2009 registration opens soon!

Information about the 2009 events are posted!

Full iron distance ($325 individual, $450 relay; limited to 750 athletes)

Half iron distance ($165 individual, $250 relay; limited to 750 athletes)

Registration for both events begins at 8:00 AM on Monday, December 1, 2008. Be ready! The 2008 event sold out in 12 days.

Race day tides

Just for the record, here is the tide table for Wilmington Beach, NC for the inaugural Beach to Battleship triathlon on November 1, 2008 (just for comparison of swim times in future races - can't find one for November 2009 yet):

Tides for Wilmington Beach starting with November 1, 2008:

Day High Tide Height Sunrise Moon Time % Moon
_____/Low Time Feet Sunset Visible
Sa 1 Low 3:22 AM 0.4 7:32 AM Rise 11:04 AM 7
___1 High 9:49 AM 4.8 6:18 PM Set 8:41 PM
___1 Low 4:32 PM 0.6
___1 High 10:06 PM 3.4

Tides (nearly identical!) for Wilmington Beach for Saturday, November 7, 2009:

Day High Tide Height Sunrise Moon Time % Moon
_____/Low Time Feet Sunset Visible
Sa 7 Low 3:40 AM 0.2 6:37 AM Set 11:31 AM 79
___7 High 10:11 AM 5.2 5:13 PM Rise 9:53 PM
___7 Low 4:54 PM 0.3
___7 High 10:36 PM 3.8

The high tide will be 22 minutes later than for the 2008 race and very slightly bigger magnitude. If my calculations are correct, peak flow should occur midway between the tides at . . . *drumroll* . . . 6:56AM!

There will be a 3/4-full moon to run with starting at 9:53 PM on the run course, as well. Hopefully most of us will only have an opportunity to see it after crossing the finish line!

Here's a YouTube video where you can see how the swimmers were absolutely FLYING down the channel:

News coverage of 2008 B2B

Results from the 2008 iron-distance event are posted here! 56 female finishers, 324 male finishers (380 total). The slowest swim was about 1:34. Median finish time for women was 12:49; for men median finish time was 12:22. DNF rate of those who finished the swim was 4.2%.

From the half iron distance results, there were 122 female finishers with median finish time 6:19; 250 male finishers with median time 5:49 (372 total finishers). DNF rate was 2.7% of those who finished the swim.

Locals report some significant traffic backups for the inaugural race (especially around the bridges and T2/finish area). Plan ahead to avoid these as much as possible in 2009! Also the water taxi service from T2/finish to the spectator parking areas had reported waiting times in line of over 2 hours.

Congratulations to Debi Bernardes on her 3rd place finish in the half-iron event!!

Iron competitors show mettle in Beach2Battleship triathlon

WECT TV6

Starnewsonline.com

Here's some photos and a report from the 2nd-place women's relay team for the half-iron distance. Congratulations, podium girls!!

Rebecca DeWire took second place in the full iron distance in 10:44 after having a baby in January 2008!

A thread from Beginner Triathlete is up, about 2008 participants' experiences and results. Here's a BT race report for the half iron distance.

Here's a very detailed race report from a 14:52 full iron distance B2B finisher.

Here's another with several photos of the area (pdf).

The post-race participant reviews on Slowtwitch seem quite positive. "Nippycrisp" posted a nicely detailed race report on the full iron distance as well which sounded excellent.

Here's a spectator/triathlete report that confirms most of the good things people have said elsewhere about this race.

2008 event

It looks like they had close to ideal weather for the 2008 event today, chilly in the morning but with high temps around 71*F, with very light winds. Hope all is going well - we look forward to the results and reading the race reports as they appear!

The Athlete Guidelines for Beach to Battleship 2008 are here in pdf form - those participating in 2009 may want to save this guide offline now for reference until the 2009 version has been produced.