Beach to Battleship triathlon caused delays

All of this negativity about the Beach to Battleship race is ABSURD!!! Do you folks complaining about the traffic jams on Saturday ever read the local newspaper or better yet watch the local news that comes on at 5, 5:30, 6:00, 10:00, and 11:00, or for you technically gifted folks, the internet which is available 24/7. Because if you had, then you would have known the race was going on and that the traffic patterns were going to be changed and delayed. I would suspect that you did in fact know that the traffic was going to be heavy and congested but felt that somehow it would not apply to you. Well.....you were WRONG!!!! The folks at Setup Events did an outstanding job of giving advance notice about the traffic issue. It was on the news multiple times, in the paper and plastered on the internet. They even gave you the information for the Beach 2 Battleship website for even more information. What else do you want? As for the taxes people claim were wasted, the police were paid by Setup Events as contract workers. You paid nothing. People coming here from out of county and state did not just ride their bikes, they drove and paid NC taxes for the gas they consumed. They had the same right as you to be on the road on their bikes. The people who did the full distance race paid well ove $200 to enetr and there were about 500 of them. The people who did the half distance race paid about $150 and there were 500 of them. This doesn't count the tens of thousands of dollars that people spent on local goods and services which benefits all of us, complainers and naysayers included. Be happy that our area was able to host such a wonderful money making event, especially in this economic slump our country is in. I look forward to this becomming an annual race and you should too. Great job Setup. Media, great job in doing what it is you day everyday....creating negativity and always finding the bad in everything that happens.

It was in the papers and on the news days before the event took place...it's wasn't a spur of the moment thing. Pay attention to whats going on around you and you would not have got caught up in the traffic. There were ways to get around the traffic jam. If you got caught in it, it was your own fault

Please, show me a 140mile course at the airport and I'm sure all the elite athletes would live to run, bike and swim around the huge, loud airplanes. What a dumb response.

Go to this link and click on the Results: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_detail&eventID=848 There was also a half-iron distance race: http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_detail&eventID=849

"You know, if all of the people here who are complaining about being stuck in traffic ever got of their lazy butts and did some exercise themselves, you'd understand how much work and effort people put into events like this." Laying all jokes aside...we went through this cluster with a few words said under my breath trying to get to the west side of the river. As for the lazy butt remark...think about emergency vehicles trying to plow through. Do this better next time or they could have a real potential mess on their hands.

If they pay the same taxes, where are the tags at on their bikes? How much did they have to pay to DMV to register their bike? Also, are their bikes inspected by the State at a charge of over $39.00 per year? There are not any fees paid to ride a bike on the highway.

If your child was having problems with his/her asthma then you should have had his/her inhaler handy. Better yet, if your child was having that much trouble with his/her asthma that you were concerned you were going to have to go the hospital what in the world were you going shopping for that couldn't wait? You could also have turned around and headed home to where you should have access to a nebulizer machine that could help to improve your child's symptoms. There were many options you have when it comes to asthma. Sounds to me like you are the 'victim' of poor planning and selfishness. And, yes, I have a child with asthma. And yes sometimes we are unprepared because asthma is such an unpredictable condition but at the same time I am not going to blame the city, sponsors, or participants of the triathlon for my poor planning or the unpredictability. A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on theirs!

What is unexcuseable is you using your child to try and get sympathy. If you were not prepared to take care of your child in a traffic, you have the poorest parenting skills and planning I have ever seen. Delays can happen anytime. By the way, the bridge was not closed, there was one lane open in each direction. Quit whinning

The planning of the race was fine. To the best of my knowledge, no competitors, volunteers, officials, OR civilians were injured as a result of interactions with traffic... in spite of the best efforts of some of Wilmington's "skillful" motorists. On the other hand, Guest545 chose to travel to Wilmington on the day of an event that was expected to cause traffic delays. Guest545 chose to travel with his/her asthmatic child, but chose NOT to have the kid's inhaler handy. And who knows, maybe Guest545 could have prevented his/her child from having an attack by keeping a cool head in traffic, rather than agitating the poor child. THAT is the worst planning I have ever seen. I'll let you decide who is the moron.