Sandman Triathlon : Official Thread

Recently I did a VB OWS against the current and after about 30 mins I had only gone about 400 yds, and I consider myself a better than average swimmer. If the current is from the south, they will be pulling ALOT of swimmers out of the water.

Foolish decision by the race committee in my opinion.

That's a bummer about the swim for sure.  I looked at the map, and the transition area this year is near 2nd Street, which is way down at the end of the beach, so they are restricted in which way they can do the swim because there is an inlet to the south of 2nd St, I would guess.  The bike leg is almost all on Atlantic Ave now, too.  It's my first tri, so I'm excited to get into it.  Like you, I'm just hoping the current gods are on our side that morning, or I'm going to be out there awhile! 

Whatever the current is on race day we are all in the same boat. 

Current is pretty rough if you aren't going with it but I'm ok with that as I'm a decent swimmer. Having said that I would anticipate the swim taking about twice as long this year as last if its against the current....Sometimes i think RDs don't really think some decisions through as a good number of people might not be able to complete the swim.  Lots of new triathletes can't swim too well and struggle to complete the swim even with no current/a current with them and I think that is forgotten sometimes....I saw numerous people get "saved" last year and that was just a couple waves and with the current...

wetsuit legal last year, so hopefully it will be again.

any thoughts on what will happen as Igor inches closer each day?  looks like this storm will throw some swell to the oceanfront.  i am guessing a bunch of current as well.  if this is the case does anyone know if a run bike run is in order?

Do they have a foot rinse before you get to T1 to get the sand off?

I went to a practice swim at the ocean front last night that was put on by Final Kick.  The race director was there talking and answering questions.   She said they will decide the morning of the race in regards to the water.  They are unsure what the water will be like.  If they have to cancel the swim, then you will run a 5k, starting in your waves, get on your bike ride the miles, rack your bike and make a 100 yd dash to the finish line.  

At the practice swim, there were some pretty high swells, and they are predicting it to be worse on Sunday.  If it is, I think they might have to cancel the swim.   

That's kind of a bummer; I'll do much better in a duathlon, but I was looking forward to the challenge of the swim.  I wonder why not run-bike-run?  I don't want anyone risking safety, but I hope we get to swim!

I agree, I still want to be a swim, bike, run.  But will understand if they call off the swim due to unsafe waters.

I just now finished an OWS at the oceanfront. The usual length for the Sandman swim is 8 blocks. So I started at the Holiday Inn at 40th, and tried to swim to the Hilton at 32nd. The surf was not that treacherous (Virginia has no waves), but the current was strong out of the south.

Now I consider myself to be a better than average swimmer (approx 1:40 per 100 yds), so this distance should have taken no more than 20 minutes. I finally got out of the water at 33rd street as I was tired of fighting the current. My watch read 36 minutes! Twice as long as it should. Below average swimmers will not survive this swim.

As I mentioned, the surf was not that bad. If we were only given the choice as in years past to swim with the current, the swim would be fine. I think the race director really did a disservice to the field this year by eliminating that option.

If they cancel the swim, I will probably just go home and go back to bed. Duathalons really do not interest me.

Sounds bad. I will do the race regardless but i might splash around in the water before we start the du so at least i'll feel like I did a tri.

Dano

Sitting here on my hotel patio starting at the huge surf....the current is moving north.   

We are in for an adventure swim tomorrow

Bib #1002
 

Just went out to 10th street.  Right now, it is Red flagged at the beach.  No going in farther than ankle deep.  No swimming.  If it is  still Red Flag conditions in the morning, then I would think they would have to cancel the swim.

Hope y'all get to swim tomorrow.  I did Sandman last year as my first open water event.  I had a blast and assumed I'd do it this year as well. 

Ended up doing Patriots last weekend, and wife wasn't keen on letting me race 2 weekends in a row, so I'll be doing yardwork instead.

Good luck to everyone!!!

So, how was Sandman... Did the swim happen?

They tried to have the swim, but it did not work out so well.  They sent out the first four waves before the surf took the buoy out.  Of those 300 or so people that got to attempt the swim, only 32 finished.  They cancelled the swim during the 4th wave and had the remaining waves run the 800m or so back to the transition and do the bike/run.

The transition itself was a bit difficult also, the cobblestone was extremely painful coming down the steps.

The bike/run were fine however.    All in all I am a bit disappointed they cancelled the swim before my wave got to even attempt it, but it was probably for the best. 

I was disappointed about the swim cancelation but was glad they canceled before my wave started. I would have hated to be pulled once I had started. I agree about the one section of cobblestone paving in the TA. It was painful. Also the bike dismount area was total chaos when I came through. The people in front of me got off the bikes  so I stopped and prepared to dismount. Everyone started yelling, "get back on your bikes and keep going", so I did. No one said to dismount until we got to the opening into the TA. Some one behind me had to brake hard and I thing they skidded nad fell. What a mess.

I had wanted to do Sandman this year, but it didn't work out; I AM planning on it for next year. Hopefully you will all give them lots of good feedback about the problems with TA, dismount area, etc and hopefully they'll make improvements for next year.

Congrats to everyone who raced.

It was chaos!  My wife, my friend and I entered the open category so we were the first wave out there.  It didn't look *that* bad standing on the beach, but it was a bear to get out past the buoy.  I struggled and struggled and finally made it out there, my wife and friend didn't even make it out that far, and then some guy on a jet ski came over and kicked us out of the water, saying the swim was canceled.  I've never been so relieved and disappointed at the same time.  I'm not that strong a swimmer, but I felt like at that point I was going to be able to finish the swim, tough as it was.  I'll tell you one thing, when I was out there I barely saw anyone else.  the good swimmers took off and didn't have much problem, but I didn't see any one in my wave around me.  I saw maybe 15 people from the next waves behind us catch me, but I sure didn't get kicked in the head.  I went out far enough that I didn't have the waves cresting high over me, and there weren't too many others out that far.  The bike was crowded, I was passing or being passed almost the entire bike leg, the run was fine but hot on that boardwalk. 

Overall, I'm not going to go back to do that race, not just because of the swim. 

I was in the third wave. Surprisingly, I made it to the buoy without any problem. In fact, I think I was the first in my swim wave to the buoy. I credit that to all the body surfing I did in So Cal when I was growing up. However, once I rounded the buoy, it was as I expected. Swimming against the current was very slow progress. I was 12 minutes into my swim when a fellow swimmer told me to come in as the swim was cancelled.

I assumed that the race would be restarted as a duathalon, so another competitor and I just moseyed down the beach back to transition. I had no idea that we were still on the clock. At that point I decided to just hammer the bike and finish with a good run.

I averaged 21.7 on the bike, and ran a 25 min 5k, which for me is pretty good. Finished 9th out of 37 in my age group when just the bike and run were considered, which is how it should be considering the botched up swim.

I think we should all write a letter to Betty encouraging her to move transition back to 24th street, or anywhere but Rudee Inlet, so that we can swim with the current on days like yesterday. Really, the swim would have been easy with the current, as long as you were able to reach the buoy.

Sounds like a hot mess!!  Have thought about doing the Sandman, might have to pull it from list of potential races I'd like to do sometime.  Don't like the sounds of the swim inflexibility, mid-race cancellations and other logistical issues during the race.  

I agree with VAbeachnut . They could fix some of these problems and it would be a great race. This year was basically a brand new race because they changed the location of everything. I talked to a couple of locals who have raced it many times and they said it has been a great race most years. I will probably give it another try next year or the year after.

Looking back, it would have been better to start the swim near the transition area, everyone swims north, and hops out of the water and runs 1/2 mile back to the transition.  Things were so rough that I think quite a lot of people never even made it out to the buoy.  The cobblestone or gravel transition area didn't really bother me, I must have no nerve endings in my feet. 

this is first year, its been this way.. it was in a new location, im sure logistics weren't fully worked out.. But im sure Betty would love input from you guys to recommend some fixes to make a better race next year. we must also remember that igor gave some rough waters.. too.. the year before the water was flat.

normally the swim is cancelled before start.. so things must have looked good initially..

but email Betty with some recommendations

Edited by momo 2010-09-21 9:06 AM