FIT Triathlon, Siesta Key

Awesome. I was fairly sure I was going to register for this one before, but the reviews definitely help. 

Is this a no-wetsuit race?

KC, if I had the money to spare I would most DEFINITELY go the coach route. Or can I just tag onto a group?

I'll definitely head to the beach sometime soon and get myself swimming though. I did great on my first OWS in a suit on a lake, so I'm more apprehensive than anything about how it'll feel bouyancy/wave-wise.

For anyone reading this, I did the 2011 Siesta Key FIT and I am not sure I could recommend this race.  The swim is nice, but the OLY/Intl distance is two loop race where traffic becomes a little dangerous. The slower you are the more dangerous it gets.  I was one of the first 20 off the bike and traffic had not gotten too bad, but there were several close calls with autos for others.

The worst part was the beach run.  Deep soft sand or running in water are mostly your choices. Very disorganized on the beach with no chip readers at the turn arounds.  Several people cheated and simply ran part way and turned around.  

It;s really too bad.  The setting is wonderful but the marginally safe bike with a horrendous run kind of ruins the race.  Post race food was far above average.  Results took 1+ days to post which doesn't mean much since who knows how many OLY/Intl distance only ran a 5k.  A race with lots of potential, but most ruined by a poorly thought out run.  If your a runner, find another race.

DWM, I fully agree on the beach run.  I put my rant on another thread so no need to go on other than to say running on the beach and around, through, over, (whatever you chose always seemed to be the wrong thing) those water pools in the sand is asking for an injury.  I only did the sprint and enjoyed the race.  The cops did a good job at the intersections and the course was easy to navigate, but I was off early so I would have no way of knowing how it was for the Oly and the people that were out longer.  I would say that I would do it again, maybe we will have calmer seas next year, what a swim!  

Traffic in Siesta Key Village was a little dangerous on the 2nd loop.  There was a truck double parked and people trying to go around and not letting the bikes go by.

I was surprised that there were just signs at the run turnaround, not even a volunteer.  The beach run was tough with the high water.  I kept my shoes on but my shoes were heavy with all the sand and the water. 

Polly

I've got mixed feeling because I know most of the race committee and how hard they work to put on this race every year (Disclaimer: I was actually on the committee the first two years).

This year just seemed to be a bit snakebit, with the beach run issues, rough water, traffic, etc.

I think some contributing factors were:

-  Easter was late this year, so some of the snowbirds haven't flown north yet, adding to the congestion

-  The race was on Saturday, rather than Sunday.  Less traffic on Sunday mornings.

-  The water was extraordinarily rough for Siesta Key making the swim difficult.

-  The Oly, followed by the sprint race, ties up the roads for a relatively long period of time.  All of the other races held on 
   Siesta during the year are sprints and only tie up the roads for a relatively short period of time.  When I was on the 
   bike course for the sprint, the Olys were in their second lap.  The cops were blocking intersections for all the riders and
   traffic at the Stickney Pt. intersection (one of only two ways off the island) was backed up at least for for 1/2 to 3/4 mile, 
   if not more.  All those people couldn't have been too happy.

-  All of the other sprint races on Siesta run on the beach, but there's a big difference between running 5K and 10K on 
   sand.  Plus it just happened to be high tide; at low tide there's always a firmed packed strip of sand to run on.  At high
   tide it's all powder.


I'm sure the race committee will do a thorough analysis of what went both right and wrong and will factor that into future events.  I'm a loyal Sarasotan and will certainly continue to support this race.  I hope others will keep an open mind.

But the way, my race was sucky for other reasons.  See my race report for the long version...

Mark