TriAthlone 2009

acurno

Looks like registration is finally open today. Can someone tell me though if you need to be a member of Triathlon Ireland to compete in it? Or there seems to be some 'ODL' fee that you pay on the day. Why does one have to pay this, is this always the case for Triathlons?

liamo

acurno wrote: »

Why does one have to pay this,

Insurance would seem to be the most obvious answer. What if you crash during the cycle and injure yourself? What if you crash into a pedestrian during the cycle? Others may be able to add other reasons.

is this always the case for Triathlons?

I'm not vastly experienced but so far it would seem so - which is reassuring really.

Bambaata

I'm right in saying the sprint this year is part of the NS yeah?

blind_hurler

ODL - one day lience and yes its insurance and yes if you are not a TI memeber
you have to pay hence if you plan do do a few triathlons in a year it makes sense
to join TI for the sum of 50euro

Highway_To_Hell

ODL or Tri Ireland membership is also required for any Duathlons you might be considering. If contemplating any more then 3 events in a year the Tri Ireland membership is cost effective.

griffin100

I thought that €70 for the olympic distance was a bit pricey, or is that just me?

tunney

griffin100 wrote: »

I thought that €70 for the olympic distance was a bit pricey, or is that just me?

WOW. Thats all I can say is WOW.

acurno

I would have assumed any costs(including insurance) would be factored into the actual cost of the event. Clearly not it seems. How much so would the ODL fee be on the day?€20?

tunney

acurno wrote: »

I would have assumed any costs(including insurance) would be factored into the actual cost of the event. Clearly not it seems. How much so would the ODL fee be on the day?€20?

Triathlons run under the auspecies of Triathlon Ireland are run, by and large, for the members of Triathlon Ireland to take part in. Members of Triathlon Ireland take out a yearly license. This license covers, including other things, the insurance for their participation in triathlon training and triathlon racing. If you are not a member of triathlon ireland you cannot be covered by the insurance policy of Triathlon Ireland on the day of the event as you are not a member of TI. You can join Triathlon Ireland for the day by purchasing a One Day License (ODL).

Were events to purchase their own insurance and pass the full cost onto the entrants in the races the cost of the events would be significantly more.

If you are not a member of Triathlon Ireland (full or ODL) then you cannot participate in Triathlon Ireland sanctioned events.

Stark

tunney wrote: »

WOW. Thats all I can say is WOW.

Is that "WOW you tight mofo" or "WOW that is expensive"?

I thought €55 for the sprint was expensive giving that the standard rate for sprint tris seems to be €30 - €40. But I'm not sure what exactly you get as part of your entry, if the after party is included etc.

tunney

Stark wrote: »

Is that "WOW you tight mofo" or "WOW that is expensive"?

I thought €55 for the sprint was expensive giving that the standard rate for sprint tris seems to be €30 - €40. But I'm not sure what exactly you get as part of your entry, if the after party is included etc.

expensive.

Stark

Yeah by comparison, a friend of mine got a TriAthy Olympic entry for €47. (€57 now for those who missed the early entry date).

Spins

What's the story with Triathlone anyway? I heard mixed reports about previous years races. Heard there was a problem with the swim, someone got washed under the start pontoon or something. Would like to do it myself as it's be interesting to do one that will be a European championship course next year? Any recommendations from past participants????

kayakmoss

Swim 2 years ago was a complete joke so i didnt do it last year. But its says that they have a alternate swim if the current is to strong on the river this year!

Spins

Why, what happened???

milligank

75 for olympic...

50 for sprint

WOW is all I can say.

Its a new record on prices

Eireman Half IM is only 80 euro.

911sc

Spins wrote: »

Why, what happened???

AFAIK, current was so strong that a lot of swimmers could not swim up stream and complete the swim leg!

Stark

Can't blame the organisers if people aren't fit enough to complete the course. As far as I know, it was advertised as an upstream swim.

I did hear that people were hanging around in the water for ages while they sorted out the start though.

kayakmoss

True, current cant be blamed on the organisers. But putting people in the water 5 minutes before the start and everyone having to swim (on the spot) to stop being swept downstream or end up under the pontoon!

Then again, thinking back it made it interesting, toughest swim ive done to date!!

tunney

Stark wrote: »

Can't blame the organisers if people aren't fit enough to complete the course. As far as I know, it was advertised as an upstream swim.

I did hear that people were hanging around in the water for ages while they sorted out the start though.

Emmmmmm I think you are being a little harsh on the competitors on this one. Some organisational failures on this one.

911sc

Stark wrote: »

Can't blame the organisers if people aren't fit enough to complete the course.

sure, but in that case, organisers should not welcome beginners and should be looking for some previous race results/certificates.
For instance, state that competitors must be able to swim 1500m in less than 25minutes.

I think organisers gave free entry for the following year to those who could not finish the swim leg, which is a nice touch.

Myggel

Swim was a mess in 2007 because of fast flowing current due to rainfall. A freak occurence by all accounts so they had a plan B in 2008. I did 2008 and it was very well run and thank God no plan B was needed.
I entered olympic distance this year and yeah, 70 euro is a rip off. Just thinking of it as an experience. I've only spent 2 euro since Monday in protest lol. Dirty protest next!

smcgui

Congrats to all today!;) I took a few pics which you can see here http://pix.ie/smcgui/album/348427

jlang

Results at https://secure.onreg.com/onreg2/front/resultsmenu.php?id=823

Did the Olympic myself today. Shame the swim was cut short but it's my weakest discipline by far and I wasn't sure I'd have been able to do 750 against the current so I can't complain too much. Pleased-ish with my run - seems I made up 36 places over the 4.5 laps but it was only nearly enough to bring my into the top half overall. Thought the whole event was very well organized and ran smoothly and was disappointed I couldn't stay to watch the elite event.

kingQuez

Had good fun today, I'm finally part of the tri gang My feet are in bits; running through transition barefoot not the best of ideas in retrospect.

Does anyone know was the run a full 5k? I'm a little suspicious that I got a new PB by two minutes on it. Not that I wasn't giving it everything!

griffin100

I did the OD race today in Athlone and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed.

The swim organisation was a bit of joke. I appreciate that the course change was beyond the organisers control, although I did the 750m practise swim on Thursday night and didn’t think that the current was that bad, certainly no worse than the upstream part of the Athy swim. There were less than half of us in the water at the start when the claxon went. We assumed that the race had started so we began, only to be called back. About 30 seconds later it went off again and we assumed another false start as a large group of people had not yet entered the water but it was the real start so off we went. At the end of the swim we had to funnel into a chute to exit via the end of the pontoon – we weren’t told this, I assumed that this was the route as I could see the chute on my approach. However there were no safety boats or canoes at the entrance of the chute to direct persons in and a number of people who were swimming closer to the bank swam outside of the chute to the pontoon. These swimmers were then directed back against the current around the floats into the path of oncoming swimmers to get into the chute. They were not allowed to swim under the float to exit at the designated point. I though that this was a bit tough as they had completed the full swim at this stage. Don’t get me started on the suitability of having jet skis in the water of a river swim, it’s not pleasant to open your mouth to breath and get a face full of exhaust fumes (that’s how close one passed me by).

The cycle was uneventful, just an extremely long run from transition to the mount point. A friends Garman had it a couple of kms short.

Returning from the cycle we dismounted and were directed into an extremely narrow gate along with sprint race swimmers exiting the water. With dozens of bikes and swimmers all trying to get in at the same time we had a marshal screaming at us to enter in single file.

The run was ok, but I do think that those narrow streets are not suitable for such a large event. Whilst it wasn’t an issue for a plodder like me some of the faster guys were forced to run on the outside of road markers to get past clumps of slower runners on the narrow streets as we approached the finish area of the route. Again a friends Garman had the run short – he clocked it at approx. 8.5kms which if it is true is an absolute farce. Given the fact that I ran my fastest ever ‘10kms’ by over 4 minutes I am assuming that it was somewhat short.

However the highlight of my day was back in transition after the race. Transition was not due to open until 12.30 which was fair enough. Myself and a friend walked back up to transition as there were lots of people walking with their bikes through the town and we thought that they had opened early. When we got their there was a bit of a scrum as persons tried to enter transition whilst a lady explained that it was closed (whilst having to open the barrier to let people and their bikes out). She then suggested that people walk around the external fence and jump in, which lots of people did. I wasn’t in that much of a rush but I was cold and needed a jumper so I wandered up to where my bike was and asked a marshal to hand out my kit bag. He opened the fence and told me to come in and quickly remove my kit (including my bike). I quickly gathered my kit and as I was exiting back over the fence where I had come in another marshal appeared screaming in my face about transition being closed and about taking my race number and I’d never race again etc etc etc. He then grabbed my bike and started to pull it and me backwards to try and rack it again. I calmly explained that I had been invited in to remove my bike (this was difficult as I was close to loosing my cool at this stage). He then changed tack and picked up my bike and dropped it far from gently over the transition barrier and told me to get out. This left a sour taste in my mouth I have to say.

There were some good things about the race; lots of support; a nice finish gantry with your time and age group position displayed as you ran over the timing mat at the entry to the finish chute, the after race food. However I wonder where my €70 entry fee went. I get the distinct impression that the plebs like me were subsidising the race so that the professionals could be attracted for the afternoon race and also to subsidise next years European championship race. I will never do this race again and will recommend same to anyone who asks. There are other quality races out there run by triathlon clubs for triathletes.

I am sure some boardsies had a good experience and I'm pleased if you did.

Rant over...

Edit: I'm re reading this on Sunday morning and asking myself was I a little bit harsh on the organisers when I wrote this last night. I was pretty angry at the time and it is somewhat of a rant. Perhaps I am being a little bit harsh and picking up on little issues but I still stand over everything that I said. Perhaps I would have ignored all of the other issues if I hadn't had the run in with the marshall but his level of agression and physicality really took me by surprise. I'm comparing this to the last event I took part on which was the Carrick On Suir tri which was an absolutely fantastic event which was really well organised. You pays your money and takes your chances......I'll do Carrick again next year if I can....I'll never do Athlone again.

Conor20

Is the number of entrants to the Age Group sprint published anywhere? The results have the overall rank and the rank for each split but it doesn't mention how many were included in this.

The transition was huge compared to last year and this was probably the only bad thing I found with this year. This isn't anyone's fault, it's just a by product of the huge number of people doing it.

The wave 4 swim was a lot more orderly than yours sounds griffin100. The marshal was calling out exact times as to when it would start.

A tractor - complete with a load of turf -pulled out onto the road in front of me and a few others during the cycle. We managed to pass it quite quickly by crossing onto the other side of the road. I'm not sure how others fared behind.

Overall, for a tri of that size, I thought it did well to cater for everyone. The sometimes pedantic enforcement of rules (in transition etc) annoyed people but I don't think they really had a choice when catering for 2000+ athletes.

Conor.

cantswim

griffin100 wrote: »

I did the OD race today in Athlone and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed.

The swim organisation was a bit of joke. I appreciate that the course change was beyond the organisers control, although I did the 750m practise swim on Thursday night and didn’t think that the current was that bad, certainly no worse than the upstream part of the Athy swim. There were less than half of us in the water at the start when the claxon went. We assumed that the race had started so we began, only to be called back. About 30 seconds later it went off again and we assumed another false start as a large group of people had not yet entered the water but it was the real start so off we went.

I heard this from a few people. Seems like they got it sorted for all subsequent waves. In Wave 5 we got a countdown to the start.

griffin100 wrote: »

At the end of the swim we had to funnel into a chute to exit via the end of the pontoon – we weren’t told this, I assumed that this was the route as I could see the chute on my approach. However there were no safety boats or canoes at the entrance of the chute to direct persons in and a number of people who were swimming closer to the bank swam outside of the chute to the pontoon. These swimmers were then directed back against the current around the floats into the path of oncoming swimmers to get into the chute.

Its up to each individual to sight correctly and arrive at the exit point. Plus anyone in wave 1 would have been expected 1500 but having done 700 can't complain too much if they've to swim a bit further having not gone the right way.

The run was definitely short. Gary Crossan who is dipping his toe in triathlon did his 10k in 28 minutes - he's a super runner but more like 32/33 minutes.

searay

I live in Athlone so this is my hometown race and it was my second go at the Sprint Distance. I did enjoy the event but have some gripes.

1. Inconsistent swim course - This is the third time in three years they've changed the swim course. We triathletes want to know how we've improved from year to year over the same course and the changes aren't ideal. Problems with current aren't an excuse - The shannon has a strong current through the town because you've a huge lake Lough Ree feeding into it. I think they should make it downstream and stick to it.
2. Late notice of the Swim change - All triathlon magazines tell you that you should check out the course in advance to know how to sight etc. The organisers decided at lunchtime on Friday to change to course yet didn't send an email to competitors or post a note on the website or in the Registration area on Friday night. They had time to send an email to elite marshalls on Friday afternoon.
3. The length of runs in transition and the condition of them - The run from the swim exit to the transition stands was c. 350metres with about 300m on tarmac some of it in poor condition. I should have trained by running on hot coals. The bike exit and entry was 400metres each way (I wore my socks having seen the surface on the run in.)
4. The length of the bike course - The sprint course was 22.0km if you exclude the run ins and walk outs. I clocked it on the bike and I've driven it in the past.
5. The run laps were probably short but if you include the run out of the transition area it was probably the right length, I think the timing mat could have been better positioned.

I did Triathy earlier in the year and I think Athlone could learn alot from their straight forward transition area and having a downriver swim. I hope they consider this because I think the town is a good venue and the elite race on Saturday night was a great spectacle.

SucCes09

anyone get the distances of the run\swim from a gps? I would be interested to know what these distances were. Mate has posted these as his PB and from reading the reports the routes for the olympic seem short by a number of KM.

savaloy

No doubt in my mind that the distance from T2 mat to finish was shorter than 5k/10k as otherwise i ran a all time 5k pb too. Glad to hear that the bike was 2k long too as it makes my bike time look better. My only comment would be that I think the run in to transition should have at least been swept free of gravel or (preferably) carpetted/matted across the rougher bits.

Got to say a big thank you to Alan Buckley Cycles who hired me a bike 30 minutes before transition closed after my crank sheared off my race bike as I was warming up :cool:

It was also a shame about the AG prizegiving being a bit of a farce (too many anomalies), although you can't blame the organisers for people running the incorrect number of laps. The "winner" in my age group doesn't appear to have done the bike either :eek:

Bambaata

again i cant understand why on earth people take pb's from triathlons. they are never 100% distance wise. the only thing u can get from them is compare your previous result etc

mjth2004

The prize pot for the first age-group sprint woman home was a €25 gift voucher........this is a pure disgrace for such a big event!

tunney

mjth2004 wrote: »

The prize pot for the first age-group sprint woman home was a €25 gift voucher........this is a pure disgrace for such a big event!

No disrespect but this was an Elite focused event and made no bones about it. The prize money was in the draft legal race, as was the talent. Anyone who turned up expecting a pay out for an AG placing in the sprint race is extremely naive.

cantswim

tunney wrote: »

No disrespect but this was an Elite focused event and made no bones about it. The prize money was in the draft legal race, as was the talent. Anyone who turned up expecting a pay out for an AG placing in the sprint race is extremely naive.

I would have thought a prize to cover the entry fee would have been the minimum for the winner... particularly when this race was the national sprint championships.

tunney

cantswim wrote: »

I would have thought a prize to cover the entry fee would have been the minimum for the winner... particularly when this race was the national sprint championships.

Not to be expected at all and precedent would support it, in fact from what I can remember other races that have had draft legal races involved have given *no* prizes to the draft illegal races.

Prizes in triathlons and duathlons, with some very notable exceptions, are generally pretty crap.

The Machine

I've done this race each year since it started and did the OD race yesterday.
I'd agree with a good few of the comments here. Here's what I thought:


Plus points

• Registration was well run.
• Enjoyed the swim in the Shannon - water seemed very clean
• Liked the run circuit.
• Nice finish area.
• Amazing support from locals.
• Results on line quickly, with certs and video clips of each finishers a nice touch
• Good party that night!

Minus points.

• The course has changed every single year, so you can't make any year on year comparison.
• It was crazy not to have 1500m down stream course as a back up.
• Last minute change of swim course with little notice - from what I've heard this decision wasn't made just because of strong current....
• As mentioned OD wave swim start was a joke.
• Road surface on cycle route was very poor quality.
• The roads are too narrow for that number of cyclists. Especially when the Olympic distance joined back up with the sprint race for the 10kms back to Athlone. Should the cycle be a big loop circuit instead of in and out the same road?
• No food at the end, what happened to the pasta station that was promised? Banana's ran out in no time -by time my girl friend finished they were all gone. So in the last very years the guys who run it seem more interested in making a few bob than providing value for money.
• Only one poor physio there to do massages - although she was good, they need more than one for 2500+ athletes!
• Surface in transitions was brutal, like running on glass, feet were in bits.

Clum

Did the Olympic too.

It's great they can close the main streets of a town centre for an event like this. That must take some organisation, but the errors made in the race itself took from all that.

Whatever about the swim distance being halved (there's not much that could be done about that) the start was a shambles. I was swimming upstream warming up thinking I'd loads of time because swimmers were still entering the water with the buzzer went!

No problems with the swim exit, it's up to participants to take note of exit points. Most people knew where to exit. The run to transistion was long and tough but part of triathlon is that there's running and tough courses. There's more to training than just swimming, cycling and running. Toughen them feet up!

The cycle came up over a km short on my clock. Surely measuring an out and back course is easy....Road surface was very poor and lots of congestion when we caught the female cyclists.

Entry to T2 was shared with Sprinters exiting the swim which was a bit nerve wrecking as I came close to hitting a few with the bike. I passed most people and I don't think any of them were looking out for bike-yielding lunatics running at full tilt.

Transition area itself was great. No problems with the distance from the water or the surface. I've seen worse. Numbered and named transition positions were good and there was plenty of room to run with bike, etc.

The idea of the run course is great being in the town centre and passing the crowds over and over but the roads were definitely too narrow for the number of participants and I can't believe they got the distance wrong! Apparantly I ran a 32 minute 10k..... yeah right! I noticed the turn around point at the east side of town was moved forward from last year, dropping between 150 and 200 meters per lap. That could be where they went wrong.

Overall a good day out. Shame I can't count it as an Olympic event but happy to have finished in the top 20.

Genghis

I dunno, I thought the race was fantastic. Yes, the transition was long and yes it was harsh on the feet, but to compensate the transition area had plenty of space. I would think the location is perfect for that size transition, but carpet is a must for next year, certainly, and maybe use the back gate to exit to bike and alleviate traffic coming up the ramp from the river.

I loved the run, and the atmosphere around town. It had the sense of a big marathon about it, a real occassion. Re: the swim, I think the organisers changed this after the trial swim on Thursday, and I think it was around 900m to compensate for the downstream and to make it more comparable to 50:50 up/down swims. In fairness to them, they have had difficulties in the past when they tried to

The elite race was a great specatacle and the trifest around the whole weekend was superb. I would think it was a good showcase event and a huge step towards bringing the biggest champs in Europe to Ireland next year.

onimpulse

I did the olympic distance race as well and yes the start was a mess, but I believe they got this sorted for the waves after us. I was really disappointed the swim got cut to 750m downstream however, they said on the website they had a backup plan if the current was strong. I read this as they had an alternative 1500m downstream swim - I'd have signed up for the sprint had I known, given the problems they've had the last few years with the current.

The long run to transition I really didn't enjoy. It was downright painful and honestly - I don't think I'll do this race again because of it. I know some other posters were saying it's part of the race & just toughen up your feet - but personally - to me the race isn't about who has the most hard skin on their feet it's about who can swim/bike/run fastest. There was no reason why they couldn't have put bits of old carpet on the rougher bits of the tarmac.

Cycle & Run courses were great though. Both I think were a bit short... I know every course is different and hills, weather etc will make them so anyway even if they are the same distance. There has to be a cut off point though - maybe a 10% margin either side? The bike was a bit short but I'd say not too much - the run on the otherhand was a lot short! I'd say a good 1.5km short?

Given the elites used the same run course though I assume this is known by ITU and they're fine with it so maybe we've nothing to complain about - just accept it's not about accurate distance but your performance relative to others that counts.

The run course was a bit narrow in places - esp down near the water station - given the nature of wave starts you'd a lot of very slow people in front of a lot of very fast ones. You'll never get around this with wave starts but you do need a course wide enough for them to pass which wasn't really the case the other day.

I was very glad to see motorbikes patrolling for pelletons as well. I saw one group in particular of guys on the Olympic course who were working together - I saw one signal to another to come forward as he dropped back - it still happens but as least when the motorbike came they were forced to break up & he stuck beside them for a while so they didn't get back together. That's great to see - not like in Athy where this was a major problem which wasn't addressed at all!

Also, No banana's left by the time I finished - I did a pretty decent time for an olympic - finished in top 1/3 and no banana's left at that stage? Not like I was a straggler coming in at the very end when you'd expect things to be winding down... there was easily half the sprint guys still out there and all the try at tri's left as well... Also, what happened the pasta?

MCOS

Bambaata wrote: »

again i cant understand why on earth people take pb's from triathlons. they are never 100% distance wise. the only thing u can get from them is compare your previous result etc

Why not?!

Honestly, with GPS satellite technology and digital maps to the cm is it really so hard to plot a specific 5km route? And the Sprint bike was advertised at 20km. It was actually approx 22km so the average speeds on the result certs was inaccurate. Would it have been so difficult to move the turnaround point 1km closer to the town and create a 20km out and back. I just don't get it. Same with the run, move the turnaround bollards a few hundred meters for the sake of an accurate distance?

They can do this for the Elites. And also, Tri folk seem to be obsessed with stats so this even further baffles me

Thats my only gripe. I thought it was a fantastic advertisement for the sport in this country. Great organisation, fabulous local support and the Elite races were great to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed it

cantswim

with regard to the bike distance, it seemed to me to be further out as at 10k out the road was relatively narrow which would have made it difficult space wise to have sprint people turning and also filtering olympic people back in with sprint people. So my guess is that it is purely a space issue. I've no doubt there would be other issues if the turn around was extremely narrow and there were a few accidents.

I agree the elite race as a spectacle was superb. Particularly given the way Bryan Keane went ahead on the last few laps of the bike and maintained the pace like he did on the run.

tunney

MCOS wrote: »

Why not?!

Honestly, with GPS satellite technology and digital maps to the cm is it really so hard to plot a specific 5km route? And the Sprint bike was advertised at 20km. It was actually approx 22km so the average speeds on the result certs was inaccurate. Would it have been so difficult to move the turnaround point 1km closer to the town and create a 20km out and back. I just don't get it. Same with the run, move the turnaround bollards a few hundred meters for the sake of an accurate distance?

They can do this for the Elites. And also, Tri folk seem to be obsessed with stats so this even further baffles me

Thats my only gripe. I thought it was a fantastic advertisement for the sport in this country. Great organisation, fabulous local support and the Elite races were great to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed it

Triathlons have never and will never be accurate. the out and backs you're talking about have been done in some races. the worst races I've done. the courses are crap, there are loads of dead stops and turnarounds and usually not super safe.

Besides - what about road surfaces and gradients - do you want to standardise them too?

mloc123

One thing I would like to see at races are mats in transition... or at least at the bike mount point (somebody always seems to end up on their arse from water build up at this point).

Skerries was bad, we had to run out a gravel path located beside a pub. I say gravel but it was more like 50/50 of gravel and glass.

searay

The turnaround for the Sprint was on a normal section of road, so it would have been the same width as where we actually crossed the 10km mark. The funniest thing about the turnaround was the two gardai standing right in the middle of the turning area when I went around it. - not the organisers fault.

I accept that the distances won't be exactly right, but I'd like to know how I did over the same course as last year. As Lough Ree is immediately north of Athlone, any rain the week or 2 before the race can have a huge bearing on the current, so they should standardise it as a downstream swim to make it safe for competitors rather than run the risk of the 2007 fiasco when about 1/3 of swimmers had to be pulled out.

Bambaata

oh im not saying they should be accurate im saying the courses never are so you cant take them as pb times. If they were 100% certified then of course you could but unfortunately they dont certify them. i wish they would!

MCOS

tunney wrote: »

Triathlons have never and will never be accurate. the out and backs you're talking about have been done in some races. the worst races I've done. the courses are crap, there are loads of dead stops and turnarounds and usually not super safe.

Besides - what about road surfaces and gradients - do you want to standardise them too?

Yes there will be margins. Although, when a running club do a 5k/10k on the road its usually what it says on the tin!! 22km vs 20km is a tad more than just inaccurate. Why didn't they just say its a .75/22/4.5 sprint then?

At least the road surfaces and gradients will be more or less the same year in year out It would require weather erosion and/or council work to change those...

How hard can it be to set a 20km bike route?

MrCreosote

I'd agree with you MCOS. Why not map out the course, accurately measure it and then give these distance? It's nice to know at the start if you're running 4.5 or 5 or 5.5km or whatever

ZZJ

If you are so worried about the distances being spot on, should they then give you

• wind speed on cycle & run
• wind direction on cycle & run
• road surface conditions on cycle & run
• tide/current charts in the case of sea swims
• flow rates in the case of river/lake swims

I think the reality of an outdoor event (especially one over a distance, in open water and on roads) is that there a huge amount of variables, if one or two sections are 10% longer or shorter, it is just another variable. It is the same for everybody.

It also is not valid to say that if the course was the same year in year out that you can compare times, due to all the other variables.

Just my tupence worth,

onimpulse

searay wrote: »

The turnaround for the Sprint was on a normal section of road, so it would have been the same width as where we actually crossed the 10km mark.

Having done the olympic I may have a different perspective on this. The turnaround for the sprint was where the olympic race rejoined the sprint course. It was actually at a crossroads although - at the very start of it so the sprint guys didn't actually go through the cross or may not have noticed it - the difference however was that the cross roads meant the road was wider - there was at least a hard shoulder width maybe more - I can't remember exactly. This is what we where filtered onto - the very left hand side of the road. There were traffic cones dividing this from the normal road which the sprint guys were using for their u-turn. I hope this makes sense... the sprint guys had the normal road width & we filtered back in on the hard shoulder which after maybe 100m or so disappeared - but that gave us a chance to rejoin the normal road without any danger to anyone.

This may not have been evident to sprint racers as you had your normal road width unchanged and didn't actually reach the cross roads.

If the turnaround was further down the road, the only way to get the olympic people back in would have been to narrow the road available to the sprint turnaround to allow us in on one side which would obviously caused you to go a lot slower, and possibly crashes if people came off on a tight turn.

cantswim

onimpulse wrote: »

Having done the olympic I may have a different perspective on this. The turnaround for the sprint was where the olympic race rejoined the sprint course. It was actually at a crossroads although - at the very start of it so the sprint guys didn't actually go through the cross or may not have noticed it - the difference however was that the cross roads meant the road was wider - there was at least a hard shoulder width maybe more - I can't remember exactly. This is what we where filtered onto - the very left hand side of the road. There were traffic cones dividing this from the normal road which the sprint guys were using for their u-turn. I hope this makes sense... the sprint guys had the normal road width & we filtered back in on the hard shoulder which after maybe 100m or so disappeared - but that gave us a chance to rejoin the normal road without any danger to anyone.

This may not have been evident to sprint racers as you had your normal road width unchanged and didn't actually reach the cross roads.

If the turnaround was further down the road, the only way to get the olympic people back in would have been to narrow the road available to the sprint turnaround to allow us in on one side which would obviously caused you to go a lot slower, and possibly crashes if people came off on a tight turn.

I was pretty sure it was much wider than most of the road on the way out. Thought the filtering of Olympic people back into Spring race was quite well done.