Distances: Full (140.6) and Half (70.3), both run on Saturday.
Where: Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington, North Carolina.
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| Jennie, Erik, Emily, Gaby, Me. Missing Matt and Jack. |
I believe we grabbed lunch downtown prior to heading back to the hotel to get ready for our team shake out ride. This event uses a split transition, so we met up at T1, at Wrightsville Beach Park, so we could drop our bikes and T1 bags afterward. T2 was at the convention center, so dropping bags on the way to the athlete dinner was easy. I don't remember a thing about the athlete dinner, except that I was there. Oh yeah, and that it wasn't free. You had to buy a ticket in advance, for $1. I assume this was a means to gauge how many would attend, since I'm unsure how common it is for half iron athletes to look for the race-provided pre-race dinner.
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| Jack, Emily, Gaby, Jennie, Matt, Me. Missing Erik. |
Race shuttles. On race morning, all athletes were shuttled from T1 to near the swim start (~2.3 mi), which kept the volume down on the small beach roads. If you stayed near T2, you had to buy a ticket ahead of time for the race morning shuttle from T2 to T1 (~10 mi), have your own car, or get a taxi. Seems pretty inconvenient. On the flip side, if you stayed in Wrightsville Beach, as we did, then you had to have a plan for getting back there after the race. (I don't recall there being any post-race shuttles.) Luckily Matt had his not-racing girlfriend along, and Emily, Gaby and I were able to squeeze into his SUV that she had driven to the finish area. Since T2 was inside the convention center, we didn't have to get our bikes after the race, and could collect them in the morning. This was really convenient and what we did, before attending the athlete breakfast. However once the volume of racers picks up under the new race name - it's already known T2 won't fit inside the convention center - I'd say the shuttle scenario is probably going to need some tweaking.
Back to race morning. The shuttles started moving people really early and it was cold on the beach at that time of day (remember, it was October). This leads me to mention another quirk for this race - no morning clothes drop. I knew this was the case but thought I'd be warm enough in my wetsuit. Eh, not so much. I laid down to get out of the wind and hoped I could use the time to sneak in a bit more rest, however all I did was shiver. Trash cans on the beach were filled with discarded clothing, including the socks I brought. I'd be surprised if Ironman continued with this particular tradition.
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| Swim start is at the southern tip of the peninsula, and ends at Seapath Yacht Club. |
Those details aside, the Swim is pretty awesome. It takes place in a channel connected to the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway, and is well-known for being highly current-aided - it is said even a bag of potato chips could make the 2 h 20 min swim cut-off. Despite the quick moving water, we were allowed to use the beach for swim warm up. The race was a mass start from the beach, entering the water through an inflated archway. I lined up relatively near the front so I could see my coach go off with the other elites (race had no official Pro wave). The current was moving swiftly enough that people got dispersed in the water rather readily, reducing the cluster-F that you might imagine could ensue with a swimmer like me getting into the water somewhat early. Water temp is generally upper 60's to low 70's, and wetsuit use is mandatory (due to the venue).
Anyway, though it helps to reduce everyone's time, swimming in swiftly-moving water is not exactly easy and the bumps make me feel a little out of control. The left turn was straight forward, but the right turn was a bit tough to execute, having to work across the current a bit to not cut the buoy. After another left turn swimmers grabbed one of I think 3 ladders to climb out by. Timing mats were on the dock after clearing the vertical ladder area.
This made Transition 1 fairly long, as it ran through the marina, past some showers, down Dock Dr, across Causeway Ave, and over to the field. We grabbed our own T1 bags (lined up on the grass) and once in the tent, I don't recall there being volunteers there to help and I don't remember what I did with my T1 bag afterward, though I know it got transported to T2 at some point. All told, T1 was 0.3 mi long.
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| The loop is ridden counter clockwise. 1033 ft elevation gain. |
The Bike starts out with a bunch of turns to get under and then over to River to the Sea Bikeway (that's the name as it shows up on GoogleMaps) where you cross another strip of water way over a metal draw bridge (mi 3.4). A little nerve wracking to bike over but made better by not having many other cyclists around me (event used to be limited to 900 participants; wonder how many M-dot will allow). 8 mi later we were on I-140 (mi 11-23), on the left lane with cars in the right lane, center lane was empty. You want to keep your eyes open here because for some reason, riders occasionally swerve erratically into cones. Yes, it was a windy day, but I didn't think the wind was sassy enough to explain what looked like poor bike handling skills from some participants. Read: pass wide and with authority.
From here we headed North on Rt 421, 9 miles to the start of the 67 mi clockwise loop that I don't remember much of note from. Other than the terribly annoying pavement cuts around mi 80-90 (ba-blam, ba-blam, ba-blam, for miles!). Only way to avoid them was to ride on the very narrow edge of the road, to the right of the paint stripe (leaving you 6" of surface?). Eventually we came back toward Wilmington on Rt 421, which was 1) super awesome with the massive tail wind and 2) the only place where bike marshaling was unfortunately missing. There was one large active intersection with cross traffic at a signal light, and I'm sure this would have been frightening/frustrating had I not had the green light. After that, traffic was backed up on this road (due to the race?) and though the shoulder was very wide, at this point it had some debris in it that would have been nice to have had swept before hand. At the tail end of the course, there was another drawbridge crossing over Northeast Cape Fear River (mi 111) that put you in downtown Wilmington, paralleling the northern portion of the run course.
T2. We handed off bikes and ran into the convention center, past hanging racks holding our T2 bags (like Lake Placid had). Temporary walls were set up with portable wall partitions, and the women's change area was set up right outside of actual bathrooms. Again, I don't remember volunteers inside the change area, but assume I handed my bag to someone upon exit.
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| The run starts from the small nub and heads north 0.4 mi and south ~6 mi from T2. |
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| The run is mostly flat, except when it isn't. 436 ft elevation gain. |
After the race we got cleaned up and headed out for dinner, with me alternating between lying on the table from being drained, and dancing like I had ants in my pants, because my legs were so uncomfortable and twitchy. The walk to and from was probably good for all of us. But since we stayed in Wrightsville Beach, we didn't see the end of the race.
By and large, athlete breakfast was the usual deal, aside from the $1 paid in advance. This event had a master's podium in addition to the overall and AG, and there was also a prime - sponsored by Cadence Cycling and Multisport - for the fastest male and female run splits for the full. Many athletes collected their awards before breakfast and hit the road early, so attendance was a bit thin.
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| Heafty weight finishers medal. |
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| This stowable bag arrived in the mail shortly after the race. |
