Bela Bela 5150

[Seeker911]

I thought the organization was pretty good. I see Werner even had a Penalty area at transition ... I wonder why

 

Pity about the after party that did not happen. Next time put TV's in both the VIP and the public beer tent then you gonna have more people stay. After all I had to see the Lions beat WP and I could'nt see the picture in the VIP tent from the public tent. My wife is a blue bulls fan so say no more ...

 

The one thing I totally disliked was the intense heat coming out of winter it was not fun. Think we can start earlier next year ?

 

The other thing I did not enjoy were my 2 very hot water bottles ... not sure if anyone has an answer for that. I ended up getting totally dehydrated and made a pig of myself at the water stations during the run and then could'nt run.

 

I had a really nice walk about in the dam it was fun really. I managed to totally exfoliate the bottoms of my feet

 

See ya all at Midmar

[JGR]

Haha Dave.

 

I think most okes suffered cause they are used to training in the cradle at 8 degrees temps and all of a sudden wham bang 34 degrees in dry heat.

 

I guess I was lucky in the fact that I did a 38km trail run last Sat in the Magalies berg. Yes it did take me 5h35 and yes I did pass out 3 times due to heatstroke but it did make me immune against heat the following weekend at Bela.

 

HTFU man!!! come on!!!! Abu Dhabi is in the middle of..... yes you guessed it the DESERT!!!

Agreed - i think reading a lot of the complaints on here as a nuetral who didnt race seems alot is down to your own prep. Training in winter and then having a blazing day will make a massive impact - wait until the 70.3 run - where it is 30+ and nearly 100% humidity. Its part of it - if it were easy everyone would do it.

 

Heat, crowded swims, up hill runs, crowed transition areas are what triathletes eat for breakfast. After some time you will improve and race towards the middle and the front where you have less of these problems.

 

Like the Argus - if you dont want the mid day heat and bottle necks ... train harder and get a better seeding.

 

Thats not to say things like cars and trailers on the bike course was good. I was referring to things like my water bottle got hot, swim was crowded ect. Every mass event will have issues but from the comments they seem minor.

[Garfield2010]

I was referring to things like my water bottle got hot

 

Have you ever had "32GI-Tea"?

 

I swear my bottles were as hot as tub water when I take my bath

 

But no one said cooler boxes arent allowed in transition. No, JGR on a serious note I think the problem was that the transition closed something like 90 minutes before our race started and 3 hours since the last group so them bottles heated up quit nicely. No chance to quickly put in cold ones just before race start......

[Seeker911]

Have you ever had "32GI-Tea"?

 

I swear my bottles were as hot as tub water when I take my bath

 

But no one said cooler boxes arent allowed in transition. No, JGR on a serious note I think the problem was that the transition closed something like 90 minutes before our race started and 3 hours since the last group so them bottles heated up quit nicely. No chance to quickly put in cold ones just before race start......

 

I had considered asking my wife to keep my bottles and then hand them to me at the bike exit BUT did'nt want to incur the wrath of the ref and get myself disqualified. I had enough of that last year.

[JGR]

Have you ever had "32GI-Tea"?

 

I swear my bottles were as hot as tub water when I take my bath

 

But no one said cooler boxes arent allowed in transition. No, JGR on a serious note I think the problem was that the transition closed something like 90 minutes before our race started and 3 hours since the last group so them bottles heated up quit nicely. No chance to quickly put in cold ones just before race start......

Had the same for Ironman Switerland, waves where very small and had a 3hr wait. Wrap the frozen bottle in newspaper? Small pininc style coolerbox - point is you cant blame the organisers for this? People are requesting smaller waves but then want transition open longer? how do you propose using transition while other atheletes are in there (oh and then complain about a full transition). There also some cooling type bottle out there as well.

 

on a side note - after the swim in switzerland they hand out drink just at the exit. I grabbed one thinking it was water when in fact it was really some type of herbal TEA - nearly puked on the spot.

[JGR]

I had considered asking my wife to keep my bottles and then hand them to me at the bike exit BUT did'nt want to incur the wrath of the ref and get myself disqualified. I had enough of that last year.

Unless you were trying to get on the podium im sure if someone left some bottle next tothe exit out of the way no one would care.

[Garfield2010]

I had considered asking my wife to keep my bottles and then hand them to me at the bike exit BUT did'nt want to incur the wrath of the ref and get myself disqualified. I had enough of that last year.

 

You too? Oh and I didnt really wanna complain but some of these refs are really on a power trip. Sheeesh!!! Seriously. If you card me then at least explain and clarify. I still dont know what the yellow was for. I am Assuming I was going too fast and the ref wasnt happy with the gap I was opening to DaveM...

 

Oh and also if you give me a YELLOW then dont keep me in the tent for 3 minutes. you get 2 minutes for drafting which also by the way is a black card. Not sure what 3 minutes meant couldnt find it in the race guide.

 

Oh and I also dont know how these okes can ride 100km/hour on a bike and make a drafting blocking call in a matter of 3 secs while looking over another okes shoulder while wearing a big old helmet. Honestly, get pasolas which are silent and check us out for a longer period of time. I wont mind as I am an honest racer. Sometimes things dont always seem as they are.

 

I dont do drafting, I dont do blocking but if you come up from behind at 100km/hour and say I was just about to pass a guy and I all of a sudden decide to slam on the brakes due to an oncoming Sprite at very high speed then yes it may "appear" like blocking or even drafting. If you hung on to your card a little longer you would have seen I rode 95% of the course on my own away from everyone else.

 

Just one last question to the refs. Does taking out a card give you a hard-on the same way it does for Bryce Lawrence when he cards a Bok?

 

You see there I go again!

Edited August 28, 2012 by Garfield2010

[Milkworx]

Agreed - i think reading a lot of the complaints on here as a nuetral who didnt race seems alot is down to your own prep. Training in winter and then having a blazing day will make a massive impact - wait until the 70.3 run - where it is 30+ and nearly 100% humidity. Its part of it - if it were easy everyone would do it.

 

Heat, crowded swims, up hill runs, crowed transition areas are what triathletes eat for breakfast. After some time you will improve and race towards the middle and the front where you have less of these problems.

 

Like the Argus - if you dont want the mid day heat and bottle necks ... train harder and get a better seeding.

 

Thats not to say things like cars and trailers on the bike course was good. I was referring to things like my water bottle got hot, swim was crowded ect. Every mass event will have issues but from the comments they seem minor.

 

In short, MTFU and train harder!

[Seeker911]

You too? Oh and I didnt really wanna complain but some of these refs are really on a power trip. Sheeesh!!! Seriously. If you card me then at least explain and clarify. I still dont know what the yellow was for. Assuming I was going too fast and the ref wasnt happy with the gap I was opening to DaveM...

 

Oh and also if you give me a YELLOW then dont keep me in the tent for 3 minutes. you get 2 minutes for drafting which also by the way is a black card. Not sure what 3 minutes meant couldnt find it in the race guide.

 

Oh and I also dont know how these okes can ride 100km/hour on a bike and make a drafting blocking call in a matter of 3 secs while looking over another okes shoulder while wearing a big old helmet. Honestly, get pasolas which are silent and check us out for a longer period of time. I wont mind as I am an honest racer. Sometimes things dont always seem as they are.

 

I dont do drafting, I dont do blocking but if you come up from behind at 100km/hour and say I was just about to pass a guy and I all of a sudden decide to slam on the brakes due to an oncoming Sprite at very high speed then yes it may "appear" like blocking or even drafting. If you hung on to your card a little longer you would have seen I rode 95% of the course on my own away from everyone else.

 

Just one last question to the refs. Does taking out a card give you a hard-on the same way it does for Bryce Lawrence when he cards a Bok?

 

You see there I go again!

 

Last year I walked out of transition with my water bottle in hand. Later after transition was closed I realized my mistake went back and handed the bottle to one of the ref's BIG mistake. The guy shat his pants and told the chickie at the desk to give me an immediate penalty. So i had a penalty and the race had'nt even started. The ref did'nt even say what colour card nor did he mention exactly what an immediate penalty meant especially as there was'nt a penalty area near transition when I enquired the guy threw a temper tantrum and marched off in the opposite direction. The chickie at the desk just shrugged her shoulders. So anyway I ASSUMED incorrectly that an immediate penalty meant they would simply deduct 2 minutes off my time. BIG mistake. What I should have done was reported to the penalty tent during the bike leg. But what was i gonna say ? what color card you got old man ? Anyway I got disqualified. When I asked Werner afterwards he said the ref said I arrived late at transition which was a total fabrication and that was that. Ref decision was final. I will keep my thoughts of what I think of the ref as a person to myself. I see the same ref often at races and boy one day I will get my ....

[Jigghead]

Any one know when the complete results and photos will be up? I need to see if there are any photos that I need to pay to have permanently taken out of circulation.

[Garfield2010]

Last year I walked out of transition with my water bottle in hand. Later after transition was closed I realized my mistake went back and handed the bottle to one of the ref's BIG mistake. The guy shat his pants and told the chickie at the desk to give me an immediate penalty. So i had a penalty and the race had'nt even started. The ref did'nt even say what colour card nor did he mention exactly what an immediate penalty meant especially as there was'nt a penalty area near transition when I enquired the guy threw a temper tantrum and marched off in the opposite direction. The chickie at the desk just shrugged her shoulders. So anyway I ASSUMED incorrectly that an immediate penalty meant they would simply deduct 2 minutes off my time. BIG mistake. What I should have done was reported to the penalty tent during the bike leg. But what was i gonna say ? what color card you got old man ? Anyway I got disqualified. When I asked Werner afterwards he said the ref said I arrived late at transition which was a total fabrication and that was that. Ref decision was final. I will keep my thoughts of what I think of the ref as a person to myself. I see the same ref often at races and boy one day I will get my ....

 

We also spoke in depth about the whole ref red card thing this weekend as I was also red carded in EL under very controversial circumstances.

 

Why not time penalty everything? So someone handed you a bottle.......... so put you in a penalty tent for 2 minutes or even 5 minutes instead of DQ'ing and pulling you out of the race. I can promise you that in the P-tent you feel like an idiot already and will not repeat the mistake again. The same with "littering" on the run (take note only the run). When you get tired you sometimes lose focus I have seen it a lot - its a mistake. Some refs makes the guys go back and pick up whatever they drop and then let them off. Other refs gets a hard-on and DQ's you on the spot. Double standards bottom line I have seen it happen more than once and experienced it.

 

We are used to keeping saches on the bike but the run is different. After 14 hours of racing the brain isnt normal anymore and in one moment of not focussing you could let anything drop.

 

Getting to IM cost us a hell of a lot of effort and money and to destroy it all in a moment of stupidity (from both sides I guess) is just silly in my view.

 

The organisers are changing everyone into being too scared to do anything.

 

Example this past weekend again. At the far point of the running course they decided to put 2 guys to hand out water. No litter zone nothing. People took water saches and dropped them 30 metres afterwards. Non litter zone. If there was a ref he would have had a field day.

 

I assume that the organisers realized the heat and mad a contingency plan which I gladly appreciate but how can you DQ a guy on the other side of the track dropping a sache 2 meters after the litter zone when on the other side everyone is littering out of zone in any case. This did not happen but just sayen it seems the shoe is worn when it fits.

 

Look at EL again. Argus like bunches on the way back. Everyone drafted and I mena everyone yet only a handfull got penalties?????

 

Again, T-Penalty everything first time round. if the okes does it again then red card him.

 

But ja, then you mail them and they just ignore you. It is clear they dont listen to the athletes.

 

PS:- In trail running we also dont litter. We do however always have a sweep. A person that runs the whole course last and picks up any junk that may have fallen (volentary or by accident) so the course is clean. Again why the major issue on the run? You only gotta sweep 3km's of road and clean up after the race (as 2km is repeat road) this past weekend.

[Garfield2010]

Any one know when the complete results and photos will be up? I need to see if there are any photos that I need to pay to have permanently taken out of circulation.

 

Bwahahaha! Thats one way of looking at it!! Pay them to have the negatives destroyed. What was your race number? I wanna buy you pics and then blackmail you.

[Jigghead]

Bwahahaha! Thats one way of looking at it!! Pay them to have the negatives destroyed. What was your race number? I wanna buy you pics and then blackmail you.

 

lols, just look for the guy who started in wave 3 (aged on the young end of this wave) and then got a hiding from the older guys starting in said wave.

 

I'm entered for 70.3 in Jan and this was a huge wake up call for the lack of preparation. The flu a couple weeks before hand and an MTB related knee injury did hamper my prep., but at least I got the wake up in time to ensure my preparation for Jan is more comprehensive.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Jigghead

[Seeker911]

If i think of the effort in terms of training etc and then the cost of going to EL or Bela Bela then you get DQ'd for some stupid reason. Just wish the ref would consider those facts as well.

[KevG]

If i think of the effort in terms of training etc and then the cost of going to EL or Bela Bela then you get DQ'd for some stupid reason. Just wish the ref would consider those facts as well.

Had a mate who was DQ'ed at IM this year on the last lap of the run - 3k from finish - as his spectator brother who was cheering came too close to him in ref's eyes. DQ for pacing. He still crossed the line just in case

Luckily after a lot of negotiating main ref overtuned it at 2am.

Yet I had several guys drafting me on the bike - even have one of those pictures showing him doing it! Not a ref in sight then...

[Milkworx]

Splits were just uploaded at http://www.5150.co.za/athletes/results-certificates

 

Eish, swim she was good, run she was very bad!