Princeton 70.3 - who is in? (Page 2)

Wanted to - would have been my first - but son's Family Day at college is the day before so I opted to volunteer instead Hoping to race it next year - it's in my backyard practically

I'm in and totally terrified as this will be my first 70.3.....

Goals: Finish in one piece under the maximum allowable time (8:30 + diffierential between my wave and the last wave to hit the water).

Just a a liesurely 8 hour (which I've never done) workout....and a half marathon (only done a few) in the midday sun (ugh) where I expect to do my share of walking/trotting.

Any advice from you experienced 70.3ers (also just using a roadie).

My biggest advice is don't push the bike too hard, even though it's your strength you will kill your legs for the run. Also keep up on your nutrition and hydration and practice everything A LOT before the race.

Best of luck and see you on the course

For folks who are interested a bunch of Ryan's Quest racers meet most Sunday mornings and ride about 3/4 of the bike route. They don't usually ride the beginning/ending portion as not real friendly traffic wise. You can learn more about Ryan's Quest itself at ryansquest.org (we'd love to have you join our team and help raise money for a great kid and cause!) and I believe they post all the ride stuff out on their facebook page (I'm not a facebooker but all of you who are will know how to link up with their page i'm guessing).

After recovering faster that I thought I would from my half Iron, I was looking around for another local race before the fall marathons start up. After the nightmarish disaster that was Poconos70.3 in 2011, I thought I swore off inaugural races. But the timing is right and I think I want in for Princeton. Any other options aside from fundraising nearly 3 grand? I’m not good at asking people for $$. I'm going to look into the Ryan's Quest charity mentioned on this feed in the meantime.

Thanks. Have a great race folks.

I'd really be interested n rding the course this wkend. Can't seem to find where and when the ryan's quest group meets.

I rode the course this past Saturday. I do not do well on hills and i looked at a few peoples rides that they posted on various apps and garmin sites and saw a few peak's on the graph charts and thought I might have some issues. I went thru the whole course waiting for those few "big" hills but never ran into any. There are definitely a few climbs but nothing that I would consider major at all. This course if very flat. Only issue might be if its windy that day, there is a bunch of open farm land on the route. One last thing, This course is definitely long, and I'm talking at least 2+ miles long. Everybody that I talked to in the parking lot had their ride at 58+ miles. 2 miles doesn't seem like much, but I was hoping to break 6:30 for the whole race but I would have to execute perfectly. If i have to tack on 2 miles to the bike, thats probably an extra 7 mins or so of time. Ugh.

Can anyone explain how the bike aid stations work? My longest race has been an Olympic so no bike aid stations or bottle exchanges. Do I have to stop to get a new bottle if I need one? I'm guessing I'm "donating" my old bottle if I toss it there. Any info would be great.

haven't done one - but from what I understand you hand off the old bottle and then pick up new on the fly - but I am SURE that some stop

I'll be driving a SAG vehicle that day

I posted this in the offical princeton race thread but posting it here as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfqJmDt2EmI&feature=youtu.be

Above is a link to the entire bike course. I take no credit for this. A guy in one of my FB pages for the Princeton HIM made it and posted it on FB. He did a great job. He drove the entire course in his card with a go pro and then condensed it. Enjoy

How shady/ sunny is the run course? I'm just trying to figure out sun protection, especially since it looks to be quite warm.

Good luck everyone.

Keba

There will not be a lot of shade on the run course so time to lather up!

Thanks! Colesdad. I just put my SPF lotion 500 in the bag.

I was out on the course today as bike tech - i have a lot of thoughts - but not ready to post them yet....curious to see what everyone thought of the face!

Weather was great. Started on time and swim course was good, not many turns. First time using a wetsuit stripper which I liked. Bike course had some really bad stretches of road. The bumps were pretty bad. Other than that (and the fact that it was longer that 56 miles) it was pretty good. Some nice rollers and few hills which kept it interesting. Lots of turns early and late which made it a little more technical. Three nice support stations. The run was pretty good. Lots of hydration stations with some awesome volunteers. Some deceptive up-hills that I wasn't expecting. Just when I thought I was done with the race at the first lap/finish turn intersection, there was still allot of road to be run.

All in all, very good race with the exception of the road conditions.

Bob

Edited by dillrob 2014-09-21 5:06 PM

Bad road conditions are an understatement. The first and last third of the course were an absolute mine field. Pavement was the worst I have seen in a race. Only got worse as it was littered with ejected bottles, sunglasses etc. Way too many turns as well. I did think they did a good job with traffic control though I am sure there were a lot of angry drivers sitting in long lines. Overall a well run race but not sure I would go back unless they did something about the bike course. I feel lucky I didn't flat. I have never seen so many people changing flats in a race before either. And just as an aside I find it annoying when ironman does not give you a finisher shirt at the end, yet they are selling them at the race.

there were a LOT of people fixing flats. i'm glad i didnt inflate my tires all the way as the roads were really rough. i'm somewhat used to it. I live in Connecticut, not far from NJ and we're subject to roads destroyed by blizzards and snowplows. I am planning on doing the race again next year but might raise this with the ironman folks becuase the roads were pretty dangerous.

they did a great job with the traffic, although i did have a truck riding up my backside for about a mile which was kind of frustrating. not as bad as other races i've done where cars are not mindful, or at the NYC tri, where people in central park walk right in front of the runners because they dont want to wait 8 seconds for a few of us to pass them.

there were a LOT of people fixing flats. i'm glad i didnt inflate my tires all the way as the roads were really rough. i'm somewhat used to it. I live in Connecticut, not far from NJ and we're subject to roads destroyed by blizzards and snowplows. I am planning on doing the race again next year but might raise this with the ironman folks becuase the roads were pretty dangerous.

they did a great job with the traffic, although i did have a truck riding up my backside for about a mile which was kind of frustrating. not as bad as other races i've done where cars are not mindful, or at the NYC tri, where people in central park walk right in front of the runners because they dont want to wait 8 seconds for a few of us to pass them.