Belpark Duathlon summer series

BTH

Brand new summer duathlon series hitting the pheonix park this summer. Races are TI approved and entry available in the TI website. Great potential here for a very successful series.

http://belparktri.com/2015/03/20/the-belpark-summer-duathlon-series-2015/

MOD NOTE: these races have no connection to any other duathlons that have taken place in the park over the last few years. Any mention of any previous duathlon races in the Phoenix park in this thread WILL result In a ban.

mloc123

Nice to have a weekday duathlon on again. I might put a crank on my bike and enter one...

RacoonQueen

Might pop over and do one myself. I like the direction of the bike route, harder route in that direction probably.

dapower

COUNTDOWN to Phoenix Park Duathlon is 48 hours. Things are shaping up nicely - check our website or Triathlon Ireland website for more details. Website will be updated with competitor info and start lists. Last chance to register online is tomorrow, or else you can register on the night. Hope to see you all there!

rooneyjm

What time is transition closing

dapower

First wave is 7.15pm so transition will close about 15-30mins before. Exact timing will be released on the website shortly and announced on the night.

daymobrew

The briefing PDF shows 1 timing mat (looks like the finish line). Will there be mats on either side of transition?

dapower

Yes, there will be timing mats to record run/bike/run/transition splits.

Ranjo

I notice on the race briefing you need to walk for 100m before mounting the bike.

I was debating whether to bring my road bike with cleats or just the hybrid & trainers. Any suggestions?

Its only 12k so maybe not worth the effort of cleats..

daymobrew

Ranjo wrote: »

I was debating whether to bring my road bike with cleats or just the hybrid & trainers. Any suggestions?

Its only 12k so maybe not worth the effort of cleats..

I wear cleats on my road bike and many others do too.
With the climb up Kyber Pass I think that they will be helpful.

cart man

Ranjo wrote: »

I notice on the race briefing you need to walk for 100m before mounting the bike..

It's a race, you can run it. Enjoy

dapower

The bike exit is after 100m, where you can run on the path or on the grass - so if you are in socks/barefoot the grass should be fine. So cleats are recommended if you want to get all that power around the 3 laps and up the hills.

daymobrew

Enjoyable. Big emphasis on safety.
Registration was slow. The Race Director worked to move things along. I am sure it will be improved in July.

Climbing the Kyber Pass is tough, especially the last little climb - that really drains the legs.
It was nice to have a tail wind on the long run stretch.

I was a little frustrated to have to wait 15 mins to get my bike at the end (earlier finishers waited longer). We had to wait until everyone was finished on the bike. I was cold and simply wanted to go home.
The delay will be longer if the waves are 10 mins apart (they were 4 mins apart tonight because the delay at registration pushed the Wave 1 start back by 15 mins).
Maybe a controlled admittance to transition by finishers could be permitted e.g. 2 or 3 competitors at a time.


I will pass this feedback onto Belpark. RD encouraged feedback.

joey100

To be fair waiting 15 mins isn't too bad at all for a tri or duathlon. A lot of them see you waiting round a lot longer before and after. 15 mins seems like a relatively short amount of time to be waiting in my experience.

mirrormatrix

daymobrew wrote: »

I was a little frustrated to have to wait 15 mins to get my bike at the end (earlier finishers waited longer). We had to wait until everyone was finished on the bike. I was cold and simply wanted to go home.

I think you're being a bit optimistic in expecting to just be able to pick up your bike as soon as you cross the line. As you mentioned, other people were still out on the course for the bike leg, and it would not be fair to have their race interfered with by people picking up bikes. 15 minutes is not a lot of time to be waiting around.

The other important point here is that it would be much more difficult for the marshalls to ensure the security of the bikes in transition if there were a mix of racers and finishers in transition at the same time.

Bambaata

15mins!! Sure thats shorter than a cool down! Ive been at races where you wait hours.

peter kern

i was wave 1 and after an 8 k run and a massage and i was the 2nd last bike to leave transition.
but i know what you mean there was more red tape than usual
(with al the pros and cons which i dodnt think we are allowed to discuss here.

more marshalls than usual
but more saftey hazzards than before, as waves and wave start times less perfectly arranged than it used to. i never had so many dangerous cyclists around me on this course which i guess was mainly due to the fact that 1 day license people were started in wave 1 when many were beginners and should be in wave 3 9 and iam sure they would have enjoyed their race more in wave 3 too) .

It was the first time and i am sure it will get better but i have to be honest, i would seriously consider to do this race again if there was so many hazardous cyclists on the course again the next time ( not only my opinion as quite a few others expressed the same view)
At the same time i am sure I will face the same scenario in 10 days in an 70.3 race so it was good -if scary- race practise

Anyway, it was a new race and for a first time race it was very well organiced , me thinks.

daymobrew wrote: »

Enjoyable. Big emphasis on safety.
Registration was slow. The Race Director worked to move things along. I am sure it will be improved in July.

Climbing the Kyber Pass is tough, especially the last little climb - that really drains the legs.
It was nice to have a tail wind on the long run stretch.

I was a little frustrated to have to wait 15 mins to get my bike at the end (earlier finishers waited longer). We had to wait until everyone was finished on the bike. I was cold and simply wanted to go home.
The delay will be longer if the waves are 10 mins apart (they were 4 mins apart tonight because the delay at registration pushed the Wave 1 start back by 15 mins).
Maybe a controlled admittance to transition by finishers could be permitted e.g. 2 or 3 competitors at a time.


I will pass this feedback onto Belpark. RD encouraged feedback.

Ranjo

What do you mean dangerous cyclists? I had not done one before and I did keep mind to stay to the left and be cautious when overtaking.

Other than that, what did you see that you'd deem dangerous?

peter kern

by this i mean slower cyclists not staying on the left and being all over the shop and being very unpredictable in the advanced wave.

tunney

peter kern wrote: »

by this i mean slower cyclists not staying on the left and being all over the shop and being very unpredictable in the advanced wave.

Elitist pr1ck. Who do you think you are coming over here taking our jobs and our women and then complaining about how people cycle.

The course, the time of year, the target audience, the density of racers on the course. Always going to be the same Peter, always was. Even when the race was run on the older (superior) course.

peter kern

tunney wrote: »

Elitist pr1ck. Who do you think you are coming over here taking our jobs and our women and then complaining about how people cycle.

The course, the time of year, the target audience, the density of racers on the course. Always going to be the same Peter, always was. Even when the race was run on the older (superior) course.

In previous races you would hardly lap a slower cyclist until the mid of lap 3 and I think usually lap approx 5
yesterday it started immediately at the second lap and it was about 50 people i lapped of which maybe 20 did not stay on the left and approx 5 where wavering really dangerously that you would not want to pass those guys.
So an intelligent grouping and a few min more gaps between the waves have an impact .
And as i said i dont think its that much fun either for beginners when they are passed by faster guys.

Anyway no need to get too much into this as iam sure they will figure it out in the next race.

MojoMaker

I wonder were they under some pressure to start and finish the entire event within a very precise time window? Good point on the seedings though, or lack of.

You got a decent night for it, considering the weather over the last 7 days

The Davestator

Went off in Wave 1 and thought it was an excellent race. Results were up by the time I got home, and 1,000's of photos up early this morning.

There was some traffic on the bike course, but with so many on such a short loop, it was bound to happen.

Only issue I had was the long run to the bike start and back into T2 - but that's mainly because I'm a lazy so and so.
Oh, and I measured the run as 2.5 instead of 2.7 k but that's largely irrelevant.

68 lost souls

The Davestator wrote: »

Went off in Wave 1 and thought it was an excellent race. Results were up by the time I got home, and 1,000's of photos up early this morning.

There was some traffic on the bike course, but with so many on such a short loop, it was bound to happen.

Only issue I had was the long run to the bike start and back into T2 - but that's mainly because I'm a lazy so and so.
Oh, and I measured the run as 2.5 instead of 2.7 k but that's largely irrelevant.

2.5 plus the 100m run with "long run with the bike either way in and out of transition would make it closer to 2.7 no?

belparktri

Just wanted to post up to let everyone know that our race committee is going to review all aspects of the race and see what worked well & also what improvements we can make for June & July.

We had already flagged the timing of waves as one thing to look at. We do have some flexibility as we have longer road closures in place than we needed on the night so will look closely at the splits from different waves and figure out what will work best for future editions. The waves themselves were seeded by run time with the exception of people who signed up on the night who we put in wave 1, but again that is something we can review.

We really appreciate that there was such a big turn out from both beginners & established triathletes to support our TI approved race & to the OPW for have closed roads in such a fantastic venue as the Phoenix Park for a mid-week race! Thankfully the weather held up in the end too

If anyone wants to contact us directly with feedback – belparkeventsATgmail.com we’d love to hear your views! Well done to all who competed - hope to see you at June race too.

Ellen – Club Chairperson!

The Davestator

68 lost souls wrote: »

2.5 plus the 100m run with "long run with the bike either way in and out of transition would make it closer to 2.7 no?

Excellent point

Doeshedare

The timing mats were at the entrance and exit to Transition so wouldnt that mean the 100m run with bike was part of the bike course?

I was in Wave 3 having put down 25 as my estimated run time when entering on the TI site. I spoke to a few lads who put in an hour + thinking it was total time so maybe some confusion over that. Anyway I enjoyed it.

Hani Kosti

peter kern wrote: »

In previous races you would hardly lap a slower cyclist until the mid of lap 3 and I think usually lap approx 5
yesterday it started immediately at the second lap and it was about 50 people i lapped of which maybe 20 did not stay on the left and approx 5 where wavering really dangerously that you would not want to pass those guys.
So an intelligent grouping and a few min more gaps between the waves have an impact .
And as i said i dont think its that much fun either for beginners when they are passed by faster guys.

Anyway no need to get too much into this as iam sure they will figure it out in the next race.

Totally see your point Peter, there were unpredictable moves all over the shop. As in any other race, you need to accommodate for all levels from beginners to experienced athletes.

Just thinking, as transition didnt open until last cyclist finished, having all beginners in wave 3 would lead to increased waiting time for those who have already finished the race?

There were some details I didn't like myself but overall I think it was very well run event

All comments will be taken into account!

Go Belpark ☺

rooneyjm

I think they did well to be fair considering it was their first race. I don't think they expected the crowd they got. If they started on time there was enough time to accommodate another wave.

One little thing would be as you finish it would be nice if the timer was facing you and not away from you.

dapower

COMPETITION TIME! Free entry for our 3rd June Duathlon in the Phoenix Park. Simply Share & Join our Event page by 1st June. Visit our website www .belparktri .com/duathlon-series for full info. Results, photos, course maps & videos

MojoMaker

rooneyjm wrote: »

One little thing would be as you finish it would be nice if the timer was facing you and not away from you.

Then the finish line photos wouldn't be as effective

I guess a dual-faced timer would be the answer :pac: