(Post race at Patriot’s Tri)
I understan that no race is ever going to be “perfect”. Weather can change a Tri to a Du, among other things. BUT IMO, the Race Director (RD) and Race Organizer (RO) should have everything that they can control in line. That did not happen here IMO…
To start with, the weather made it an “interesting” weekend. I flew into and out of Charlotte. Throughout almost the entire drive up, back, and surrounding the race, it was raining hard.
There was about a 30 minute delay to the race start. During that time, I believe the RD/RO should have been checking the buoys. From others who had watches, the swim appears to have been 950-1000m instead of the 750m. This also explained why we were in the water for more than 30 minutes.
Once on the bike, a couple of sharp turns gave me issues. I also did not like the fact that this was not a closed bike course. It wasn’t so bad going out, but trying to make a tight turn with cars less than 6 feet from the bike created issues.
After making it to the run, we ran about a 1/4 mile, and were then directed onto the “para only” run course. Each of these loops was about 1.25 miles, so as we finished the 2nd loop, I believed we were going to run out and towards the finish line. However, Jonathan said that we still had another loop per the signage.
At this point, I was hurting (as I had being pacing for a 5K), and knew I was in 3rd place for ADT1 (Open) VI Male. I had seen the 4th place guy behind me by about 3/4s of a lap as we were running our second lap. After giving Jonathan an “aw [explitive]” look, we started the 3rd loop. As much as I was hurting, the largest goal was to not get passed. And thankfully I was able to keep that going until we crossed the finish line at roughly 4.25 miles (instead of 3.1).
I am grateful to Jonathan and Para Guide for all of their support so I could race PT Nationals! If PT Nationals is back there in 2024, I truly hope that the RO/RD will have made the proper adjustments. The race is supposed to be 750m/20K/5K, not 950-1000m/13mi/4.25m.
