SubscribeThe UWC Triathlon Bahamas was held on September 25th, 2011. Team LASER (Lee Adam & Sarah’s Expeditious Relay) represented the Bahamas with a strong contingency consisting of myself on the swim, Adam on the bike, and Sarah on the run.
We arrived on site a bit after 6:30 to find a long line for body marking. Apparently one marker is enough to check everyone in and give them their timing chips. At 7:30am (official start time) there was still a long line and we weren’t marked until around 7:40. I did a quick warmup swim at around 8 since there was still no sign or mention of a start. Around 8:15 they started making announcements (I think this was a pre-race meeting?) and everyone lined up and started. The first wave was the individuals, the second the relay entrants. I started strong, with two others around me. One dropped back after a bit, and the other (a young guy, 15 maybe?) pulled ahead as we separated and started weaving through the individuals who had only started 3 minutes ahead of us.
Upon nearing the water exit, I noticed the pack seemed to be going for the start line, which wasn’t the same as the exit. This wasn’t clearly marked or explained, and from what I hear several people missed this and had to swim or run the beach.
I exited the water and ran up to transition, passing off to Adam. Adam took off for the bike loops and I hung around for a bit then headed up to the loop to watch the bikers. The first were just passing as I arrived, and several turned in after the first loop only to be redirected out to do two loops. At one point a gas delivery truck came barreling down the race course barely missing riders and spectators alike. A few minutes later the first bikers came in and passed off to their runners or transitioned into the run.
The run, from what I hear, was mucky! Right out of transition was a large puddle of water from the rainstorm that morning. A portion of the run was rerouted to the beach over many obstacles to avoid muddy/wet areas.
As I was standing at the finish waiting for the finish, Simon, the main contender, ran up behind me and asked me where to finish! I pointed him to the finish line in front of me, and he had to run around to get back on the course! Apparently the course was not marked and the volunteer pointed him and those behind him (about 4 I believe) down the road instead of back along the path! They took a completely wrong course and were lucky to make it back to the finish before the others. Simon ended up crossing first and the others soon behind him.
Sarah crossed the line with an amazing finish and ended our relay for the triathlon!
Team LASER ended up 13th overall with a swim of 12:42, a bike of 35:40, and a run of 24:19. Total time (including transitions) was 1:13:40.
I am not sure how much faith to put in the timing, because the run was definitely short at about 2.9 miles. The swim was more than 750m in my opinion, and I’m not sure on the bike. The timing results were sporadic as they posted, missing some splits and combining some bike/runs. I would hope the backup video was compared to everyone’s result, but that doesn’t help with our relay splits!
I haven’t seen many photos posted, but I will post them as soon as I can! Unfortunately no media was present and the newspaper even used a stock photos for Simon’s picture.
Jeff posted some photos of the event here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103916794642035984172/UWCTriathlonBahamas