Clearly that wasn't good.

Well the tri I was training for, the Urban Epic, was a disaster.

I was not anywhere near trained enough for it. I don't think the actually swimming was the problem, but the wetsuit. I had only put on the wetsuit for the first time the night before. Actually the first time I'd ever put on a wetsuit was about 9 hours before the race. Then I put it on backwards. Then I realized how chafed I was going to be after swimming, despite the bodyglide, then I had to walk 100 feet on the gravel (sharp shards of black shale-like rocks), then another 100 feet on broken clam and mussels shells and then into 59.5 degree water in the Casco Bay of Maine where you had to wade for 700 yards over the clam beds because the water was so shallow (like mid-thigh), that you couldn't swim. A week later I still have a serious gash on the ball of my left foot.

I take responsibility for not being trained enough for ocean current swimming, but as someone said to me, were you supposed to walk on crushed glass to prepare for the clam beds?

This race was a disaster. I haven't posted a post-race report on Beginner Triathlete because I am still so angry about the race. You know that old saying, If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Actually the starting island. Mackworth Island, was very pretty, but that's about all I have nice to say. I have done a dozen triathlons put on by at least four different race directors. Nothing, and I mean nothing, has even approached how bad this race was. Not even the dozens of road races I have been to put on by dozens of race directors.

The links for directions on the website came up with a 404 error. They had multiple errors for the enry list, they were still making course changes three days before the race, they made transition equipment changes two days before the race, they threatened disqualification if you wore shoes to the walk over the crushed clam shells, the meeting the evening before the race had no handouts, but the race director referred to course hazards like we had all grown up in Portland, the water current was advertised as existing, but a 2 knot current was what was mentioned, not the 5 knot current we found race morning. Hills with a 12% grade with an S curve switchback and a pothole in the middle is unacceptable (why warn us before the race, just send a crew to fix it) and the race director was just too proud of himself.

There were so many other problems. The Portland Convention and Visitors Bureau forgot the maps to get to town and show the course, there is no quick way to Portland from Melvin Village so it was two hours muddling through unmarked towns, there was no signage for the race anywhere in town, there were no where near enough volunteers, there was no water at the swim start, at the transition area, in fact as near as I could tell, the first water was at the half-way point of the bike with a bottle exchange.

I am disappointed in myself that I didn't finish, but more angry that this was the quality of race I spent my money on.