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

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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 director— and aside from that, just my race. And 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 will do it because I just love it. I just love it.

That's so awesome. Yeah. And it's so Ironman North Carolina 70.3 is a little— it's like a, like a smidge 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?

It is going back. And everybody said, you changed the date, you changed— 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 say, because we have to come in, you know, you, you want to swim on an incoming tide because you don't want to swim against the current. So this was the year of the incoming tide happened to be on the 4th week and not the 3rd week. But next year we go back to the 3rd week. Oh, that's so cool. 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.

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.

Yeah, the swim is usually really fast. You know, the bike, you can have some headwind on, um, so there's that challenge. 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, 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 Wilmington, North Carolina, everybody talks about the swim, but our run was fifth. So, which I think was really cool.

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.

Yeah, it is. It's pretty and it's shaded when you get out to the park. Um, and you know, you go through town 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.

So Sammy, when did you, so, cuz this race used to be back in the day, used to be Beach to Battleship and it was a combination Ironman, um, or I guess technically full distance and half distance because it was run by Setup Events and then they sold it to Ironman, right? And I don't know what year that was. Like, that was maybe 2016. 2016. Okay. And did you take it— did you like race direct from the get-go?

No. So I've been involved with Beach to Battleship from the get-go in 2008 when they're— 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 and I was run course and I did that for most of the time, just dealing with the run course. And then in 2016, Ironman bought it and Brian Boer, Became race director and I became volunteer director. I had been volunteer director for the marathon for, I think, maybe 8, 9 years at that point. So I became volunteer director for the marathon and for the Ironman. And then Brian Boer took a promotion and became head of like the trail division of Ironman, and they needed a race director. And I 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 Ooh, 56 years. So I love my community. And I was like, it'll be different. It'll be fun. It is different from volunteer directing. But yeah, I've been race director since— since it would be, well, 2020. But we know what happened in 2020.

Yes.

Yeah.

The disaster that was. Yeah.

The disaster.

Yeah. And I mean, you put on a great race. 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? Yeah.

So 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 trained together and raced 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 3 captains meetings a year and they help gather the volunteers cuz one person can't gather that many volunteers that you need to do it all. So there, and then the Ironman 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 captains since I was race 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.

That's so awesome. Yeah. And I, I mean, I'll be the first to admit that, you know, Ironman is not cheap. It is. 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, like drop a cone.

I did say cha-ching about 5,000 times and that alone. Oh, and then cha-ching, cha-ching when you pass the barricades, and then cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching when you pass all the porta-potties. So there's 161 porta-potties.

Wow. For anybody right there.

Holy smokes. So there you go. Yeah, yeah.

So there's a lot that goes into it.

In other words, 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 4 different agencies, and we're meeting 3 times a year. There's everything that goes through NCDOT, you know, because we go through multiple counties, multiple—

you go on the highway, right?

Highway, some of it. Yep, yep. We have about, let me see, 13 to 30, um, 17 miles, and then 44 to— yeah, there's about 23 miles on the highway.

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

Yeah. Cool.

All right.

So 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.

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

So, so again, cha-ching. Um, yes, there's that. And then also, like, for anybody who might be starting 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?

Oh, before signing up, 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 before they sign up, right? Yeah. 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 going to need to read the athlete guide. You're going to 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 2:00 on Friday. You're going to be pressing it, right? Or you're just going to 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 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.

Yeah, because, um, like, transition is different than the start is different than T2 and the finish line. So which is not a— it's not necessarily a short drive. It's all gorgeous, like, because you're downtown Wilmington and then you're Wrightsville, which is awesome. 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 like, read the athlete guide, but you're going to need to read the athlete guide and look at the maps. 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, you want to stay downtown. That depends whether you want to stay at the start or whether you want to stay at the finish. So I vote for the beach.

That's always my vote.

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, you know, I say you can go down, park your car the night before, you know, Uber back, and, you know, so you have a car down there. But I think, I think the beach is of prettier place to stay, especially in the fall.

The beaches, like Wrightsville, so awesome in the fall.

Pretty right now. It's so pretty. It's—

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

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 Yeah. The other thing I think that people should know is it is— I don't know if the race is 100% spectator friendly. It's not unfriendly, but this is a cool place to bring your family for vacation so your family can come down with you for the weekend and there's plenty of stuff for them to do while you're racing and they can pop in and see it too. But while you're doing all your race things, there's plenty of stuff for them to do. And that's fun. Yeah, that's fun.

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. Yeah. That's okay. First thing is decide if you're going to stay at beach or downtown, and then you can kind of plan easier from there, which, where you want to stay. Don't wait to decide. 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 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. Yes. Good order of operations. I'm digging that.

And then I would start training. As a coach, there you go.

Yeah, that's right. Start training yesterday.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. Cool. All right. So then 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?

Yes, I love all my transitions. 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 going to 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, I have nothing against buckets in your house and wherever you want to put them, but we're not going to put them in my little transition.

Yes, they hold tools.

Imagine 2,500 people brought a bucket What am I going to 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 like, you bring a bucket to transition. I've never, I've never ever in my life, Sammy brought a bucket to transition.

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.

I would say that that is probably the main purpose.

I, I understand, and that is fantastic, but I mean, we're— we can't do it.

Yeah, not, not a logistical thing that is appropriate for your race.

There you go. That is correct. That is very good. Yes.

And then what— so all these things that might be left behind, what the heck do you do with all that stuff?

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 Yeah, 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, 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. 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. 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, but we find homes for most.

Yeah, that's pretty impressive because how many athletes are you dealing with here?

Uh, last year, uh, we, we started over 2,700.

Wow, 2,700.

2,700. This year it'll be— I think it's going to be a little bit— I asked for it to be a little bit less. Wow.

Okay.

It just gets a lot with two transitions.

Yeah. And then, and then I'm thinking of all the 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.

But Hanover Seaside— it's Hanover Seaside Club.

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, Ironman North Carolina. Enjoy some stuff.

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— you know, you don't want to pull it up and just be standing in this compression garment for an hour. You don't want to do that. So you do— you are going to bring— if anything, just pull it on, you know, put it up to your waist. So you are going to have clothes. You can use the morning clothes bag if you really want your sweatshirt, which I would want to—

look at that gorgeous shirt.

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. And 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. Yeah, yeah. And I always tell people, don't put valuables in there. And they're like— and 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 down to the swim start. And everybody's like, I might need to, to call. I mean, I don't know, I wouldn't put it in your bag if it was me, but people do it. 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?

Yeah, there is not. And that is because of the current. We have nowhere to put you in that you're not going to just scoot along down the channel and then we're going to 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 warmup to get your heart rate up before you get in the water. 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.

Therapy band.

That's easy to take that and do some rows. Do you know any kind of— if you can get the band, if you have the 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.

And that's 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.

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, the other thing I tell people is carry a bottle of water with you. And right, and 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 Norseman or things like that, I have a bottle of water. Just dump the bottle of water on your head 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 shot right there. Yeah.

Yeah. And don't forget, when your face hits the water, it's salty.

It is salty. Yeah, we swim here all the time and don't think about it. I'm always amazed. People are like, oh my God, it's so salty. And I'm like, really? Yeah. 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.

And you guys don't have like showers, right?

We used to, but we don't have them anymore. It just became a little difficult to do. We are going to run a hose on Sea Path. 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 going to have a real shower.

Yeah, because 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, I mean, yes, you are probably salty, but it's mostly—

that's right.

The ocean.

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 going to sweat in the 70s. You're not going to look like you do here in Southeastern North Carolina in the 90s in the summer where you're like, yes, just totally drenched.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, are there wetsuit strippers?

Yes, but wetsuit peelers.

Oh, sorry, wetsuit peelers. Is that like the new PC way of—

that's okay, the team, it's the same soccer team that's done it for like 3 or 4 years and they love it.

Okay, so, uh, 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?

To be peeled. So you're going to— so besides being a point to point to point to point to point race, you have— you're climbing out of the water out of a ladder. There are 10 ladders lined up on the dock. You climb up. People all the time like, somebody pushed me, somebody did this. You got 10 ladders, pick one. Yeah. Or 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 going to run down the dock as you're coming around. The dock, you're going to 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. SeaPath 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. Yeah, then your 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— grab your wetsuit and just start running. And then you get to transition. And so then you can— 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 tri because then it kind of warms your back up. Yeah. 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.

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

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

I bet they do. Oh my goodness. That is, that is the best. Okay, so let's rewind. You can't get a warmup in, in the swim, but then once you get in, you guys are releasing people. What is it like 4-ish at a time?

3 every 5 seconds.

3 every 5 seconds.

Sometimes when we get near the end, as we get closer, we want to try and get everybody in an hour. So as you get in, it might, may become 4 every 5 seconds because you want to take breaks like every 10 minutes or so too, just to kind of let a little space develop. Yeah. Yeah.

So tips when they get in the water.

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— this is one race you definitely want to keep those site buoys on your left because as you're swimming down, you know, the current's going to start pulling you. And last year a lot of people are like, the buoys moving, the buoys 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 going to pull you right around their buoy. You just want to keep those buoys on your left, the site 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 the docks, that's where I want to be. It's just going to take— it's just going to be harder to make that left turn to get into Mott's Channel. You start in Banks, you go in Mott's and then weave your way through Mott's. It's just going to be a little bit harder.

Yeah, I feel like that swim is unlike any other. It's because it's like, well, how many turnbys are there? Like, well, 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. 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 going to go left because the current's not going to let you, so you're gonna You're going to go right whether you want to go right or not. Once you— you're going— you kind of bear right, then you kind of bear left. That's how it goes. Yeah, your way through the channel.

Yeah. And 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.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're, um, we— I spend a lot of time with water safety. Wrightsville 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 Sheriff's protecting other two ends. We, you know, like I said, Ocean Rescue, 5 boats, 3 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, it's really, really nice. Um, it's really nice.

That's cool.

At some point you gotta swim. 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 got to navigate the turn. So you do— I told you it was 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 know anybody watching this, like, I don't know if Myrick, who 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'll be like, really? You just jump in and float downstream.

I mean, a good healthy competition is good, even if it's amongst race directors.

Oh yeah, we have it. Is it real? But yes, you know, it does take a little bit of navigational skills.

Yeah. Yeah. We have one coach who says just be a bag of potato chips. You know, you just do to 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. 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, float on down, but at some point they got to come out, do a little breaststroke and turn around. Yeah. Yeah.

I hesitate to say this, but we did see remnants of things that are living in the ocean. So, but I imagine it's probably not— I'm not going to 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. Yeah, I mean, we are swimming in their habitat, right? I will say, as soon as I say this, it's going to 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 it— once the cooler water comes, they go away. Now, sometimes we've had occasional remnants of jellyfish there that people have gotten young. 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 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 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 like I said, jellies have been really light, which is kind of nice.

Yeah.

Make sure when you, when you run in the water, there are little crabs that crawl in the sand. So when you go in the water, you shuffle your feet, you know, do the stingray shuffle.

Um, The stingray shuffle.

Well, you know what you're supposed to do when you get in the water, right? You're supposed to shuffle your feet like that. So I tell you, do you shuffle your feet? But you might see a little, you know, crabbies down there biting your toes.

Okay, all right, all right. But, but, you know, just like you said, we're swimming in their habitats.

We are, we are in their home.

Okay, all right. So you get out of one of the 10 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?

Um, key things about the bike, you're going to have headwind. Just a matter of where and how much you're going to 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. 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, but when you are riding counterflow, it is— if you follow the USAT rules, which everybody should follow the USAT 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, the traffic's really pretty light. So you're good. And then you transition at about mile 10 to the right side of the road 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. And then you hit the highway, you go through and you come back. 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. We ride those bridges a lot.

You just like pull somebody off over the bridge and just—

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not messing around on the bridges. We're not, we're not messing around. Yeah. You know, we're not waiting to the end to give you your DQ.

Yeah.

You will get shown a card and you're done. So you would hate to be DQ'd at mile and a half.

No, no.

Because the first bridge is at mile and a half.

You're still wet and still, still fresh. All those carbs are still ready to go somewhere.

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 and a half. You're just not doing it. There's one other area on the course which is no aero, 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 You say, yes, sir, when would you like it done? So it's been that way for 2 years. That's not a big deal. It's well marked. You'll see it. Get out an arrow. Don't pass. It is literally for a quarter mile. It is not a big deal.

Get, get your water, get your gel.

Yeah, it's a perfect time. That is about mile 35. That's about mile 36, 37. So perfect time. Take some water, get a gel. You just came in, you passed an aid station at 33. You're still kind of getting readjusted again, so it's fine. So those are a couple of key things. 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 coned in again about mile 49, and then you're coned into the finish. So you're coned in quite a bit, but where you're not, Pay attention.

Yeah, yeah. So one place I love to stand at Ironman 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, it's been a windy day, you're right. Yeah, 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.

It— when you do, you have one final bearing left You're going to 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 the dismount every year and they still keep coming back. So that's a good thing, I think.

Yeah.

But they still come 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.

You cannot.

I can.

I know how much you want me to repave the parking lot.

I can't. I cannot repay the parking lot. That is Cape Fear Community College parking lot. I'm not in charge of that.

Yeah, honestly, one is grass and then one or two is blacktop.

Blacktop.

Yeah, angles.

It's angled. It is not this angled, but it is angled.

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, I can't repay for the parking lot. You just need to not run ridiculous.

Yeah.

If you really want to, you know, just be careful. You're not going to win the race in T2, but T2 is fast anyway. You get in there, get your bike, put shoes on, boom, you're gone. You don't need anything really by that point. Just go.

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, Yep.

Your bag too. Take your bag in the day before, so you're going to 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 the right word, but— and then get out of there. Yeah. Feel and go. Um, you can go. So it, it, you don't have to use that.

Yeah. And the porta-johns like literally in transition, which is nice.

There's not as many in T2 as there are in T1 because T2 tends to be more spread out. Yeah. I've never had a problem with people waiting in T2. It seems to be kind of nice and spread out.

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're going to have to talk about that.

You want to know why I don't like that red cup?

Let me tell you. Yes, tell me.

Because people have used it before to keep water, right? So they run the thing up and 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— if it's going to 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—

they throw their cups away. Yeah. And then they blow everywhere and you got to chase cups down all over the city of Wilmington. And like, that might be a little dramatic, but, you know, that's kind of what happens. Yeah, no red Solo cups either. That's not like— that's hella 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 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 right here.

I mean, you could take like a Sharpie and write it on your arm like, I'm in row 5, when you, you know, or whatever.

Um, and do that.

Don't worry, y'all, you'll get there.

You will find it.

You will find it.

You will find it. Like, if you're lucky enough to be racked by me and, you know, I have a pink saddle. All I do is look 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 drive an orange car too, just for that reason.

So you always know where you're— Yes.

So good. I know where 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 or to run or to do—

actually, like, for the athlete.

Oh yeah, it is.

No, nothing about this race is easy. I would imagine for you to direct and/or organize, like, it's—

let me tell you 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, you know, 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, oh, now I'm going to be running by a boat ramp. Can't do that. If I put it here, be like, nope, I'm crossing the street. I can't do that. So we're literally going to do a little out and back out at Greenfield Lake. It's going to be fine. I'm going to call it the Ironman Walk of Fame, and we're going to put some posters down there and hand out wristbands. I'm going to 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 I have pickles and And but it is hard to find 0.12 miles, so I'm gonna go re-GPS it again on Saturday.

Yeah, the life of a race director. I remember them, they did that at Ironman North— at Ironman 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.

I know people are gonna be like, I gotta turn right here. You gotta turn right here. Yeah, you gotta come back up the street.

Uh, yeah, yep, it is what it is. Like, you know, it just— yeah. And then the finish line is super cool.

Yeah. So we went back to the original beach. So we were finishing in Live Oak Park, which was cool, 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 being selfish. I want it to be, well, y'all's finish line. I'm not doing the race. 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 here 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, tri clubs had their tents. It was colorful. It was very animated. It was very crowded, but that's I like that, like, atmosphere.

And you've got a good vibe.

It had a great vibe. And then now we're in the Dillard's parking lot, and I got a duo coming to sing, Bassman X and Bianca. They're gonna come play some music. You can put picnic tables, families can go order from Mellow Mushroom or something and come eat. It's just gonna be, I think, a really cool vibe. Yeah, really even better vibe.

Yeah, yeah, 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.

Oh, number 1. You want number 1?

Oh, I want number 1, which might actually be number 1. Let's see.

Every year I get some Ring camera video, and you can imagine what that is all is. So, so I now have big signs all around the swim start that say, respect our neighborhood, use the portable toilet. 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 Wrightsville Beach and Wrightsville 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 you're really— it's on somebody's camera and it's getting shown all over Wrightsville Beach, just so you know. So don't do that. So that is Yeah, that is probably—

that is, that's, that, that is next level.

That is not something that you think about when you're 10 years old. You're like, I think I want to be a race director. Hmm, I think I want to look at ring cameras. So don't, please don't do that. That is like, that happens. That really does happen. It's hap— 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.

That's a lot.

Yeah, pick one at two different locations. Pick two, pick three. But you have 93, 93 photos. 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 going to make everybody.

No, 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. Yeah, so it has to be some volunteers, and you have volunteers, you know. So, um, this year out of my— 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 2 to 3 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, 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, 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— I had done like Carolina barbecue the, like the previous 4 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 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 and 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, ring cameras, 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—

and we might be number one. 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, you know, the parade and stuff. So yeah, we're either number one or number two revenue generator.

Yeah, that's a big deal. That is a big deal. So yeah, it is a big number. Yeah.

And that's with everything, you know. 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, you know, everything. All my captains' meetings, I'm ordering them food. I try and support when the staff comes in. I'm going to take them on a ghost tour with like a local, you know, ghost tour Yeah, 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 Ironman, I will throw this in here too. I feel like this is important. The Ironman 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 they've 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 Ironman Foundation does, you know, they're helping the communities that they're in, and I'm super appreciative of that.

Yeah, 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.

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.

I usually, I sometimes, 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 me, 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.

So if you do that, just, just humor me and ride the way that the cars drive, because it's only one way traffic through the lake. So just make sure you start at the opposite end. Just follow the rules of the road, ride the other way. Yeah, I will do that.

Otherwise, volunteer.

Otherwise, ring all the cowbells you want out there.

Yes, so good. Oh my goodness. And then, uh, and then you're coming back next year?

Yeah, next year we're going back to our normal date, which is nice. It'll be October 17th.

Okay, it's affected by the tides.

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, sometimes it's a little slack in the morning, you know, when you start at the end. That's just because how the tide is working that day.

Yeah.

This year you're right in the middle of the tide. Yeah, 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 going to 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.

All right, so any final thoughts or things that you want people to know, whether it be, uh, spectators, athletes, um, anybody?

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 Ironman coming in. You're gonna hit 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 do it. 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 yeah, I owned a dance studio for a while, so I love music. So go check that out. But mainly, yeah, just thank you for coming. I can't thank you enough for coming and wanting to hang out with me for a couple of days. So that's really pretty awesome. Them. 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.

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

That's awesome. Yay. All right. Well, Sammy Winters, Ironman North Carolina 70.3 race director. Thank you so much. This was so fun.

This is awesome.

Yeah.

Cool.

All right. Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, Be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com and don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.