Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
The Great Floridian Iron-Distance Triathlon is scheduled to be held in Clermont, FL this weekend. Approximately 1000+ athletes will be coming to the area to race in the full and half distance events. A huge hurricane sitting off the coast tends to cause problems with an event of this nature. There are the obvious athlete safety issues involved, but large triathlons rely upon a number of local government agencies, specifically local law enforcement, and their first priority is to the community and not the race. If the Lake County Sheriff's office needs to use deputies for hurricane related efforts there will be no race.
The Sommer Sports web site forum is filled with posts from athletes discussing issues such as: shortening the race and athlete's responsibilities. In many cases these athletes have been training for one-two years in preperation for this event. They come from as far away as California, Hawaii, Maine and Wisconson to compete. In most cases, out-of-state athletes will want to arrive no-later than today for Saturday's race. The 'should I stay, or should I go' question needs to be made now.
Sommer Sports says they are meeting with local officials at 11 a.m. on Thursday and will post a course of action shortly after that meeting.
Sommer Sports founder Fred Sommer wondered if this was all a bad dream on early Wednesday morning.
Many triathlons try to capture the aura of Ironman by using the word 'man' in their names. The end result is that many of them sound stupid.
My friend Fred Sommer has compiled a list of 68 races with 'man' in the title. There are some real gems in there:
4. Atomicman
5. Boilerman
10. Chickenwingman
11. Concreteman
12. Cornman
13. Crawfishman
To name just a few. Read the whole list.
During the past few days while working at the Great Floridian I stayed at a local homestay in Clermont. The homestay usually has quite a few athletes staying while training in the area. This most recent stay had a few celebrities. Kris Gemmell and his girlfriend Anja Dittmer. Kris is ranked number 5 in the world and has won the last two ITU World Cup races and Anja is ranked number 1 in the world and has won two ITU races this year.
Here is a recent photo of Kris winning in Gamagori. Here is the podium shot, Anja is to the left of Kris.
I worked at the Great Floridian Triathlon this past weekend. It was a 20 hour day. As I have metioned before, I handle the ChampionChip timing systems.
Being at the finish line from 8 pm till 1:30 am is quite an inspiring thing. The last finishers came across well after 2:00 am. One great story is this guy, Christopher Meurer. Chris completed 5 iron-distance events in the past 6 weeks. The Great Floridian was his last event. I first met him two weeks ago when I timed ChesapeakeMan Ultra Distance Triathlon. Here is a photo of Chris at ChesapeakeMan.
One of the great things about both events was that Jerry MacNeil was announcing. Jerry is one of the best triathlon announcers in the business.
Some photos are posted here.
