IM Louisville watching thread (Page 17)

Just found this thread, as it's been a really long week, but wanted to add my $0.2 about IM Louisville, as my sister competed, won her age group, qualified for Kona, and made the third place girl extremely happy by giving up her spot to Hawaii.

This was her 3rd IM, and it was so amazing as she had the abosolute race of her life.

It was also the worst race (IM or not, Inaugural or not) that I have witnessed, and I've been a runner since the age of 12, and have competed, and watched numerous races throughout my life.

On the bike, the IM went through a town, LaGrange, kind of like Verona up in IMMOO, where the bikers come through, it's residential, and the supporters line the streets.

Only problem? They forgot, or chose not to close the streets to vehicular traffic...and it was a complete disaster, at times.

I was at mm 39ish and then 70 when they looped back around.

I was at the bottom of a hill, where our athletes would have been going quite fast.

The officers, apparently not having a clue as to how fast we go on the bike at times, especially going downhill, would send cars anyways, down the hill.

There was also a cross street a few feet away from me, again, not closed off, and these drivers, on NUMEROUS occassions, would turn, cutting off the athletes. They had a couple of cops in the area, but they continued to do it, until some of the spectators, not the cops, took it into their own hands, and closed off the sidestreet, and made sure NO ONE turned.

While waiting for my sister to come through, I witnessed at least 10-20 competitors coming EXTREMELY close to getting hit. Apparently, one competitor did get hit, and ended up in the hospital.

It seriously was not only one of the more disturbing sights I have ever seen, but I couldn't believe what I was watching. I was so infuriated at this, that I actually went up to the sherrif that was supposedly directing traffic and yelled to him, "You might want to use a little more discretion in the drivers you send through, the last 3 cars you sent through came extremely close to hitting an athlete!!" He said something back to me, but then other spectators chimed in with me, and I never did hear what he said.

It was seriously like watching a horror movie, as I did actually cover my eyes a couple of the times.

My stomach just absolutely turned for our IM out there...here they were, dealing with competing, trying not to draft, which I don't know how they were supposed to do that, having to stay in the right lane due to the two way traffic, dodging cars, and on top of that, it was hot as hell out there!

Oh, and the announcer guy, he was even more awful in person...seriously, a complete moron!!

My many, many, many congrats to all of you IMKY competitors!!

Being that I got up when my sister did, and left so early, I competely forgot to bring my list of BT'ers, but I was out there all day, so at some point, I cheered for you guys!

Great Job!

And yes, I will be e-mailing the race director about the traffic "situation."

Amy Noie

Thanks Amy for being out there and supporting us.

The only "incident" I had in LaGrange was a cop let a driver go out onto the course and the car was going about 15 mph and I had to hit the breaks. The cop (and all the spectators) was yelling at the driver "GO!!!" I think the driver thought he was being cautious by going slow because, like you said, I don't think they realize just how fast we bike.

The thing is, you cannot shut down the whole county for a bike race. People have to go to work and to the grocery store. I thought the police did an excellant job controlling traffic. I thank then at almost every intersection. I train in traffic and am used to yielding to cars so it was fun for a change to have the cars wait for me. :-) The other day I sent an email to the RD asking him to send my thanks on to the City of Louisville and to all the cops who supported the course as I thought everyone did a marvelous job.

BTW, maybe my peception was different becasue, unlike your sister, I was at the BOP and not trying to qualify for Kona. I was just having fun.

~Mike

Amy,

Thanks so much for coming out to support all of us and congrats to your sister for having such a wonderful day. I completely agree with your statement regarding the problems with car traffic on the bike course but I have to take exception with your statement that it was the worst race you've seen (albeit, I don't know which races you've seen) inferring that it was a poorly run race. I was frustrated numerous times while on my bike by the number of cars on the road but always tried to keep it in mind that this was an inagural event that has a bike course that travels into two different counties. My father is a long-time friend of the mayor of Louisville (Jefferson County) who was not too pleased when my father relayed my sentiments regarding traffic control in Oldham County. The Oldham County police have never had to deal with this type of event before and I truly believe that it will improve next year.

Please don't think that I am attacking by you because I agree with the traffic problem but I guess I just wanted to defend the race organization generally, because other than the traffic issue, I thought the event ran flawlessly and applaud the last minute change of the swim course so that it did not have to turn into a duathlon.

Ok, I think I was a little rough when I said it was the worst ever, and I hate to criticize anyone.
But, with the cars on the road in LaGrange, and the ambulance that got "stuck" in the chute, I was just a little surprised I guess.

My sister ABSOLUTELY loved the race, and that wasn't because she did as well as she did, she said all in all, it was a great race.

I didn't mean to offend anyone, especially those of you from the area. I was more just venting my frustration about the cars, and the safety for the athletes.

It was a great day, so I should be thankful for that.