The swim gives you the tom tits so fits with IronPoo ™
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Running the full and 70.3 at Barcelona on the same day was madness. Half had full on solid pelotons >10 people wide and a course with a few 2-way pinch points. At KM 18 I saw people receiving CPR, one of which sadly didn’t make it.
For the record I got my glacial 6h bike split all on my tod as presumably the pelotons were well up the road 
. The road definitely thinned out after my first lap.
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When I did Mallorca during Covid, they reinstated the full as a one year only thing and ran it as a combined event.
What made no sense to me is how they then staggered the start. If you’re going to run it combined, have a single rolling start mixing both full and half. If someone is swimming 1:20/100, it makes no odds whether they’re swimming 1900 or 3800. What matters is they’re swimming alongside others who are swimming that pace*. Instead, they had all the full athletes go off first, in a rolling start so all the 2hr cut off swimmers at the back, and as soon as they finished off went the half distance. It must have surely been absolutely carnage having packs of the top 70.3 athletes going through the choppers right from the start. At least when that happens on a two lap full distance swim, the front has often spaced out a bit by the time they’re on their second lap.
What it also meant was that full and half athletes all pretty much hit the bike course at the same time. The faster full distance swimmers were finishing around a similar time to the faster half distance. So it was then overly busy on the roads too. If they’d just started everyone at the same time, it would also have created a natural spacing of bikes out in the road.
At least with Mallorca the half distance bike is a one lap course, so there’s no issue of further congestion with lap two athletes coming past lap one. The second half for the full had a separate two lap loop, but the bike course thinned out quite significantly by then so it actually helped not make it quite desolate. I can’t imagine what a multilap half and full would end up like, especially if there are narrow out and back sections (which there aren’t in Mallorca).
Having done the standalone 3000 athlete 70.3 before, I’d say the drafting at that combined event was worse. Although it did seem to be mainly the half distance athletes. A number of packs came by me just before the split near the end of the 70.3 loop and they all went left towards transition.
*Malaga marathon run a half and full on the same course / day. They start everyone off together, and pens are marked for target times that are the same pace (eg. 1:30 half / 3:00 full). This obviously makes logical sense. The Ironman swim approach is like saying have a mass marathon start go off, and then as soon as all the 7hr runners cross the line at the back, set off a mass start half marathon immediately with 65min runners ploughing through the back of them. It’s no fun for either group, and at least with running you have more of a realistic chance to weave through. Setting up a swim like that is seriously dangerous in my opinion.
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Ironman or gas bill 
… ?
….
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Sadder thing was the pelotons usually weren’t even that fast! If I had to fight my way through two swearing my head off then you know they weren’t pulling.
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Even Wiggins is bankrupt 
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Wondering if you’re re-reading the thread, or could remember Poet making that comment to be able to search for it 
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It was below a post of mine that was liked today; only reason I spotted it!
Did you see the queue for Roth at the weekend 
That’s one race that isn’t on the decline.
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The long distance calendar is shrinking; we could see races sellout rapidly again like 15 years ago. Depends how the reduction in supply & demand plays out I guess.
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short and fast, one for the “PB” crowd . I always preferred tough over fast events as they challenge me in other ways.
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Yeah, I’m always looking for excuses too.
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Kona 2034 is looking less likely by the year
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Just get FP to tell everyone to fek off and you will be the only one left…
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Just need the cash now then
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Weymouth 70.3 is still accepting entries, not hinting but I’m sure it sold out previously?
Got an email yesterday about another 70.3 about an hour from Paris yesterday, looked nice but 350 euros all in!
And the flex90 benefits seem to be shrinking.
If it’s anything like Bolton you could probably leave Weymouth until a week or so out when you’ll have an idea of fitness and weather! At a ££ premium though.
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That’s the takeover of Tours’n Man - the race organiser that you all chased off the forum when he was promoting the first edition.
I was surprised to see the announcement this week. I’ve got friends who were parting if the organising committee - they did a great job to build a good event, not sure an ironman brand adds anything. VERY mixed response on the socials to the announcement.
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I wondered if it looked like an existing event?
Erm not sure I can remember the RO on here, might have been when I just lurked.
It might have been the dying days of TT1.0 - can’t quite remember when it started, maybe 2017 or 2018.
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yer i dont remember that, might be when forum was very quiet in late TT1.0 days
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