frame
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Sign In RegisterHowdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Starting immediately, all new users must be approved by a moderator (due to spam issues). #sworry
You can dismiss this message by clicking the little 'X' in the top right this box.
If you are a pro triathlete, please click here to DM AaronWebstey for access to the 'Pros-only' private forum. Don't forget to include your real name, and a link to pro race result would be great if you're a 1st-year pro.
Comments
I'm buying a Lotto 6/49 ticket, if that's what you mean. Would be a pretty amazing experience.
So, so tempted. I think the swim will be cold, the bike will be amazing, and the run... well, there are worse places to go for a very long walk, right?
attacking bears and moose should help keep folks motivated.
I guess I will add trying to outbike/run wildlife to my training then!
This is exactly what was tempting me. Just can't currently get insured to travel for it, so not dropping that much money on an event I might not be able to do.
Yeah, I sure hope it's a different world next year. I can't enter US through a land border right now but can fly in. Looked up return flights from Vancouver to Juneau... about $1200, and there's nothing direct. Or drive across the border and fly from Seattle and it's $335 return for a 2.5h nonstop flight on Alaska Airlines, who don't charge a bike fee.
*Edited to add: I signed up anyway.
I'm excited for you @kjrunnin, it's going to be an epic race!
Props to anyone heading up there! Pretty sure its raining like 225 days a year there so pray for a clear day! Interested to see how the alaskans treat the racers and the other way around. Make sure you stop at Alaskan Brewery!
There is a livecam on Auke Lake (swim, T1/T2, finish line) and I've been checking it daily since I discovered it existed. Today it is the first time that it has not been raining!
I am no stranger to an IM in torrential rain, having survived the monsoon that was Ironman Canada 2015. But I really hope it's not like that. Especially since I talked 2 friends who did IMC 2015 with me to also sign up for Alaska.
As for the brewery... challenge accepted!
Now under 12 weeks to go, I have started to worry about things other than my fitness - or more accurately, in addition to my fitness. Today I figured it was a good time to drop in on the Auke Lake webcam and see if it's still raining.
https://uas.alaska.edu/juneau/rec/lakecam.html
I watched the time lapse video from one day last week and was thinking "hey, it looks like it might be warmer there than it has been here this May" and just as the thought "maybe this won't be so bad" was forming in my mind, the next time lapse video from one day in February started... what the hell?
I'm jealous @kjrunnin . That looks like a pretty special place to do a triathlon.
Something to be mindful of after T2
Now that's funny.
https://www.facebook.com/sworrytrials/
https://www.facebook.com/OdetoLaz/
Shared in the IM AK FB group… so many people worried about the bears!
WTF. A week before travel. I’ll paraphrase. “I know you are flying to a landlocked region and you have very few options other than us but we can’t stress enough that you can’t rely on us”
They should have ammended that last line to..We look forward to welcoming you onboard, just not your bike.
Alaska Airlines
I wonder if they would let you send your bike on an earlier flight and keep it at their baggage area in the airport?
The FB group was in an uproar over this and people were sharing their comms with Alaska Air. One person was told they should change their flights to arrive a week sooner than they needed their bike in order to ensure it would get there in time. A week!! Others were jumping to Fedex and UPS it to a local bike shop that offered to receive their bikes early. Except someone else posted that Fedex and UPS use Alaska Air cargo... which the e-mail from Alaska Air said couldn't be relied on either.
Given that I was going up there to DNF, after ruminating on this all night, I settled on "still a vacation to Alaska".
Then I compared the air & hotel costs for worst case scenario: 5 rainy days in a small town, spectating a race I was meant to do with the cost of booking a 7-day cruise to Alaska next week. It's about half as much to do the cruise.
So I canceled. Trying to decide what to do with my fitness now. Last Sunday when I was riding, I actually thought "I feel really bike fit" and I nevvvvverrrr feel positive about my fitness.
I should add... I did explore alternative arrangements after getting the e-mail:
Bikeflights = $1000 one-way (and uses UPS so if that statement re: Alaska Air Cargo is free, not a better option)
Bellingham -> Juneau ferry (minimum $2400 (USD, so ~ $3100 Cdn) round trip, not including a cabin, takes 4 days each way and I'd need to leave Saturday and add hotel days in Juneau
Riding my bike ;-) -> according to google maps, 65h not including ferry time for the 4 ferries. One of those ferries only runs twice a month and won't depart next until 2 weeks after the race.
Could you try a different airline? Looks like Delta has a couple of flights. What a bummer, all those calories per/hr on the bike down the tubes.
Too bad it wasn't a few weeks ago, I would have said to come to Spain. Vineyards as far as the eye could see. You could have drank your way across the valley.
I don't hold them accountable for the other travel hell right now, but you would think Ironman and the Juneau tourist board would have negotiated something with AA or Delta ahead of time.
Can someone call Sarah Palin?
@kjrunnin Looks like Dev has your back:
@kjrunnin , I sent your Fondo photo to the Alaska Airlines CEO. He said he'd guarantee your bike would make it to Alaska.
@wchevron I still have a cycling trip to Croatia in September so all those carbs per hour aren't a total waste. But if I have to choke down one more Clif bar...
A wine soaked bike ride in Spain sounds like something I need to put on future Karin's to-do list.
@Martin IKR. They could have done one or two cargo charters out of Seattle and said to athletes who were flying with their bike that anyone flying on dates x-x with AA would have their bikes sent via the charter vs checked baggage, with a pickup on whatever date(s) in Juneau. I'd have paid extra for that service for the guaranteed arrival and at least diminished prospect of loss or damage to bike.
It is what it is. Ultimately I had to decide which I'd feel worse about: making the trip and watching or not making the trip. I'm out zero travel dollars since everything I had booked was refundable or within cancellation window, except for my pre-flight night in Seattle but when I explained to the hotel why I was canceling, they gave me free cancellation. I've e-mailed IM to see if I can defer to another event given the circumstances. I think the chance they'll say sure is only 0.1% but meh, doesn't hurt to ask.
I will add that watching people scramble by transporting their bikes up this week to be stored at a local bike shop has made this announcement by the airline a bit of a financial boon for them if it's true what people have said that all the couriers use Alaska Air Cargo.
So today I took my Ironman(ish) fitness and did a thing to distract me from the race I'm not doing... it seems nearly everyone's bike made it, and the weather forecast is better than planned, and the swim was shortened to just one loop. To all those competitors: you're welcome. That's not the kind of race energy that follows me. My coach is currently leading all the women and I am not in the slightest bit surprised.
But now about me... IMAK started at 6 am so that's when I rolled out this morning to take on the Triple Crown... around here that means riding up the 3 local ski hills.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7600162707
And it was so fucking hot by the time that I was on the last mountain that I got over my Okanagan Fondo mortification and just unzipped my jersey and let it flap in the nonexistent breeze.
For anyone who cares to know more about the Triple Crown, watch Phil Gaimon's video where he pays a visit and takes all the KOMs:
Great ride @kjrunnin , fitting workout in place of IM Alaska, and I would say more studly to do this on your own than complete the mass race with all that support/peer pressure.
https://www.facebook.com/sworrytrials/
https://www.facebook.com/OdetoLaz/
Awesome ride @kjrunnin !! You are the queen of the mountains!
Yeah, who likes all that support?
Actually, I had support. When the hub said "no thanks" when I asked if he wanted to join me, I enlisted him to provide some SAG support, swapping bottles at 2 checkpoints.
He actually wasn't at the 2nd stop , near the base of the final climb, when I rode by but I was a little ahead of schedule so NBD... I texted him to meet me at the first lookout instead (about 15 minutes of climbing from where I was).
But, I beat him there too. WTF?
I had to climb all the way to the 2nd lookout before we would eventually meet up, which was about 3km from the summit. When I rode up to his car, he wasn't in it!!! I shouted "are you fucking kidding me?" before he came strolling over from the edge of the lookout.
He redeemed himself when he pulled a bag of ice out of his car... that wasn't in the plan. It was 39C and I stuffed as many ice cubes in my bra as I could fit, guzzled a Red Bull, emptied my pockets of everything but my phone, and continued on my not so merry way. If I hadn't told everyone I was doing this, lol, I probably would have bailed at that point.
So last week (I think it was last week), Ironman announced their new Flex90 program. If you sign up for an IM event within 90 days of registration opening, you can transfer to another event in the region in that calendar year, or defer to the same event the following year. You can do that up to 7 days before the race you're registered in, and it's fee free. Would have been nice if that had been in place this year.
With the loss of my $1100 Cdn registration fee still stinging, and with nothing to lose, while caught up in IM Canada race FOMO on Saturday, I dug my last e-mail to IM Alaska from my sent mail folder, and sent a follow-up that was one sentence long: I did not receive a response to this message and I’d like to know if the Flex90 program, which advises that it applies retroactively to 2023 races can be invoked here.
I'm pretty sure anyone here would bet money that the response (if they deigned to respond at all) would be no, especially not since the race was weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when they said OK, and sent me a deferral link to register for next year!
I wonder if they did that because they realized the shit-show they caused sending out the "your bike isn't going to make it to Alaska" email so soon to the race.
Good on them.
I’ve seen some comments elsewhere that seem to indicate a bit of a softening of the hardcore stance they’ve had prepandemic. I’m curious if the have come to the realization that they need to engage in a bit of customer service now? I haven’t looked at the stats on race sell outs, but I’m guessing they are down. A couple of years of no racing with a somewhat tenuous return may have forced a shift.