Home General Training Discussions

Ultraman FL 2018 - thoughts for your crews

@Brian Hagan & @Stephanie Weldon I had the privilege of serving on Team Cronk for UMFL this year, my first time doing something like this.  It’s maybe way too early for you to think about, but figured I’d get it out of my head while I could.  

There were cautionary tales of bad crew support at the opening luncheon, and even some nightmare stories at closing ceremonies for our race.  One guy had crew a member bail after a day, another had his whole team nap in the car on day 3 leaving him without water for miles around mile 30 on the run day (another crew jumped in to help).

Below are thoughts/recommendations from my perspective.

We had a crew of 3 people and in our post race debrief all agreed it was the ideal number for how Tim’s race worked.  There weren’t too many duties where we were spread thin and having a 4th crew member would’ve been more crowded for no real benefit.  The only exception might be for another body in rotation on run pacing for Sunday (if the plan is to have a pacer with your racer for the whole race, which we did).  

There needs to be a clear crew chief who makes any final calls (if necessary) and the rest of the crew needs to follow.  We didn’t have many issues, but by day 3 onto the back half of the run everyone is spent and you might be ad libbing off the plan.  At swim exit, and any racer refueling stops make sure each crew member has his/her assigned task(s) and everything is covered.

Tim had his fueling meticulously planned and prepped each day, but be sure to carry extra and alternate stuff for safety/backup.

Also, we were fortunate that Tim was FOP each day, which gave us more time to get home, refueled and rested for the next stage.  If you’re pushing close to the daily time limit the schedule will be more compressed and I would think about what macro-level prep you can do in the days before the race starts to minimize admin time each day/morning (bottle prep, bagging nutrition, etc).  Though nowhere near what the athlete experiences, there’s a cumulative fatigue for the crew too.  All I did was drive the 175 miles on Saturday and it wore me out. 

Due to location and logistics I would plan on the crew being self supported for food/drink throughout all 3 days.  The 1st and 3rd day allow for an early Starbucks stop as you can’t support your athlete in the early miles, but much of day 1, most of day 2 & 3 you’re not going to be close to grab food/drink off the course much, plus it’s a time waster when you need to be watching your racer.  Also, make sure your vehicle is topped off with gas before each day.

I’m local and had ridden (either bike or car) the majority of the race course before.  As the driver I still went through the turn by turn sheets provided and highlighted the areas that are “no feed” or “no support” zones and all the turns to make sure we knew the course and avoided penalties.  Even with this Tim hit a couple short wrong turns and with how we were leapfrogging on the road we weren’t there to prevent it.

For the bike days he had his cell blue toothed to his Garmin so we were able to text questions upon approach and get a thumbs up/down to know if we needed to stop, which was a good setup.

Bring water & towels for daily post race cleanup.  The facilities at each finish are sparse.  Also, bring extra TP each morning as the toilets at the start on day 2 are few and sketchy, day 3 were indoor but not enough for the volume of people. 

YMMV, but our setup was my 4 door F150 truck, hitch mount bike rack to hold primary & an extra bike (but if you switch to this you have to finish ALL ride legs on it)

In the truck bed:
Extra front & rear wheels (for tour de France style swap), bike tools, supplies & pump,
small cooler
extra clothing, gear that doesn’t need quick access

In the truck:
crew
cooler with food & drink for racer AND crew
chargers
race book (both print & digital)

Other random thoughts…
If you can, stay at the Westgate.  It’s central to all 3 days, large space, comfortable and convenient (at least the 3BR place with full kitchen that Tim got).  If not stay close by at a reputable hotel (one team from this year was in an Air BNB house somewhere that got robbed during their stay).

There’s an OWS M-Sat at Luckys that is nearby for you to get some feel for local lake swimming that I highly recommend if you’re in town early enough.  http://www.luckyslakeswim.com/

A lot of the roads to get to/from each day's start/finish are toll roads.  If you’re not renting a car with a pass, bring a bunch of quarters or you can just do toll by plate (https://www.tollbyplate.com/index) for an admin fee. 

We had a great time and I'm sure you and your teams will too.  If you (or your crew) have any crew or local area type questions along the way please feel free to contact me.  

Comments

  • @scott...this is invaluable info!! Thank you!! Ive got my three crew members and one backup but we haven't even had a dinner/planning meeting yet.  All of them have fall big races. I love input like this because it helps me know what to tell them. Any time.... ANYTIME you think if something regarding UMFLA please dump it out of your head here! I'm gobbling it up!
  • Thanks thats great information that will help us crew members to do a great job supporting !

    alot of moving parts to think during the event, but we got 3 heads to think about everything while the athlete enjoys his day :)
  • Quick crew question....can crews help each other during the race? I will be BOP so it's not like I'm trying to "beat" Brian or anyone.  Just survival.  But in case of emergency can my crew be in touch with another crew? Just curious? I'm thinking probably not.   Doesn't hurt to ask now.  Thanks!!
  • cross crew support is totally acceptable.  This year had a couple of stories of crews for one racer helping another one they didn't know out on the road with 1) big mechanical issue & 2) replacement tire that had a big gash in it b/c those guys crews were elsewhere (though I wouldnt rely on it :smile:).  

    You end up grouped loosely on the road with athletes going same pace, so a lot of the same crews are leapfrogging each other throughout the days.  We knew who the couple of guys in front of & behind Tim were day 1 and were friendly with their crews.

    The whole vibe for Ultraman is family/collaborative, nothing like Ironman for penalties/assistance.  There are penalties and they enforce them (not stopping at stop signs is a big one) but it's more safety & less competition based stuff.
  • Thanks! So good to know but like you said Scott don't count on it. Im loving the vibe of this race already!!
  • @Scott Renick Thanks for posting this information.  This is very valuable information!  I have heard that the vibe is very grass roots family/collaborative and that is one of the things that has drawn me to this event.

    I am a little worried at what pace @Francis Picard is going to pace me on the run......  :p

    @Stephanie Weldon We will look out for each other for sure!
  • @Scott Renick  ..... Wow this was very well done... I will refer back to this as I prepare to crew for Simon Shurey in Hawaii...  

    Additions from Heather....
    1.Make sure to have separate coolers for athlete vs. crew.
    2.Benadryl for fire ants.... Heather unknowingly stood in some fire ants, didnt even know it until her feet, legs, etc swelled up.... This also happened to one of the athletes and he was barely able to hobble through day #3... Obviously the best thing is to avoid but its easy to prepare for the worst.
  • Wait! Did you say fire ants?  I will make sure we are prepared! 
  • Fire ants.....it's a southern thing!!!  
Sign In or Register to comment.