First, congratulations to the finishers. While always an accomplishment, this one goes into the books for memorable conditions. My sister was out on the bike course and measured 97 degrees on the heat! My brother was told by one of the volunteers at T2 that they measured 103. No one had the numbers on the wind on the bike course other than to say 20+mph.
The swim went off without a hitch. The setting at Johnson’s Beach is just plain beautiful. A dense forest that comes right down the hill to the water. The morning dawned with a cloudless blue sky that should have been a warning of things to come, but was really nice to see. The course is well marked and easy to get around. The official water temperature was 73.5 degrees. All I can say there is that they must have looked really hard to find a cool patch of water to make that temp. There was minimal jockeying at the start. By my watch, I had my best swim ever at 1:08. T1 was uneventful.
Out on to the bike course you don’t hit the first aid station until mile 18. That is probably too long before the first chance to get more liquid. I would be interested in learning the reasoning on the aid station placement. They were placed at miles 18, 29, 40 and 57. On the first loop and repeated the first 3 for the second loop. On a day with challenging conditions, that is a particular weakness.
I think it would be hard to find a more beautiful course. Every twenty feet is a view worthy of a postcard. On the back side of the first loop, the wind was at our backs and really pushed the pace. Chalk Hill is certainly a wake up call, but I did not see anyone walking it on either loop. For the people who do this ride regularly, you are very lucky. One of the perils of being a beyond the back of the pack rider is when things go wrong, you are the one to feel it. The bike stations started running out of water at bike special needs (aid station 4). The volunteers tried to make the best of the situation by packing ice into aero bottles, but there were some fairly distressed riders. Overall, people were fairly understanding that sometimes things aren’t planned well. That didn’t last all day though. A couple of aid stations later, after the heat and in particular the wind had taken a toll, I watched a couple of people melt down when they learned the station was out of water. Again, the volunteers tried to cope, this time by refilling water bottles with the water from the wading pool that was chilling the bottles. A nice thought and a good effort to help the athletes, but probably not a good idea since the water was a bit brown. My first lap on the bike, 3:15. Total time on the bike 8:15. That was some second lap.
On to the run. The run is 3 laps of what is essentially a closed course on a well paved country road. I would be interested in learning what the logic was in the placement of the aid stations. Weird increments ending in .1, .3, .5 or .7. I would guess that it related to the homeowners who allowed their garden hose to be used to support the aid station’s water needs. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. On the good side, those stations did not run out of water. On the downside, it did not agree with my stomach. The aid stations were well staffed with very helpful and enthusiastic volunteers, particularly the first one.
My day ended a little bit into the third lap when I cramped up and could not get up. In the medical area I started shivering, they called it convulsions but it went a way after they got an IV started. I was not alone in that area as one of the nurses said they had seen a couple hundred people. I think those numbers might be a bit high but it was certainly a tough day.
My overall impression of the race organization is that they were surprised by the numbers who showed up and are having growing pains related to scale and vision. The impression I had was that it was being run like a local event scaled up instead of the big show. Obviously the organizers can’t control the weather, but I am talking about other things. Like only one porta potttie per aid station. Particularly on the bike course there were lines of people off the bike standing around waiting. Or one flavor of Cliff bar and no gels on the bike. A number of little things that might prompt a HTFU response, but in actuality are the difference between an event and a spectacular event. At the pre-race meeting there were hints that things might change in the future. I hope so because I would like to see more competition with the IM brand events and this year Vineman was not that competition.
