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North Shore Triathlon
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North Shore Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic
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 Swim
Comments: As we were standing around in the water waiting for the start, we suddenly hear the RD say "ready, go!" and before I knew it the race had started! I took a few steps and plunged in, and was shocked by how cold the water was. After 8-10 strokes I stopped and treaded water for a minute, because I felt my pulse racing, I suddenly had a pounding headache and was having trouble catching my breath. After a few seconds I started again, but after another 8-10 strokes I stopped and headed back to the beach. Based on how disorganized the race had seemed thus far and how my body was reacting to the cold water, I simply did not feel safe continuing. As I exited the water I was greeted by a USAT official, where I was bestowed the honor of being the first DNF of the day! After the second wave started, though, I noticed that there were a handful of other folks who had bailed out on the swim. What would you do differently?: My problems seemed to stem from how my body reacted to the bitterly cold water, so I guess in the future I should (1) take more time to adjust to the water and get warmed up before the start and (2) do more cold water swimming so I'm more comfortable.  Transition 1
 Bike
Transition 2
 Run
Post race
Warm down: After bailing out on the swim, I headed back to the transition area, changed into some dry clothes and then packed up my stuff. Our team had some folks who came to watch, so after packing up my car I joined them to cheer on the racers. Last updated: 2007-08-27 12:00 AM
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 2007-09-09 4:40 PM |
Expert  832    Framingham, MA |  Subject: North Shore Triathlon |
| 2007-09-09 6:35 PM in reply to: #957095 |
Pro 4612 MA | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon ???? WTF??? What kind of race was that?? I don't blame you for DNF-ing. A note about the water... I was swimming at Ipswich on Friday without a wetsuit and the water temp was in the high 60s (I think, pretty comfortable). I'd think the water temp would be similar at Beverly. No? |
| 2007-09-09 6:51 PM in reply to: #957189 |
Expert 832 Framingham, MA | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon D.K. - 2007-09-09 7:35 PM A note about the water... I was swimming at Ipswich on Friday without a wetsuit and the water temp was in the high 60s (I think, pretty comfortable). I'd think the water temp would be similar at Beverly. No? From what I gathered from folks from the area, the water temp in Beverly Harbor had dropped quite a bit overnight, but I'm not sure why. And based on how everything else went, I didn't bother to ask the race dis-organizers what the temperature was. Oh well, since I just decided two weeks ago to do this race, I'm not as disappointed as I would be if this was my "A" race for the year. I think, though, that I am going to take most of this week off just to regroup after two tough races and think about how hard I want to train in the off-season. |
| 2007-09-09 11:04 PM in reply to: #957095 |
Master 1946  Bronze member | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon Scott you did the right thing. it sounds as tho a lot of the "issues"with this race still haven't been worked out ..and safety is the ultimate...Sorry you were not able to give the OLY distance another shot- but would not use this particular race as your "benchmark"...no swim course mark or caps nor way to be sure all who enter exit..is huge..the traffic control & support on bike /run sound like they were lacking as well. Chal k it up to a learning experience- on what NOT to settle for in a race- we train too long & hard..to not have a race situation that supports those efforts.
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| 2007-09-10 7:23 AM in reply to: #957095 |
Champion 8903 | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon I might have done the same thing. I don't like salt water to begin with, and throwing in cold temps would be a good reason to like it even less! I always feel your gut decision is the best one, and to pull out was probably a good idea. Nobody knows your body better than yourself. There will be plenty more races, and surely better organized ones at that!
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| 2007-09-10 12:48 PM in reply to: #957095 |
| New user 30 | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon It was surely cold as f*&K out there! (And I was one of the girls standing around in a speedo and no wetsuit!) My favorite part was when we were all standing on the beach and one of the RDs yells "Everyone knows the course, right?" and, in unison, >200 people yell, "NO!!!" Then, he tries to explain the course (without a bullhorn or megaphone) and the harbormaster yells in from a boat about 100 yards out, "No, that's not right!" As if I wasn't already scared enough about my first tri. The swim wasn't that bad for me though, once I got going. I'm not sure if I should feel tough or crazy, now that I know the water was under 55 degrees! Then, apparently, the bike had some issues as well (I was going slow enough that the issues didnt' bother me!). There were some wipeouts on the turn going back for the 2nd loop b/c of wet crosswalk paint. My mother moved 2 blocks back to warn people, since the race officials weren't saying anything. |
| 2007-09-10 2:10 PM in reply to: #957095 |
Champion 7704 Williamston, Michigan | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon Geez o pete Scott sorry about the race. And just how cold was the water??????? |
| 2007-09-10 3:20 PM in reply to: #957095 |
| New user 30 | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon Official reports apparently put the water between 52 and 54 degrees. |
| 2007-09-10 4:10 PM in reply to: #957095 |
Champion 19812 MA | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon
Glad you made a smart decision..being safe is #1. We have 12 100 mile rides to do in the next year |
| 2007-09-19 6:38 AM in reply to: #957095 |
Member 14 | Subject: RE: North Shore Triathlon I did this race as well and with out a doubt it was the worst debacle I have ever seen. There were USAT officials there because they were attempting to get USAT sanctioning for next year. I doubt it will happen. FWIW I almost bailed on the swim and a friend of mine took a wrong turn on the bike. |
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63F / 17C
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Overall Rank = DNF/
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Saturday night I packed up all my gear. Thankfully nothing had happened to the packing list on my Treo, but since I've done it a few times in the last few weeks I almost did not need the list.
Sunday morning I woke up early, even though the race did not start until 10:00. I left my house around 7:00 and got to the race site just before 8:00. Some of the other folks from the Joints in Motion team were already there, so we hung out for a few minutes before heading over to check in.
Once we got to the check-in, I started noticing how disorganized the race was. One of the race organizers was training some volunteers on how to check people in who were already pre-registered, and they just didn't seem to be getting it at all. A few folks on my team had some basic logistics questions (like where the transition area was, where the mount/dismount point was for the bike) and every answer we got was "Sorry, I don't know".
Eventually we made our way back to the transition area and got set up. I'm glad that we got there early, because it turned out that there was not enough racks for all the atheletes (~200). While we were getting set up we noticed that in our bags there were two running numbers, but no number for the bike. I asked the one USAT official who was there about it, and he told us to "do the best we can", despite the fact that they provided no means of attaching one of the numbers to the bike. The RD came over and tried to make some announcements, but because there was no PA system hardly anyone could hear him. He fielded a few questions, and the answer to one of them surprised me. When asked if the bike course was marked, he replied "not yet". I remember thinking to myself, "how could this race be starting in 20 minutes and they haven't even marked the course yet?".
We headed over to the beach, where we heard from other athletes that the start was going to be 30 minutes delayed (at this point I was not surprised). I jumped in the water briefly, but it was pretty cold so I did not stay in too long. The RD then came over and tried in vain to announce to folks where the swim course was (it wasn't clearly marked). We then had to manually separate ourselves into the two waves and they did a headcount for the first wave, since there were no timing mats and no swim caps to tell the waves apart.