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

Join Coach Chris with Sami Winters, the race director at Ironman NC 70.3 in Wilmington, NC. Get all the insider tips and details for this amazing race, including a tidal swim, a point-to-point puzzle, and a finish on the Riverwalk—all built by a team of 1,200 volunteers and a great staff. We unpack the fast course, strict safety rules, and the community that makes PRs possible.

• why the date follows the tide charts
• what makes the swim fast yet technical
• warm-up workarounds without water access
• transition bags, no buckets, no solo cups
• bike course winds, counterflow, highway loop
• grated bridges with strict no-aero, no-pass rules
• T2 on a slant and fast setups
• run course tweaks and the Riverwalk finish vibe
• community impact, volunteers, and local giving
• practical travel, lodging, and packing tips
• athlete food plan and dietary options
• respect for neighborhoods and facilities

If you're racing this year, GOOD LUCK! Be sure to read your athlete guide and check out Sami's welcome letter and playlist. 

Get more info, plus the video here

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Chapters

• 0:00 Meet the Race Director
• 2:08 Why the Date Follows the Tides
• 3:05 Course Speed and Rankings
• 4:12 From Beach2Battleship to Ironman
• 5:09 Building the Team and Volunteers
• 7:00 True Cost of Race Infrastructure
• 7:45 Law Enforcement and DOT Coordination
• 8:40 Point‑to‑Point Logistics Explained
• 9:18 Should First‑Timers Choose This Race
• 10:12 Travel Timing and Athlete Guide
• 11:20 Where to Stay: Beach or Downtown
• 13:30 Transition System and Bag Rules
• 15:10 Lost and Found, No Buckets Policy
• 17:36 Swim Morning: Warm‑Up Alternatives
• 19:10 Saltwater, No Showers, Practical Tips
• 20:20 Wetsuit Peelers and Ladder Exit
• 21:50 Swim Starts, Currents, and Sighting
• 23:30 Safety Fleet: Guards, Boats, SUPs
• 25:05 Wildlife, Jellies, and Beach Etiquette
• 26:40 Bike Course Winds and Flow
• 28:12 Counterflow Riding and Highway Loop
• 29:40 Bridges: No Aero, No Passing
• 31:00 Aid, Enforcement, and Safe Riding
• 32:00 Dismount, Slanted T2, and Setup
• 34:00 Finding Gear: What Not to Do
• 35:30 Run Course Changes and Fixes
• 37:10 Finish Line Vibe on the Riverwalk
• 38:30 What RD’s Wish Athletes Knew
• 40:20 Community Impact and Local Giving
• 42:00 Final Tips, Dates, and Thanks

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:00

I am here today with Sammy Winter, who is the Iron Man North Carolina race director, 70.3 race director. And she also does, like, you know, she's also a vet, and she's also a coach. And, you know, she's just she's uh endlessly apparently not bored. Um, but I'm so excited you're here, Sammy, and this is gonna be such a good conversation.

SPEAKER_01: 1:21

Oh, I'm so excited to be here. I mean, any chance I can take to talk about the reality of what being a race tractor, and aside from that, just my race, and I it's not really my race, it's like my team's race, right? I have the most amazing staff and team that you could ever imagine. That's the only reason I can make it through this. I I will do it because I just love it. I just love it. That's so awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 1:43

Yeah, and it's uh so Iron Man North Carolina 70.3 is a little, it's like a like a snitch later this year. It's usually like middle-ish of October, and now it's like end of October, but then it's going back in 2026, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:55

It is going back, and everybody said, You changed the date, you changed that. I was like, No, no, no, I did not change the gate. God changed the date because he makes the tide charts. So the tide charts change that because we have to come in on, you know, you you want to swim on an incoming tide you because you don't want to swim against the current. So this was the year of the incoming tide, happened to be on the fourth week and not the third week, but next year we go back to the third a week. Oh, that's the next year will be October 17th. So that that's why it moved. It had nothing to do with anything, it's not like the river swims where they always are flowing and you're opening dams and controlling the flow. This is truly is tidal-based.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

So that is so cool. And P. S. And by the way, if you want a PR, this is the course to do it on because of that.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

Yeah, the swim is usually really fast. You know, the bike, you can have some headwind on. Um, so there's that challenge. Um, and then the run is just beautiful. I mean, I think the run is great. You know, last year I do have to brag on my team that put my swim and my run together. So we were third swim in North America. We really should have been number one. We're going for the gold this year, but we had some chop, we had some incoming chop, which created some, you know, some people just didn't quite get that when they're swimming the current. And then we were third run in North America and fifth globally. Like out of 70 races, we had the fifth best run. I I know Wilmay to North Carolina. You everybody talks about the swim, but our run was fifth, so which I think was really cool.

SPEAKER_00: 3:25

Like, yeah, that is a cool, it is a cool run. I mean, going through downtown and like it's it's it's neat.

SPEAKER_01: 3:32

Yeah, it is a it's pretty and it's shaded when you get out to the park. Um, and it you know you through down, and it has some rise to it, right? So it's not just that flat, you know, your legs get a little bit of a break, it's not you're not climbing a mountain, but you get a little bit of rise. So yeah, it's a really pretty run.

SPEAKER_00: 3:47

So, Sammy, when did you so because this race used to be back in the day, used to be beach to battleship, and it was a combination Iron Man, um, or I guess technically full distance and half distance because it was run by setup events, and then they sold it to Iron Man, right? And I don't know what year that was, like that was maybe 2016. 2016. Okay, and did you take it out? Did you like race direct from the get-go?

SPEAKER_01: 4:12

No, so I was involved with Beach to Battleship from the get-go in 2008. Um, when there and I did various and different jobs. I was transportation coordinator one year. It was organized a little bit differently. I was run course volunteers, then I was run course, and I did that for most of the time, just dealing with the run course. And then in 2016, um, Iron Man bought it, and Brian Bohr um became race director, and I became volunteer director. I'd been volunteer director for the marathon for I think maybe eight, nine years at that point. So I became volunteer director for the marathon and for the Iron Man. And then Brian Bohr um took a promotion and became head of like the trail division of Iron Man, and they needed a race 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 in Wilmington for 56 years, so I love my community. Um, and I was like, it'll be different, it'll be fun. It is different from volunteer directing. Um, but yeah, I've been race director since since it would be well 2020, but we know what happened in 2020.

SPEAKER_00: 5:21

So yeah, the disaster that was. Um the disaster was. And I mean, you put on a great race, that yeah, no doubt about that. How many you talk about your team and your staff? So, how many people are involved in putting on this operation?

SPEAKER_01: 5:33

Yeah, so uh the person more important than me is my volunteer director, and I'm always like, you get her on board first. I've known her since oh gosh, 2004, 2005. We train together and race together, and I probably drive her a little crazy, but she's my volunteer director. And then we have 46 local captains that help. Yeah, and so we do three captains meetings a year, and they help gather the volunteers because one person can't gather that many volunteers that you need to do it all together. So there, and then the Iron Man staff comes in with about 30, maybe. Um, and then they have all their merch people too. So maybe like 35. Probably about 30, 35. So uh, but my local team, I just love them. And and we have been very, very lucky that we've maintained the same local captain since I was raised direct, since I was volunteer director. So I recruited them all, and most of them have stayed on, which is a good testament to my now, you know, my volunteer director now. So yeah, they're good people, really good people.

SPEAKER_00: 6:34

That's so awesome. Yeah, and I I mean, I'll be the first 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 I watch the truck putting out all those cones. I'm like cha-ching, cha-ching, every time they like drop a cone.

SPEAKER_01: 6:58

I did say cha-ching about 5,000 times, and that alone. Oh, and then ching cha-ching when 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: 7:10

Wow. For anybody right there. Holy smoke.

SPEAKER_01: 7:14

So there you go. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:16

So there's a lot that goes into it, in other words.

SPEAKER_01: 7:19

There's a lot that goes into it, and besides just what you see, you know, it's what's on the back end, too, right? There, um, nobody even looks at this, but there's 107 law enforcement out there, and so and it's four different agencies, and we're meeting three times a year. There's everything that goes through NCDOT, uh, you know, because we go through multiple counties, multiple.

SPEAKER_00: 7:40

Right?

SPEAKER_01: 7:41

Highway. Yeah, some of us, yep, yep. Well, you have about, let me see, 13 to 30, um, 17 miles, and then 44 to uh yeah, there's about 23 miles on the highway.

SPEAKER_00: 7:55

Yeah. So if you ever want to ride your bike on the highway and have a lane to yourself, yeah, and you know, we ride we bike out there a lot, actually.

SPEAKER_01: 8:02

A lot of people don't like it because part of it you're not coned in. Um, but it's mostly it's two-laned, and so we you know, you got to ride rules of the road. Um, but we ride out there a lot because there's a big wide shoulder, too.

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

Yeah, cool. All right, so uh let's start with some logistics. This course is unique because it's a point to point, it's almost like a point to point to point.

SPEAKER_01: 8:23

Oh no, it's a point to point to point to point to point.

SPEAKER_00: 8:27

So so again, cha ching. Again, yes, there's that, and then also like for anybody who might be starting in into this, you know, this might be their first 70.3, like it's I feel like it's it's a little bit next level than your average 70.3, like you gotta think through a lot of the logistics. So you guys hook everybody up with all these like bags, and so before even starting, what do you think somebody should know about the course before even signing up?

SPEAKER_01: 9:03

Oh, before signing up, um, I can tell you what they should do when they sign up, but before signing up, I think they should know that North Carolina is the best race out there, so they should definitely sign up. But if they they should sign up um before they sign up, right? Because you guys are sold out. We always sell out, um, which I'm very blessed and grateful that that many people want to come race down here with all the logistics, as you point out. They think most people want easy stuff, but um I would sign up with this just knowing that you're gonna need to read the athlete guide. You're gonna need to get and the main thing is you know, some of these races you can drive in on Friday, you can pick up your packet, you rack your bike, and you race on Saturday or Saturday for Sunday, you know, whatever day it is. You do, I usually recommend you're taking a day off work to race on Saturday. So be prepared to spend more than 36 hours down here to race, right? If you really have a quick time and got to get in and out, this is probably not the race to do it because you do need to get here early to kind of take care of some things. That would probably be the biggest one because I hear a lot of, oh my gosh, you know, I'm not getting there until two o'clock on Friday. You're gonna be pressing it, right? Or you're just gonna be rushed and not relaxed and not ready to race. So do be prepared that you probably need a good 48 hours to get organized. I think that's the biggest thing. And that's the biggest thing that surprises people. Um, I like it because it's a Saturday race, so people can usually get home on either sat late Saturday afternoon or Sunday and get ready for Monday. I think that's kind of nice, but on the front end, it means you're taking off some time on Friday.

SPEAKER_00: 10:37

Yeah, because um like transition is different than the start, is different than T2 and the finish line. So, which is not a necessarily a short drive. It's all gorgeous, like because you're downtown Wilmington and then you're Riceville, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 10:55

But also it takes it takes logistics, so no, so being able to take time off and then just like I said, I say that jokingly because everybody always likes read the athlete guide, but you're gonna need to read the athlete guide and look at the maps. It it takes a little bit of work on the front end, but once you understand it, it's really pretty easy. And if you just kind of have it, the hardest part I think is deciding if you want to stay at the beach or you want to stay downtown. That depends whether you want to stay 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 to kind 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 you know, you can so you have a car down there, but I think the I think the beach is a prettier place to stay, especially in the fall.

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 nearly the same crowds, and it's just it's awesome. And like the water's not too cold.

SPEAKER_01: 12:00

It's so pretty. No, um, we became wetsuit legal this week and it won't go back up. Yay! Right now, the water, I think 75 still. Now it might drop a little this week with this cold front moving through, but um, yeah. The other thing I think that people 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 a cool place to bring your family for vacation. So your family can come down with you for the weekend and they there's plenty of stuff for them to do um while you're racing and they can bop in and see you too. But while you're doing all your race things, there's plenty of stuff for them to do, and that's fine. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:38

That's cool. All right. So then when they sign up, what are some of the things that they need to do? And then we'll get into like the swim, bike, run, all those aspects. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:47

Yeah, yeah, that's okay. Uh, first thing is decide if you're gonna stay at Beach or Downtown, and then you can kind of plan easier from there, which where where you want to stay. Don't wait to decide. Um, oh, there's plenty of hotels, like there's plenty of places, plenty of opportunities and places to stay, but just decide where you want to stay, and then I would um read last year's athlete guide if you're signing up early to just go 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 training as 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 speaking of the athlete guide, well, let's at least start with like transitions, and then we can get into the swim. What what is going on with all the transitions?

SPEAKER_01: 13:38

I love all my transitions. Um, yes, but there are two of them. And the first one, the most important tip for the first one is you are going to turn your bike 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 swim and you're all dressed in your bike gear, everything from the swim has to go in the bag. And then tie it tight at the top, because you know we've got football players and soccer players that are loading up these bags, and you never know what the quarterback's gonna do. I say that jokingly, but you know, they do get tossed around. Um, tie it tightly and leave it at your spot. If you don't care about getting anything back, don't put it in your bag. But if it's not in the bag, it's not coming back. And I'm not in the business of carting bike pumps. Do not put a bike pump in your bag and no buckets allowed. That is that's one of your pet peeves, isn't it? That is my one of my pet peeves. Can you tell that people told you that that is one of my pet peeves? Do not bring a bucket in my transition, and people will be like, Oh my gosh, I have nothing against buckets in your house and wherever you want to put them, 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, fit it 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's phenomenal because some people like to sit on their buckets to put 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 these things that might be left behind? What the heck do you do with all that stuff?

SPEAKER_01: 15:40

Oh, I know. Don't laugh. My volunteer, because she has a much bigger garage than I do. Her garage the day after the race looks like who like uh goodwill or something like that. But we are very good. I will give her a pat on the back and her and I and my athlete services team together. We go through, I post on Facebook, she gets all the numbers. Like if the numbers are in there, we find and we mail everything to people. No kidding. Yeah, we do. I mean, I she's pretty remarkable like that, and we will track things down, and it's amazing half the time. Typically, what happens is nobody's stuff is lost. Somebody just took typically another athlete, just picked it up, you know, by mistake. Um, you know, when everybody's trying to get in a hurry. So I guess, you know, don't be in a hurry. Pack purposefully when you're packing your stuff. Um, but yeah, we get it back to them, we hold it, and then after about 30, 45 days, we donate a lot 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 are you 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's gonna be a little bit l I asked for it to be a little bit less. Wow. Okay, it just gets a lot with two 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 to the pier, so I guess we'll get into swim now, right? When you walk down to the I guess it's technically a pier, it's like just like a big parking 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 big parking lot, and it's usually a little chilly, so you're standing there all awkwardly in your wetsuit, um, and probably a little cold, and then there just ends up being this like massive pile of flip-flops and sh and I I don't even know. Is that intentional, or is that just like, here you go, iron we in North Carolina, enjoy some stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 17:43

Well, so I'll tell you what we do with all that stuff. So I usually tell people you don't want to be in your wetsuit too early. The coaching side of me says don't be in, you know, you don't want to pull it up and just be standing 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 your waist. So you are gonna have clothes. You can use the morning clothes bag if you really want your sweatshirt, which I would want to 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 whole suitcase. I don't want to cart everything in that bag again. But um, if you don't care, you can just throw it off, and everything that is left in that parking lot gets donated. Everything. People are like, I left my sweatshirt there. We're not carting it back downtown. If you throw off a sweatshirt, if you leave shoes, if you do whatever, it all gets taken to um typically Good Shepherd. Yeah, it'll get taken there and and donated. Um, and but then you can use your morning clothes bag too. Uh, you know, don't bring backpacks, don't bring a lot of stuff. Once again, we have to cart all those bags. So we're carting two set of bags all the way downtown.

SPEAKER_00: 18:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 18:54

Yeah. And I always tell people, don't put valuables in there. And they're like, and I'll I'll throw out this little tip. Well, what do I do with my car keys? You know, if they're by themselves and all of a sudden they have their car keys with them. I say put them on your bike in your bento box. Because you're gonna ride your bike. So when you you go to transition, put your key there to your car if you're by yourself, you do your race, your bike's in T2, you get your bike, you get your key, and you're done. So that's where I usually put that. Um, so people ask about their phones a lot, and I'm like, I don't know, don't carry your phone to put down to the swim start. And everybody's like, they I might need to to call. I mean, I don't know. I but I wouldn't put it in your bag if it was me, but people do it.

SPEAKER_00: 19:37

Yeah, wow, impressive. Yeah, so yeah, so you get that so you get down to the swim start, and there's no like official warm-up, right?

SPEAKER_01: 19:48

Yeah, there is not, and that is because of the current. We have nowhere to put you in that you're not gonna just scootle on down the channel, and then we're gonna have to get you on back. So there's no way to do it. So, what I actually made a post on Facebook, and I said there's plenty of space back there. You need to do jumping jacks, high knees, arm circles, whatever you need to do. You do need to do some kind of a warm-up to get your heart rate up before you get in the water. Uh, you're just not gonna be able to swim. Bring bands. I mean, there's people some back there that have some swim bands that are using all that. Um, unlike a small therapy band that's easy to take that and do some rows, do you know uh any kind of if you can get the band, if you have you know real swim bands, you can practice your stroke, do whatever you can to warm 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 you know, splash it on their face at all? Or is that like, let's not do that?

SPEAKER_01: 20:47

There's not really a great place to do that. They can walk over to the ocean and do that if they want. You know what? I the other thing I tell people is carry a bottle of water with you. And right at what I do whenever I do any of these races like that, where I don't like when I did Alcatraz before I jumped in or Norsemen or things like that. I have a bottle of water, just dump the bottle of water on your head as you walk as you're walking across the street. Yeah, and then and then we have trash cans over there, throw the bottle away, and there's your whoo, 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 time and 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 bottle of water in transition, we do have a water in, so as you're running in from the swim, you can grab a cup of water if you'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 little difficult to do. We are gonna run a hose. Um, CPAT, there's a place to put a hose, so we kind of have a hose out there. We might have somebody kind of spraying if they want it, but we're not gonna have a real shower. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:55

Because it I know there's a lot of people at the very end, they're like, oh my gosh, 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 the ocean.

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 the 70s. Not that you're not gonna sweat in the 70s, you're not gonna look like you do here in southeastern North Carolina in the 90s in the summer, where you're like, Yes, just totally done.

SPEAKER_00: 22:21

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, are there wetsuit strippers? Yes. Wetsuit peelers, wetsuit peelers. Oh, sorry, wetsuit peelers. Is that like the new PC way of wetsuit peelers?

SPEAKER_01: 22:36

That's okay. The team, it's the same soccer team that's done it for like three or four years and they love it.

SPEAKER_00: 22:41

Okay, yeah. So all right, I know we're gonna have to back up to the actual swim, but like I was so excited about wetsuit peelers. So, you how do you how does one get 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 point to point race, you have latter, you're climbing out of the water out of a ladder. There are 10 ladders lined up on the dock. You're climbed up to people all the time, like, somebody pushed me, send me to this. You got 10 ladders, pick one. Um, yeah, or if somebody's giving you a little push up, good, they're just helping you get up the ladder. So you climb up the ladder, you get up on the dock, you're gonna run down the dock. As you're coming around the dock, you're gonna take your goggles off. Oh, yeah, I guess you don't have to take your goggles and your swim cap. You can leave those on if you're cold. Um, unzip your wetsuit, get it down, pull it to your waist. CPath lets you leave shoes over there if you don't like doing the little uh third of a mile run to transition. If you don't want to run on concrete, you can leave shoes. And I tell people when it's cold, put those hand warmers in your shoes. Oh, that's a good idea. So yeah, then your shoes are toasty. So then you pick up your shoes, you run out, you sit down, let them peel your wetsuit, throw your shoes on that are now toasty warm, grab those hand warmers, grab your um, grab your wetsuit, and just start running. And then you get the transition. And so then you can of it if it's if it's super chilly, you can then repurpose those hand warmers. I've been known to put them in my back pocket of my tribe because then it kind of warms your back up. Yeah. Um, yeah, and so it's nice to warm your core up. If you some people were last year, it was warm enough, they wore gloves, you put them in your gloves, your hands get warm, but at least your bike, your bike shoes are warm, so then your feet are warmer when you get over there, which is kind of nice.

SPEAKER_00: 24:18

Yeah, that is nice. So when somebody wants to get peeled, they just they lay down on their back and then off it goes.

SPEAKER_01: 24:25

Off it goes. And those boys like to have contests of who can get them off the fastest.

SPEAKER_00: 24:29

I bet they do. Oh my goodness, that is that is the best. Okay, so let's rewind. You can't get a warm-up in in the swim, but then once you get in, you guys are releasing people. What is it like four-ish at a time? Three every five seconds, three every five seconds.

SPEAKER_01: 24:43

Sometimes when we get near the end, or if we get closer, we want to try and get everybody in an hour. So as you get in, it might may become four every five seconds because you want to take breaks like every 10 minutes or so, too, just to kind of let a little 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 swimming because you know it'll drop off, and then you kind of ease around a dock and boom, you're gone. And you do want to keep you this is one race you definitely want to keep those sight buoys on your left because as you're swimming down, you know, the current's gonna start pulling you. And last year a lot of people are like, the buoy's moving, the buoy's moving. I'm like, the buoy is not moving because if it was moving, it would be at the finish with you, and it wasn't, but it sometimes can get stretched out on the line, right? If the current's really strong. So as you're kind of swimming and 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. You just want to keep those buoys on your left, the sight buoys, but go out with them. And if you're not a confident swimmer, you can swim by the docks, and the docks are kind of right there. If you're like, nope, I want to swim by docks, that's where I want to be. It's just gonna take it's just gonna be harder to make that left turn to get into Mott's channel. You start in banks, you go in Mots and then weave your way through Mots. Um, it's just gonna be a little bit 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, you like turn right-ish and then you turn left, and then you kind of turn right-ish and then left-ish, and it's like all these 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, you kind of come out, you bear right. You have you you're not gonna go left because the current's not gonna let you, so you're gonna you're gonna go right whether you want to go right or not. Once you you're gonna you kind of 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 next level. They have divers, lifeguards. The um, my favorite are the lifeguards who are on the um, they're on, they look like they'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 of time with water safety. Ricewell Beach Ocean Rescue supports us. We have the Coast Guard out there protecting one end of the channel from boats. We've got New Hanover County Sheriffs protecting other two ends. We, you know, like an ocean rescue, five boats, three jet skis, um, 20 lifeguards, like 45 water support. I mean, at some point we have to swim, but there, I mean, there's I'm very blessed to have a fantastic swim team that puts that together and recruits that. Um, one of the local SUP clubs um donates all the SUPs and paddleboards for all the people to use out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really, really nice. Um, it's really nice. That's cool. Um at some point you gotta swim. You yeah, you need to swim. You can float a lot of it, but you have it's not a river swim. You're just not going downriver. You know, you gotta navigate the turn. So you do have I told you what's a 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 to navigate, you're not just floating down. So it still is a real swim. It's a fast, real swim, but it's still a real swim. Yeah, and I don't know anybody watching this that like I don't know if Myrick, who uh is chatty race director, or anybody out in Oregon, if they were to see this, they're gonna be like, My swim's real. And I'm gonna be like, Really? You just dump it and float downstream.

SPEAKER_00: 28:22

I mean a good healthy competition is good, even if it's amongst race directors. 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 just sit. But but here, yes, you can do that. But like you said, you do have to 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 just keep going and don't turn. But if you're a bag of potato chips, at some point the potato chips have to come out and swim. You know, slow down, but at some point they gotta come out, do a little breaststroke, and turn around.

SPEAKER_00: 29:02

Yeah, yeah. Um I hesitate to say this, but we did see remnants of things that are living in the ocean. So uh, but I imagine it's probably not, I'm not gonna say specific words of things that live in the ocean, but I've not I've not seen anybody have an issue. Have you ever had anybody have an 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 say this, it's gonna jinx me because we've got kind of a storm rolling through this weekend, but this was a very, very, very, very, very light jellyfish season. Like typically we do have the jellyfish, but they come once the once the cooler water comes, they go away. Now, sometimes we've had occasional remnants of jellyfish there that people have gotten stung. I mean, this year we swam throughout the whole summer and no stings really, because a bunch of us swim out there all the time. Um, so I don't know what it was. And we had, you know, some storms come up with some storm surge and everything too, and that kind of brings them in, but it wasn't so yeah, you will in a few years we've had people report some of some jellyfish stings for sure. Um, I've been out there and have seen um a lot of dolphins. Yeah, dolphins will swim out there, which is really, really cool. And um, I keep I always say, I hope 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, which is kind of nice. Yeah, make sure when you when you're running in the water, they're little crabs that crawl on the sand. So when you're going in the water, you know, shuffle your feet, you know, do the stain ray shuffle.

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 your feet like that. So I tell you shuffle your feet. But you might see a little, you know, crabby's down there biting your toes.

SPEAKER_00: 30:59

Okay, all right, all right. But but but you know, just like you 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 ten ladders. So you know, don't necessarily just go for the first one because you might get hung up in there by other people, and you might be the one giving your neighbor a nice shove. Um, and then you get your wetsuit peeled, and then off you go into transition, and then on we go to the bike. So, what are some important things to know about the bike?

SPEAKER_01: 31:32

Um, key things about the bike, you're gonna have headwind, just a matter of where and how much you're gonna have it. But that means where there's headwind, there is tailwind, so that's always nice. Typically, there's headwind out because you're going north. So this time of year we usually have a north wind, and then it's usually tailwind back home. That's the best way to be, and that's typically how it is, but I don't write the weather, so can't help you there. But that's typically what it is. Um, you are coned in for about the first this year. We've added some, so you're in a cone dedicated lane for like the first 17, 18 miles. So that's really nice. The first 10 you are riding counterflow, though, which means you are riding and traffic is coming at you. You're coned in, but quite a few courses do that now because it lets you keep the city open a little bit. I do tell people when you are riding counterflow, it is uh if you follow the USA2T rules, which everybody should follow the USA2 rules, you always ride right and pass left. Everybody should know that. When you are riding counterflow, you still do that. You still ride right and pass left. People get confused because nobody wants to ride by the cones. That time of the morning, it's what their traffic's really pretty light. So you're good. And then you transition at about mile 10 to the right side of the road. Um, and then you get out. And once you hit the highway at mile 30, you start your little country loop out there. You're not coned in out there. Rules of the road, it is not a free-for-all. You need to pay attention. There are people that have to get to work out there. Um, and then you hit the highway, you go through and you come back. Um, Union Chapel and Blueberry Road are some good riding. They're real, we ride those two roads a lot. That's really good. Smooth riding. Oh, yes, we do have two graded bridges that you have to go over. On the bridges, it is no passing and no arrow. And I am very strict about that. You can be disqualified if you are caught passing or riding an arrow. So graded bridge, no passing, no arrow, 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 messing around.

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 and you're done. So you would hate to be DQ'd at mile and a half.

SPEAKER_00: 34:00

No, no. Still wet and still still fresh. All those carbs are still ready to 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'm not playing around on those bridges. And we ride them, right? I mean, we do you just you need to pay attention, you need to sit up, you need to not be ridiculous, you're not winning the race at mile a half. You're just not doing it. Um, there's one other area on the course which is no arrow, no passing, and that was at the request of law enforcement because of the turn that it's kind of on. So when law enforcement asks you to do something, you say yes, sir. When would you like it done? So it's been that way for two years. 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 quarter mile. 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 an aid station at 33. You're still kind of getting readjusted again. So it's fine. So those are a couple key things. Um, otherwise, just pay attention, keep your eye, you know, it's not the whole course is not closed. So when you get back on the highway, you're not coned in again until about mile, you come out at 44, you're conned in again about mile 49. And then you're coned into the finish. So it's you're conned in quite a bit, 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 dismount because there is always something entertaining going on. Sorry, y'all, but sometimes you're just a little ridiculous when when people, you know, because you've been yeah, I mean it's been a windy day. You're making an arrow. You're right. Yeah, you're you're ready to get off, you're a little locked up, and then it's like skirt. I mean, those poor volunteers are 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 see the dismount line, but it still just catches people.

SPEAKER_01: 36:22

It when you do you have one final bearing left, you're gonna see the penalty tent 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, the same guys have done it the dismount every year, and they still keep coming back, so that's a good thing, I think. Yeah, but they still go back, so yeah, you have dismount, and then you need to get ready. T2 is on a slant. I get comments about that every year. I cannot repave the parking lot. I cannot. How much you want me to repave the parking lot? I cannot repave the parking lot. That is Cape Fear Community College parking lot. I'm not in charge of that.

SPEAKER_00: 37:02

Yeah, honestly. T one is uh grass, and then two is 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 putting on 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 run ridiculous. You yeah, if you really want to, you know, just be careful. You're not gonna win the race in T2, 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 your bag of goodies. It's not like you laid your stuff out, like a quote unquote traditional race, right? Like you got your baggie, go to your 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 and really rack your bike, dump your bag out, put everything on. You don't have to put your bike stuff back in that bag. Some people choose to because it's easier at the end of the day to pick it up, and then people don't take it. But if you just want to dump and go and strip and go, or yeah, that's probably not the right word, 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 use that, 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 nice and 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 to put balloons out, or there's something with a red cup that you 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 people have used it before to keep water, right? So they run the thing up and then the cup sits here so water doesn't get in their bag. But you know what they do? Right, okay, they yank their bag down, and those red cups go everywhere. So in Pennsylvania, Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, in 2023, I was working transition. I must have picked up 500 cups. I'm not picking up 500 cups in North Carolina, so we are not having red cups either. You could just put all your stuff if it's gonna rain, just put your stuff in extra baggies in there. But that's what people did, so that's why I don't like those cups because nobody throws them away. Yeah, and then they get layered. Yeah, and then they blow everywhere, and you gotta chase cups down all over the city of Wilmington, and like uh that might be a little dramatic, but you know, that's kind of what happens, yeah. No red solo cups either. That's why I don't like red solo cups. Okay, um, no red solo cups, no balloons, no balloons, and that's not my rule, that's kind of Iron Man's rule. Yeah, it's just not allowed to mark your spot special. I would just look to the side, look and see where the porta potties are and be like, oh, I'm writing 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 five when 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, I have a pink saddle. All I do is look for when I go to 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, just for 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 a pink saddle. I know where my car is because it's orange. Because it's orange. I dig it. So now we're on to the run. I mean, I feel like this is probably the easiest thing of the entire race, generally speaking. Like follow the signs organize or to run or to do. Oh, actually, like for the athlete. Oh, yeah, it is. No, nothing, nothing about this race is easy, I would imagine, for you to direct andor organize.

SPEAKER_01: 40:57

Like, it's let me tell you the late the latest story. So, yeah, no, it's not easy because as of last week, this is insider information. If anybody's watching this, now we'll get posted on Facebook probably at the end of the week, but down at live, yeah, I do this out and back through the park because it's kind of pretty down there, too. And they're like, Nope, you can't run this way this year. And I'm like, What the heck? So then it's I can't run through a certain part of the park. So now you're down to now you don't have 0.12 miles. Do you know how hard it is to find 0.12 miles and not affect city? Like, I was like, Oh my god, you know, you race direct. Finding it sounds so little, but it is so big. If you put it here, uh-oh, now I'm gonna be running by a boat ramp. Can't do that if I put it here and be like, nope, I'm crossing the street. I can't do that. So we're literally gonna have to do a little out and back out at Greenfield Lake. It's gonna be fine. I'm gonna call it uh the Iron Man Walk of Fame, and we're gonna put some posters down there and handout wristbands. I'm gonna try and make it entertaining. And you know, I've got I went up to Mount Olive yesterday and bought 16 cases of pickles. So we have pickles, and but it is hard to find 0.12 miles. So I'm gonna go re-GPS it again on Saturday.

SPEAKER_00: 42:09

Yeah, the life of a race director. I remember them they did that at Iron Man North at Iron Man Raleigh, that you would go down this little street and right before and at like the Capitol, and then you turn down Fayetteville Street, it was like, oh my gosh, the finish line. Well, they had to do a similar type of thing that instead of turning, you had to do this little baby out and back, and it confused everybody because that was always where I was volunteering because it was shaded and it was nice. But people were just like, But there's the finish line. I'm like, listen, I don't make the 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 right here. You gotta come back up the street, 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 is super cool.

SPEAKER_01: 42:59

Yeah, so we went back to the original beach to bat. So we were finishing in Live Oak Park, which was cool. Um, but we went back to the original, but it's hard with live nation to coordinate in between concerts, is what you know, and I want the finish line to 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's finish line. I'm not doing the race. Um, but we went back to the original beach battleship one that not the battleship because we're not crossing those bridges, but you're coming in at 12 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 again this year. Yeah, it was a pretty and it was lively. The um tribe clubs had their tents, it was colorful, it was very animated, it was very crowded, but that's so I like that like atmosphere. Yeah, you got a good vibe. It had a great vibe, and then now we're in the diligence park lot, and I got a a duo coming to sing, bass man X and Bianca, they're gonna come be play some music. You can put picnic tables, families can go order from Mellon Mushroom or something and come eat. It's just gonna be, I think, a really 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 the things you I mean you've given us a lot of details, but like, are there certain things that you wish everybody knew about being a race director?

SPEAKER_01: 44:23

Oh, number one.

SPEAKER_00: 44:25

You want number one? Oh, I want number one, which might actually be number one.

SPEAKER_01: 44:30

Let's see. Every year I get some ring camera video, and you can imagine what that is all is. So at so I now have big signs all around the swim start that say respect our neighborhood, use the portable toilets. So you can imagine as a race director opening up your email the day after you had this amazing race, and there's ring cameras, ring cameras. So they get sent to Rightsville Beach, and Rightsville Beach sends them to me. So for all you athletes that think it's you want to skip the Porto, don't skip the Porto because your rear end is on somebody's camera and it's getting shown to all over Rightsville Beach, just so you know. 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, and you're like, I think I want to be a race director. Hmm, I think I want to look at ring camera. So don't, please don't do that. That is like that happens, that really does happen. It's happen it happens, it's happened a few times. Now it's gotten better since I've added more portos, but you have 93 portos between when you arrive at T1 and before you get 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 have 93. 93 portos. Um, yeah, so there's that, and then I will honestly say the other kind of very most challenging aspect for me is what to do with athlete food. I never know what to do with athlete food, and like what to feed them or what okay, yeah. What to feed to make everybody happy because I'm not gonna make everybody now, it's impossible. It is impossible, and I say this very lovingly to everybody. If you really have a special dietary requirement, then please have some, then pack it because it's so hard because we have to, you know, don't forget you have to feed 2,500 people in a parking lot in the sun at a random 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 mind we're doing veggie pesto pasta. So you got your vegetarian, you've got your carbs, we're doing chicken fingers, they are lightly breaded, so you'll get two to three chicken fingers with veggie pesto pasta, mount olive pickle, and then a myriad of chips and cookies and things like that that you want. So, I mean, uh I would eat that. Now, if you are gluten-free, I have specifically set aside 30 non-breaded chicken fingers. You just have to ask for them and green beans. So yeah, you can so I've got vegetarian, gluten-free, and regular. You've got carbs, you've got protein, 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 um like Carolina Barbecue the like the previous four years, and that was iffy. So we're trying something new this year. So, but trying to figure out how to get that many people fed. 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 is because literally, if you walk up one block, at least for all the spectators, there's 40 restaurants, 40 restaurants. So I learned that fact today. Within a, you know, within a um 10-minute walk, there's 40 restaurants. So I would rather support local. Tell your family friends to go pick something up and bring it back to you, but buy local. So I like that because we're impacting their roads. So yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:16

Ring cameras, impacting things. You guys, I want to say, are the second, second or third largest revenue generator for Wilmington next to like an Azalea Festival. Am I is that fake news? Or do we think it's not fake news and we might be number one?

SPEAKER_01: 48:33

Whoa. We don't have as much data on the Azalea Festival, and the Azalea Festival now is spread throughout the year, right? They do this concert this day, that concert that day. Yeah. This you know, the parade and stuff. So yeah, we're either number one or 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, all the 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 ordering them food. I try and support um when the staff comes in, I'm gonna take them on a ghost tour with like a local, you know, ghost tour trip. Um, you know, try and do everything local that we can to support because I do I love my community 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 gives back to the community and all the volunteer groups. And I did the number, I ran the numbers, and since 2016, they and a couple of the years when the hurricane had the cancellations too, they gave still 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's big every year that they're you know given. So if anybody wants to know what your the Iron Man Foundation does, you know, they're helping the communities at their end, and I'm super appreciative of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 50:08

So that's awesome. So good. Well, I am looking forward to this year's race. I think it's I'm not racing, but my intention every year is to try to come and volunteer in some capacity or ring a cowbell.

SPEAKER_01: 50:22

I I love that. If you come, if you really think you're coming, you need to contact me because I can always use good high-quality volunteers.

SPEAKER_00: 50:29

I I usually I sometimes I this is probably against the rules, and now that you know, you're probably gonna be on the lookout for me. Sometimes I get on my bike and I ride the run course and ring my cowbell, and I'm like, nobody get mad at it, please. But there's some places on the run course where it's like no man's land. It is all you hear is like people breathing, and then you're like, Oh my god, why did I do this? And then I'm like, ta-da! Here I am, 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 cars drive. Because it's only one way, it's only one way traffic through the lake, so just make sure start at the opposite end that you think good. Just follow the rules of the road, 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 be October 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 to do with anything except you do not want to swim on an outgoing tide, trust me. Yeah, you know, yeah, you know, sometimes it's a little slack in the morning, you know, when you start at the end, that's just because of how the tide is working that day. Yeah, uh, this year you're right in the middle of the tide. You get a good you get a pretty good push this year. It's not not quite as fast as last year, I don't think, but it's gonna be a good push. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it'll be it's gonna be a good push. But yeah, so that's why it moves.

SPEAKER_00: 51:57

All right. So any final thoughts or things that 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 have over 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 couple people that don't like it, but for the most part, this community loves it, they welcome it, and so we hope that you know y'all show the same, you know, respect for the community that they have for you guys and support for y'all coming in. So I think that would be just the biggest thing. You know, we can't wait. My we I love it, my staff loves it. I mean, otherwise they wouldn't be back and they wouldn't do it again. So thank you for coming because I'm kind of quite honored that our little race in Wilmington, North Carolina, you know, last year we were the second largest, too. Like, I don't know if I necessarily love that for congestion, but it does, it is a testament to my team that everybody wants to come hang out with my team, right? And and do it. Um, if you read the athlete guide and you look at my welcome letter, there's a QR code. I made you a special North Carolina playlist this year. So um I owned a dance studio for a while, so I love music. So go check that out. Um, but mainly, yeah, just thank you for coming. I can't thank you for coming and wanting 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 your volunteers. Thank you to the staff. Like if they're wearing something, you know, because you guys have everybody's wearing something specific.

SPEAKER_01: 53:41

Yep, they have it's hot pink this year, which I love because pink is my color, those bright pink shirts, and um, we're also celebrating like it's game day, so that some of people might be sporting their favorite collegiate team too. So that's kind of cool, but you'll be able to tell their volunteers, and you get the little red bracelets this year. So make sure to say thank you to them and you know, hand them to anybody and everybody that you see. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 54:01

Yeah, all right. Well, Sammy Winter's Iron Man in North Carolina 70.3 race director. Thank you so much. This was so fun. This is awesome. Yeah, yeah, cool. All right.