Woah! Sundds like a pretty bad experience! Super fast swim though! I had considered doing this race sometime in the future. But steep price and yes seemed to not have much at all to do with NYC was putting me off. Your report is icing on the cake wont be doing this. Ugh sorry they did such a bad job. But hey! You are now a Multiple Ironman finisher! Awesome!

Guess you're not ponying up the $1200 for 2013's race lol!!!

Congrats on finishing on what many have described as a brutal course with brutal conditions.

Sorry you had such a bad race experience but thanks for bringing all these issues to light for us. Based on the ridiculous cost alone I wouldnt do this race but it seems to have turned into the nightmare I thought it would be when they first announced it. Regardless, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN! and congrats on that!

Congrats on finishing a tough day! Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the volunteers and the party people on the NY run.

first of all, I want to say Congratulations on your finish! i am sorry it wasnt as you expected.I was actually a volunteer on Saturday. I started at a bike station at mile 11 on the bike at 6 am, and we worked our butts off getting water/food to the competitors. we were cheering the whole time as well. I saw nobody that was just spectating.I then worked the finish line from 7-midnight. and while there everyone was working hard doing everything we could for the athletes. I am sorry that the volunteers you encountered were not so good, but there were a lot of people that gave up their free time to be there for the athletes and did an outstanding job!!

Congratulations to you!  On that note, to each his own.  I had a fantastically brutal experience as well, and most of the logisitics of this race were very transparent.  People have to realize that a bike course on a major highway will not have spectators.  Not sure if you are from the area, but I can tell you that pulling something off like this in  the NYC metro area is extremely difficult.  Like anything done for the first time, there will be things to improve upon, and there are many to be improved upon here.  I actually got the feeling that a vast majority of the volunteers were not triathletes, which is not what i anticipated (this was my first IM) and I think that contributed to the lack of support in the transitions.  Other athletes "get it", and it seemed some didnt really care. That said, i thought the MAJORITY of volunteers were tremendous.  I had people offering to shove sponges in my tri-shorts.   It all just made it harder, but then again it was supposed to be hard.  I hope as time goes by you can draw some postives out of the experience and look back on it as an even grander accomplishment even though some things didnt meet your expectations.    I think people came to NY thinking that everyone would stop and marvel at the Ironmen and Ironwomen.  Being from here, I didnt have that expectation and I think I had a better experience because of it.  Nonetheless, great job on a very tough course!!

Congrats on finishing this tough race!  I'm sorry you did not have a good experience!  However, I have to agree with Dlyon.  The volunteers are volunteers, not paid Ironman employees.  They do their best, but its typically a good idea to not expect too much from the volunteers and consider it a bonus if they're able to assist.  Regardless, you are a multi Ironman and you should be very proud!

Sorry you had such a tough experience in NYC, I had the exact opposite.  Tough course though, that is for sure.  Congrats on the finish.

Congrats on the finish and seeing it through even though you didn't enjoy the experience. Hopefully after you put some distance between yourself and the race you'll be able to look back and feel good about gutting it out under adverse circumstances. It's usually the really hard experiences that we ultimately remember most fondly, maybe IM NYC will end up that way for you.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I was fresh off the course when I wrote up this report and in hindsight I shouldnt have been so down on the volunteers in the transition area. Afterall if it wasnt for the big man volunteer on the ramp I might still be in the Hudson LOL. Additionally, its not their responsibility to get me to the bike, its mine. If I get a helper then its a bonus. I get it.
I think I was just super cranky from a less than optimal bike (I was hoping for 6-6:30) and I came unprepared ( on fire from chaffing, sunburned should have remembered my sunscreen, and thirsty- should have drank more on the course). Regardless doesn't give me the right to be nasty in my RR about the volunteers in this area no matter what my initial thoughts were. Going forward I learned from this experience and will definitely prepare mentally to be a little more self sufficient.
I see we all suffered in our own way and there were lots of volunteers out there, especially on the run course, who made this day happen for me. I remember coming across the GWB and a volunteer who was so friggen happy to be there clapping and saying "WELCOME TO NY"!! Priceless.
Then there was the lady who had a container at mile 21 with water and she was dumping it over our heads if we wanted. I could have kissed her.
At mile 23 I noticed my shoe was untied and had tears welling up because there was no way in hell I was bending over and I was feeling especially emotional by now. A volunteer with grapes in his hand followed my gaze to my feet and without hesitation said "hold these" handed me the grapes and TIED MY SHOE! Holy crap! Yeah the race wasn't entirely hell because there were these angels who were speckled all through the day. My hat goes off to them. Couldnt have been easy to be so damn enthusiastic for so many hours on end!
Im signed up for Lake Placid next year, so I already knew prior to the race that I wouldn't be back next year and I'm really looking forward to another chance to have that bike split!
Glad we all were a part of this inaugural event...congrats to all of you who raced. We definitely earned the title Ironman on this day! And congrats to Colin...Kona huh?? Very sweet.