Thoughts on Clearwater.

Where should I begin with this commentary on Clearwater?  I guess I will just start from the days leading up to the race as they played a key role in what went down.

 JZ and I had gone to Clermont the week before to escape the weather in Boulder and get some training in at sea level.  We had a nice apartment right by the pool and got in some fantastic riding.  I really love Clermont!  Anyway, about mid week we started to take notice of the tropical storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.  It seemed like there was going to be a very high probability that the race was going to be affected. 

Sure enough, when we got to Clearwater the weather was cold and really windy with scattered showers.  The ocean was extremely rough.  Knowing these races have had serious problems with the swim portion when the weather is bad, I figured it was going to be cancelled. WTC had a contingency plan and the day before announced that the swim would be moved to the bay.  They announced that the swim for the age group waves was going to go off Time Trial style with one athlete being sent off one at a time in the original printed wave start.


Upon first impression, this seemed like a potential solution to many of the drafting issues the race has had in the past 3 years. This was not the case, however. They loaded the entire field in the water way faster than planned; in fact everyone was in the water in half the allotted time from the printed schedule. The organizers were concerned about opening the unforeseen closed roads. Instead of a nice spread between waves, chaos ensued on the bike course with even more packs than normally seen. The maximum occupancy of the course was exceeded! Athletes need to stop blaming each other for drafting, as this was inevitable, but instead need to find a solution for the future.



The Pro Field was also robbed of a fair race. The Pro men and women went off in two waves as a mass start.  The women went off at 6:45 and then the men went off around 6:53. I have tried to come up with logical explanations for this decision. As an aficionado of conspiracy theories, I have come up with the following explanation. Since Clearwater 70.3 already has a reputation for SUPER fast times, they wanted to set it up so that a female Pro could break 4 hours.  JZ came very close last year so the possibility was clearly there.  With the Pro men going 8 min behind the women it was known that they would pass the Pro women on the bike after about 50 min of riding. The strength of the riders in the women’s field made it impossible for the men to go by without them getting an inadvertent free ride. The top women ended up in the mix with the boys and got off the bike with them.   Had the men gone off first they would have never seen the women and then both fields would have had a better chance of riding legal on the flat, fast, narrow course. This also added issues to the safety of the course. When the men and women merged it created more riders in a smaller amount of space.


This race doesn't deserve the title "World Championship" and dialogue needs to occur on how to make this event worthy of such a name. The venue in Clearwater is beautiful and the swim and run courses are top-notch, but the bike course has been mismanaged. A viable solution to the bike course situation has not yet been addressed, but that does not mean there isn’t one. Alternatively, a new venue could easily be chosen out of the other multitude of 70.3 events on the calendar. 


In addition to the other issues mentioned, Joanna had a horrible crash at mile 49.  Clearly Ironman has implemented the "Tara Norton" policies and procedures when it comes to this.  What exactly is the “Tara Norton Policies and Procedures”?  Well, Tara was hit in 2008 by a volunteer on the bike while in 4th place at mile 80 at the Hawaii Ironman.  Medical sent her home, WTC didn't give a shit and she ended up having 11 broken bones and was NEVER taken to the hospital by the race.  They even reneged on giving her a medical spot the following year.  Joanna never heard from anyone at WTC or the Clearwater staff after the crash. When you have a top athlete that you know very well, who has been in the sport for years, and who in fact won your “World Championship” race the year prior, that crashes because of a volunteer on the bike course, it raises a red flag when nobody from the race contacted her.


Just because we all sign a waiver, does that waiver allow a race to not try and make changes to some of the faulty areas?  I really think something needs to be done regarding aid stations on the bike.  While I love the fact that volunteers get out there and give us their time and spirit, they are not safe.  It’s a bad situation for not only the athlete but also the volunteer.  I know the one Tara hit was really hurt and could have been killed.  The kid that took JZ down probably feels horrible for what happened.  Something needs to change.  I have plenty of ideas on how they can do this and will share them in a later blog. 

In closing I would like to say that I was very excited to earn a 30-34 age group title. I know there were a lot of people, including myself, who were disappointed with how the race transpired. As athletes, let’s stop blaming each other and channel our negative energy towards finding positive solutions for the Clearwater 70.3 World Championships.

Cheers,
bdc