Official Nation's Triathlon Thread

This race isn't until September, so you may not get too much chatter about it now...

Understood.  It is 92% full as of this morning, so if you haven't signed up, but are planning to race....well... you know what to do

I signed up for it.  I am not worried about the swim or anything.  I just want to beat the mayor.

It will be my first Oly. I have two sprints on my schedule before it (Kinetic and Culpeper). My goal is just to finish.

Last year the bike course was beautiful. But, I understand that the course has changed for '09.

Hope it cools off this year. I was doing great until dehydrating at about mile 3 last year so my run goal wasn't even close. Isn't the Mayor fast?

Yeah, I heard he was an elite triathlete. It never hurts to dream...

Revised for injured knee & achilles

Two questions:

1. How do I avoid drafting with 6000 peeps on a 24 mile bike course?
2. Do the waves go off alphabetically?  I'm mens 40-44 and there are A/B/C waves.

Good luck on #1.

I did the Dextro ITU triathlon in June which follows roughly the same course, and I had trouble not drafting - but there were only 1500 participants!

I didn't intentionally draft at all, but when I heard the referee motorcycle coming up behind me I just tried to be extra cautious. 

Less than a week to go now..

WEEEE!!

Last year there were 3000 and it wasn't that bad. I am starting in the second to last wave and not looking forward to having over 5000 bikes in front of me!

2 days...had a nice run today!  28:30 for 3.16  I feel pretty good and fairly healed.

Looking forward to this as more of an "experience" than a race, although I will be going all out.  In other words, I am commited to having fun with the crowds of triathletes rather than frustrated.

Interested in people's opinion and experiences from the race.  Seems like there was some angst pre-race from a few people wondering how the 6K was going to affect course congestion, especially on the bike.  This seems like a cool race to do given the backdrop... strong maybe on my list of races next year as I plan on doing more Olys, maybe a HIM next year.   

Full story is in my race report, but I thought it was organized very well, given the size and challenges of a big city race. Start was a little rushed, but kudos to the RD for keeping it on time. I started in the 14th wave and had some crowding on the swim, had to brake 2-3 times due to congestion on some of the 1-lane areas during the bike. Run and bike did not overlap at all. I didn't have any crowding on the run.

Bottom line in my opinion is there was really no more crowding/wayward swimmers/drifting bikers than I experienced at the Culpeper Sprint (which you also did, right?) The upside was having a big race with a lot of fanfare, and riding freely on streets that usually have me stuck in traffic. That was cool.

I had some similar fears hearing that it went from 2400 last year to 6000 (3993 actual) this year.  In my very limited experience, I thought it went very well.  Transition was huge, but in comparison, I did the NJ State Tri, and the distance to the Bike start, and Run, wasn't all that much different.

The only thing that wasn't "world class" was the food.  Maybe if we all sent in some feedback, that would change for next year. 

I agree with the others. It wasn't that bad. A few areas on the bike course were crowded. The food, or lack of it, really sucked.

It turned out to be pretty good.  The only times that I felt crowded:
1) Waiting in the chute to the swim start
2) Within 50m of the swim finish
3) Once in the bike when a peleton of racers cheaters went by at about 25 mph.
4) At the PT / ART Tent

Other than that, it didn't feel that crowded.

Sounds like something I might shoot for next year... swimming is my only hesitancy beyond Sprint races, but I've got a year to work on it.  Read ALL of the race reports.  

What exactly was the food situation?  From the race reports I picked up something about Muscle Milk and PB&Js.    

All I saw was some sandwiches, all with peanut butter, some cookies and fruit. Nothing like a pbj when you are dehydrated. What was really insulting was they had a vendor selling food right next to the food tent.