Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
IMUK Getting Bored of the negatives
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
D74, I wouldnt ever want to be associated with anything Chris does EVER.
As for IMUK being judged differently the the Vit (or Big Woody), of course it is, its an Ironman and quite rightly judged against other Ironman races, its also costs 3 times as much to enter. The Vit is an independent race which has grown on it success and quite rightly so.
IMUK could well do with learning a lot from the Vit organisers in my opinion, particularly their attitude.
I suggest they email the WTC, 5 years theyve had, its about time pressure was brought to get rid of the current organisers so we can have a race that in my opinion deserves the IM brand.
Carl - Ok, agree to differ on this. Whilst I see why some would like to see new organisers come in, then we'd be starting from scratch again, and that means some of the same mistakes again (ok, perhaps not the diet coke, although that was partly my fault!). What I would say is that compared to other established IM then I don't think it is that it is that far behind. The expo is smaller, and probably the biggest difference IMHO. But what I would like to ask you to consider, is that look at the 'balanced' comments from those that raced. Most in summary had a great race. Accept that some cannot go overseas for family / financial reasons, and so when you jump into any thread slagging it off for a race that you've been nowhere near for several years then you may not just be diverting people away from IMUK, but may be stopping people going long at all. It's my view that we're now at a point where the event is safe and so we should be encouraging people to get involved as crew, supporters and racers. What's in the past is in the past.
In my opinion its the organisers attitude that needs to change, and that the race is being held back by the current organisers. Through their apparent actions and apparent unwillingness to listen, take on feedback and engage they have apparently disenfranchised so many people the event has gained its current reputation.
It didnt have to be like this, but sadly it appears to me that IMUK organisers approach to PR is like something out of the dark ages. Whatever made them think taking legal action against competitors and banning people from the race (so im told) would have anything but a negative effect. I wouldnt like to speculate how much time and effort theyve spend on legal costs but would like to think this would have been better spent making the race better.
I dont think ive slagged the race off directly, my comments are focussed on my opinion about the organisers. On the whole I think my comments have been pretty measured. The comments and feedback I come accross and hear give me no cause to change my opinion.
If people decide to go elsewhere having read feedback its their there choice. Feedback is just that, its not the feedback that needs changing its the cause. How many people have apologised to IMUK, maybe its time for IMUK to start apologising.
The above is purely my opinion and should not be considered factual in any way.
FWIW as an IMUK competitor - i thought it was great!
i did wonder where the mile markers were but in the big picture you just gotta keep going havent you, til they say ).8 miles to go..
Finish area was brilliant, food and drinks on the course - great, food at the end - wonderful - egg butties, cheese butts, tuna, pies, saus rolls ... lovely - made a lovely change to sickly gels for the last 15hrs...
communications with the organisers was very good - there was some rumour the race was off - i emailed them and within 24hrs i got a personal email - explaining the circs and that i had nothing to worry about - excellent.
course - very good - couple of right hand turns but very well marshalled by volunteers and a coupla cops.
Transition and parking - what can you say but its Northern England - it rains by the bucket load - and it was an usually heavy rainy weekend.
briefing at the reebook - excellent
parking at the reeebok - free -excellent
could have put more spectator shuttles on maybe but - hey it was last minute
i will def do it next - cant really afford to go abroad to race and with two young kids - its not fair stood about for the best part of 18hrs - much easier as a competitor.
in all - i thought it was a top class race with a few minor glitches that can be put right witha bit of input from the competitors , spectator and locals.
Just out of interest.
I think this is what gets some people upset.
which just goes to show you can't please all of the people all of the time........
" I've been kicked out of Ironman UK Well, it's official. I'm out of Ironman UK. It's been a most bizarre past few days, but the lowdown is that the IMUK race owner, Alison Boon, has taken offense to my posting an e-mail she had sent to me to the TriTalk.co.uk forum. As such, she's sent me a litany of accusatory and berating e-mails and withdrawn me from the race. Thankfully (and surprisingly) she did refund my money, so I suppose I should be happy for that at least.
A little background: I signed up for the race back in December, knowing fully that it would be a new course this year, but believing the IMUK organisation when they said they would have courses organised and the website updated by the end of January. January and February came and went with no update; finally in March they posted a map to the bike course but no other information about the transitions, the run, where the finish line would be or much else. Not only me but a lot of other competitors were getting antsy about it, as was evidenced by the posts to the TriTalk.uk forum. And frankly, judging from the standard set by other IM websites around the world, IMUK's was and still is woefully inadequate, so we did have something to be antsy about. It's now less than 3 months to race day with many questions still left unanswered.
Finally, last week IMUK sent out a mass e-mail with a link promoting an affiliated training programme created "specifically for the 2009 IRONMAN UK course in Bolton". Interesting, since no official info on the run course has been released! I e-mailed them to ask what was going on, and to say that instead of sending me spam trying to sell me something, how about some real information about the course? IMUK's rep Ms. Boon replied with a long list of as-of-then not publicly known information, which I posted chapter and verse to the TriTalk forum in the interest of sharing it with other racers. One of the things she mentioned that struck me as particularly unfair and unprofessional was that there were two different run courses being considered and being "tested" by competitors in the race: meaning that some competitors knew what the run course could be, while others still had no idea. Hmmm.
And that's where it really went wrong. Yep, I'll admit it, I was definitely critical of the IMUK organisation on that forum thread, and I wasn't the only one. But I stand by my opinion that IMUK has been extremely remiss in providing proper info to its competitors this year. The big irony is that the same day they withdrew me from the race, they updated the website with all the same information about the transitions, aid stations, and the run course that had been in the e-mail sent to me, so in a way my mission has been accomplished. Too bad it had to be accomplished like this!"
As well -- through my postings to the forum I guess? because I was very definitely polite to her in my e-mails -- she said I was "unacceptably rude" to her organisation. She informed me she isn't going to stand by while I "bring the name of Ironman into disrepute" and "constantly rumour-monger and cast aspersions about her event and the Ironman brand". To top off her letter, she says she's kicking me out in order to avoid my choosing not to follow rules or instructions on race day (apparently she's clairvoyant too).
Subsequent letters from Ms. Boon have included childish rhetoric and nonsensical statements about Freedom of Speech, whether what I posted was "fact", and the interpretation of the race rules. After her first e-mail, I posted to the forum warning another competitor to be careful what he wrote there as it could be construed as a violaton of the Ironman rules, and she then e-mailed me quoting what I said and lambasting me for it. When I replied to say that we would have to agree to disagree about the whole thing, she informed me that there was no need for that, as she knows I was completely in the wrong. Or something like that. It's been difficult to tell what she means at all, between the spelling errors, incoherent rants and general unprofessional tone she's taken with me.
For me, these e-mails have just confirmed what I already suspected about the lack of professionalism in the IMUK organisation. I did call her immediately upon receiving her first e-mail, hoping I could apologise and straighten out what to me was a bad misunderstanding. But she never called back, instead choosing to write those long rambling e-mails justifying her actions. I've since read that IMUK allegedly sued some racers a few years back for writing critical comments about one of their events on a forum, and also for writing to the World Triathlon Corporation to complain about a possible lack of safety in the race. Unbelievable. I think at this point, I need to simply give up and cut my losses. What's that old saying about not trying to argue with fools?
Anyway, with friends like that, who needs enemies, so I'm out of IMUK and it's probably an opportunity more than a crisis. I was really gunning for a Kona slot this year -- hence my desire to know the course as early as possible -- and now I fear that there's no way I could be treated fairly if I did this race. I'm probably lucky to get my money back. This is after all, a race that bascially sells out every year, and people will continue to sign up for it (as it's the only official Ironman race in the UK) regardless of who's running it.
As for me, I'm not put off from doing an Ironman. In fact, just the opposite: I think Ironman is a fantastic product and I will continue to do races in the future. I've been planning and training for this event for months now, and this is the best shape I've been in for years, so I don't want to give that all up. I'm now thinking about a charity slot for Lake Placid for my "A" race of the season. Will cost a bit extra but it's for a good cause, and it means my family in North America can come and watch. Still gunning for that Kona slot! It's just too bad I won't be able to go for that slot in my adopted country anymore."
Did I read somewhere that the distance of the swim and the run were out ?
It did seem quite heavy
I hope it was long then I can be REALLY pleased about my swim.
i think that was a joke! there are only 360 nautical miles round the earth!
the swim was defo long, probably over 4km
the run was a little short - maybe a mile - was it wasn't an easy run
the bike was long by a couple of km i believe.
FB very impressed with your positivity in this thread.
We enjoyed your present Egoman, the harvey wallbanger receptical was ace though I was suspicious if it had a previous life as a hospital receptical.
I was particularly pleased with my improved harvey wallbanger mix having run out of galliano, I used courvoisier instead
"The international nautical mile was defined by the First International Extraordinary Hydrographic Conference, Monaco (1929) as exactly 1852m" wiki quote
means nowt to me though
Ah..... so that's where that strange alcohol vase came from.......
and yes - the Harvey Wallbanger vessel was very good - held enough to send a few of us into an alcoholic stupor............mano a mano so to speak.....
cake pimp was there as well??? damn... i really missed out
did you bring your famous cake