WARNING: long post and solely about triathlons
Here is a letter that I just wrote on the Hy-Vee Triathlon's website in their feedback area. Things did not go well today and I needed somewhere to vent. Athletically, the event went fine, except that I felt like I was a touch slow on the bike and run. I don't know my times from the swim and run, I chose not to wear a watch this time. It was the admin of the race that had me up in arms. The parking thing made me pissed. I am a calm and stoic guy most of the time, and it takes a lot to anger me, but when I get angry it isn't pretty. [No, not like the Hulk]. I regret my anger earlier in the day and how I presented it to others [details not shown in the letter or here on the blog]. I do not regret the letter that I sent to them. Those messages and words fully apply, implied emotion or not.
Just so the letter is easier to read: 5150 is the branded name of the series of races put on under license from Ironman, just like Ironman is a branded distance. It is a fairly new series that has developed over the past couple years. The generic term for this same distance is an Olympic distance (same distance raced in the Olympic Games). 5150 is a play off of the total 51.5 km raced in an Olympic.
If anything doesn't make sense, let me know in the comments and I'll try to explain better.
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This will be a rather long message. I have some critiques of today's race and
some suggestions for how things can be changed to make the race better. I hope you will truly consider what I have to
say and not just slough it off.
Background on me: I have been involved with
triathlons since 2009, am 31, and have raced in 4-5 tris most years ranging
from Sprints to Halves [First Full at IMWI next year - lots of training in the
next 53 weeks to get ready]. I am
usually around a 2:50 Oly finisher, and Olys are my most common distance.
Today was the third time I have done the Hy-Vee
Triathlon and I must say that I was quite disappointed. I also raced in 2009 and 2010 when it was
held at Raccoon River Park. I liked how
those two were run for the most part.
The change in venue was fine, I like this year's bike course better, but
preferred the older run course.
**FIRST ISSUE**
The first major problem was parking. I think the volunteers who were running the
parking were incompetent. They were
primarily a bunch of high schoolers who looked like they weren't on a unified
page of what was going on. I left my
home in enough time so that if there was no traffic I would have arrived at
5:45. Given that traffic would likely
slow things down, I assumed that I would be able to arrive at 6:00, giving me
30 minutes to get transition set up, plenty enough time for me. Because of the slowness of the parking crews,
traffic backed up for a mile and a half on Fleur. That distance took 70 minutes because we were
just sitting there for most of the time.
I ended up having to park on the opposite side of
Fleur by the industrial area, because I was directed there. However, when I went by the main parking
area, there was a huge area just sitting empty.
The stated reason for the race delay was the
weather. That is not what delayed the
competitors. If there was no delay, a
huge portion of your competitors would not have been able to get their
transition set up by 6:30.
I have several recommendations on how to fix the
parking. First, get a parking crew that
knows what they are doing, give them radios to communicate efficiently, and
train them ahead of time. Maybe they
were trained, but just not well enough.
Second, if these problems persist, just hold
transition open later. There is no
reason transition can't be open right up until the first wave of 5150
participants get out of the water (keep in mind that there is a 1.5 hour wait
now between when transition closes and the normal age-groupers start, so there
is the potential for a longer transition set-up time for them, alleviating
parking congestion).
Another solution would be to go back to the bus
system to get all of the athletes and spectators to the venue. That method worked very well with the only
downsides being the earlier wake-up time for most people and the cost of the
buses.
**SECOND ISSUE**
Don't treat your regular age-groupers as
third-class citizens. We resent being
treated as the also-rans. Multiple times
your announcers referred to the regular age-group race as "The People's
Race", which sounds insulting and rather like China.
I understand that the 5150 Championship was added
as a way to get a boost in attendance, and I think it was a good idea. However, they shouldn't be given preferential
treatment over the regular age-groupers.
There is no difference, other than speed, between
the two types of racers. We all paid the
registration fee and we all try to do the best with our abilities. Please don't treat us any differently.
I recommend getting rid of the two separate races
idea. If the 5150 Championship gets to
start in waves, the age-groupers should as well. If the 5150 gets to start in time trial
format, the age-groupers should as well.
We shouldn't be treated any differently.
This would also get rid of the planned 15-minute gap between the two
groups, which was rather silly. I doubt
it takes 15 minutes to move up the timing mats.
The 5150 Championship requires a 2:15 or 2:30 qualifying time, so there
should be minimal numbers of regular age-groupers that could cross a regular 3-minute
wave break anyway. And if they do, it's
no big deal if you just add an extra letter on the age marking so people can
tell which race they are in.
Just as an aside, why was there only one finishing
clock? When I crossed, it looked like
the time was measuring from the start of the pro waves. If you are truly treating these as individual
races that just share the same course, then put three different clocks up and
let us figure out which one applies.
Then we would only have to subtract out the time delay from the start of
our race.
**THIRD ISSUE**
I imagine that this message will go only to the
race management company and not Hy-Vee management, but I'll try anyway.
Why was there a pro field and why was it set up
the way it was?
Giving $100,000 to the male and female winners
just seems like a waste of money. In
2009, the pro race was a qualifier for something (sorry, I forgot what it
qualified for), and was televised somewhere.
This year I didn't see a motorcycle camera crew ahead of the pro fields,
so I assume it wasn't televised. The
spectators in the stands didn't pay an admission fee. There is no way that money was recouped and
it seems like an expensive marketing tool for Hy-Vee. [I get why Hy-Vee heavily promotes the
non-pro races: it helps registration but more importantly lets them advertise
the healthy eating options they focus on now]
Now, how it was handled. What I really liked about the 2009 pro race
was how spectator friendly it was. I
think this was the day before the age-grouper race and I combined bike drop-off
with watching the pros. Since their bike
route was 8 laps and the run was 4, we got to see them quite often.
Today was much different. The 5150 Championship likely barely even saw
them except for passing in opposite directions on the bike, and the
age-groupers could see the swim and the bike portion right near transition /
swim start. The only people who likely
saw the finish of the race were the family members of triathletes.
Another thing I doubt that can be changed, but it
is worth a shot: why can't the ITU or whoever has control let the pros use the
same type of bike racking system most every other race uses? And why do they need their own special
transition area? They were doing the
exact same course, let them use the exact same equipment. This would further reinforce the notion that
they are a triathlete just like the rest of us, but again with speed
differences.
**FOURTH ISSUE**
What happened to all of the free food samples that
were given out in 2009 and 2010 from Hy-Vee's vendors? There were a ton of them giving out anything
you could think of. Because of those samples,
I started picking up a couple new things at Hy-Vee that I otherwise wouldn't
have thought to try. Hy-Vee needs to get
back to strong-arming their vendors to showing up again. Everybody wins because of it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this entire
message. I hope I have been insightful
with my observations from today's race and hope they can be used to improve
things in the future. I won't be able to
race in 2014 because I will be in taper mode for IMWI a week later, but I will
attend and based on what I see I will make a decision about 2015.
Full disclosure: I will post a copy of this
message to my blog for all to see.
