2011 by the Numbers

It is that time of year again when we reflect on what we did, and start thinking about what is to come for the following year. 

For me 2011 was a breakthrough year, starting slowly with a few months of physical therapy and finishing with a great races at the Nation’s Triathlon (olympic) & Beach 2 Battleship (half iron distance).  I am very happy with my progress this year, especially for running and the bike,  I am really looking forward to some strong performances in 2012.

Here is a summary of the year, in numbers – since 2011 was the first year I was really tracking mileage (using trainingpeaks), I can’t compare to directly 2010.

• 5 – number of triathlon’s I completed
• 5 – number of PR’s overall or s/b/r individually
• 15:22 – minutes faster for the 13.1 mile run from EagleMan in June to Beach 2 Battleship in October
• 147,000 – number of yards I swam this year, not bad after not swimming at all in November or December (48hrs)
• 2,300 – number of miles on the bike (143hrs)
• 790 – number of miles running (110hrs)
• 88,591 – number of miles flown on United this year (just short of 50,000 in 2010)
• 53 – nights stayed within the Hilton family of hotels (~20 for other chains)
• 268w – last bike ftp test of the year (December 19th) – started the year at 240w
• 19:12 – fastest 5k run test of the year (December 21st), huge improvement
• 0 – surgical procedures in 2011.  2 in 2010 (knee’s), 1 in 2009 (nasal valve reconstruction)

I will post something about my goals for 2012 next week – I have only planned as far out as Ironman Lake Placid in July.  I am really not sure what I will feel like after that.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012 & if you are out partying on new year’s eve – stay save.

2011 Beach 2 Battleship Half – Race Report

I had high expectations of a good result leading into this race.  It was my last race of the season, and I have continued to improve throughout the year.

This was my 2nd half ironman/70.3 distance race – having completed the EagleMan race in May this year.  I wanted to build from my experience racing EagleMan and also use it as a mechanism to gauge my training in preparation for my first full ironman at Lake Placid in 2012. 

This report is going to be long, so for those who just want find out how I did, I’ll summarize it here, and then expand on how the weekend went.

• Finish Time:              4:49:49
• Place Overall:           22nd
• Place Age Group:     4th
• Place Masters (40+) 5th

They had trophies for overall and overall masters for both men and women down to the top 5, so I managed to bring home some hardware!

the trophy is made of teak, and was actually a part of the battleship deck that was replaced during a refurbishment.

Pre-Race  & Predictions

I wasn’t too fixated on the final finish time, my main goal was to finish the race having executed my plan and being strong across the swim/bike/run legs.  If I managed to do that, then I was sure I could beat my 5:16 time from EagleMan, and if I had a great day I had  hopes that I could break the 5 hour mark.

We had a group of 5 of us racing and staying at the same house, that made for a fun weekend.  It is always great to be at a race with friends and family.  Here is a photo of all of us as we were leaving for the race site.

Swim – 26:30 / 106 overall

During the course briefing, they mentioned that the tide would be running very fast – so we were all hoping for a fast swim time.  The full distance race started 1.5 hrs before the half distance.  As we arrived at the swim start, we saw the first swimmers flying by.  You could see how fast the tide was carrying them.  At one point one of the swimmers stopped and waved with both arms, he was still moving quickly in the current – that got everyone fired up for a fast swim.

Based on my training, I thought I might be able to finish in around 35-38 minutes, so the tide made a massive difference.  I checked my watch as I exited the water, it read 25:18 – I was shocked!  Since the forecast for the day was a lot of wind, cold temperatures and some rain, I was thankful for a fast swim, and was thinking that a sub 5:00 time might be possible.

T1 – 3:55

The run to the transition area was long.  I had my wetsuit stripped and ran to T1 without any issues.    I decided to wear some arm-warmers, and I am so happy that I did.  It was really cold on the bike leg.

I had one problem in transition.  I had laid my helmet out on my aero bars, but didn’t actually try it on.  When I got to T1, I realized that I had a piece of the helmet (a vented panel that I was not using) was still in it, so I had to take an extra 30 seconds to put it in my T1 bag.  This bag was just a garbage bag that was labeled and would end up at the finish line for me to pick up. 

Bike – 2:36 : 18th overall

I had high hopes for the bike leg. I had been training hard since EagleMan and was hoping to beat my previous time of 2:34.  Of course this was before I saw the weather forecast on the morning of the race, that called for 20-30mph winds. I managed to get a demo set of wheels from my local bike shop (thanks Adam!).  A set of SRAM S80’s.  I really liked riding them.  The picture below shows my race setup.  Even in the wind I always felt in control with these wheels.

As I ran past the bike mount point and got on to my bike, the pad for my right aero-bar came off.  For a second I debated getting off and trying to find it, but I just kept going.  As I got up to speed, I reached down to tighten my shoes (they were already on the bike when I started) I realized that the pad had landed on my shoe, and the Velcro strap caught the pad – score!!    I quickly put it back in place and tightened my shoes and off I went.

My plan was to keep a steady effort for the 56 miles and do my best impression of a turtle to try and get as aero as possible.  I think I managed this very well.  The only problem I had was a pack of drafters.  For most of the course, there was a group of 5-6 riders that were obviously in a pack, except for a tall guy who always seemed to be in the front.  I think the 4-5 others just tailed him the whole time.  The first time they passed me, had to back off to let them go, because the lane we were in was quite narrow.  After a while, I could see that they weren’t pulling away from me, so I’d increase my effort and pass the whole group.  After passing I’d establish a gap, and about 10 minutes later the train would pass me again.  This happened a number of times.  Sometimes during a race, it is hard not to be drafting, but some of these people were getting a free ride and it really looked intentional to me.  With the strong winds, it made a significant difference to be sitting in a pack. <end rant>.  I did manage to drop them all by the time we got back in to transition, and didn’t see any of them on the run!

This bike ride was one of the toughest I have ever had.  Not only was it cold, the winds were relentless.  The way the course was laid out meant that the first 36 miles were either directly into the wind, or a strong cross wind.  There was nowhere to hide.  The first 90 minutes was miserable, cold, very windy and mist/light rain. My hands were so cold that sometimes I had trouble changing gears. 

Here’s a picture of the course.  With the direction of the wind, it was only the last 20 miles where it was helping. 

I set my bike computer to take a split every 5 miles.  The table below shows my splits looked like.  You can clearly see that after mile 35 the average speed jumped and continued to improve with the last 5 miles having the highest average speed (25.2) with the lowest average watts (214).

Mile	Avg Speed	Avg Power
0-5	19.5	230
5-10	22.1	226
10-15	20.7	230
15-20	21.2	229
20-25	20.5	238
25-30	19.7	234
30-35	20.7	230
35-40	22.5	244
40-45	23.7	233
45-50	24.8	228
50-55	25.2	214

Bike Statistics

• Distance 56 miles
• average speed:       21.7mph
• average heart rate: 153bpm  (right on target)
• average cadence:   93 rpm
• average power:       230watts (peak  662watts)

T2 – 3:31

T2 was different to other races that I have done.  Volunteers took our bikes at the dismount line and another volunteer handed us our T2 bag that contained whatever we needed for the run.  I went to the changing tent and put on my socks, running shoes, race belt and fuel belt.  Initially the race belt couldn’t be found, but it was hiding at the bottom of the plastic bag, I had to tell the volunteer a few times that it was in there.  I thanked him for the help and was on my way.

Another first for me was stopping to pee during a race.  With the tough conditions on the bike I didn’t realize how much I needed to go until I was close to T2.  I think it lasted for almost a minute.  I’m glad it stopped there and did not wait until I was out on the run course.

Run – 1:39:23 - 39th overall

Coming out of transition I was feeling great – almost like I had not  just ridden 56 miles.  This was a good sign.  I was only wearing my polar watch (with HR strap) so I didn’t have a GPS for instant speed/pace.  I like running by feel like this. If I was wearing a GPS watch, I would have been tempted to look at it a lot to see what my pace was.

These run photo’s here were taken just after leaving the transition area. You can see Kate yelling something encouraging above (thanks Steve & Kate for the pictures).  I’m all smiles at this point.  My plan was not to go out too hard, keeping a good pace which felt easy to maintain.  As I hit the first mile marker, I looked at my lap/split time saw a 7:39!  At that point I was very happy.  I knew that I had a sub 1:50 in me.  The cooler weather (low 60’s by now) really helped too.  My two previous 13.1 mile races (one run only, one 70.3) were 1:54 and 1:55.  This time I was really hoping for something in the 1:40’s.   I saw that my overall time was 3:10 after exiting T2 – so if I could get a little under 1:50 I might also break the 5:00hr mark.  That would be amazing!

I continued to tick off the miles  feeling good and in control.  Miles 2 and 3 went by in 7:35 & 7:21.  At that point I knew I was going to be able to put in a great run.  I was still running within myself and was starting to pass a few people.  Only 3 or 4 people passed me for the whole run.  They were all in the 35-39 age group that had started in the wave ahead. I could tell they were serious racers since they all had shaved legs.  It is funny what you see/think about when you are racing.  I think it was between mile 3 & 4 where there is a short steep up-hill.  I shortened my step and kept the cadence up and was still feeling great. I reached the turn-around and saw that my overall time was 4hrs even plus a handful of seconds.  That meant that I had 1hr to run the last 6.55 miles.  At the pace I was running, I could probably get back in around 50–55 minutes, I felt confident I could keep a sub 8:00 minute mile to the finish.

The run was an out and back course.  Most of the return section was into the wind.  My pace slowed a little and ended up being 49 minutes out and 50:23 on the way back.  I was very happy with my execution, a nice even pace throughout.  For the whole run I felt in control and didn’t lose form at all.  There was a guy in the 35-39 age group that was on my hip from miles 5-10, we chatted a bit, but I could see that his form was off.  He kept yelling for chicken broth at the aid stations, but it seemed that they did not have any. After mile 10 I didn’t see him any more, I guess he faded over the last two up-hill sections (over the bridges).  I called out for water a few times, and at the aid station at mile 10 I had to ask a few times ‘does anyone have any water’.  I was very happy to be wearing my fuelbelt, I used it on my long training runs and felt very comfortable with it.  I had one bottle with EFS Liquid shot, the other with water.  I would slow down every 2-3 aid stations and re-fill the water, it meant that I wasn’t needing to stop at every aid station.  At times I felt a little tight in the stomach.  It didn’t really slow me down, but I made an effort not to take in too many calories, just enough to keep me going.  This was significantly different to my EagleMan experience where I ran out of energy because I didn’t take enough in on the bike or the run.

As I ran down the last hill with about a 1/2 mile to go I found myself getting emotional.  All of the training was about to pay off.  I had executed my plan exactly and was about to finish with a time that was far beyond what I thought I could do.  I had to remind myself to focus since I still had a bit of running to go.

The finish area was a bit of a pain.  there were a lot of 90 degree turns (5 I think), and 3 significant areas of water to run through.  The last one was ankle deep!  I was so happy to be getting close to the finish line – I heard my name announced over the PA and was all smiles as I crossed the line.  I glanced at my watch, and it showed 4:49 and change, amazing.  Not only did I beat the 5:00 mark, I managed to just get inside of 4:50.  Final finish time was 4:49:49.

Once I had finished, I got some food, found Kate and Steve who were keeping track of the other racers (Rich, Kathleen, Stuart and Diane plus new friends Melissa and Cliff).  Since my wave started earlier I was able to stand near the finish line and cheer them all in.  I had almost lost my voice by the end of the day.   Everyone did amazingly well, especially considering the weather conditions.

Overall I couldn’t be happier with how the day went.  I am most proud that I stuck to my plan, from both a nutrition and effort perspective. 

Nutrition Plan

My nutrition plan was to keep it very simple.  I had been training with good success with EFS and EFS Liquid shot by FirstEndurance.

• Pre-Race
  • 2 hammer bars (almond raisin) 
  • 2 bottles EFS (2 scoops Fruit punch) sipped from early in the morning until setting up in transition
  • 1 bottle of EFS (2 scoops Fruit punch, 1 full scoop of Pre-Race) for a boost 45 minutes before race start
• Bike
  • 1 bottle of EFS Liquid Shot, mixed with a little water – mounted horizontally between my aero bars.   1,000 calories total (drank almost all of it)
  • a 40oz speedfil water bottle on my down-tube, that I was constantly sipping from.  I grabbed a bottle of water at the aid station at mile 37 to refill (approx 24oz).
  • my bike computer was setup for a time-based alarm every 12 minutes, reminding me to take a mouthful of liquid shot
• Run
  • Fuelbelt with 2 bottles. 1 bottle with EFS Liquid shot (8oz – 640 calories), used approximately 1/3rd of it, and 1 bottle (8oz) of water, refilled as needed.

Post Race

after we got our bikes back to the house, it was time to celebrate!  We ended going for dinner at the Mellow Mushroom for beer and pizza.  Perfect post race food!

Wrap-Up

The race was well organized, but I am not sure that I would do it again.   The logistics of 2 transition areas is a pain.  Trying to leave the venue was time consuming, since we couldn’t get a car near the finish area. It is also a difficult race for spectators.  there isn’t much access to the swim start/exit and then there is the 10 or so miles between transition areas.  It is a 6hr drive from home and I think after finishing a full ironman next summer (Lake Placid) I may not be wanting to complete a long race this late in the season.

One of the main differences for this race, compared to my first 70.3 was having a structured plan to follow.  For this race I followed the Endurance Nation half ironman 20 week advanced plan.  I ended up averaging around 7.5 hours per week for the last 12 weeks.  this was lower than the plan prescribed, but was all I could do with a busy work/travel/family schedule.  This plan allowed me to focus on the key sessions to setup a great race!

Now that my last race is over for the season, it is time to take a break, and start planning 2012.  Finishing the year strong has given me some good confidence that I can get even faster next year.

A quick trip to Sydney

Last month, I had to go back home for a week to renew my work visa.  While my main priorities were work and cleaning out our storage unit (after 9 years), I was able to catch up with family and friends and I managed to get a few decent training sessions in.  I am a bit biased, but Sydney has got to be one of the best training places anywhere in the world.

I have one more race this season, the Beach 2 Battleship half (70.3) on October 29th.  Since this will be a cool salt water swim, I wanted to get a few swim sessions in with my wetsuit.  So I headed down to Dee Why Beach, on Sydney’s northern beaches.  There is a 50meter outdoor pool, which sits right on the ocean, and is filled with ocean water.  This was a perfect place to get some good training in, and since the water was still cold (17c/63f) I could get some wetsuit time in too.  A 50meter pool is so much better than the 25yard chlorinated pool I usually swim in.  The salt water was nice too – every race that I do in fresh water (just about all of them) feels a little weird, having grown up at the beach.

Here’s a few pictures of the pool @ Dee Why.
after swimming, letting my wetsuit dry off a little.  That is Long Reef in the background, one of my favorite windsurfing spots.

another view of the pool, the water was perfectly clear, sure beats my local pool.

For me, swimming with the wetsuit is much faster than without – I managed to get in a 2km (2,180y) in just over 35 minutes, that is so much faster than I usually swim.  I hope I can replicate this during my next race!

I also managed to get in a great long run, right in the heart of downtown Sydney.  My course took me from the Opera house, through the botanical gardens, across the harbour bridge, past Luna park, back across the bridge, around to darling harbour and then back to the opera house.  It took 2 hrs and was almost 15 miles.  This continued something that I started in San Francisco when I ran over the Golden Gate Bridge.  I struggled on the last 30 minutes of this run.  I’ll chalk that up to a lack of nutrition/electrolytes whilst running.  Better for that to happen in training than in a race.

Map of my run course, from Garmin connect (used my edge 500 bike computer during the run)

I had also planned a great long ride, but due to heavy rain I had to give it a miss.  I was really looking forward to a solid 3-4hr ride in the hills national park from Church point, to Cottage point.

Even though it was a short trip (7 days) I think I made good use of my time, and get everything done.  I am looking forward to my next trip back home, however I am not sure when that will be.

Nation’s Tri 2011–Race report

For those of you that want to cut right to it – how did I do??  I had an AMAZING race, I think my best ever.  I finished 11th/415 in my age group,  86th/2427 men and 86th/3884 overall!  This far exceeded all of my expectations, and then some.

This year was my 2nd time at the Nation’s Triathlon. With all of the bad weather in the D.C. area in the last week, the swim was cancelled on the Thursday before the race.  The organizers made a good call letting all of the participants know a few days before the start. I saw a lot of floating debris on Sunday, and I’m sure the water quality was very low.

With my calf issues in the last week – I was considering not racing at some point.  After a couple of visits to my Physical Therapist and Sports Doctor I felt confident that I could at least finish – just not sure if I could run even part of the 6.2 miles (10k) run portion of the course. 

I drove down to the expo and packet pickup on Saturday afternoon with a couple of friends, they both ended up not racing.  We hung around at the expo for a while, and I managed to pick up a set of CEP calf sleeves – I had been using the 2XU version, however after trying on the CEP compression sleeves I thought they felt great.  I ended up wearing them during the race.  They feel so good that I really don’t want to take them off!

After getting our things at the expo, we drove down to the transition area.  With no swim, it was going to be a different start procedure.  The organizers also made the decision to organize the bike racks into swim groups, and the whole transition area was oriented in a different way, perpendicular to last year.  When I arrived at the transition area, I didn’t like what I saw.  My swim group was #20.  There were no pre-assigned sections, it was first come first served.  I didn’t like it at all. Anyone who arrived early had a large advantage because they had their choice of the best spots.  I was there mid afternoon (around 3:30).  Anyone who turned up later in the day would have to spent a lot more time getting in and out of transition.  The aisles were narrow too, and seemed more compresses than usual.  Most of the time you are either assigned a specific position, or a range of 6-10 numbers.  The rows for swim group 20 were the longest I had ever seen in transition.  I chose a spot about 25 yards in from the aisle. I was happy that most of the other people on that section had put their bike facing the other side (towards the bike exit) – so that gave me a little more space to work with, and help be spot my position in T1 and T2.

Race Day

I woke up just before 4:00 am and ate a banana and a hammer bar and drank some water.  I mixed up 3 bottles of EFS, one for the drive, one to drink in while setting up/waiting and the 3rd was mixed with 1 scoop of First Endurance PreRace for 40minutes before the start.  I used a bottle of EFS Liquid shot, and water in my SpeedFil for the bike.  There was no traffic at that time of the day, so I managed to get a great parking spot less than 15mins walk away.  This was important because I was not planning on staying around for a long time post-race because I wanted to get home to watch the kids play their first soccer games of the season.  I quickly got my area setup, pumped the tires and had plenty of time before transition closed.  I even had time to walk back to my car and drop off my pump and other things I didn’t need, to save carrying it all with the bike for the drive home.

The Race

with so many competitors (around 4,000), the organizers did a great job of getting everything moving efficiently.  Each group was marshaled toward the transition area.  We were let off in groups of around 15 people every 15 seconds or so.  This start line was only 10 yards from the transition timing mat, where the official time started.

T1 – 1:32

T1 was more chaotic than normal, with the group of 15 converging to the same area, and people from the previous start still getting their bikes too.  I already had my helmet and glasses on, so literally all I had to do was grab the bike and go.  Running through T1 didn’t seem to hurt my calf.  I was not running very fast, but I hoped it that I could continue pain free for the rest of the race.  Some sections of the transition area were muddy, especially as we got toward the bike mount area.  As usual I had my bike shoes clipped on to my pedals, my feet were a muddy by the time that I got to the mount area, but that wasn’t really a problem, except for having to clean my shoes (which I still have not done).

Bike – 59:48 - 78/2427 Overall Men's – 8 minute PR

As I got to the mount line, there was a big group of people in front that seemed to take forever to get on their bikes.  I found a gap and ran through it and executed a decent flying mount, got up to speed and settled into my aero bars.  There were a lot of bikes on the course, and I was hitting 25-27mph on the flat section out and back past the transition area.

With 5,000 people racing, it was heavy traffic for the whole bike leg, there were bikes everywhere.  I tried hard not to draft, but it was almost impossible.  There was a lot of unintentional blocking and drafting going on.  I had to hit the brakes a number of times to avoid a slow group in front. Even if there was room on the right, a lot of people stayed in the middle or left side of the road/lane.  To add the the chaos, there were a lot of sections that were a single lane each way, some separated only by witches hats.  This made passing very difficult.  The whole course is about as flat as any you will ever race, making for fast times.  There are some slight rollers but nothing that really slows you down.  I can  remember only 1 minor hill where my speed dropped below 20mph. 

I  set my bike computer to auto-lap every 5 miles.  For the first 5 miles I averaged 24.6mph – sweet!  Before the race I thought I might be able to average in the mid-high 23’s, so anything close to 25 was a bonus.

For the whole bike let, the traffic never really let up – only on the sections that were 2 lanes could I put my head down and ‘go’.  There were a few others in my age group that kept passing me, I would pass them up the hills and they would pass me back on the downhill's – 2 of them had the uber (2-3x more expensive) version of my bike.  Mine is a 2011 Trek Speed Concept 7.0, the other two had the 9.x version which is lighter and more aero, they also had some nice race wheels too.  With about 10 miles to go we had gotten to a 2 lane section of road that was slightly up-hill.  I decided I’d had enough of them passing me – so I upped the pace and flew past them.  My averages for miles 10-15 and 15-20 were 27.0 and 26.3.  I didn’t see them again.  It shows that it is the engine that makes the most difference on the bike, but I did find myself contemplating how much faster I might be with some fast wheels.

With such a fast pace, I thought I might be able to finish the bike in less than 1 hr.  This would be a huge PR (last year’s was 1:08:27).  My Garmin had my time at 58:24 for the 24.91 miles at an average of 25.6.  I started it just after getting on the bike, and stopped it just before the dismount area.  The official race  time was 59:48 – awesome!

Statistics (from my Garmin Edge 500):

• Speed 25.6avg, 36.7 max
• Cadence: 95rpm avg, 116rpm max
• Heart Rate: 164bpm avg, 175bpm max

I found this photo on the Nation’s Tri facebook page  - it is some of the first people coming back into T2, look how close they all are.  The Facebook post is here

T2 – 1:30

Getting in to the transition area was crowded again, I found my spot quickly, put on my running shoes and was off without wasting any time.  I wanted to take the bike computer with me on the run.  As I got to the end of T2 I realized that I forgot it.  It wasn’t a big deal, but I would miss looking at my HR data after the race.

Run – 40:30 – 159/2427 Overall Men's – 6 minute PR

After such a good bike split, I thought for a second that it was possible that the run could take longer than the bike leg.  Thankfully I didn’t have much pain.  I did alter my running style to minimize the stress on my left calf.  The compression sleeves really helped too.  Not having a watch was really nice, I could focus purely on feel and not worry about pace at all.

I started out at what felt like an easy pace, similar to the pace I would hold for my long runs to see where the legs were at.  I was happily surprised to be feeling pretty good, and was actually passing a lot of people.  Most of them were from the groups in front of me, I didn’t see many in my age group on the run course at all.  I do remember 1 person in my age group passed me, he was really moving.

The run course is as fast as the bike, flat as can be, with a little uphill section near the Washington Monument – nothing really to slow you down.   I was able to run only by what felt ok.  I thought I was running somewhere around an 8/8:30 minute mile, it turns out that it was much faster than that.   The course was well marked out, with easy to see mile markers, they even had a 5k marker, which was a nice touch.  As I got to mile 4, I started to pick up the pace a little, to see what I had left for the finish.  I ended up finishing strongly, with a decent burst over the last 1/4 mile.

At the finish I really had no idea what my run split was or my overall time.  I knew that I had put in a good race, and thought I might get within the top 40-50 in my age group.  Last year I had finished 61st place and that was my best race ever.   I figured that I might have run somewhere in the 48-50minute range, which I would have been totally happy with.  I was happy just to be running, and not walking after the calf trouble during the week before.

Post Race

After finishing, I walked back to my bike, changed shoes and put on a t-shirt, then walked back to the finish area to get some food.  I stopped by the timing tent to get the printout with the unofficial results (see right).  This is one of the great unique things about this race, a printed result sheet showing your splits, total time and division place.  To my total shock I finished the run in 40:30 (an average of 6:31/mile).  This was a full 6 minutes faster than last year, and faster than any run in training too.  I still am not sure how that happened, especially with no running for the 10 days before the race with a strained calf.

The other thing that surprised me was my finish position – 11th in my age group.  I was thinking top 40 might be possible, so this was a really great result.

 

 

 

 

The organizers did a great job with this race again, even with the swim cancellation.  They made a real effort to let everyone know that the swim was cancelled, and were able to quickly respond to the many Facebook & twitter questions too.  I haven’t thought about my schedule for next year, but I would love to do this race again.

Overall Race Comments

• if you are looking for a race where you can post really fast times, this is it!
• I would like to do this race again, but I hope next year the weather is better so we can swim, and hopefully that will minimize drafting on the bike
• there were plenty of port-a-johns at the race, I think this is a first.  I did see some queue’s, however if you walked another 100 meters towards the finish area, there were plenty without lines.  I needed to go 3 times before the race start and never had to wait
• I hope the transition area next year goes back to what it was before – I thought it was less than fair for a lot of people this year.