Turtleman Tri: The Aftermath

Congratulations!!!  What an achievement!

Timing seemed to work out fine.  Heavy rains Friday night, cooler weather in the morning, rains AFTER the event.

I thought about you guys as I went biking on dry pavement with my wife, then waited to run in the afternoon and got stuck in the BLISTERING heat...

Can't wait to read your race reports... 

Agree with both A and B - We had a fun time and thought they did a great job all things considered.

So I talked to a co-worker who volunteered for the event.  He said they cancelled the swim and also cancelled the bike half way through due to lightning.

What really happened?

Congrats to those who did the race. The rain was coming down hard from time to time while the bikes came by. It was interesting to watch the bikes come past me, and try to hold on. I was the volunteer working with 2 officers at County J, and Lexington. Just after the intersection someone lost a bunch of industrial size staples. I picked up about 30 of them, but it was after several people got flats. I helped one rider by giving him my spare tube, and inflating his tire. After the last rider came through, I just headed home since I live just off Lake drive & Lexington. Good thing I did, as it got very dark again after I showered, and got dry clothes.

Lance

Hopefully not intentional.  I know some of the motorists get a little irritated with the stop in traffic.

Oh no... it POURED the whole race. Like rained so hard you couldn't see at times. The sky cleared up in time to drive home. :p

The cancelled swim was the mudhole/sinkhole... we ran along the "water's" edge in one timing mat and out the other. Some folks fell about chest deep in sinkholes.

As for the rest--some folks didn't get to start the run (or were pulled off very early on the course). It stormed pretty much the entire race, but the really bad stuff came right near when the last folks were heading out. I'd say maybe 100 people or so?

Ergo...there were two sets of results.

The "race" results for awards purposes were based entirely on your "swim" and bike times. Which worked out great for me, since I had the fastest female bike split, I ended up winning my AG.

The "series results"--the ones that go up on MMS--were in two parts: one for those of us who did all of the race, and one for the other hundred or so who did not. In these, I got 2nd in my AG, b/c the girl in front of me had a faster run.

I had a pretty high # (we started according to number), so I was at the end. Luckliy enough, my bike split was fast enough that I managed to get my run in. Some of the slower folks behind me weren't, and didn't get to start.

It was nasty...and it DID rain the whole time.

What was the general mood of the participants? 

EDIT:  You beat my post by a few seconds there MNGopher.

Edited by paddle2paddle 2009-08-10 9:24 AM

Congrats on toughing it out.  Way to get an AG win on the bike despite the downpour.

I should be there next year if I remember to register.

This is from my perspective.  I talked with a few people I know that were racing and they were disapointed of course, but they chalked it up to the weather and moved on. The general mood I got from people seemed to be that they would have liked to have raced, but there is nothing you can do about the weather.  To some degree is was such a mess weather wise that it almost seemed like a survival story, we all survived the storm that was Turtleman 2009.

Most folks I talked to were fine...actually, esp. at the finish and waiting around after, people were in good moods. It was one of those "Oh well, what can you do" type situations. I chatted with several people who were doing their first race, and of course while they were bummed, they totally got what was up.

There's a guy on Slowtwitch that busted a bone in his hand falling into one of those sinkholes.  He still finished the race, earning himself the day's HTFU award.

Looking at the results, 85 year old Bob Powers also completed the race in 2:34 and change, meaning he was out there during the absolute worst of it and was likely told to stop on several occasions.  He gets the HTFU lifetime achievement award for pushing through and finishing anyway.

Actually, Bob was in beforehand... he and I were in the snack line together :-)

As a participant, I was happy they let us out to ride and run.  It would have been nice to do the race as planned, but no one has control over the weather.  My bike was slower then I had hoped, but I had real good average per mile in the run.  I think that wonderful, dark wall cloud I saw as a ran on County I, helped me pick up the pace.  My hats off to volunteers and spectators, as that was some nasty rain at times.

Thats horrible about the staples.  I noticed there were an unusually high number of flats on this course.  I guess that might explain it.

Hi BT Friends,

I had the opportunity to be a USAT Official for the Turtleman Tri for the past 2 years. This year we had Mother Nature get a little too involved in our day. It was great to see so many people in the transition area before the race. The weather was threatening, but had yet to start. We saw lightening and the start had to be delayed. The decision was made by Dan and his team to do the "kiddie swim", which I am sure disappointed the swimmers for the relay teams. Oh well, you can't help what you can't control. Being a Race Director myself, I really felt for Dan and his staff and volunteers. I know how much work goes into getting ready for an event like this and to see the weather foul it up just breaks your heart. It happened to us at our Winter Begone Duathlon. We were fortunate to even have a race at all. My hat is off to Dan and his people for getting through the morning and making sound decisions. It is good to see no injuries happened. I thought attitudes were good depsite the monsoon conditions. I had my rain gear on the motorcycle when I was officiating. I was mainly worried that people would go into a corner too fast and eat the pavement hard. Overall, it was still a good day.

Looking forward to next year! Now I have to get ready for my HalfIron at Pigman this weekend. Phew, that hot run is getting to me already!

Sincerely,

Bill Nevala