps consenus for the 1/4 was off a bit, and I know the Tempe Intl was off by a few miles on a very similar course earlier this year, so the 1/2 being off wouldn’t surprise me.
John
I had it at 54 miles for the Half. Swim seemed a bit long. The run was about spot on though.
Thanks Jim. Any thoughts on how long the swim course was?
My bike computer reads 54.7
.
The swim seemed about right on for TTL. It was 2000m not the pussified 1900m that NAS/WTC use.
TTL isn’t a fast body of water imo.
Two of my friends also said 53 miles.
Darn, I thought I was faster than what I was.
Thanks Jim. Any thoughts on how long the swim course was?
It seemed like the swim was either long for the half, or short for the quarterman. Bruce Gennari led out of the swim and pushed it hard, I know Bruce and we talked. I know we started 10 mins after them, and they were just about out of the water, right behind us. So they swam it in 10:0X. This would mean MarkyV swam only 24:XX for double that??? Something was amiss. No offense to Bruce, but MarkyV can lead any swim in triathlon.
If you are talking about the best in the us group, it’s because the entire wave cut the swim course, I don’t think it was on purpose but the entire wave turned at the wrong buoy
.
That sounds right, the bike course for the quarter man was 31.5 miles. I was also wondering why the Best of the US swam 10 minute 1,000 meters but it seems they cut the buoys short.
I thought the race was well run besides the confusing “loop 2 quarterman” u-turn portion-where volunteers were telling races to make two short loops.
That makes sense regarding the swim length. At least we all cut it short. It was fairly dark being 10 minutes pre-sunrise and all. We made up for it on the bike with an extra 3.5 miles…
yup…course was exactly 85.53 km (from Canada…), my GPS is super accurate, plus I can tell from my time!
I would have to assume the Half bike was short. My calculated average speed was 1.5 mph faster than expected speed. When you factor in all of the switch backs a PR would be a big surprise for that distance.
My bike computer reads 54.7
Yeah, I think I had something like that… 54.7X miles if I recall.
As for the run, my Garmin said 12.97 miles.
Damn it anyway. I had a bike PR, too, but if enough people say it was short then it was short.
Man…that whole swim thing was a major disaster for me (in the BOUS race). I started on the outside to avoid the scrum and line up to the far buoy (it was very dark), and I was doing just fine 'til I saw that I was the only one still swimming past that red bouy where everyone was turning. I had to turn and double back and was chugging to make up lost ground the whole way home. I wondered what the heck had happened and felt like an idiot.
Out on the bike I was always behind the curve as I saw the big group forming ahead of me as I tried riding harder and harder to make up the lost ground – I rode the entire thing completely by myself, which I can’t say for most of the other guys. I got close, but by the end the group sped up a bit (Roger Thompson from WA was making a move, it looked like…). To say the least, that was a bummer. I think it affected the run too. I went by a group of like 7 or 8 guys who were REALLY drafting in a pack. Two of them caught me on the run too and worked their way into the top 10 (still, very impressive running). It seems that some guys in that front “pack” rode faster on the bike and had fresher legs than if they had ridden completely alone.
Anyway, it’s all sour grapes on my part because I didn’t make it up to that first big group. I don’t know how I would have handled the “no drafting” situation in a group that size on a non-selective course like that (agreed…almost 32 miles long). I think that whole big pack situation was quite unavoidable on that course with the lack of officiating. Funny how it all started with the swim. I think there were a small number of us – I can think of myself and Scott Myers from Ohio – who it really affected negatively like that.
In most respects, it was a good race with many of the top guys from around the country. The level of competitiveness gets a little fierce in situations like that. It would have been another black eye to race promoters Jerry McNeil and Trudy Marshall if they had to assess penalties and rearrange the placings because of the swim, etc. I suppose I would have had to agree with the way it turned out…I’m just individually bitter =) I think that was my last big “traveling” triathlon since we have a baby now. It wasn’t quite what I had in mind for ending things. It was still fun, however.
Sorry if I offended any other BOUS racers…it isn’t my intention. This was just my opinion and how I saw that race go down. It was a good race with awesome competition.
Anyway, it’s all sour grapes on my part because I didn’t make it up to that first big group. I don’t know how I would have handled the “no drafting” situation in a group that size on a non-selective course like that
**
Since you are far from alone in noting the lack of fair riding, I can’t see why anyone would call it sour grapes. The whole modified time trial rules thing just doesn’t work when you have so many competitive folks, so close together. I have a friend who started tri’s in '84 and won nationals once when it was still non-drafting. He said it was nearly impossible to race fairly at the front of the race when you had so many folks that were so close together. No one wants to give and inch or slow their pace or drop back. I would love to see that race go to a draft-legal format. I think it practically begs for it given how competitive the athletes are.
The swim snafu is interesting. I was giving all of you a little more credit than you deserve for swimming so much faster than the rest of the age-groupers. Not that you didn’t all swim incredibly fast, but comparing the times made some of you seem superhuman. 
Chad
P.S. Don’t give up on competing just because you have kids. I have four and I keep getting better with age. Of course, something always has to give, so it is just a matter of rearranging your priorities. If your priority is racing because you love to compete, then you will find the time.
Don’t know about the 1/2 course, but the 1/4 was a few miles too long. But great for me since I’m a fast biker.
I LOVED that bike course, it was a blast. Quite technical, which suites me just fine. The turns and small inclines broke up the ride really well. Not near as crowded as I thought it would have been. Only had one guy try and hold my wheel. He lasted about 1/4 mile after I shifted 2 gears harder and left him in the dust!! That felt great! Saw one guy hit the median at a bottle station. He went head over heels into the dusty median. He was fine I guess since he passed me later on the bike as I was finishing into T2.
I’ve been sick for about 3 months and just got well again about 2 weeks ago and could start training hard again. I took the race really easy and still had a great bike time for my age group.
I spoke with the a guy behind the scene(Kimo) and he said they were aware BOUS cut the swim course short and they were letting it be because they all did it.
I was wondering about the bike splits for BOUS, I knew there would be less wind than my 7:30AM wave but wasn’t sure how they all biked around the same time 1:10 to 1:12’s. Draft pack definitely makes sense. It would be easy to loose some of them on the turns but they would just work hard for a few moments to catch up on the longer straight away sections where they could defintely benefit from a draft.
I was second off the bike in age groups with a 1:15:10 bike split. I am not saying they aren’t some great cyclists in the BOUS but it seems a bit suspect. I had AP 275 NP 290 with a VI of 1.05 for the course