Nantucket Triathlon : Official Thread

It looks like the course is the same. The field is about 850, so many more people than last year. I didn't race it last year, but I'm hoping they learn from any mistakes made in the first year.

I'm curious - how was traffic on the bike course, specifically on the Madaket road? What were the conditions last year? It looks like the swim times were very slow for a 1/4 mile swim, even in the ocean.

I'm planning on riding the bike course a few times in the next few weeks - I'm heading to the island this Sunday for a month of summer landscaping after just finishing the school year as a teacher.

Just rode the course this evening. It's billed as 14 miles, but I got 13.3 - went to map my ride and it is a little short. I averaged 23.5 and was at 34 minutes. I'll go faster on race day with the intersections blocked and my race setup.

I'm doing the run tomorrow night with Brant Point Runners - haven't run the course in years, but know it well. Aiming for around 20 min.

I'm hoping that weather on race day is good.

Thanks for the info on the course.  I'll be racing as well in a few weeks and appreciate any further info you might have.  Are the bike/run fairly flat?

Both courses are pretty flat. The bike course has some gentle rolling hills, but there's never a need to get out of the saddle. I maintained at least 19mph for the whole ride. It's an out and back course.

The run course is very flat except for one hill that is maybe 600 feet long - you go up it first and then come down on the return.

Wind could be an issue on the bike course, especially since the race is later in the day.

Double post - oops.


Edited by natethomas2000 2010-06-22 8:47 PM

Hi guys:

We have made a number of adjustments to the race logistics after learning from things in our first year.

The race field is obviously much larger so we have significant additional staffing and volunteers.
Highlights that will help the course.

Parking has been banned on Cliff Road on race day.

We have agreement from Something Natural (sandwich shop on Cliff Road) to close for the day.

Additional police and volunteers at the 2 major intersections (Easton and North Beach and Nantucket Ave/North Liberty/Cliff Road).

Porta potties on run and bike courses.

Transition area will be much better staffed and monitored to keep all non-athletes out.

The tide is supposed to be HIGH on race day which will improve swim times since last year there was a lot of "running" in knee deep water.

We're looking forward to it!

Jamie Ranney
Race Director
Nantucket Triathlon
www.acktri.com

Run course is about 3 1/3 miles - did the run this evening starting at jetties to get the proper distance. 3.36 miles according to my Garmin 305, but cutting corners a little could probably get it closer to 3.3.

Hi guys:

The noon start was the result of 2 years of discussion(s) with the Town relative to traffic including the hours of the Town dump which is open weekends from 8 - 12. 

Because of the dump traffic, the  the bikes would not be able to get by the traffic on a Saturday (or Sunday) morning. 

Also, midday traffic is light (everyone is at the beach) which makes for less congestion at intersections.

Finally, the noon start allowed "day" racers to be able to travel to Nantucket on a morning boat and compete and then leave at the end of the day without having to spend significant funds to spend the night.

Jamie Ranney
Race Director
Nantucket Triathlon
[email protected]

I am curious about the swim course. Any info available on the swim course dimensions (I gather that the course begins in the water, with an outbound leg, a leg parallel to the beach, and then a swim back in). How long is each leg? Also, how long is the run from water's edge to the tennis court transition area?

Many thanks. Looking forward to the race.

The run back to the transition area is quite far (compared to other triathlons). Looking at the transition times from last year, it looks like the fastest T1 was 2:12, but most were north of 3:00. It's easily a few hundred yards to the transition area. I'm not sure if the transition area is on the tennis courts or if it is in the parking lot next to the tennis courts. If it is in the tennis courts I'm not sure about ease of in/out as that is quite limited.

The swim course is a simple out and two turns around buoys and back to shore.

Hi guys:

The transition area will be in the tennis courts again.  The swim is simple out and back on a rectangular course.  High tide is at 11:38 so the swim start will likely be from the water's edge.  The run to transition - as suggested - can be fairly challenging because there is some distance between the water and the upper parking lot/tennis courts.  But there's an incentive this year:  JetBlue's Fastest Transition Award!  Free round trip tickets anywhere they fly for fastest transition time. 

Jamie Ranney
Race Director
Nantucket Triathlon
www.acktri.com

Thanks for the responses. The long run to the transition area does help explain what seem to be higher transition times.

As for the swim itself, have the lengths of each leg of the course been determined yet, or will that be determined based on conditions on race day? The map on the race's website seems to suggest roughly equal distances on each leg-is that expected to be the case? Thanks again.

I actually don't recall if the legs of the swim are equal.  I would expect that the top leg, between course buoys before turning back to shore might be shorter.  Last year it was low tide so there were modifications to the course due to sand bars on the swim course.  This year the tide will be close to high so the legs should be fairly equal.

Jamie Ranney
Race Director
Nantucket Triathlon
www.acktri.com

Bike course note:

On the return leg of the bike course there are several metal drain covers to watch for in Madaket. There is one in particular that is only about a 1/4 mile from the turnaround point that is quite large and drops about 6 inches - on Wednesday night one of my rear-mount water bottles went flying when I tried to 'hop' it - there was a car so I couldn't avoid it. It could easily take someone down if they are not watching carefully.

Any way to get some cones out there for race day?

Hi guys:

All road defects on the bike course will be marked before the race with yellow paint and the athletes will be advised at the pre-race meeting to be aware of road defects. 

We are aware there are some drain covers, some cracked areas and some washed out edges and will mark all of them to the best of our ability.

We were also able to get the town to stop the Madaket shuttle bus from 12:30 to 2:00 PM to keep the shuttles off the road during the bulk of the bike leg.

Jamie Ranney
Race Director
Nantucket Triathlon
www.acktri.com

Well two more days till our favorite race! love the course Tony & Sarah

Good luck everyone - let's hope those forecasted thunder storms miss us!

Anyone else think that was longer than a 1/4 mile swim? The top swim time was over 10 minutes - even with a little head wind on the swim in times wouldn't be that high. My swim time was nearly twice my time for my last 1/4 mile swim.

I hadn't trained to swim that long - over 14 minutes - and I think that adversely hit me on the run. I got a really bad cramp on the run. I hadn't gotten a cramp all year and my run time was about 6-7 minutes slower than I had hoped for. The humidity and temperature probably didn't help either.

I completely agree with the poster who thought the swim was a bit long. This was my first triathlon but that sure felt, looked and took a lot longer than .25. I know my time was quite a bit slower than projected, and I see that even the top swimmers were much slower than last year. Can the race organizers confirm the distance was accurate please? Also, it was curious that the run (which was to be 3.1 miles) was listed on the blown up maps displayed in the registration tent as 2.8 miles. From all accounts, it was actually at least 3.3. Why the discrepancies? Thanks

It was a great race- however that swim was wayyyyyy longer than 1/4 mile.

According to my garmin watch, the run was 3.44 miles and my bike computer put the bike at around 13.5 miles - couldn't get exact distance withe the bike because of transition area and not resetting the computer once I mounted the bike.So, overall the swim and run were longer than 'advertised' and the bike was a little shorter. Personally, I would have rather had a longer bike distance. It was a fun race and I plan on doing it again next year.