Iron man 2008 Wrap-Up

 

A huge thanks to all for a great effort on Sunday and no doubt that was our worst weather to date but it turned out ok and good to see all of us finished without incident – take a bow. The confusion following match-up with guys not making meeting times and location definite on race day, we must avoid in future with a proper briefing for each group as the iron man organising guys just took the match-up too casually with the resultant confusion on race day

 

Our first guys were up at 4’ish to do the Dawn Patrol and Prue shut her office around 6.30pm and we had Bob Gilligan and Allan Small finish their trailer run dropping food to the roadside marshals at 7.30pm a big day for our 46 man/woman team.

 

Thankyou to the guys who helped with finding our extra new riders.  We were looking desperate for numbers and your effort was most appreciated Prue even lent her own bike. It has definately added some enthusiastic new guys to our crew, our pillions all were full of praise for our enthusiasm and unselfish work. This year it was great to see the competitors widely praising the encouragement from the public and volunteers lifting them along, great to hear the feedback.                                                                                                            

 

Everyone was quite busy on the day and had a great time and Prue settled into Marg’s role like an old pro.  It was so busy she did not get out to see the action till midday. The new location at the front of the car park is definately a better spot, it worked well, it’s closer to the action and the food tent. The Lake Cathie food stop dedicated to our use was definately welcome, are there any changes we should work at?

 

The competitors as usual had plenty of dramas our guys witnessed several highly emotional incidents when competitions were devastated after breaking wheels and the Shimano guys not able to help so they couldn’t continue. Another had one of our guys standing in the rain at Lighthouse had a local resident tap him on the shoulder and give him a hot cup of coffee.

 

The coppers this year seemed a bit more enthusiastic, they certainly were lapping at maybe 10kph faster than they were last year.  The new TV camera bikes worked well and great effort by Robert Johns to build up the cameraman outfits without ever seeing one.

 

The video guy on my bike had one of his camera’s fall off, its vacuum suction fitting let go in the rain and it bounced along the road to a horrid death (I did suggest he tie it with a safety strap!) Mark Wells and I both found tacks in our tyres after the event so we all may need to check our tyres very carefully right away and also regularly during the day next event!

 

Thanks to all again, superb effort your assistants was really appreciated and look forward to getting together for the Half Ironman on 9th November 2008 – make a note of that date if your available and thanks again.

 

Michael and Prue