*official* White Lake HIM 5/7 (Page 3)

Look I am not one to complain easy, if you make a anouncement saying your going to wait till 8 then wait till 8 don't announce at 7:45 the swim is cancelled when you said you were going to wait till 8....if 7:45 is the policy then just cancell the swim at 7:45...bummer but not a problem.

Benji was sprinting to the parking lot at 8 trying to find the life guards???

I forgot about lineup "with your helmets and shoes" then no "sorry put them back you can't wear them" then... "you can wear what you want" That whole cluster  was like waiting for a teenage girl to decide what to wear.

Look no one is arguing that Benji is not a super nice guy, but he had a bad race we all do, and his organzational skills and decisision making were below par Saturday

That said if that e-mail would have just  had some sort of ....we will work harder, or do better job apoligy i could have lived with that.

Not some discount to race slots they haven't filled up this coming weekend.

The call made was out of pure safety and was well within their race guidelines.  Not swimming was unfortunate, yet at the time was the correct call to make. They did make an effort to scramble to regroup the swim safety teams, yet is was too late. 

The whole helmet start debacle was due to word of mouth. The comm was not linear and caused confusion. In the end, if you can't make up the minute or two on the bike/ run that you missed in T1, tough. Not like you were exhausted from a swim...

I ran in flipflops in T1 and still had a great bike leg...no complaints here.

Granted a swim would have been the best start. I applaud setup for at least trying to accommodate a restructure for the swim.  

Oh and shade on the run and perfect roads? If anyone researche dthe venue, you'd know the road surface talks and or the nickname "White Bake Half"... if you're complaining about heat, be glad you werent there last year.

I only mentioned the roads, because in their words, they were perfectly paved.  I did my research and read lots of reports.  But I think they should call it like it is.  Even the turn by turn description of the bike route cited the excellent paved roads.  Not the case at all.  

I am not one to complain.  I understand that there is a huge responsibility for the race director when it comes to safety.  I just wish that the call had been made and there were not so much back and forth.  And that there were some clear ways to handle the what ifs.  That is all.  I agree that other than that, it was a good race.

Everyone expects different things when they race.  One racers experience can be completely different than anothers.  I was not voicing my unhappiness to ruffle feathers.  Just trying to discuss the frustrations that I experienced due to the back and forth.  I worked hard to train for my first Half, and in my eyes I feel things could have been handled a little different.  But who knows...it is what it is.  

Sometimes things don't go as planned I get that.  I did not say I wouldn't be back to race it again.  

Dixbry, your not alone I was in a group of about 20, and we can all agree in the very least the communcation was poor. I would come back if they gave me the discount toward one of the races in 2012 but I'll probally pass since they decided to offer the discount just to race slots they haven't sold.

In Benji's defense he sent me an e-mail thanking me for my feedback and did not try to downplay his role in the mis- communication fiasco. Which shows he is a standup type of guy.

There really isn't anything worthy of complaint with regard to Setup's end of the bargain.  You're being very overly dramatic.  

If you were paying attention, it was very easy to figure out what was going to happen.

From the race description:

The bike course is a 56 mile loop featuring minimum turns. The course is about as flat as a course can possibly be, and is open to vehicular traffic. Having said that, White Lake is in a very rural part of North Carolina, so vehicular traffic on race day will be minimal. Road surfaces are very good. The first long stretch on Hwy 41 and the longest segment of the course down Hwy 210 are on excellent and very smooth surfaces. The long stretch coming back to the FFA Center along Hwy 53 isn't as good, but it's still not bad.

Which part would you disagree with?  The first ~3 miles are admittedly bad, but miles 3 to ~35? are perfectly fine.  Only the last road is annoying, but the pavement itself is quite good.  The seams are frustrating at times but if you ride farther out in the road a bit (maybe 3-4' from the white line) it greatly mitigates the bumpiness.

I've never ridden a bike course that is "perfectly paved."

^this