Complaint Department

Far be it from me to complain (Ha!), but I am always happy to provide constructive feedback when things don't quite fit in with Wedgie's World. Here are a few "issues" I had with the Rohto Cooling Eye Drops Ironman 70.3 Hawaii:

1. Lack of sunscreen. They had sunscreen at the beach, but I'm not too worried about the sun at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning. It becomes an issue during the run, after we've sweated off the first layer on the bike. I didn't see any sunscreen anywhere along the course. I am told that they it, you just had to ask for it. Here's the problem with that: when you come up to an aid station and you start seeing the ice sponges and water, you're not thinking about getting cancer. All you want is the instant relief of a cold drink. And frankly, I shouldn't have to ask the Cola lady if she can go find me some sunscreen. I'm not saying they needed Lotion Girls in the middle of the lane giving rubdowns, but a simple sign saying "Sunscreen" would at least tell us where we should go.

2. Young volunteers. OK, so this may get me in trouble but hear me out. We love volunteers. They're what make the race possible. It's great to see the community come out to support events like these. It seemed to me that there were a lot of families working the aid stations which is great, but there quite a few 5-6 year olds "helping". At one station, a young boy was handing out sponges - after wringing them out. At several stops there were kids running back and forth playing in the middle of the course not looking where they were going or even noticing there were runners trying to get through. I asked for ice and was handed water. God bless their little hearts, but a 7-8 hour race is not fun for young kids to be helping with and there are frankly some tasks which they're simply not good at.

3. They ran out of T-shirts. This is inexcusable. When you sign up for the race, you tell them what size T-shirt you want. The computer knows EXACTLY how many shirts to order. I finished the race, and went over to a tent to pick up my medal and finisher's shirt. They looked up my name, saw that I signed up for a medium, and told me "sorry, we only have extra large shirts left." It's very simple to prevent this problem: when someone comes over and says "I know I registered for a large, but can I get a medium instead?" You tell them "Sorry, but we have a limited number of shirts. Take the large now, and if you come back after the race closes I'd be happy to swap it if we have any mediums left over." That's all it takes. They will be mailing me a medium shirt, but that's not the point. I don't want to wear my shirt a week from now, I wanted to wear it after the race like the hundreds of other people were doing.

These are rookie mistakes that an Ironman-branded race should not be making.