Race Report: Challenge Atlantic City

This past Sunday I completed my first Ironman-distance race, the inaugural Challenge Atlantic City.  I had heard great reviews about Challenge Family events.  They are a huge series outside of the United States and this was their first event in the US.  I consider them probably the only major competitor to WTC in terms of Iron and half-Iron distance races.

This was an inaugural event so one has to enter with the expectation of a few glitches.  The key was "a few glitches."  I was not impressed with this race at all, nor was I impressed with Atlantic City.   To be completely honest, AC itself is a disaster. Maybe it is from doing too many races in Disney or Florida but AC is not a very nice city.  Even the casino and Boardwalk area looks as if it hasn't been updated in years.  They still permit smoking inside the casinos so the entire public areas of the casinos smell like smoke.  Stained carpets, falling apart rooms and outdated decor were the theme of the day.  The streets might as well not be paved and there is a lot of homelessness and blight just steps away from the resort area.  Very sad.  

I'll go through the race glitches in the review.  

Race Arrival:

We arrived Friday night and stayed in West Atlantic City.  There was a practice swim Saturday morning and I wanted to participate.  We went to the expo to pick up packets on Friday so that I wouldn't have to do it Saturday if things didn't go well.  We arrived at 5:30 to get the packet.  The website and athlete guide stated the expo was open until 6pm but they closed it early at 5:30 due to the pasta dinner.  I was thinking some people may have arrived closer to 6 due to the heavy Friday beach traffic.  I found it odd to close the expo if it was advertised until 6. We had some dinner on the board walk and then returned to West Atlantic City for the night,  

Saturday we hung out at the expo where my wife was working a table for her job with Team Challenge (Crohn's and Colitis Foundation - nothing to do with Chellenge Family).  I hung around resisting the urge to spend all the money and went to the evening race meeting.  Her day was made when she was hanging out with the cool kids in the pro section.  I asked if she felt squeezed between all of these championships. 

Kim with Rinny and TO

Race Day: 

I arrived at the shuttle pick up ready for the 4:30am shuttle.  The athlete guide stated shuttles would run about every half hour starting at 4am.  By 4:45 we hadn't noticed the shuttle and were worried about making it to transition in time.  So, a few of us pooled together for a taxi (van) which got us to Bader Field with plenty of time.  We heard from people later that the next shuttle didn't get there until 5:10.  I was glad we paid for the cab.  

I did my final transition prep and went over to a local tri club's tent.  The Mid Maryland Tri Club had a few people racing and brought a tent.  We know several members and as I was the only one from my tri club there, they adopted me and my wife for the day.  It was great and I can't thank MMTC enough for the support.  

Swim (1:48:16)

The swim was not wetsuit legal.  Despite every official race site or partner site stating average water temp as 65 degrees, the water temp at the start was 80 degrees.  Now, we aren't having a particularly hot summer so I found it hard to believe that the advertised temps were true.  The official app from Challenge AC used bouys in the ocean for their water temp.  Yes, the ocean water was 72 on race morning but we were in the very shallow bays and no race officials posted morning readings until the race morning.   Many races take the temp at the starting line a few days prior and then repeat each morning.  This gives participants time to see if it will be legal or borderline and to prepare as such.  Not here, people asking about it on social media were left hanging as it seemed officials didn't want to answer because they knew they were misleading people with the advertised temps.  Even the race director, Robert Vigorito stated at the athlete meeting on Saturday that it might be borderline but he expected around 76 and that it would be legal.  Well, not the case.  

All in all they allowed a wetsuit wave.  It was the last wave and you wouldn't be eligible for an award.  I knew I wouldn't get any awards so I opted to use my crutch.  However, because so many had banked on it being a wetsuit race due to the water temps advertised, the wetsuit wave was by far the largest wave.  

If you ever wanted to know what swimming in a washing machine feels like, it was this wave.   After the race, I heard several participants comment that this wave was worse than swimming in a mass start Ironman race.  The course was very narrow and we did not get the ability to look for open water until about a mile and a half into the swim.  For at least that distance, I had a swimmer in front, on my left, on my right and on my feet at all times.  I kept having to check up and lift my head to keep from swimming over someone.   I also am a very polite swimmer so I sacrificed speed in order to not be an ass and swim on top of people.  I was not going to risk injury or hurting someone else.  I was able to find some open water about a mile and a half into the swim.  

We were also struggling swimming against the current.  Two of the turn buoys broke free and it was a mess to try to get around and follow where they were going.  Portions of the swim were so shallow that your arms hit the ground and it was faster to stand up and walk than try to plow through the sand bar.  Also, there were not nearly enough kayaks or paddle boards for support.  There were about as many support vessels as I had on an Olympic last year (with more than twice the distance to cover). 

At least you could rinse the salt off.  With a fire hose.

T1 (6:01)

This was my first time having gear bags and doing the changing tent process.  I wasn't quite sure how it would work.  I found my bag and went into the tent.  I pulled everything out, took off my wetsuit and used my towel to dry off.  I made sure to have a volunteer put sunscreen on me before I left.  I really appreciate the tent volunteers who were slapping sunscreen on all kinds of sweaty and disgusting men all day.  They had a hard job and were more than happy to do it.  I was happy with this time given I had not practiced this nor did I have any idea what to expect.  

Go find your bag. 

Bike (7:21:27)

Ouch is all I have to say about the bike.  It was tough and I struggled on this one.  The course was billed as a flat and fast course but I feel that the conditions made it pretty bad.  The course had around 1500 ft of climbing according to GPS (a bit more than advertised).  I was pretty surprised by the amount of climbing as it wasn't steep but long gradual uphills where you may not have really realized the amount of climbing.  Most of the pavement was good, except for a small 2-3 mile portion in the blueberry fields that was appallingly rough.  The course had enough aid stations and was well guarded at intersections. The course went out along the AC expressway and a few parallel roads for 30 miles before turning toward Hammondton, the blueberry capital of the world.  We did two loops through the area around Hammondton but the sun was brutal.  Not much shade and the temps were pushing 90 in this inland area.  

On the return expressway ride, the wind was so powerful that I could barely maintain 13mph. This was compounded by the fact that we were moving against traffic and you could feel the vortex from the passing vehicles, especially semi-trailers.  I'm glad that Rinny Carfrae tweeted she felt like she was in Kona with the wind because at least it wasn't just me!  This was also where I began to enter a mental dark place.  I was baked by the sun and lack of shade, which made me feel pretty bad physically.  Mentally I wanted to be off the bike.   

I was pretty disturbed by the lack of police, fire, officials or any race personnel on the expressway.  I didn't see anyone there to ensure safety on an open 65mph highway.  There was one police car blocking the one exit during that stretch.  This 15 mile stretch each way (30 miles total) was on the side of a major highway and although a buffer lane was in place, if you had a medical or mechanical issue there was no way to get to you.  No houses or anywhere to contact help.  It didn't seem like vehicle could easily get to you.  I would have liked to see a motorcycle or moped patrolling that stretch regularly.  Since the USAT head official made a huge deal about not having electronic devices anywhere, you simply can't just pick up your phone.  As a medical provider at many events, I felt this was a major safety concern, especially with high speed traffic.  

bike mount

T2 (8:49)

Thank God I can get off of this thing!  After the horrendous bike, we had to walk all the way to the other end of transition to get our run gear. I was not about to run in my cycling shoes so I walked.  And that took some time.  I made sure to put on sunscreen again and elected for the compression calf sleeves.  I put my amphipod belt in my bag with three bottles but decided not to use it.  Since aid was about every mile, I just didn't want the extra weight and annoyance.  I would be glad I made that decision.  

Run (5:25:34)

Coming out of T2, I had never been so happy to run a marathon.  I almost wanted to cry tears of joy that all I had to do was run a marathon.  The sun was still high and it was blazing hot with no shade at all so I started very slow.  The first mile or so was at the old Bader Field air strip on the runways.   I stopped and walked with a few people and we chatted about the swim and bike.  By this time, I hadn't had any human interaction except "on your left" since 6:30am so it wasn't surprising that many people were eager to chat, even me.  The course turned onto the Boardwalk and I still couldn't find shade.  There was a breeze, albeit not exactly a cool one.  

The out and back did stray into the town onto Atlantic Avenue.  Now for those who may not know, many of the place names in Monopoly are from AC so it was a fun game to play.  BTW I do not know why Park Place is a high value property but found out why Baltic avenue is so cheap.  So we were promised to turn around at a giant 30 foot elephant. As I was running down the road, I couldn't see anything resembling an elephant.  I knew we were getting closer to the turn and I was getting pretty mad.  I was promised an elephant and damn it I wanted that elephant.   As I reached the turn, I looked to my left and sure enough there was a giant 30 ft elephant.  I have no idea what it was but there you have it.  After a sigh of relief that there indeed was an elephant, I started to make some changes to my plan for the rest of the race. 

When I reached mile 9, the taller buildings provided some shade and I started to run.   I decided to run at a steady pace and stop at the water stops.  Since my GI tract had shut down earlier, my nutrition plan had to change.  I took in lots of Gatorade Endurance, water and orange slices at rest stops. Solid food still wasn't agreeing with me.   I maintained the run until mile 23.5.  As I kept going, I kept getting faster.  My pace was significantly slower than my normal run pace but heck this is 10 hours into it after over 114 miles already covered.  I actually felt good at around a 10:30 running pace.  Add in the stopping for aid every mile and I averaged a 12:25 pace.  Near the middle, I ran into some MMTC people and a Running of the Ears (ROTEr). We had two and a half loops of the Boardwalk so there were plenty of opportunities to see everyone.  My appetite started to come back and I took in some gels and, why not, gummy bears too.  The aid stations were very well stocked and staffed, even through the late hours.  

The run course was a mess logistically.  Over 20 miles of the course were on the Boardwalk.  There were cones set up to designate the course but not nearly enough volunteers to keep regular board walkers off of the course.  They cut in front, walked ahead and jammed up the course. Many people ran into the tourists, and spectators even took it upon themselves to keep back the masses. Here was my view. My wife took this at mile 11 around 10-11 hours into the race, prime run time.  

Oh and here is me and ROTEr Christina sometime around lap two (or three or four or...I don't know). 

That's me in the white

Overall, I ran well until mile 24.  I had complete body shut down and had to walk.  It was ok.  By this time I had crawled from 486th overall to 400th overall just in the run.  Two miles left and 30 minutes to break 15 hours.  Let's not be stupid.  So I walked and shuffled and walked and shuffled.  I started to run again at mile 25.5 and brought it in.  

Total (14:50:05)

Then the lights went out.  They were having a laser light show but had to turn out the finish lights.  This was disappointing because my finish photos are all dark.  

Overall, not a bad day at the office.  I came in 407th overall out of 600 age groupers.   This was a pretty fast field as I was 21st in my age group and the top times for my group were mostly sub 10 hours.  

Needless to say there were significant problems at this event.  Knowing of the race director, I do not entirely blame Challenge itself and place a significant blame on the race directors for the failings of the race logistics.  Looking over all of the athlete guide and information, everything looked wonderful on paper.  They had thought of everything.  However, it was fatally flawed in execution.  My wife is a USAT Certified Race Director and was not impressed with the execution, attention to families and spectator nor with the attitudes of the race directors.  This was not the introduction that Challenge needed and was especially tough for families trying to get shuttled around and cheer on their loved one.  According to her, the transportation promised to spectators was not running and they were forced to walk 4 miles back to their hotel from the start.  She and our friends were not impressed with the race from a spectator view.  You can read about her day on her blog - here.  I certainly will pay a little more to do a WTC event for my next long or ultra course race.  

But I finished and that's the important part!