Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon : Official Thread (Page 25)

First full IM here, too.  Two HIMs last spring in the Carolinas made me want to come back for the full.  Y'all got a great venue down there!  Rain or shine, I cannot wait!

- Mark

Woo hoo! Just landed in Wrightsville Beach and waiting on room service.

For those wanting to do swim tomorrow am, meet at Blockade Runner at 7 am. We'll figure out shuttles and car stuff from there based on who is in and swim paces. Plan on leaving at 7:10 for shuttle, with 7:30 am swim start.

first half for me as well.  driving up from GA tomorrow early.

i think it will be a game time decision whether to go with long sleeve or short sleeve base layer and jersey or arm warmers and a jersey.  probably toe warmers, and may or may not wear socks.  anybody going to wear gloves?

Wow, lots of first-time Half and Full BTers. Good luck and have fun. 

Heading out to Wilmington in an hour (11am).

Weather-wise, there clearly is some rain cloud that's baffling the weather folks - they move it around between Friday, Saturday and Sunday like a three card monte game. No matter, all my transition gear is in baggies so don't care if it's a light rain.

Waiting to hear from the Thursday morning swimmers. What's the chop like, and any advice on sighting?

On the road ready to hit Raleigh overnight to see the folks before heading to Wilmington tomorrow. Looks like the weather will be a crapshoot but will be chilly no matter what. Nonetheless I'm getting excited! This will be by far the largest race I've ever done (# of partcipants-wise)

I wish you all a fun, happy, and safe race! I hope I get to meet some fellow BT'ers in person. 

Kit #1659

Is anyone else PLANNING to swim Friday AM?  Thanks,

ben

Missed the early AM group but drove up to swim start ~9:15 AM & met several other triathletes checking out the water.  Only swam ~30min & tide was going out.  One of the guys from the group swam a bit further north until turned back by the Coast Guard (who apparently don't like swimmers in the Channel-at least when there are pleasure boats out cruising).  Water had some chop (tide/wind in different directions) but not bad.  In my sleeveless suit & swim cap temp was fine after 1st few strokes. 

Event dinner was very good (salad/pasta/meatballs/chicken & excellent apple or berry pie), & everyone at expo was friendly & helpful.  Some good bargains too.

Ben,

I'm still planning to be there tomorrow AM for the 7:30 practice swim.

- Mark

Newmansown-

Awesome, see you across the road from the Blockade Runner at 7:30.  

ben

Looking at the hourly forecast for tomorrow, things actually look decent. There will probably be some showers to start off the race, but then it will be clearing. The wind looks to be from the NW, but it will be building during the day, which should become a nice tail wind for the last 45-50 miles (8 mph around the start of the bike and 16-18 mph by 1:00-2:00). I'll definitely take that over a headwind to end the bike.

Temperatures will maybe only get to 60 degrees, keeping us cool on the run. Overall, I think it's a lot better than it could have been.

We're heading down near T1 to get in a short swim this morning, then heading to packet pickup and to catch one of the pre-race meetings.

Ben --

Sorry I missed you guys.  Got to the beach around 7:27 and headed out to swim with Terry.  He said a group had just gone out.

For anyone who is wondering, the water felt great!  Wore my neoprene hat and full suit and was actually a little too warm.  I'm definitely ditching the hat tomorrow.  There was a bit of wind which caused some decent chop, but forecast expects it to be better tomorrow.  We'll see!

Great call on the warm-up swim.  Those final turns are definitely a bit funky.  As others have said, hug the final green buoys (on your left) on your way to the ladders.  The current kept pushing me right at that point, so I really took the long way around to the finish!

Newmansown-

No problem, sorry I "couldn't" wait for you.  My friends from Michigan that are racing bailed on the practice swim, so I just went out there and there were four locals so I jumped in with them as I wasn't sure what/ who to expect.

I agree on the chop- but it wasn't too bad.  

Also, I checked the tidal chart, am I reading it right?  The low tide "peaks" at 7:50 am or so, meaning there will be a slight tide going out at the beginning of the swim, slack tide throughout the bulk of the swim, and a tide pushing the slower swimmers to the finish.  Sort of hope I'm reading it wrong!

peace

ben

Ben relax your reading it wrong.

Low tide is at 3:32 am for Masonboro Inlet, with high tide at 10:06 am.  You should be able to do a cannon ball to start and float to the marina and beat the cutoff. 

Those in the full should have no issues, not sure when slack tide hits but if it's an hour or so beforehand then it may affect the half athletes a bit.