Rocky Point...

Where do I start about Rocky Point? A HUGE thank you to my support group, Rick, Leslie, Sonja and Jennifer! We really had a great time and leaving today was pretty difficult for me. I wanted to stay another few days. Thank you for everything team.

Since yesterday I've been thinking about my blog and what I wanted to say. Should I really bash the company that put this race on?? Is that the right thing to do? What will that accomplish really? I decided that just telling the story and leaving the rest up to you is all I needed to do.

The race started late, and I don't mean a little late either. We didn't start until 11:00! I'm not sure how HOT it was in Phx but in Mexico it was HUMID AND HOT. I have a unique perspective here. I understand how events can start late (though ours never do) so I tried to not let it bother me. Until I realized that the water in my bike bottle would be hot and I would be running in the middle of day when the sun was at it's peak...then I was getting pissed along with 200 or so other racers.

Why the late start? Well, the ocean was so rough that one of the buoy's made it's way back to shore. I totally get it...but what I didn't get was the 2o minutes it took to decide if they actually wanted to go and put it back. What? Are you kidding me? Yes...the person in charge seriously could not decide what was best and was surrounded by angry racers. Taking it back out set us back some too. They also could not decide which side of a buoy line to start from so we all lined up on one side, were told to move about 100 yards over and about 15 minutes later moved back to the first place we started. Yes...it's getting hotter and hotter by the minute. Now we had to wait for the Olympic swimmers to go before we started. The waves were really bad and getting worse. Okay the race finally starts and nobody can swim through those pounding huge waves so we are all pulling ourselves forward by holding the buoy line. Then some guys are coming back saying it's too dangerous for us to go back. Personally I heard two people calling for help and though I could only reach one, I lost sight of the other. Guess who is waiting for us towards the beach on his jet ski?? The owner of the company putting on the race. Not to see if everyone was okay but to collect our chips. You know, he didn't want anyone getting credit for coming out of the water early and all. I told him that people were calling for help further back and his reply, "I know but I have to take all of your chips first". Um....excuse me?! Half of your sprinters are calling for help and you want my Fing chip? I knew at this point I would never participate in any of his events again.

I pulled myself out of the water and went for my bike. Down a steep hill slow because now the sand was blown all over the roads and my first turn is just at the bottom of this hill. Two laps, I'm out of water and pretty pissed at this point that I don't have any aid stations on the course. I'm thinking that I only have a 2 mile run and I'm done with this event. Water down my body, put my running shoes on and off I go. Cramped because I had been out of water and couldn't get my shot blocks eaten and just HOT as hell.

The best part of the day was seeing my friends and Rick at the end and proud of me just for finishing this poorly planned out event. The water was so choppy that their professional kayak boaters could not stay afloat. Why did they let us in the water to begin with! When your rescue boats can't stay afloat then perhaps it's time to make the event a duoathlon instead.

Another bone to pick! Oh, I'm just getting started here. My girlfriend and I were looking at the results and the first thing I noticed was the person in 2nd place did the swim in 11:58 minutes. No, I'm sorry but I don't think so! He didn't get HER chip so she's taking 2nd place from somebody who did do the swim and THAT really upsets me. Some of the good swimmers made it..and deserve a reward but some came out of the water early and didn't get their chips taken so they are now getting credit for an event they did not finish.

I look forward to redeeming myself at the Soma Quarterman race where I know the event will be properly managed with enough event staff that I can feel safe.