A note from the medical tent: Ironman Tahoe

[Veronica]

What a neat report! My chiropractor did the race. I figured there must be some nasty hill in there because he was REALLY slow on two short legs of the bike.

I'm seeing him today, so it will be interesting to hear his view.

Veronica

[maillotpois]

What a great way to get involved! We were out in Tahoe over the weekend, and so glad the race wasn't held Saturday! They would have been blown off their bikes! We drove through King's Beach Saturday to get to Mellow Fellow and the wind was crazy. Everyone was getting their bikes set up in the transition - and all those poor bikes sat out in the rain all day/night.

I have several friends who did the race, and some very strong people DNF'ed.

Beautiful course. Of course we're biased. It was fun to be able to walk down our hill and see some of the bike racers out on the road.

[roadie gal]

If you look at people's T1 times they were up to half an hour. The water-air transition was so cold that many athletes had to hang out in the warming tent at T1 for an extended period of time before they could bike.

If the race had been scheduled for Saturday it would have been just a marathon. They would have had to cancel the swim and bike. We got lucky.

If volunteering for the med tent sounds interesting to anyone, we'd love any medical, or even nonmedical help. The nonmedical folks work the "registration" desk. The get bib numbers and names, and enter them into the race computer. They run for the clean clothes bags, go for supplies, and help people into the tent. They also assist with anything that needs some extra hands. Of course, you'd have to deal with me, but I try not to micromanage...

There are also "medical" jobs down at the swim: they have kayakers and paddleboarders in the water as well as volunteers in the warming tent on the beach. I don't know as much about those jobs as I never made it down there.

[Wahine]

Roadie gal, thanks for working the med tent and thanks for the report!

I was wondering how things went on the medical side. I've worked at multiple events, including worlds for ITU and the Half Marathon and a couple of times we wer swamped with hypothermic people and the conditions were not nearly so bad as those at Tahoe this year. I had a coaching client that would have finished in around 12 hours at most IM events who didn't cross the line until 15:25!! That is one hell of a race.

I might have to think about volunteering in Med some year.