dear race director

So, here's what I'm sending to the race director. I think I've been pretty fair about it, but it's possible I'm still in the passion of the moment.

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I want to take the time to write to you and tell you what my experience was like at Sunday's SoMa Half Iron race.

I know this is a very popular race. I've been looking forward to it for a year and a half. In 2006 I was signed up for the Quarterman, and broke my arm just before the race. Your staff very generously allowed me to roll my entry over to this year, and even accommodated me when I wanted to change from the Quarterman to the Half. Not every race will do that, so I want to give you credit for being very flexible. I was very excited to come do this race. I've basically been ready to do this since I started training for the Quarterman in 2006.

I'll go straight to the point: I'm writing because I had a very discouraging experience yesterday.

I had a mechanical failure during my first loop on the bike course. I was at the intersection of Curry and Lakeview. This was not a routine flat or adjustment issue, my chain got hopelessly trapped in the rear between the cassette and the wheel. I could not turn the wheel, I could not ride the bike. Having seen a few vehicles out near the course, and having done races in the past, I figured that a SAG wagon would come to find me at some point. A number of my team members (New Mexico Outlaws) stopped to help, the problem could not be solved. My teammates said they would try to get help. A number of other racers also said they would look for a support crew to come and help me.

A motorcycle policeman stopped to ask if I needed help. I told him I needed tech support, and he radioed for help. No help came.

My team members spoke to personnel at the nearest aid station, with Landis technicians. While the Landis mechanic apparently told my teammates he could help, it came to my attention later on that he was not allowed to leave his post at the top of the turnaround on College Road, some 2 miles away from me.

I understand that there was another support station at the transition area. I am told that the Landis mechanics here were not supposed to leave the area.

This was a race with 874 athletes for the Half - and another 593 athletes for the Quarter. That's a total of 1,467 athletes on the day, on a 19-mile loop course. Even with the potential traffic issues (and I saw that you were competing heavily with local traffic), it seems obvious to me to have mobile support on the course. I saw at least 3 other people on the course with mechanical issues, including a guy who completely lost his derailleur in the same place I nearly lost mine.

I waited on the course, not knowing where the technicians were. Had I known there would be no mobile support, or had I known where I would need to go, I might have done things differently. My bike was not rolling, I would have had to hike it somewhere - this did not seem like the best decision at the time.

Looking at the bike course map, I don't see tech support detailed on the map. I attended the pre-race meeting, but I don't remember this being discussed. I remember course officials saying that "Landis would be on the course," (and indeed they were) but the lack of mobile support (and locations of the fixed support) is not clearly spelled out anywhere that I can find.

Nonetheless, a friend went to the nearest aid station and brought a technician back to me - at a time cost to his own race. In the end, the Landis mechanic was really excellent, did a great job of fixing my bike, and got me back on the course pretty quickly. Unfortunately for me, I had been waiting for support for two hours, and I did not have time to complete all 3 loops of the bike.

Which brings me to my second point: why was my wave last? I'm in the 35+ women's wave, and we were let onto the course in the 10th of 10 waves. It's possible that if my wave had started earlier, I might have made the cutoff. We here in the old lady division are not all speedy, you know. It seems we are being penalized with less time to make the cutoffs for the course.

I assume that others will write to tell you about other complaints. I for one can confirm that although I was in one place for two hours, I saw no USAT officials go past me, and I saw heavy drafting occurring on the course. The last aid station I saw was closed before the course closed. This can be devastating to an athlete at the back of the pack.

Because I was honest, my chip was taken from me as I entered transition. Since there were no chip timing mats on the course that I saw, I could easily have racked my bike and gone into the run and no one would have asked any questions. My dishonesty would not serve the athletes who are trying to improve their rankings and who compete honestly, and there would have been no reason for me to cheat. However, I feel I need to point out that there were a lot of ways in which athletes could have been dishonest yesterday.

At this point, I have to say that I am not happy with my race experience, and I hope that you will take my experience into consideration when you are planning future events. You should know too that I have explained these events to my triathlon team, and to my triathlon community, as fairly as I can, so that they will also be aware of these issues, if they are considering signing up for next year's event.

Thanks for you time.