If anyone is thinking of doing this race in 2011 DON'T DO IT!!! It was such a horrible experience, I will write a full report tomorrow, I just got home, and wanted to warn anyone that was thinking about before it was too late!
If anyone is thinking of doing this race in 2011 DON'T DO IT!!! It was such a horrible experience, I will write a full report tomorrow, I just got home, and wanted to warn anyone that was thinking about before it was too late!
Funny! The website currently
Funny!
The website currently says
"This site is not currently availalbe" with a magnifying glass over the not
I live in Miami and
I live in Miami and while there were a lot glitches( nothing to drink at finish(I am slow) AND people scrambling for TP and many more annoying things I enjoyed myself. I LIKED THE COURSE. Could have done without going over that bridge 8 times. Who is responsible for the problems. Ironman brand or the guys who put it on?
golferreid, I'm sorry but
golferreid, I'm sorry but don't agree. I started the last wave of the swim because I trained all season with the wet suit and I wasn't ready to swim without it. By the time I got to the bike aid stations (there were only 3) there wasn't any water on any of them! That means I went without food or water for since mile 20 of the bike, and even the first two aid stations of the run ran out of water as well, for me that was 2 hours without food or water, I honestly felt dizzy and started to get headaches in T2, I'm ok now but looking back I should have stopped.
This is my list of grievances:
-Not enough staff at registration, It was a complete mess to pick up the packet.
- Cheap bag that was already broken when I got it, nothing inside the goody bag but flyers and mini cereal box.
- bike check in opened late and then when it did open there weren't enough racks until race morning. People had to leave their bike wherever they could and pray no one stole them or misplaced them.
- Race organizers pushing people off a dock onto other athletes already in the water.
-Swim only had 3 swim buoys for a 1.9 km swim IMPOSSIBLE to sight!
-Stairs built to exit swim was near impossible, needed a couple more step in my opinion
- Like I said before, NO WATER FOR ME ON THE BIKE!!
- Course was to narrow and caused too many crashes
- No officials on the course and it was a drafting fest.
-No bike assistance vehicule in sight. The course was too narrow, so in the event of an accident of flat you're on your own.
- No port o potties on the run course. People peeing in public, but they made a big deal of the No torso exposed rule at the mandatory race briefing.
- Poorly stocked aid stations on the run, not enough staff to hand out anything, and some of the aid stations were only on one side, so a real mess to get anything. Also, in some aid stations you had to grab your own cup and dunk it inside the coolers to get water (extremely unhygienic) because there was only one guy and was overwhelmed!
-Aid stations only had water, no sponges, no bananas, no oranges, no gels, no cookies, NOTHING but water in paper cups. Not even sunblock!
- No mile markers on the whole course, except the two you got wrong
-Last minute change to the course involved going up the same bridge 8 times! Really brutal for a 13 mile course. Especially because of the heat, completely unshaded run.
This event was completely understaffed, I think the only two things that were great about it were the police officers, they really controlled all the intersections and there must have been atleast 50 of them all very well manned. Also, the few volunteers that were there really busted them butts for us, so thank you!
I might come off being too picky with somethings but it just felt like one thing after another. The whole event felt very improvised, not something you would expect from a WTC race.
Some amount debacle is
Some amount debacle is expected in a first-time race, but this sounds above and beyond. My friend raced it and said they kept changing the course right up to the start of the race, and she's pretty sure the swim was longer than 1.2 miles. What a bummer.
Either way, I hope you can find some things to appreciate about your experience!
I HAVE TO RESPOND ALMOST
I HAVE TO RESPOND ALMOST IN AGRREEMENT. I THINK THEY HAD ENOUGH PEOPLE BUT .... NO EXCUSE FOR LACK OF TP AND ONE BATHROOM ON RUN COURSE ON BIKE COURSE ONLY THING ON THE RUN COURSE THEY HAD WAS POWER BARS. WRONG. NO GUS. DID NOT GIVE US ANY SALT TABLETS EITHER IN OUR MANGLED ALSO CHEAP ALREADY BROKEN BAG.. THE BIKE YOU BRING YOUR OWN FOOD. BY LIVING HERE, WITH THE HUMIDITY, MY TWO BOTTLES WAS ENOUGH FOR ME. Narrow bike course BUT IT IS THROUGH A BIG CITY AND I AM VERY HAPPY TO HAVE ARRIVED ON TWO WHEELS AFTER ALMOST GETTING RUN OFF BY THREE BIG DRAFTING GROUPS. 50 POLICE, DID YOU MEAN 500 POLICE.PROBABLY MORE LIKE 1000. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE. YES THE STAIRS GETTING OUT OF THE WATER NOT EASY. QUITE DIFFICULT ACTUALLY! THE SWIM WAS LONG. BY THE WAY THERE WAS A CURRENT IN THE WATER AND BOTH PRO MEN AND WOMEN STARTED AT LEAST TEN YARDS IN FRONT OF THE BUOY AT THE GUN WHICH I THOUGHT WAS RATHER POOR OF THEM ALL. IS N'T THAT WHAT WE ALL CALL CHEATING! THEY HAD A SHORTER SWIM THAN I. AND YES I HAD TO FIND A BOTTLE AT END(FINISH) AND DUNK IT THE GARBAGE CAN AS I NEEDED TO DRINK SOMETHING. GROSS BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO. I DID FLORIDA 70.3 IN 2007 AND THIS POST FOOD SPREAD WAS 10 TIMES BETTER THAN THAT ONE. IT WAS PRETTY GOOD. BUGERS BEER CHOCOLATE YOGART FRUIT RICE ETC. FROM WHAT I GATHER THERE IS NOT MUCH YOU LIKE ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE? YOU FINISHED IN ONE PIECE? SO MORE OR LESS I AM IN TOTAL AGREEMENT WITH YOU.
Is your caps lock broken or
Is your caps lock broken or did you have a ton of caffeine?
golfrerreid, you're right,
golfrerreid, you're right, it's was closer to 500 police, I was thinking the entire time either miami has a lot of police officers or I really hope all the criminals are still asleep! I did finish in one piece and I should be happy, it just bugs me that this race started with 2000 slots and then swelled to 3000 (i believe don't know for sure) They should have made it smaller instead of getting overwhelmed!
Worst part about it I still don't have my official time since I started with the wet suit wave (the last one) so my swim time is messed up.
Oh well just needed to rant, all done I promise! Have a good day everybody sorry for the negativity...
Definitely scratching this
Definitely scratching this race off of my list of HIM's to do.... Just save me $300 on registration fees and probably close to $2,000 in air, hotel, eating, vacation time, etc.
Thanks!
Dear fadlf7 your input
Dear fadlf7 your input is needed however you could have done without the wetsuit. The water was 80 degrees, And you are right, our criminals are asleep at that hour and our politicians could find no way to use this race to their advantage. It should be better next year if they allow it.(I loved biking through that standstill traffic) I bet more than 1000 cops they needed to put on this show. And a plus for this race the bike course was not the exact same coming back to the city. But the race organizers missed the small important things. I spent 28 dollars on my cab ride there race morning and thought that was a lot so I hear you for those who spent the fortune it costs to go to these things, and as I said before I was happy to finish as there were a lot of wounded people out there. For those who get a flat and call it a day, I do not understand. And again I think it is poor pitiful that all the men and women stated ahead of the starting line!
Geez, no excuse for this
Geez, no excuse for this mess. I think there's no way that the organization that was responsible for the race this year will be contracted again to put it on next year if it goes on at all. A super bummer though that they screwed up Miami, I feel like this venue has some great potential for a beautiful event. Oh well.
For those looking to do a
For those looking to do a HIM in Miami there is another option: The Miami Man, which has run the second SUN in NOV for the last 5-6 years: http://www.multirace.com/MiamiMan/
The race was fantastic last year, aside for the wind blowing steady 20+ and gusting over 30 mph, and the support was first-rate throughout. The race is put on through multirace.com and they do a number of sprints and a few oly's as well throughout the summer-- have both raced and volunteered-- and they have always done a great job.
The highlight of the Miami Man is the run course through the Miami Zoo, though I have to admit, after killing my legs on the bike in that wind, I wasn't actually looking much at the animals though I was certainly running slow enough to have gotten a good gander at all of them.
One would think that the
One would think that the number one bullet point on the WTC "Reasons to Become an 'Ironman' Brand Race" pamphlet would be that they can bring their experience, professional expertise and resources that a newbie RD might not be able to muster. At that price tag and that level cache I'd expect each and every Ironman race race to be a world-class triathlon experience.
It really does seem evident to me that old conceit of regional RDs running hokey races and Ironman brand races being the 'real thing' is being more and more publicly turned on its head. How many first timers would you estimate there were in the Miami race? 30% of the field? That's 900 bad first impressions, I don't have an MBA or anything but I can only guess that's not ideal for repeat business. Conversely the local support that volunteers and the general public are giving to their regional races appears to be swelling in response.
I must say I have my first WTC race in June and I'm already wondering if it's going to be worth the expense when there are perfectly good races 45 minutes from my apartment.
* I meant first timers to
* I meant first timers to WTC races, it's my understanding that this is the first running of the race so clearly everyone would be first timers in that sense.