Beach 2 Battleship Iron Distance : Official Thread

Man I'm jealous of you guys doing this (DanielG--again!!).  Not doing it this year (did the full last year) BUT I'm still going to hang-out/lurk in your thread  Of course DanielG I'll see since he's "copying" my season from last year---start with Kinetic HIM (see ya there!!) and then end with B2B........... 

Might wanna link to the post over in the "IM talk" section---and link from there to here....just sayin

Very interesting almost seems like you are cheating yourself.  But for the firstone I will take all the help I can get.  I am a very slow swimmer.

You won't feel like your cheating anything after traveling 140.6 miles  it's still a long day.  With Low tide coming only 18 minutes before the start, I'm thinking you may not see the nice push we had last year.  I'm not all that familiar with tides, but seems like it may take a little bit of time before the flow gets going.

Does anyone know how long it may take for the current to get up to speed?  I'm kinda of curious.

I've never been involved with a swim team but still find that swimming is my best event overall and figured I finished 15-17 minutes sooner then I expected with my 53 minute time.  I did swim a bit harder then planned due to the sun blinding me on the right side, since I normally swim bi lateral to keep my pace in check and ended up just breathing to the left down the first straight away which threw me off a bit.

Masonboro Inlet is where the swim starts, below is the listed tides for Nov 12 and 13.  Didn't look much difference then Wrightsville listing but it's hard to tell with the way it shows on the NOAA site.  Last year I thought low tide was over an hour earlier so the current was moving good when we started and was quite obvious when we swam on the Friday before the race.

Day        High      Tide  Height   Sunrise    Moon  Time      % Moon
           /Low      Time    Feet    Sunset                    Visible

F   12      Low   5:39 AM     0.8   6:41 AM    Rise 12:11 PM      33
    12     High  12:12 PM     4.1   5:09 PM     Set 11:12 PM
    
Sa  13     High  12:48 AM     3.2   6:42 AM    Rise 12:42 PM      42
    13      Low   6:42 AM     0.9   5:09 PM
    13     High   1:08 PM     3.8

The wife and I enjoyed our time in Wilmington.  We don't get a chance to get away on our own so this was really a first for us without kids.  We flew in to Myrtle Beach and drove up, Spirit had some real cheap air fare, if that didn't pop up just a few weeks out we would've done the drive from Detroit.

With the race on Saturday (Full), we had Sunday and Monday to enjoy the food and bars of Wilmington.  I thought the downtown area was great with a lot of bar and food choices.  We did a lot of eating and drinking in those two days, and even enjoyed the beach down near Port Fisher on Sunday after the race.  I thought the visit to the Battleship on Monday was great too.  Of course we had pretty good weather to enjoy our time which helped, though the rains from the remnants of hurricane Ike hit late Monday and Tuesday.

The biggest issue I had was the weather in Michigan in Sept and Oct, which wasn't all that nice making some training tough, but that shouldn't be quite as big an issue doing the half and hopefully this fall will be a bit nicer in the Midwest.

I'm sure Wilmington doesn't compare to the choices available in Chicago, but it's a nice town and easy to get around.  I hope to go back some day.

I did B2B last year and my husband did it the year before.  Nice race and nice area, but not a whole lot to do with a 6 and 9 year old during the race.  Battleship tour was neat - for about an hour.   

Did you look at Cedar Point?  It's Sept., but my kids are stoked for this one - roller coasters while mom and dad race!

If your on your own, staying at the host hotel would be ideal.  Your close to the packet pickup/expo, you can reserve a spot on the shuttle (setup should send out an email about reserving spots) to T1 on race morning and leave your car at the hotel, when you get done take the trolley or boat which drops you off in front of the hotel.  It's tougher on families to get around then a lone athlete. 

You'll take your bike to T1 on Friday afternoon, you can also drop off special needs bags, t1 and t2 bags if you like.