Humbert Half Iron 2013

mayo.mick

pgibbo wrote: »

Where are the photos? Cheers

Well done yesterday folks. Not easy in that heat! Fair play.

Savage performance Ian. :cool:

Thought I put the link up, must be the effects of the sun yesterday

Here ya go, http://pix.ie/mmayesphotos

dario28

If anyone wants to swap a Medium tshirt for a Large , please let me know !

cheers

Green&Red

was there not an issue with there being no marshall in Laherdane and 7/8 of the top 10 going up to 8k out of their way out to Crossmolina?

hardCopy

Green&Red wrote: »

was there not an issue with there being no marshall in Laherdane and 7/8 of the top 10 going up to 8k out of their way out to Crossmolina?

I heard similar but I thought it was people taking a wrong turn in Foxford and heading for Ballina instead of Pontoon.

Seemingly someone underestimated the speed of the swim and the marshals hadn't set up by the time the first bike got there, a relay cyclist I believe.

Green&Red

Not what I heard HC, have it on reliable information that cyclists ended up in Cross and that one of them was in second at the time

hardCopy

Green&Red wrote: »

Not what I heard HC, have it on reliable information that cyclists ended up in Cross and that one of them was in second at the time

Now that I think of it, I didn't hear that at all, I just read it in Rawhead's post about 6 posts ago :pac:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=85528752&postcount=55

I did hear something about it after the race but no details.

Wherever they went wrong it's pretty sh1t but the usual line with these things is that it's the athlete's responsibility to familiarise themselves with the course.

I actually drove the course on Saturday evening after training and racing on the course last year, even then it was hard enough to spot the left turn for Bofeenaun.

mirrormatrix

Fairly faded on the run myself and stopped at one of the water stations for a chat with a marshal. He said to me that about 10 or 15 athletes went about 4 miles in the wrong direction at that turn. He seemed genuinely disappointed that it happened as he felt it was a down point on what was otherwise a very good day for them.

Have to say I thought the race was run brilliantly. The encouragement from the locals really kept me going on the run when I thought I was cooked. Plus that hose down with 2 k to go, genius idea!

MayoRoadRunner

Folks, just to put the missed turn discussion to bed. A number of cyclists missed the left turn for Bofeenaun. The road was marked with several arrows but there should have been a marshall there and there wasn't. The marshall who was supposed to be there was late. A motor cycle marshall caught up with the group of off course athletes about 6km along the route.
We had over 100 marshals involved on the day nearly all of which were members of the local community. Believe me all were absolutely gutted about the affair. Anyone who has raced our race will know we pride ourselves on staging a top quality community led event and this error was deeply regretted by all.
We have received a huge amount of positive feedback again this year and hope that the one small glitch does not overshadow this.

SlowMe

I was one of those that went astray at the turn. The road was indeed marked but everywhere else was so fantastically marshalled that it seemed inconceivable such a junction would be unattended (also race briefing stated that there were a lot of irrelevant road markings from other events and to take care not to be misled). There were about 4/5 others that went astray also from what I could see. It cost me some time but put me in such a temporary fury that I was over the windy gap before I noticed . Bad luck with a puncture later on the course meant I was left thinking about a better time.



It was an error but everything else about the event was so excellently covered (it was my first time entering so I'm confirming all the positive feedback I read and heard) that I didn't bother querying it at the finish. I didn't speak to any of the other riders who went astray so I don't know how they felt about it. There was a marshal in place when I got back to the turn so the organisers obviously sorted it out immediately.



Apart from that glitch I really enjoyed the event and really appreciated the obvious effort that had been put into running it well. I will certainly be enthusiastically recommending it and I have already decided to enter again next year and see what kind of better time I can register.

Aerohed

I was also one of the cyclists who missed the turn and I was around 2nd or 3rd position at the time. (I overtook a female athlete just after this junction who later dropped out of the race because she had lost so much time) I had gone 4 miles before a motorbike marhal caught us up so this added 8 miles to my race.

As Slow Me said above, we were told to ignore all road markings as they would cause confusion and to follow marshal directions at junctions so I just cycled until I saw a marshal to give me direction. (It's very hard to memorise a 90k course on side roads on the far side of Ireland so we do rely on marshals a bit)

I finished 11th overall in the end but taking my average speed and deducting this time I may have finished 2nd overall. (Maybe even given Fazz a run for his money

I spoke to the race referee (TO) after the race and we did discuss the possibility of working out my correct time but I said that I accepted that it was ultimately my responsibility to know the course and it would be unfair on those who did finish in the top 3 so I did not pursue it further.

I am involved in organising our club race each year so I know how much time and effort goes into organising a race and human error can occur. It could happen to anyone, anywhere. Marshals are giving up their time for a few hours and it is unfortunate when anything goes wrong. The rest of the course was well marshalled with plenty of aid stations on cycle and run.

I had travelled a long way to do the race (from Waterford) so it was a pity but otherwise it was a great race and as I was using it as a training race for Ironman Copenhagen in a few weeks time, I was delighted with my race.

There were hot showers and lots of great food afterwards so it is definitely a race I would recommend to others.

mayo.mick

I was marshaling on Sunday both in transition and the turn off the N5. When we heard about what happened we were all gutted. As you say the Humbert Challenge is very well run, with a huge amount of marshals and volunteers, this should not have happened, and on behalf of all the marshals I apologize to the athletes affected. We have learned from what happened and will make sure it will not happen in future.