I was at CDA this weekend spectating (congrats to all those who raced!), and had the opportunity to talk to Paula Newby Fraser about the various road closings, and delays they have to make to get the course running. She told be that the night before the various there are usually some people who will drive out onto the bike course at night, and smash beer bottles, drop tacks, and rusty nails to make the riders flat. Because of this, the race crew have to sweep the course the night before, and morning of the race. When I heard this, it made me sick. I can understand how some locals can get pissed off because they’re blocked in, and can’t get out of their driveway because of the race. I can understand if they’re angry about the noise, and hullabaloo surrounding IM week, but my god people. Even if you can’t respect the athletes themselves, respect the commitment that they place upon themselves, giving up the best part of a year to train for this event. I just can’t see how anyone would be so senseless, as to ruin the day that someone works towards for over a year.
While I agree with you, It sounds like something teen age kids would do and they generally do not consider other people. Heck I might have done something similar when I was a teenager. Not that it makes it any more correct.
Similar things have been alleged to happen at IMWI.
Unfortunately the people that do these things do not realize or understand the importance of these events to the individuals competing nor do they understand the amount of work put forth to train and finsih these events. They also don’t grasp the possible safety implicatiosn either.
They only see that it impacts their lives for a day, or they think it might be humorous.
The same thing happened when they had the Oly distance Nationals there in 2002. At the top of the main climb I remember seeing people and their bikes lining the side of the road, all with flats. Tacks were the culprit then.
As a former ID resident, I can tell you the mentality of some of these people. They may not be teenagers, but do have the maturity of teenagers. This actually did happen last year at the Cd’A Olympic race that is held in August. I was told by someone that did the race that nearly 40 riders flatted. Oddly enough, as I was told, the three leaders that broke away didn’t suffer from flats. This could all be exaggerated, but the person that told me about it did do the race.
It is odd the different perspective that locals have on the race. My wife and I stayed with two different sets of friends while we were there. The first set was totally cynical and did nothing but bash on Ironman, and the people who do it, for the entire time we were there. They even went so far to say that they were planning an anti-Ironman party next year. We could not wait to get out of there and are questioning our “friendship” now. Our second set of friends were complete opposites. They could not have been more supportive and more pro-Ironman. They love the event and are so happy that it comes to their town. They are out there every year cheering on people and neither of them are triathletes. Just weird seeing the two polar-opposites in one trip.
I can see how some folks would be frustrated by the inconvenience, but it is only for one weekend. The same thing (total grid-lock) takes place during the 4th of July. Who are these people be upset with then?
I can tell you as a race director that any new inconvenience is perceived very negatively by some regardless of the reason. Hence people lash out. I put on a 5k last weekend (benefits a orphanage and a local swim team) and had people complaining because they thought it “might” interfere with church goers. Of course it didn’t (ok maybe for a couple of minutes total) but they were quite adamate about not putting anyone out. It’s just typical of the “me” mentality. Of course I’m often not any better.
This is pretty old news and old tricks…over the past 20 years there have been numerous “tack attacks” in Hawaii, Canada, WI, etc. The rational still doesn’t seem to hit me; but, as PNF has indicated, NA Sports has become very proactive for the benefit of the athletes.
Wow, that’s really sad that some people are so immature and resentful. Overall, I was extremely impressed with the hospitality that the folks in Coeur d’Alene displayed. I can’t even count the number of fans who yelled out “Thanks for coming to Coeur d’Alene” as we rode by. I guess there will always be a few bad apples.
I think the race directors deserve major kudos for sweeping all of this stuff off of the streets so that there wasn’t an epidemic of flats. I did see a few riders with flats here and there, but it didn’t seem to be a widespread problem.
I totally agree! I was blown away by the hospitality towards us racers. Everyone was so welcoming!
Kudos to the people at NASports for taking care of the roads. There was one spot where I saw 2 guys pulled over with flats. Other than that it seemed like a pretty clean ride for most.
While I agree with you, It sounds like something teen age kids would do and they generally do not consider other people. Heck I might have done something similar when I was a teenager. Not that it makes it any more correct.
Usually not teen age kids. I has happened a couple times at IMWI. They have caught people doing it. Two years ago (I think) it was an old man who was putting nails on the road. The year before, it was a 40-something male putting tacks and “spikes” on the road. Both were locals who were pissed about the disruption.
This was my 2nd year at CdA and for the most part, everyone there was wonderful. I did find it sad that written in big letters on the bike course going up one of the hills was “GO AWAY.”
This actually did happen last year at the Cd’A Olympic race that is held in August. I was told by someone that did the race that nearly 40 riders flatted.
It was actually over 100 riders that flatted last year at the Coeur d’Alene Oly. The tacks were on a climb that is close to but not part of the IM CDA course. I was one of the 100, and although frustrated that it cost me a top-10 spot, I understand that this sort of thing happens and the best thing we can do is retalliate by continuing to race the same races and not be pushed away by such juvenile actions.
I’m not suprised there are people on the new IM CDA course that are upset, I think it probably makes more homes less-accessible than the old course, but as a spectator this year, I still saw a fair amount of traffic driving with the bikes out on the far end of the course…so obviously people can still get from here to there…just might cost them a few more minutes. Tough Potatoes (as they probably say in Idaho).
I remember the first time I did Seattle-to-Portland, there was a section on one of the roads early on where the entire lane was filled with crushed glass. I’m not talking about a couple bottles – it was like some one had taken a window of full-lane size and crushed it up right there. I managed to get through it unscathed, but within the next quarter mile, I must have seen 100 riders on the side of the road with 1 or 2 flats. And then there were a lot of tacks thrown out on the road in various places. It’s not like a ride like this makes for ANY disruption to residents. It’s just an anti-bike setiment.
I remember reading about the age group nationals back a couple of years. That made me sick, too. I remember how unbelievably gracious all of the athletes were about it, though. Every one I read about said something basically to the effect of, “Well, stuff happens. It’s part of racing, you take the good with the bad. Beautiful lake!” That was impressive.
As far as locals “respecting” the commitment that triathletes place on themselves, or “respecting” the fact that they give up so much time to train . . . Uh, not so much. It’s *your *hobby, pal.
In a perfect world, all the visiting athletes would recognize that they’re guests, and all the locals would be gracious hosts, and everyone would enjoy each others company and part ways at the end of the week richer for it. I want to believe that we’re pretty close to that reality, and that’s how most athletes and most locals look at things.
Just to be clear - nobody here is actually saying that there WERE tacks on the road, correct? The OP states that in a conversation Paula said that this sort of thing had happened in the past.
I wouldn’t want someone to do a search for CDA in this forum and think - dang, I don’t want to do that race if there’s that much hostility/danger. I’ve done a lot of races, and I’ve never experienced such positive community support before.
And as for the “Go away” painting, all I can say is that I was on that bike course for a LONG time and I never saw it.
Here’s a snippet from a mail from my sister in law, which gives you an idea of how positive people were:
“You definitely had some people watching you. Most people I passed your bib number out to saw you either on the run or bike and all were impressed with your time. Dang, Tuesday when I came in you would have thought that I was a participant. The office crew gathered around me and wanted to know all the details and of course Kevin, he’ll never be the same!”
And as for the “Go away” painting, all I can say is that I was on that bike course for a LONG time and I never saw it.
This is the 2nd time I’ve raced in CdA. It’s a gorgeous town and area of the country with wonderful people. For the most part. “Go Away” was painted in the road in 2 ft tall white letters. I may be from Texas but I can read.
One of my training buddies was a victim of a tack attack two years ago at IMC going up richter. He was in around 100th place at the time. Fixed his flat (tubular) and not 100 yards later another tack. His day was finished…
My experience with the locals in CDA was just awesome. From the checker in Albertson’s to the servers in the restaurants. They all took the time to say, “Thanks for coming to our town”. When I was leaving yesterday, I was wearing my finisher hat and when I boarded the plane, even the pilot said , “Thanks for spending $$ in my home town, we all appreciate so much!”
There will always be a bad apple in every town who does not understand what the race is all about, I think it is unavoidable. However, the people in CDA were so unbelievably welcoming, we were talking about it all week. I would go back in a flash. In fact, we plan on going back in '09.
Swim
The swim was obviously challenging, but even though I was 25 minutes slower than my IMLP swim( I swam off course a bit on Sunday)., I was happy… I was even happier to get in that hot tub and warm up before the bike.
Bike
I thought the bike course was great! Lots of turns, but very fun; albeit slow for me. The view of the lake was spectacular around mile 20 or so.
Run
Thought the run course was great. Loved running through the neighborhood with everyone out on their front lawn. Running along the lake was beautiful. The fact the last few blocks to the finish line were downhill was a plus.
