Key West Triathlon 2010

I have also been looking for RR but haven't been able to find one, there is a couple of people that i know of where participating so it would be great to know how it went.

I tried to register about 10 days after registration opened thinking that for being the first ever it wouldnt sell out and i was wrong.....I honestly cannot imagine this being a bad race.....

I did the Olympic there. I registered as soon as I found out I had a place to stay down there. I really liked it. I had my PB swim, and an almost PW (worst) run, but overall I had a great time. I did a bit of a race report for it for one of my teams, Team Psych. There were a few of us there. I also saw a couple members from my other team, T3. I'll be going back next year if I can.

This is what I sent to Team Psych, and it's in our newsletter here: http://www.teampsychtri.com//>
The good, the Mediocre, and the Ugly

Well it was a great race in Key West. I'm not sure how first year races are supposed to go, but I thought it went very smoothly considering it was their first year. I liked the weather. I liked the people. Overall I liked the race. I want to go back next year for sure.

The swim. It was cold. Almost everyone wore a wetsuit. I'd guess the water was 70-72. I think the distance was dead on correct. I really liked that it was a point A to point B swim and not out and back, or loops. It always amazes me to see 1500 m laid out in a straight line compared to the pool. It always looks terribly long. I wasn't sure about the channel width. It was narrow. There's no way to start 100 guys there, that would be a mess. We did ok with the 27 in my group I think. There was a small bit about 3/4 of the way though that got shallow, but I could still swim even though I was touching the sea grass. It was still swimable. I didn't mind the swim a bit because I got in front off the start and I stayed there. I had plenty of room and clear water. I won my age group in the swim with a 27:29. That was the good. I'm very happy about that. So I don't know if the channel width was a problem for anyone else because I had it to myself.

The Bike. US1 was rough in spots, but the Naval base had good roads. There was one section where the sprint racers had to cross paths with the Olympic racers. I didn't witness any issues with that, but I was in the second swim wave and there weren't many sprint people out there yet when I got off the base. I don't know if it was a problem for others. I saw a lot of potential for collision because of the sprint course turning left into oncoming Olympic traffic. I got a 1:14:40 on the bike which was the mediocre. But I'm happy with it. There was head wind half of the time and it was not fun. I put too much into the bike this race. By my computer the bike was 24.85 miles, so the course was about dead on for distance.

The Run. My favorite part. Not. I'm probably the worst runner I know. It has been and continues to be the number one thing on my list of things to improve. By a long shot. The run was beautiful. We ran right along the Atlantic ocean. You couldn't ask for a better venue. They even had porta pottys on the run if you needed. Water stations with power aid were about 1.25 miles spread apart. We did have to cross US1 for the run but they stopped traffic. There were long lines of cars, but I didn't hear of any runners having to stop. I had a miserable run. (I always have a miserable run) I wasn't hitting the wall because of no calories in the fuel tank I don't think. I'm not sure what happened but my run was really hard. I didn't cramp, but I didn't feel well at all. I think it's just a case of me leaving my race on the bike course, and in the water. It was a train wreck. This was The Ugly. I ran 1:15:40 for a solid last place in the run. My time is no reflection on the race course, the course was excellent, and I wouldn't change a thing. Personally I just sucked bad. But that's why I'm focusing on running for the next 3 1/2 months.

My overall was 3:03:44. It's 12 minutes faster than my St. Anthony's time, and 34 minutes from where I'd like to be. In due time. I'm patient. I don't want to compare it to my other "Olympic" time, which is Longleaf. Aside from the bike course being 2 miles short at Longleaf I think there is something else there that doesn't add up course wise because my time was much faster. The Key West Olympic really felt full length.

After the race I got a chance to meet 3 team USA members who where there. I talked with one of them (Sapier?) for about 10 minutes. It was very cool to meet them.

It's not all rainbows, unicorns, kittens and puppy dogs though. There were some things I didn't like. Number one would probably be the timing chips. They were to big and not secured well enough. It was a fiasco working the wetsuit around the bulk of the timing chip. I heard more than one account of racers losing their timing chips on the course because of the flimsy plastic straps we had. US1 has rough spots like I mentioned. There's nothing they can do about it, but I didn't like it much. Also, note to self for next year, DO NOT CROSS THE WHITE LINE ON US1! Those "stay awake" bumps integrated into the line are murder if you accidentally cross them like I did. I thought my bike was going to disintegrate. And finally they need to figure out a way to make it an official USAT sanctioned race.

Other than the race, well Key Weird is just Key Weird. Lots of tourist stuff to do. Lots of great food. Lots of (LOTS OF) booze for all. If you like to fish then plan ahead and take a day after the race to do it. I didn't, but I've fished there before. Overall I had a great time. I highly recommend it.

Before going down there it occurred to me that the city is full of body paint artists... I wondered how long it would take the casual observer to notice a racer with a painted on tri suit... I'm allergic to handcuffs though so I didn't pursue it. I'm not giving up on the thought however... I still think it could be done humorously (with a speedo or similar real clothing) without getting arrested.

Jay

Edited by Jay G 2010-12-17 8:29 AM

One last thing.  At this point my biggest disappointment.  The photographers.  Worst ever.  This is the first race I actually played to the cameras and they seem to have lost almost all of it.  They got three pictures of me near the finish line and a couple pics I'm in at the swim start, but the swim exit, bike and run photos are nowhere to be found.  I intentionally looked for the photographers on the course and I'm positive they were snapping the photos.  It took a long time for them to post the pictures they did get, and when they finally did, it would seem that most of the pictures are not there.  If you look at their site it's like bike, run and run photos aren't there.  If you click on the link for them it says there are no photos.

I sent them an email with my bib number and I've heard no response from them.  Hopefully they've just misplaced some memory cards or something and the photos do exist someplace and they get them up.  I really wanted to see how those pictures came out.  If they really did loose all those photos I would not hire them back. 

http://www.sternpics.com/Events/2010keywesttriathlon/14926018_kchr7#1116240183_bnMHe

Jay

Thanks! Lots of good info there. Sounds like they pretty much had their act together. I have heard some real horror stories about inagural events, so I was hesitant about it this year and decided on the PB HM instead, but this race is definitely on my wish list for 2011! 

Hey gang- I just posted mine.  Sorry for the delay.

Overall, great race, good location (especially when it's snowy and cold in Virginia now...my homebase), and well-organized.

I'll be back in 2011.  Rumor is date will be 12/4/2011.

Jay - reading your race report was great.  the run section could be a cut and paste from any of mine.  glad to see i'm not the only one who just dies on the run

thought about doing this race, but didn't get in in time.  next year it should be on my calendar.