COMING UP!

Hey all,

  Porter Bratten here, I met a few of you at last night's race...thanks for coming out!  I just wanted to say that yes, indeed the swim course was slightly over 1/4 mile.  This was due to a last minute equipment failure.  

We do our best to design safe, accurate courses...for last night's race we did use a GPS watch to measure out the course, which helps to avoid mis-markings on the course.  I will make sure the mile markers are accurately placed at the next event.

Thanks again for coming out and I hope to see some of y'all at future races!

--Porter Bratten

Thanks for chiming in.... Always nice to hear right from the source!!!

Hey Porter! Good to see you here.

Yeah, I liked the horn for the start -- nice touch.

Question on the run course... I could have SWORN that the published course used the upper loop and finished on the other side of the playground area (similar to the Race for Grace course), but when I got there, Lisa said it was an out-and-back. Did that change last-minute, or am I losing my mind? (well, I may have lost it years ago)

No worries on the long swim course. As I said, we all do the same distance, whatever it is.

Regarding the run course--you're right, the published run course was different, up until about a week before the race.  The reason for the change was for a couple of reasons:

-the permit that the city issued turned out to be only for the use of the lower loop--despite having asked specifically for the upper loop too

--this allowed us to keep transition area and finish line in one place--much, much easier

--this allowed me to use just one timing mat for the race, which is basically what made the difference between this race breaking even and losing money.  

i know that the earlier course would have been better from a racer's perspective but given the reasons I was pretty strongly compelled to change it. Hope you can understand.