Ironman NC 70.3 Triathlon: Insider Tips with the Race Director Ep113

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00):
I am here today with Sammy Winter, who is the Iron
Man North Carolina racedirector, 70.3 race director.
And she also does, like, youknow, she's also a vet, and
she's also a coach.
And, you know, she's just she'suh endlessly apparently not
bored.
Um, but I'm so excited you'rehere, Sammy, and this is gonna
be such a good conversation.

SPEAKER_01 (01:21):
Oh, I'm so excited to be here.
I mean, any chance I can take totalk about the reality of what
being a race tractor, and asidefrom that, just my race, and I
it's not really my race, it'slike my team's race, right?
I have the most amazing staffand team that you could ever
imagine.
That's the only reason I canmake it through this.
I I will do it because I justlove it.
I just love it.

(01:42):
That's so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (01:43):
Yeah, and it's uh so Iron Man North Carolina 70.3 is
a little, it's like a like asnitch later this year.
It's usually like middle-ish ofOctober, and now it's like end
of October, but then it's goingback in 2026, right?

SPEAKER_01 (01:55):
It is going back, and everybody said, You changed
the date, you changed that.
I was like, No, no, no, I didnot change the gate.
God changed the date because hemakes the tide charts.
So the tide charts change thatbecause we have to come in on,
you know, you you want to swimon an incoming tide you because
you don't want to swim againstthe current.
So this was the year of theincoming tide, happened to be on

(02:16):
the fourth week and not thethird week, but next year we go
back to the third a week.
Oh, that's the next year will beOctober 17th.
So that that's why it moved.
It had nothing to do withanything, it's not like the
river swims where they alwaysare flowing and you're opening
dams and controlling the flow.
This is truly is tidal-based.

SPEAKER_00 (02:34):
So that is so cool.
And P.
S.
And by the way, if you want aPR, this is the course to do it
on because of that.

SPEAKER_01 (02:43):
Yeah, the swim is usually really fast.
You know, the bike, you can havesome headwind on.
Um, so there's that challenge.
Um, and then the run is justbeautiful.
I mean, I think the run isgreat.
You know, last year I do have tobrag on my team that put my swim
and my run together.
So we were third swim in NorthAmerica.
We really should have beennumber one.
We're going for the gold thisyear, but we had some chop, we

(03:05):
had some incoming chop, whichcreated some, you know, some
people just didn't quite getthat when they're swimming the
current.
And then we were third run inNorth America and fifth
globally.
Like out of 70 races, we had thefifth best run.
I I know Wilmay to NorthCarolina.
You everybody talks about theswim, but our run was fifth, so
which I think was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
Like, yeah, that is a cool, it is a cool run.
I mean, going through downtownand like it's it's it's neat.

SPEAKER_01 (03:32):
Yeah, it is a it's pretty and it's shaded when you
get out to the park.
Um, and it you know you throughdown, and it has some rise to
it, right?
So it's not just that flat, youknow, your legs get a little bit
of a break, it's not you're notclimbing a mountain, but you get
a little bit of rise.
So yeah, it's a really prettyrun.

SPEAKER_00 (03:47):
So, Sammy, when did you so because this race used to
be back in the day, used to bebeach to battleship, and it was
a combination Iron Man, um, or Iguess technically full distance
and half distance because it wasrun by setup events, and then
they sold it to Iron Man, right?
And I don't know what year thatwas, like that was maybe 2016.
2016.

(04:07):
Okay, and did you take it out?
Did you like race direct fromthe get-go?

SPEAKER_01 (04:12):
No, so I was involved with Beach to
Battleship from the get-go in2008.
Um, when there and I did variousand different jobs.
I was transportation coordinatorone year.
It was organized a little bitdifferently.
I was run course volunteers,then I was run course, and I did
that for most of the time, justdealing with the run course.
And then in 2016, um, Iron Manbought it, and Brian Bohr um

(04:35):
became race director, and Ibecame volunteer director.
I'd been volunteer director forthe marathon for I think maybe
eight, nine years at that point.
So I became volunteer directorfor the marathon and for the
Iron Man.
And then Brian Bohr um took apromotion and became head of
like the trail division of IronMan, and they needed a race

(04:56):
director, and I had thought,well, that would be fun.
Let's try it.
You know, that sounds fun.
And I love my community.
You know, I've been inWilmington for 56 years, so I
love my community.
Um, and I was like, it'll bedifferent, it'll be fun.
It is different from volunteerdirecting.
Um, but yeah, I've been racedirector since since it would be

(05:18):
well 2020, but we know whathappened in 2020.

SPEAKER_00 (05:21):
So yeah, the disaster that was.
Um the disaster was.
And I mean, you put on a greatrace, that yeah, no doubt about
that.
How many you talk about yourteam and your staff?
So, how many people are involvedin putting on this operation?

SPEAKER_01 (05:33):
Yeah, so uh the person more important than me is
my volunteer director, and I'malways like, you get her on
board first.
I've known her since oh gosh,2004, 2005.
We train together and racetogether, and I probably drive
her a little crazy, but she's myvolunteer director.
And then we have 46 localcaptains that help.

(05:54):
Yeah, and so we do threecaptains meetings a year, and
they help gather the volunteersbecause one person can't gather
that many volunteers that youneed to do it all together.
So there, and then the Iron Manstaff comes in with about 30,
maybe.
Um, and then they have all theirmerch people too.
So maybe like 35.
Probably about 30, 35.
So uh, but my local team, I justlove them.

(06:17):
And and we have been very, verylucky that we've maintained the
same local captain since I wasraised direct, since I was
volunteer director.
So I recruited them all, andmost of them have stayed on,
which is a good testament to mynow, you know, my volunteer
director now.
So yeah, they're good people,really good people.

SPEAKER_00 (06:34):
That's so awesome.
Yeah, and I I mean, I'll be thefirst to admit that you know,
Iron Man is not cheap.
It is it, but as you're saying,like there's a lot involved.
And every year when I come down,because I oftentimes volunteer
on the swim and I watch the Iwatch the truck putting out all
those cones.
I'm like cha-ching, cha-ching,every time they like drop a

(06:57):
cone.

SPEAKER_01 (06:58):
I did say cha-ching about 5,000 times, and that
alone.
Oh, and then ching cha-chingwhen you pass the barricades,
and then cha-ching, cha-ching,cha-ching when you pass all the
port-a-potties.
So there's 161 port-a-potties.

SPEAKER_00 (07:10):
Wow.
For anybody right there.
Holy smoke.

SPEAKER_01 (07:14):
So there you go.
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (07:16):
So there's a lot that goes into it, in other
words.

SPEAKER_01 (07:19):
There's a lot that goes into it, and besides just
what you see, you know, it'swhat's on the back end, too,
right?
There, um, nobody even looks atthis, but there's 107 law
enforcement out there, and soand it's four different
agencies, and we're meetingthree times a year.
There's everything that goesthrough NCDOT, uh, you know,
because we go through multiplecounties, multiple.

SPEAKER_00 (07:40):
Right?

SPEAKER_01 (07:41):
Highway.
Yeah, some of us, yep, yep.
Well, you have about, let mesee, 13 to 30, um, 17 miles, and
then 44 to uh yeah, there'sabout 23 miles on the highway.

SPEAKER_00 (07:55):
Yeah.
So if you ever want to ride yourbike on the highway and have a
lane to yourself, yeah, and youknow, we ride we bike out there
a lot, actually.

SPEAKER_01 (08:02):
A lot of people don't like it because part of it
you're not coned in.
Um, but it's mostly it'stwo-laned, and so we you know,
you got to ride rules of theroad.
Um, but we ride out there a lotbecause there's a big wide
shoulder, too.

SPEAKER_00 (08:13):
Yeah, cool.
All right, so uh let's startwith some logistics.
This course is unique becauseit's a point to point, it's
almost like a point to point topoint.

SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
Oh no, it's a point to point to point to point to
point.

SPEAKER_00 (08:27):
So so again, cha ching.
Again, yes, there's that, andthen also like for anybody who
might be starting in into this,you know, this might be their
first 70.3, like it's I feellike it's it's a little bit next
level than your average 70.3,like you gotta think through a

(08:49):
lot of the logistics.
So you guys hook everybody upwith all these like bags, and so
before even starting, what doyou think somebody should know
about the course before evensigning up?

SPEAKER_01 (09:03):
Oh, before signing up, um, I can tell you what they
should do when they sign up, butbefore signing up, I think they
should know that North Carolinais the best race out there, so
they should definitely sign up.
But if they they should sign upum before they sign up, right?
Because you guys are sold out.
We always sell out, um, whichI'm very blessed and grateful

(09:24):
that that many people want tocome race down here with all the
logistics, as you point out.
They think most people want easystuff, but um I would sign up
with this just knowing thatyou're gonna need to read the
athlete guide.
You're gonna need to get and themain thing is you know, some of
these races you can drive in onFriday, you can pick up your
packet, you rack your bike, andyou race on Saturday or Saturday

(09:45):
for Sunday, you know, whateverday it is.
You do, I usually recommendyou're taking a day off work to
race on Saturday.
So be prepared to spend morethan 36 hours down here to race,
right?
If you really have a quick timeand got to get in and out, this
is probably not the race to doit because you do need to get
here early to kind of take careof some things.
That would probably be thebiggest one because I hear a lot

(10:07):
of, oh my gosh, you know, I'mnot getting there until two
o'clock on Friday.
You're gonna be pressing it,right?
Or you're just gonna be rushedand not relaxed and not ready to
race.
So do be prepared that youprobably need a good 48 hours to
get organized.
I think that's the biggestthing.
And that's the biggest thingthat surprises people.
Um, I like it because it's aSaturday race, so people can

(10:28):
usually get home on either satlate Saturday afternoon or
Sunday and get ready for Monday.
I think that's kind of nice, buton the front end, it means
you're taking off some time onFriday.

SPEAKER_00 (10:37):
Yeah, because um like transition is different
than the start, is differentthan T2 and the finish line.
So, which is not a necessarily ashort drive.
It's all gorgeous, like becauseyou're downtown Wilmington and
then you're Riceville, which isawesome.

SPEAKER_01 (10:55):
But also it takes it takes logistics, so no, so being
able to take time off and thenjust like I said, I say that
jokingly because everybodyalways likes read the athlete
guide, but you're gonna need toread the athlete guide and look
at the maps.
It it takes a little bit of workon the front end, but once you
understand it, it's reallypretty easy.
And if you just kind of have it,the hardest part I think is
deciding if you want to stay atthe beach or you want to stay

(11:17):
downtown.
That depends whether you want tostay at the start or whether you
want to stay at the finish.

SPEAKER_00 (11:22):
So I vote for the beach.
That's always my vote.

SPEAKER_01 (11:25):
Um that's usually my vote too.
My vote is usually the beach,and then if you don't have
anybody to drive with you tokind of help you out, then I you
know, I say you can go down,park your car the night before,
you know, Uber back, and youknow, you can so you have a car
down there, but I think the Ithink the beach is a prettier

(11:47):
place to stay, especially in thefall.

SPEAKER_00 (11:49):
The beach is like right still so awesome in the
fall.
It's so pretty right now.
It's so pretty.
It's and you don't have nearlythe same crowds, and it's just
it's awesome.
And like the water's not toocold.

SPEAKER_01 (12:00):
It's so pretty.
No, um, we became wetsuit legalthis week and it won't go back
up.
Yay! Right now, the water, Ithink 75 still.
Now it might drop a little thisweek with this cold front moving
through, but um, yeah.
The other thing I think thatpeople should know is it is uh I
don't know if the race is 100%spectator friendly, it's not
unfriendly, um, but it this is acool place to bring your family

(12:24):
for vacation.
So your family can come downwith you for the weekend and
they there's plenty of stuff forthem to do um while you're
racing and they can bop in andsee you too.
But while you're doing all yourrace things, there's plenty of
stuff for them to do, and that'sfine.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (12:38):
That's cool.
All right.
So then when they sign up, whatare some of the things that they
need to do?
And then we'll get into like theswim, bike, run, all those
aspects.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's okay.
Uh, first thing is decide ifyou're gonna stay at Beach or
Downtown, and then you can kindof plan easier from there, which
where where you want to stay.
Don't wait to decide.
Um, oh, there's plenty ofhotels, like there's plenty of
places, plenty of opportunitiesand places to stay, but just
decide where you want to stay,and then I would um read last
year's athlete guide if you'resigning up early to just go

(13:11):
ahead and get it in your brain,and then I would start training.
Cool.

SPEAKER_00 (13:15):
Yes, good order of operations.
I'm digging.
And then I would start trainingas a coach.

SPEAKER_01 (13:21):
There you go.

SPEAKER_00 (13:21):
Yeah, that's right.
Start training yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 (13:25):
Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 (13:25):
Yeah, cool.
All right, so then uh speakingof the athlete guide, well,
let's at least start with liketransitions, and then we can get
into the swim.
What what is going on with allthe transitions?

SPEAKER_01 (13:38):
I love all my transitions.
Um, yes, but there are two ofthem.
And the first one, the mostimportant tip for the first one
is you are going to turn yourbike in the day before, but then
you have this bag, you know,that you bring.
It's a blue bag, blue is bike.
So when you come out of the swimand you're all dressed in your

(13:59):
bike gear, everything from theswim has to go in the bag.
And then tie it tight at thetop, because you know we've got
football players and soccerplayers that are loading up
these bags, and you never knowwhat the quarterback's gonna do.
I say that jokingly, but youknow, they do get tossed around.
Um, tie it tightly and leave itat your spot.

(14:19):
If you don't care about gettinganything back, don't put it in
your bag.
But if it's not in the bag, it'snot coming back.
And I'm not in the business ofcarting bike pumps.
Do not put a bike pump in yourbag and no buckets allowed.
That is that's one of your petpeeves, isn't it?
That is my one of my pet peeves.
Can you tell that people toldyou that that is one of my pet

(14:41):
peeves?
Do not bring a bucket in mytransition, and people will be
like, Oh my gosh, I have nothingagainst buckets in your house
and wherever you want to putthem, but we're not gonna put
them in my little transition.
Yes, they hold tools.
2,500 people brought a bucket.

SPEAKER_00 (14:57):
What am I gonna do with those buckets?
Yeah, yeah.
So no buckets, no buckets, fitit in the bag because I can all
I now I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_01 (15:07):
We bring a bucket to transition.

SPEAKER_00 (15:09):
I've never, I've never ever in my life Sammy
brought a bucket to transition.

SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
For anybody that's listening to this, if you bring
a bucket, I think that'sphenomenal because some people
like to sit on their buckets toput their to put on their
buckets.

SPEAKER_00 (15:22):
I would say that that is probably the main
purpose.

SPEAKER_01 (15:24):
I I understand, and that is fantastic, but right, I
mean, we're we can't do it,yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (15:29):
Not not a logistical thing that is appropriate for
your race.
That is correct.
There you go.

SPEAKER_01 (15:34):
That is correct.

SPEAKER_00 (15:34):
That is very good, yeah.
And then what so all thesethings that might be left
behind?
What the heck do you do with allthat stuff?

SPEAKER_01 (15:40):
Oh, I know.
Don't laugh.
My volunteer, because she has amuch bigger garage than I do.
Her garage the day after therace looks like who like uh
goodwill or something like that.
But we are very good.
I will give her a pat on theback and her and I and my
athlete services team together.
We go through, I post onFacebook, she gets all the

(16:02):
numbers.
Like if the numbers are inthere, we find and we mail
everything to people.
No kidding.
Yeah, we do.
I mean, I she's prettyremarkable like that, and we
will track things down, and it'samazing half the time.
Typically, what happens isnobody's stuff is lost.
Somebody just took typicallyanother athlete, just picked it
up, you know, by mistake.

(16:23):
Um, you know, when everybody'strying to get in a hurry.
So I guess, you know, don't bein a hurry.
Pack purposefully when you'repacking your stuff.
Um, but yeah, we get it back tothem, we hold it, and then after
about 30, 45 days, we donate alot of stuff that gets left.
Um, but we find homes for most.

SPEAKER_00 (16:41):
Yeah, that's pretty impressive.
Because how many athletes areyou dealing with here?

SPEAKER_01 (16:44):
Uh last year uh we we started over 27.

SPEAKER_00 (16:50):
Wow, 2700.

SPEAKER_01 (16:51):
2700.
This year it'll be, I think it'sgonna be a little bit l I asked
for it to be a little bit less.
Wow.
Okay, it just gets a lot withtwo transitions.
And carding back yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (17:02):
And then and then I'm thinking of all this stuff
that when when you go down tothe pier, so I guess we'll get
into swim now, right?
When you walk down to the Iguess it's technically a pier,
it's like just like a bigparking lot.

SPEAKER_01 (17:15):
Hanover seaside, it's Hanover Seaside Club.

SPEAKER_00 (17:18):
Okay, all right, Hanover Seaside Club.
Um, and you're in their bigparking lot, and it's usually a
little chilly, so you'restanding there all awkwardly in
your wetsuit, um, and probably alittle cold, and then there just
ends up being this like massivepile of flip-flops and sh and I
I don't even know.
Is that intentional, or is thatjust like, here you go, iron we

(17:41):
in North Carolina, enjoy somestuff.

SPEAKER_01 (17:43):
Well, so I'll tell you what we do with all that
stuff.
So I usually tell people youdon't want to be in your wetsuit
too early.
The coaching side of me saysdon't be in, you know, you don't
want to pull it up and just bestanding in this compression
garment for an hour.
Yeah, you don't want to do that.
So you do you are gonna bring,if anything, just pull it on,
you know, put it up to yourwaist.
So you are gonna have clothes.
You can use the morning clothesbag if you really want your

(18:06):
sweatshirt, which I would wantto do.

SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
Put in that card shirt.

SPEAKER_01 (18:09):
If you really want your sweatshirt back, then you
use your morning clothes bag,tie it up, and put it there.
Once again, don't bring a wholesuitcase.
I don't want to cart everythingin that bag again.
But um, if you don't care, youcan just throw it off, and
everything that is left in thatparking lot gets donated.
Everything.
People are like, I left mysweatshirt there.

(18:30):
We're not carting it backdowntown.
If you throw off a sweatshirt,if you leave shoes, if you do
whatever, it all gets taken toum typically Good Shepherd.
Yeah, it'll get taken there andand donated.
Um, and but then you can useyour morning clothes bag too.
Uh, you know, don't bringbackpacks, don't bring a lot of
stuff.
Once again, we have to cart allthose bags.

(18:51):
So we're carting two set of bagsall the way downtown.

SPEAKER_00 (18:53):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (18:54):
Yeah.
And I always tell people, don'tput valuables in there.
And they're like, and I'll I'llthrow out this little tip.
Well, what do I do with my carkeys?
You know, if they're bythemselves and all of a sudden
they have their car keys withthem.
I say put them on your bike inyour bento box.
Because you're gonna ride yourbike.
So when you you go totransition, put your key there
to your car if you're byyourself, you do your race, your

(19:16):
bike's in T2, you get your bike,you get your key, and you're
done.
So that's where I usually putthat.
Um, so people ask about theirphones a lot, and I'm like, I
don't know, don't carry yourphone to put down to the swim
start.
And everybody's like, they Imight need to to call.
I mean, I don't know.
I but I wouldn't put it in yourbag if it was me, but people do

(19:37):
it.

SPEAKER_00 (19:37):
Yeah, wow, impressive.
Yeah, so yeah, so you get thatso you get down to the swim
start, and there's no likeofficial warm-up, right?

SPEAKER_01 (19:48):
Yeah, there is not, and that is because of the
current.
We have nowhere to put you inthat you're not gonna just
scootle on down the channel, andthen we're gonna have to get you
on back.
So there's no way to do it.
So, what I actually made a poston Facebook, and I said there's
plenty of space back there.
You need to do jumping jacks,high knees, arm circles,

(20:09):
whatever you need to do.
You do need to do some kind of awarm-up to get your heart rate
up before you get in the water.
Uh, you're just not gonna beable to swim.
Bring bands.
I mean, there's people some backthere that have some swim bands
that are using all that.
Um, unlike a small therapy bandthat's easy to take that and do
some rows, do you know uh anykind of if you can get the band,

(20:31):
if you have you know real swimbands, you can practice your
stroke, do whatever you can towarm up, but you need to warm
up.
There's just not a swim warm-up.

SPEAKER_00 (20:38):
And is there a place where they can at least like dip
their hand in the water and youknow, splash it on their face at
all?
Or is that like, let's not dothat?

SPEAKER_01 (20:47):
There's not really a great place to do that.
They can walk over to the oceanand do that if they want.
You know what?
I the other thing I tell peopleis carry a bottle of water with
you.
And right at what I do wheneverI do any of these races like
that, where I don't like when Idid Alcatraz before I jumped in
or Norsemen or things like that.
I have a bottle of water, justdump the bottle of water on your
head as you walk as you'rewalking across the street.
Yeah, and then and then we havetrash cans over there, throw the

(21:10):
bottle away, and there's yourwhoo, there's your shock right
there.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (21:14):
And don't forget when your face hits the water,
it's salty.

SPEAKER_01 (21:18):
It is salty.
Yeah, we swim here all the timeand don't think about it.
I'm always amazed.

SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
People are like, oh my god, it's so salty.
And I'm like, really?

SPEAKER_01 (21:24):
Yeah, no, but we don't think about it, but yeah,
it is salty.
So if you want to have a bottleof water in transition, we do
have a water in, so as you'rerunning in from the swim, you
can grab a cup of water ifyou're like I don't like the way
it tastes.
Yeah, um, do that.

SPEAKER_00 (21:37):
And those don't have like showers, right?

SPEAKER_01 (21:40):
We we used to, but we don't have them anymore.
It just became a littledifficult to do.
We are gonna run a hose.
Um, CPAT, there's a place to puta hose, so we kind of have a
hose out there.
We might have somebody kind ofspraying if they want it, but
we're not gonna have a realshower.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (21:55):
Because it I know there's a lot of people at the
very end, they're like, oh mygosh, I sweat so much.
Look how salty I am.
I am.
And I'm like, uh, I mean, yes,you are probably salty, but it's
mostly that's right from theocean.

SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
It's mostly from the ocean.
That's right.
I say the same thing too,because you know, typically, I
don't know what we're in the70s.
Not that you're not gonna sweatin the 70s, you're not gonna
look like you do here insoutheastern North Carolina in
the 90s in the summer, whereyou're like, Yes, just totally
done.

SPEAKER_00 (22:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, are there wetsuit strippers?
Yes.
Wetsuit peelers, wetsuitpeelers.
Oh, sorry, wetsuit peelers.
Is that like the new PC way ofwetsuit peelers?

SPEAKER_01 (22:36):
That's okay.
The team, it's the same soccerteam that's done it for like
three or four years and theylove it.

SPEAKER_00 (22:41):
Okay, yeah.
So all right, I know we're gonnahave to back up to the actual
swim, but like I was so excitedabout wetsuit peelers.
So, you how do you how does oneget prepared to be peeled?

SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
To be peeled, so you're gonna so besides being a
point to point to point to pointto point race, you have latter,
you're climbing out of the waterout of a ladder.
There are 10 ladders lined up onthe dock.
You're climbed up to people allthe time, like, somebody pushed
me, send me to this.
You got 10 ladders, pick one.
Um, yeah, or if somebody'sgiving you a little push up,
good, they're just helping youget up the ladder.
So you climb up the ladder, youget up on the dock, you're gonna

(23:14):
run down the dock.
As you're coming around thedock, you're gonna take your
goggles off.
Oh, yeah, I guess you don't haveto take your goggles and your
swim cap.
You can leave those on if you'recold.
Um, unzip your wetsuit, get itdown, pull it to your waist.
CPath lets you leave shoes overthere if you don't like doing
the little uh third of a milerun to transition.

(23:34):
If you don't want to run onconcrete, you can leave shoes.
And I tell people when it'scold, put those hand warmers in
your shoes.
Oh, that's a good idea.
So yeah, then your shoes aretoasty.
So then you pick up your shoes,you run out, you sit down, let
them peel your wetsuit, throwyour shoes on that are now
toasty warm, grab those handwarmers, grab your um, grab your
wetsuit, and just start running.

(23:55):
And then you get the transition.
And so then you can of it ifit's if it's super chilly, you
can then repurpose those handwarmers.
I've been known to put them inmy back pocket of my tribe
because then it kind of warmsyour back up.
Yeah.
Um, yeah, and so it's nice towarm your core up.
If you some people were lastyear, it was warm enough, they
wore gloves, you put them inyour gloves, your hands get
warm, but at least your bike,your bike shoes are warm, so

(24:15):
then your feet are warmer whenyou get over there, which is
kind of nice.

SPEAKER_00 (24:18):
Yeah, that is nice.
So when somebody wants to getpeeled, they just they lay down
on their back and then off itgoes.

SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
Off it goes.
And those boys like to havecontests of who can get them off
the fastest.

SPEAKER_00 (24:29):
I bet they do.
Oh my goodness, that is that isthe best.
Okay, so let's rewind.
You can't get a warm-up in inthe swim, but then once you get
in, you guys are releasingpeople.
What is it like four-ish at atime?
Three every five seconds, threeevery five seconds.

SPEAKER_01 (24:43):
Sometimes when we get near the end, or if we get
closer, we want to try and geteverybody in an hour.
So as you get in, it might maybecome four every five seconds
because you want to take breakslike every 10 minutes or so,
too, just to kind of let alittle space develop.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (24:58):
Um, yeah, so tips when they get in the water.

SPEAKER_01 (25:02):
So you can get in, you can walk in, and then you
kind of ease around.
You got to start swimmingbecause you know it'll drop off,
and then you kind of ease arounda dock and boom, you're gone.
And you do want to keep you thisis one race you definitely want
to keep those sight buoys onyour left because as you're
swimming down, you know, thecurrent's gonna start pulling

(25:22):
you.
And last year a lot of peopleare like, the buoy's moving, the
buoy's moving.
I'm like, the buoy is not movingbecause if it was moving, it
would be at the finish with you,and it wasn't, but it sometimes
can get stretched out on theline, right?
If the current's really strong.
So as you're kind of swimmingand you're aiming for that buoy,
if you swim and you're the ding,ding, ding, ding, it's gonna
pull you right around there,buoy.

(25:43):
You just want to keep thosebuoys on your left, the sight
buoys, but go out with them.
And if you're not a confidentswimmer, you can swim by the
docks, and the docks are kind ofright there.
If you're like, nope, I want toswim by docks, that's where I
want to be.
It's just gonna take it's justgonna be harder to make that
left turn to get into Mott'schannel.
You start in banks, you go inMots and then weave your way

(26:04):
through Mots.
Um, it's just gonna be a littlebit harder.

SPEAKER_00 (26:06):
Yeah, I feel like that swim is unlike any other.
It's because it's like, well,how many turn buoys are like,
well, you you kind of turn, youlike turn right-ish and then you
turn left, and then you kind ofturn right-ish and then
left-ish, and it's like allthese that's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 (26:22):
It's kind of it's more of like you're kind of
snaking your way through, youkind of come out, you bear
right.
You have you you're not gonna goleft because the current's not
gonna let you, so you're gonnayou're gonna go right whether
you want to go right or not.
Once you you're gonna you kindof bear right, then you kind of
bear left is how it goes.
Yeah, yeah.
Your way through the channel,yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (26:44):
And the the support, I mean, having been on the sport
end of things, that is nextlevel.
They have divers, lifeguards.
The um, my favorite are thelifeguards who are on the um,
they're on, they look likethey're on rocket ships, and
they can move those suckers.

SPEAKER_01 (27:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're um we I spend a lot oftime with water safety.
Ricewell Beach Ocean Rescuesupports us.
We have the Coast Guard outthere protecting one end of the
channel from boats.
We've got New Hanover CountySheriffs protecting other two
ends.
We, you know, like an oceanrescue, five boats, three jet
skis, um, 20 lifeguards, like 45water support.

(27:26):
I mean, at some point we have toswim, but there, I mean, there's
I'm very blessed to have afantastic swim team that puts
that together and recruits that.
Um, one of the local SUP clubsum donates all the SUPs and
paddleboards for all the peopleto use out there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's really, really nice.
Um, it's really nice.
That's cool.

(27:47):
Um at some point you gotta swim.
You yeah, you need to swim.
You can float a lot of it, butyou have it's not a river swim.
You're just not going downriver.
You know, you gotta navigate theturn.
So you do have I told you what'sa great people are like, it's
gonna be so fast, and you know,I'm like, yes, but it's a real
swim because you have tonavigate, you're not just
floating down.
So it still is a real swim.
It's a fast, real swim, but it'sstill a real swim.

(28:10):
Yeah, and I don't know anybodywatching this that like I don't
know if Myrick, who uh is chattyrace director, or anybody out in
Oregon, if they were to seethis, they're gonna be like, My
swim's real.
And I'm gonna be like, Really?
You just dump it and floatdownstream.

SPEAKER_00 (28:22):
I mean a good healthy competition is good,
even if it's amongst racedirectors.
Oh, yeah, we have it.
Is it real?

SPEAKER_01 (28:29):
Um, but yeah, so you know, it does take a little bit
of navigational skills.
Yeah.
To do it.

SPEAKER_00 (28:34):
Yeah, we have one coach who says, just be a bag of
potato chips.
You know, you just do to do justsit.
But but here, yes, you can dothat.
But like you said, you do haveto make sure you are going in
the right direction.
You'll end up in like the marsh.
You will.

SPEAKER_01 (28:47):
Well, you'll actually you'll end up down
close to my house if you justkeep going and don't turn.
But if you're a bag of potatochips, at some point the potato
chips have to come out and swim.
You know, slow down, but at somepoint they gotta come out, do a
little breaststroke, and turnaround.

SPEAKER_00 (29:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Um I hesitate to say this, butwe did see remnants of things
that are living in the ocean.
So uh, but I imagine it'sprobably not, I'm not gonna say
specific words of things thatlive in the ocean, but I've not

(29:24):
I've not seen anybody have anissue.
Have you ever had anybody havean issue?
I mean, we are in the ocean.

SPEAKER_01 (29:30):
Yeah, I mean, we are swimming in their habitat,
right?
I will say, as soon as I saythis, it's gonna jinx me because
we've got kind of a stormrolling through this weekend,
but this was a very, very, very,very, very light jellyfish
season.
Like typically we do have thejellyfish, but they come once
the once the cooler water comes,they go away.
Now, sometimes we've hadoccasional remnants of jellyfish

(29:51):
there that people have gottenstung.
I mean, this year we swamthroughout the whole summer and
no stings really, because abunch of us swim out there all
the time.
Um, so I don't know what it was.
And we had, you know, somestorms come up with some storm
surge and everything too, andthat kind of brings them in, but
it wasn't so yeah, you will in afew years we've had people

(30:12):
report some of some jellyfishstings for sure.
Um, I've been out there and haveseen um a lot of dolphins.
Yeah, dolphins will swim outthere, which is really, really
cool.
And um, I keep I always say, Ihope the dolphins come.
Um, but it's been, you know,that's kind of all we've seen.
Like and the like I said,jellies have been really light,

(30:35):
which is kind of nice.
Yeah, make sure when you whenyou're running in the water,
they're little crabs that crawlon the sand.
So when you're going in thewater, you know, shuffle your
feet, you know, do the stain rayshuffle.

SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
Um the stain race shuffle.

SPEAKER_01 (30:51):
Well, you know that's what you're supposed to
do when you get in the water,right?
You supposed to shuffle yourfeet like that.
So I tell you shuffle your feet.
But you might see a little, youknow, crabby's down there biting
your toes.

SPEAKER_00 (30:59):
Okay, all right, all right.
But but but you know, just likeyou said, we're swimming in
their habitat.
So we're we are in their home.
Okay.
All right.
So you get out of one of the tenladders.
So you know, don't necessarilyjust go for the first one
because you might get hung up inthere by other people, and you
might be the one giving yourneighbor a nice shove.

(31:21):
Um, and then you get yourwetsuit peeled, and then off you
go into transition, and then onwe go to the bike.
So, what are some importantthings to know about the bike?

SPEAKER_01 (31:32):
Um, key things about the bike, you're gonna have
headwind, just a matter of whereand how much you're gonna have
it.
But that means where there'sheadwind, there is tailwind, so
that's always nice.
Typically, there's headwind outbecause you're going north.
So this time of year we usuallyhave a north wind, and then it's
usually tailwind back home.
That's the best way to be, andthat's typically how it is, but

(31:54):
I don't write the weather, socan't help you there.
But that's typically what it is.
Um, you are coned in for aboutthe first this year.
We've added some, so you're in acone dedicated lane for like the
first 17, 18 miles.
So that's really nice.
The first 10 you are ridingcounterflow, though, which means
you are riding and traffic iscoming at you.

(32:16):
You're coned in, but quite a fewcourses do that now because it
lets you keep the city open alittle bit.
I do tell people when you areriding counterflow, it is uh if
you follow the USA2T rules,which everybody should follow
the USA2 rules, you always rideright and pass left.
Everybody should know that.
When you are riding counterflow,you still do that.

(32:36):
You still ride right and passleft.
People get confused becausenobody wants to ride by the
cones.
That time of the morning, it'swhat their traffic's really
pretty light.
So you're good.
And then you transition at aboutmile 10 to the right side of the
road.
Um, and then you get out.
And once you hit the highway atmile 30, you start your little
country loop out there.
You're not coned in out there.

(32:59):
Rules of the road, it is not afree-for-all.
You need to pay attention.
There are people that have toget to work out there.
Um, and then you hit thehighway, you go through and you
come back.
Um, Union Chapel and BlueberryRoad are some good riding.
They're real, we ride those tworoads a lot.
That's really good.
Smooth riding.
Oh, yes, we do have two gradedbridges that you have to go

(33:21):
over.
On the bridges, it is no passingand no arrow.
And I am very strict about that.
You can be disqualified if youare caught passing or riding an
arrow.
So graded bridge, no passing, noarrow, period, non-negotiable.
The end.
Uh, we ride those bridges a lot.

SPEAKER_00 (33:42):
We just like pull somebody off over the bridge and
just think them.
Okay.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (33:47):
I'm not I'm not messing around on the bridges.
We're not we're not messingaround.

SPEAKER_00 (33:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
You know, we're not waiting to the end to give you
your DQ.

SPEAKER_00 (33:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (33:55):
There.
You will get shown a card andyou're done.
So you would hate to be DQ'd atmile and a half.

SPEAKER_00 (34:00):
No, no.
Still wet and still still fresh.
All those carbs are still readyto ready to go somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 (34:10):
And then they get and people are like, whoa.
And I'm like, we are not, I'mnot playing around on those
bridges.
And we ride them, right?
I mean, we do you just you needto pay attention, you need to
sit up, you need to not beridiculous, you're not winning
the race at mile a half.
You're just not doing it.
Um, there's one other area onthe course which is no arrow, no

(34:31):
passing, and that was at therequest of law enforcement
because of the turn that it'skind of on.
So when law enforcement asks youto do something, you say yes,
sir.
When would you like it done?
So it's been that way for twoyears.
That that's not a big deal.
It's well marked.
You'll see it get out of arrow,don't pass.
It is literally for a quartermile.
It is not a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 (34:52):
Get get your water, get your gel.

SPEAKER_01 (34:54):
Yeah.
It's a perfect time.
That is about mile 35.
That's probably my mile 36, 37.
So perfect time.
Take some water, get a gel.
You just came in, you pass anaid station at 33.
You're still kind of gettingreadjusted again.
So it's fine.
So those are a couple keythings.
Um, otherwise, just payattention, keep your eye, you

(35:16):
know, it's not the whole courseis not closed.
So when you get back on thehighway, you're not coned in
again until about mile, you comeout at 44, you're conned in
again about mile 49.
And then you're coned into thefinish.
So it's you're conned in quite abit, but where you're not, pay
attention.
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (35:37):
So one place I love to stand at Iron Man, North
Carolina is the uh bike dismountbecause there is always
something entertaining going on.
Sorry, y'all, but sometimesyou're just a little ridiculous
when when people, you know,because you've been yeah, I mean
it's been a windy day.

(35:57):
You're making an arrow.
You're right.
Yeah, you're you're ready to getoff, you're a little locked up,
and then it's like skirt.
I mean, those poor volunteersare always like, please do not
run me over.
So any tips on the I mean,because there's a it's there's a
long way coming in that you seethe dismount line, but it still

(36:20):
just catches people.

SPEAKER_01 (36:22):
It when you do you have one final bearing left,
you're gonna see the penaltytent on your right.
When you see that penalty tent,you just need to slow down
because dismount's coming, yeah.
And you just and you know, thesame guys have done it the
dismount every year, and theystill keep coming back, so
that's a good thing, I think.
Yeah, but they still go back, soyeah, you have dismount, and

(36:44):
then you need to get ready.
T2 is on a slant.
I get comments about that everyyear.
I cannot repave the parking lot.
I cannot.
How much you want me to repavethe parking lot?
I cannot repave the parking lot.
That is Cape Fear CommunityCollege parking lot.
I'm not in charge of that.

SPEAKER_00 (37:02):
Yeah, honestly.
T one is uh grass, and then twois blacktop.

SPEAKER_01 (37:08):
Blacktop, yeah, angled it's angled, it's not
this angled, but it is angled.

SPEAKER_00 (37:15):
Listen, y'all, we got you got a lot of pieces when
you're doing when you're puttingon a race this big and yeah, and
three sports, and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (37:23):
I can't repay you for the parking lot.
You just need to not runridiculous.
You yeah, if you really want to,you know, just be careful.
You're not gonna win the race inT2, but T2's fast anyway.
You get in there, get your bike,put your shoes on, boom, you're
gone.
You don't need anything, really,by that point.

SPEAKER_00 (37:39):
Just go.
Yeah, I do have you've got yourbag of goodies.
It's not like you laid yourstuff out, like a quote unquote
traditional race, right?
Like you got your baggie, go toyour spot.

SPEAKER_01 (37:52):
Yep, your bag too.
Take your bag in the day before,so you're gonna know where it is
because you put it there.
So I mean, there you go.
And then you get to there andreally rack your bike, dump your
bag out, put everything on.
You don't have to put your bikestuff back in that bag.
Some people choose to becauseit's easier at the end of the
day to pick it up, and thenpeople don't take it.
But if you just want to dump andgo and strip and go, or yeah,

(38:15):
that's probably not the rightword, but and then get out of
there, you can do it.
Yeah, peel and go.
Um, you can go.
So it it you don't have to usethat, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (38:24):
And a portageon's like literally in transition,
which is nice.

SPEAKER_01 (38:28):
There's not as many in T2 as there are in T1 because
T2 tends to be more spread out.

SPEAKER_00 (38:33):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (38:34):
I've never had a problem with people waiting in
T2, it seems to be kind of niceand spread out.

SPEAKER_00 (38:39):
So finding your bike because it does look like a sea
of bags and bikes.
Um, oftentimes people like toput balloons out, or there's
something with a red cup thatyou don't like, so you can have
to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 (38:54):
You want to go why I don't like that red cup.
Let me tell you because peoplehave used it before to keep
water, right?
So they run the thing up andthen the cup sits here so water
doesn't get in their bag.
But you know what they do?
Right, okay, they yank their bagdown, and those red cups go
everywhere.
So in Pennsylvania, HappyValley, Pennsylvania, in 2023, I
was working transition.

(39:15):
I must have picked up 500 cups.
I'm not picking up 500 cups inNorth Carolina, so we are not
having red cups either.
You could just put all yourstuff if it's gonna rain, just
put your stuff in extra baggiesin there.
But that's what people did, sothat's why I don't like those
cups because nobody throws themaway.
Yeah, and then they get layered.
Yeah, and then they bloweverywhere, and you gotta chase

(39:36):
cups down all over the city ofWilmington, and like uh that
might be a little dramatic, butyou know, that's kind of what
happens, yeah.
No red solo cups either.
That's why I don't like red solocups.
Okay, um, no red solo cups, noballoons, no balloons, and
that's not my rule, that's kindof Iron Man's rule.
Yeah, it's just not allowed tomark your spot special.
I would just look to the side,look and see where the porta

(39:57):
potties are and be like, oh, I'mwriting some of that port of
potty.

SPEAKER_00 (39:59):
I mean, you can take like a sharpie and write it on
your arm, like I'm in row fivewhen you you know, or whatever.
Um, and do that too.
You'll get there.
You'll you you will find it.
You will find it.
You will find it.

SPEAKER_01 (40:12):
Or if you're like uh if you're lucky enough to be
racked by me and if you know, Ihave a pink saddle.
All I do is look for when I goto T1, I just look for the pink
saddle, and I'm like, oh,there's my bike.
Because the pink saddle.
Yeah, I dig it.
I drive an orange car too, justfor that reason.

SPEAKER_00 (40:27):
So you never always know where you're um, yes.
So good.
My bike is because it's got apink saddle.
I know where my car is becauseit's orange.
Because it's orange.
I dig it.
So now we're on to the run.
I mean, I feel like this isprobably the easiest thing of
the entire race, generallyspeaking.
Like follow the signs organizeor to run or to do.

(40:49):
Oh, actually, like for theathlete.
Oh, yeah, it is.
No, nothing, nothing about thisrace is easy, I would imagine,
for you to direct andororganize.

SPEAKER_01 (40:57):
Like, it's let me tell you the late the latest
story.
So, yeah, no, it's not easybecause as of last week, this is
insider information.
If anybody's watching this, nowwe'll get posted on Facebook
probably at the end of the week,but down at live, yeah, I do
this out and back through thepark because it's kind of pretty
down there, too.
And they're like, Nope, youcan't run this way this year.
And I'm like, What the heck?
So then it's I can't run througha certain part of the park.

(41:19):
So now you're down to now youdon't have 0.12 miles.
Do you know how hard it is tofind 0.12 miles and not affect
city?
Like, I was like, Oh my god, youknow, you race direct.
Finding it sounds so little, butit is so big.
If you put it here, uh-oh, nowI'm gonna be running by a boat
ramp.
Can't do that if I put it hereand be like, nope, I'm crossing

(41:40):
the street.
I can't do that.
So we're literally gonna have todo a little out and back out at
Greenfield Lake.
It's gonna be fine.
I'm gonna call it uh the IronMan Walk of Fame, and we're
gonna put some posters downthere and handout wristbands.
I'm gonna try and make itentertaining.
And you know, I've got I went upto Mount Olive yesterday and
bought 16 cases of pickles.
So we have pickles, and but itis hard to find 0.12 miles.

(42:05):
So I'm gonna go re-GPS it againon Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 (42:09):
Yeah, the life of a race director.
I remember them they did that atIron Man North at Iron Man
Raleigh, that you would go downthis little street and right
before and at like the Capitol,and then you turn down
Fayetteville Street, it waslike, oh my gosh, the finish
line.
Well, they had to do a similartype of thing that instead of
turning, you had to do thislittle baby out and back, and it

(42:30):
confused everybody because thatwas always where I was
volunteering because it wasshaded and it was nice.
But people were just like, Butthere's the finish line.
I'm like, listen, I don't makethe rules, just go around the
cone.
Like, just go, just go around,just follow the course.

SPEAKER_01 (42:44):
I know people are gonna be like, I gotta turn
right here, you gotta turn righthere.
You gotta come back up thestreet, you gotta come back up
that street.

SPEAKER_00 (42:50):
Uh yeah, yep, it is what it is.
Like, you know, it just yeah.
Um, and then the finish line issuper cool.

SPEAKER_01 (42:59):
Yeah, so we went back to the original beach to
bat.
So we were finishing in Live OakPark, which was cool.
Um, but we went back to theoriginal, but it's hard with
live nation to coordinate inbetween concerts, is what you
know, and I want the finish lineto be special for the athletes,
I want it to be our finish line.
We're not sharing.
I'm I'm being selfish.
I want it to be well, y'all'sfinish line.

(43:19):
I'm not doing the race.
Um, but we went back to theoriginal beach battleship one
that not the battleship becausewe're not crossing those
bridges, but you're coming in at12 at 12.8, you're really on the
boardwalk.
You can see the battleship,you're on the river.
It was so beautiful last year,Chris.
It was just so beautiful.
So we're going back there againthis year.
Yeah, it was a pretty and it waslively.

(43:42):
The um tribe clubs had theirtents, it was colorful, it was
very animated, it was verycrowded, but that's so I like
that like atmosphere.
Yeah, you got a good vibe.
It had a great vibe, and thennow we're in the diligence park
lot, and I got a a duo coming tosing, bass man X and Bianca,
they're gonna come be play somemusic.
You can put picnic tables,families can go order from

(44:04):
Mellon Mushroom or something andcome eat.
It's just gonna be, I think, areally cool vibe.
Yeah, a really even better vibe.

SPEAKER_00 (44:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Okay, so now the fun part.
What do you other than thethings you I mean you've given
us a lot of details, but like,are there certain things that
you wish everybody knew aboutbeing a race director?

SPEAKER_01 (44:23):
Oh, number one.

SPEAKER_00 (44:25):
You want number one?
Oh, I want number one, whichmight actually be number one.

SPEAKER_01 (44:30):
Let's see.
Every year I get some ringcamera video, and you can
imagine what that is all is.
So at so I now have big signsall around the swim start that
say respect our neighborhood,use the portable toilets.
So you can imagine as a racedirector opening up your email

(44:53):
the day after you had thisamazing race, and there's ring
cameras, ring cameras.
So they get sent to RightsvilleBeach, and Rightsville Beach
sends them to me.
So for all you athletes thatthink it's you want to skip the
Porto, don't skip the Portobecause your rear end is on
somebody's camera and it'sgetting shown to all over
Rightsville Beach, just so youknow.

(45:13):
So don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 (45:15):
Um, so that is yeah, that is probably that is that
that that is next.

SPEAKER_01 (45:23):
That is not something that you think about
when you're 10 years old, andyou're like, I think I want to
be a race director.
Hmm, I think I want to look atring camera.
So don't, please don't do that.
That is like that happens, thatreally does happen.
It's happen it happens, it'shappened a few times.
Now it's gotten better sinceI've added more portos, but you
have 93 portos between when youarrive at T1 and before you get

(45:45):
in the water.
93.

SPEAKER_00 (45:47):
That's a lot of port.

SPEAKER_01 (45:48):
Yeah, pick one at two different locations, pick
two, pick three, but you have93.
93 portos.
Um, yeah, so there's that, andthen I will honestly say the
other kind of very mostchallenging aspect for me is
what to do with athlete food.
I never know what to do withathlete food, and like what to

(46:11):
feed them or what okay, yeah.
What to feed to make everybodyhappy because I'm not gonna make
everybody now, it's impossible.
It is impossible, and I say thisvery lovingly to everybody.
If you really have a specialdietary requirement, then please
have some, then pack it becauseit's so hard because we have to,
you know, don't forget you haveto feed 2,500 people in a

(46:34):
parking lot in the sun at arandom time of the day without a
kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 (46:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (46:40):
So it has to be some volunteers, and you have
volunteers, you know.
So um this year, I don't mindwe're doing veggie pesto pasta.
So you got your vegetarian,you've got your carbs, we're
doing chicken fingers, they arelightly breaded, so you'll get
two to three chicken fingerswith veggie pesto pasta, mount
olive pickle, and then a myriadof chips and cookies and things

(47:04):
like that that you want.
So, I mean, uh I would eat that.
Now, if you are gluten-free, Ihave specifically set aside 30
non-breaded chicken fingers.
You just have to ask for themand green beans.
So yeah, you can so I've gotvegetarian, gluten-free, and
regular.

(47:24):
You've got carbs, you've gotprotein, you've got chips if you
don't want to eat real food, um,cookies, soda, you know, all of
that.
So, but the um I had done umlike Carolina Barbecue the like
the previous four years, andthat was iffy.
So we're trying something newthis year.
So, but trying to figure out howto get that many people fed.

(47:47):
I don't do a lot of food trucks,and people are like, do a food
truck, do a food truck.
And the reason I don't isbecause literally, if you walk
up one block, at least for allthe spectators, there's 40
restaurants, 40 restaurants.
So I learned that fact today.
Within a, you know, within a um10-minute walk, there's 40
restaurants.
So I would rather support local.

(48:08):
Tell your family friends to gopick something up and bring it
back to you, but buy local.
So I like that because we'reimpacting their roads.
So yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (48:16):
Ring cameras, impacting things.
You guys, I want to say, are thesecond, second or third largest
revenue generator for Wilmingtonnext to like an Azalea Festival.
Am I is that fake news?
Or do we think it's not fakenews and we might be number one?

SPEAKER_01 (48:33):
Whoa.
We don't have as much data onthe Azalea Festival, and the
Azalea Festival now is spreadthroughout the year, right?
They do this concert this day,that concert that day.
Yeah.
This you know, the parade andstuff.
So yeah, we're either number oneor number two revenue generator.

SPEAKER_00 (48:48):
Yeah, that's a big deal.
That is a big deal.
So yeah, it is a restaurant,yeah, yeah, and that's with
everything, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (48:55):
And so I try to do I try to do almost everything
local that I can, you know, allthe porta potties, you know, two
different trash companies,athlete food, security that we
hire for all these places, um,you know, everything, all my
captain's meetings, I'm orderingthem food.
I try and support um when thestaff comes in, I'm gonna take

(49:16):
them on a ghost tour with like alocal, you know, ghost tour
trip.
Um, you know, try and doeverything local that we can to
support because I do I love mycommunity and I know we're
impacting them for a day.
So if I can give back to them,and the Iron Man, I will throw
this in here too.
I feel like this is important.
The Iron Man Foundation givesback to the community and all

(49:36):
the volunteer groups.
And I did the number, I ran thenumbers, and since 2016, they
and a couple of the years whenthe hurricane had the
cancellations too, they gavestill they gave like almost like
I think 35,000 to the community,but they've given almost 300,000
back to the community.
So I think that's I mean, that'sbig every year that they're you

(49:58):
know given.
So if anybody wants to know whatyour the Iron Man Foundation
does, you know, they're helpingthe communities at their end,
and I'm super appreciative ofthat.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (50:08):
So that's awesome.
So good.
Well, I am looking forward tothis year's race.
I think it's I'm not racing, butmy intention every year is to
try to come and volunteer insome capacity or ring a cowbell.

SPEAKER_01 (50:22):
I I love that.
If you come, if you really thinkyou're coming, you need to
contact me because I can alwaysuse good high-quality
volunteers.

SPEAKER_00 (50:29):
I I usually I sometimes I this is probably
against the rules, and now thatyou know, you're probably gonna
be on the lookout for me.
Sometimes I get on my bike and Iride the run course and ring my
cowbell, and I'm like, nobodyget mad at it, please.
But there's some places on therun course where it's like no
man's land.
It is all you hear is likepeople breathing, and then

(50:50):
you're like, Oh my god, why didI do this?
And then I'm like, ta-da! Here Iam, and then I ring the cowbell.

SPEAKER_01 (50:56):
So if if you do that, just just humor me and
ride the way that the carsdrive.
Because it's only one way, it'sonly one way traffic through the
lake, so just make sure start atthe opposite end that you think
good.
Just follow the rules of theroad, ride the other way.
Yeah, we'll do so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (51:11):
Otherwise, we'll volunteer.

SPEAKER_01 (51:13):
Yeah, other otherwise ring all the cowbells
you want out there.
Yes, so good.
Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 (51:17):
Yeah, and then uh and then you're coming back next
year, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (51:21):
Next year we're uh we're going back to our normal
date, which is nice, it'll beOctober 17th.
Okay, 20 July.

SPEAKER_00 (51:28):
It's affected by the tides.

SPEAKER_01 (51:30):
Yeah, that's why it changes.
It's not that it has nothing todo with anything except you do
not want to swim on an outgoingtide, trust me.
Yeah, you know, yeah, you know,sometimes it's a little slack in
the morning, you know, when youstart at the end, that's just
because of how the tide isworking that day.
Yeah, uh, this year you're rightin the middle of the tide.
You get a good you get a prettygood push this year.
It's not not quite as fast aslast year, I don't think, but

(51:51):
it's gonna be a good push.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, it'll be it's gonna be agood push.
But yeah, so that's why itmoves.

SPEAKER_00 (51:57):
All right.
So any final thoughts or thingsthat you want people to know,
whether it be uh spectators,athletes, um, anybody.

SPEAKER_01 (52:09):
I will say that just remember that you're coming into
people's community, right?
Above all, and you know, we haveover 1,200 volunteers.
So this community is, I mean,for the most part, very, very
friendly for Iron Man coming in.
You're gonna hit us a couplepeople that don't like it, but
for the most part, thiscommunity loves it, they welcome

(52:31):
it, and so we hope that you knowy'all show the same, you know,
respect for the community thatthey have for you guys and
support for y'all coming in.
So I think that would be justthe biggest thing.
You know, we can't wait.
My we I love it, my staff lovesit.
I mean, otherwise they wouldn'tbe back and they wouldn't do it
again.
So thank you for coming becauseI'm kind of quite honored that

(52:53):
our little race in Wilmington,North Carolina, you know, last
year we were the second largest,too.
Like, I don't know if Inecessarily love that for
congestion, but it does, it is atestament to my team that
everybody wants to come hang outwith my team, right?
And and do it.
Um, if you read the athleteguide and you look at my welcome
letter, there's a QR code.

(53:14):
I made you a special NorthCarolina playlist this year.
So um I owned a dance studio fora while, so I love music.
So go check that out.
Um, but mainly, yeah, just thankyou for coming.
I can't thank you for coming andwanting to hang out with me for
a couple days.
So that's really pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (53:30):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, so you know, athletes,when you're out there, just say
thank you to all yourvolunteers.
Thank you to the staff.
Like if they're wearingsomething, you know, because you
guys have everybody's wearingsomething specific.

SPEAKER_01 (53:41):
Yep, they have it's hot pink this year, which I love
because pink is my color, thosebright pink shirts, and um,
we're also celebrating like it'sgame day, so that some of people
might be sporting their favoritecollegiate team too.
So that's kind of cool, butyou'll be able to tell their
volunteers, and you get thelittle red bracelets this year.
So make sure to say thank you tothem and you know, hand them to
anybody and everybody that yousee.
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (54:01):
Yeah, all right.
Well, Sammy Winter's Iron Man inNorth Carolina 70.3 race
director.
Thank you so much.
This was so fun.
This is awesome.
Yeah, yeah, cool.
All right.

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Ironman NC 70.3 Triathlon: Insider Tips with the Race Director Ep113

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