Bonelli Olympic Distance Triathlon - Triathlon

I would not recommend this race to anyone - especially a beginner - unless a couple of changes are made.

I wish I could give this race a 5. The course is beautiful, the organization is great, the water is warm, and - best of all - there were LOTS of water stations on the run segment, which was much appreciated on a warm day. The people manning the water stations were great, too.

But I can't recommend this race to anyone (and won't do it again) unless 2 things change:
1. SWIM POORLY MARKED.
The swim course markers are far too small. The swim turns are marked by small yellow pyramids about 1/2 the size of normal turn pyramids. I don't think the race organizers understand the impact this has, or they would have changed this by now. (How expensive can a couple of decent-size pyramid buoys be???)

I was expecting a swim time improvement; instead it was one of my worst swims ever. The first leg was OK because the swimmers hadn't spread out and you could keep on course by staying with the pack. But on the second leg, I discovered that the swimmers I was following were veering off course. After that, I didn't feel I could simply follow other swimmers, and had to stop periodically and lift myself out of the water a bit to see the location of the next turn marker. (The problem wasn't due to the slight fog that remained after the swim start this year; once I lifted my head about a 12 inches out of the water, I could see the marker just fine.)

The worst part of the swim wasn't the extra time this added, but the all extra stress. I usually end the swim leg feeling refreshed and excited. At the Bonelli Olympic, however, I exited the water feeling drained and frustrated, and this had a big impact on the rest of the race for me. It was my worst Olympic time ever.

2. VERY POOR ROAD QUALITY.
The bike course goes over some very bad patches of road, and there are some bumps and holes that are a tad dangerous. The course is hilly, too, but this is honestly communicated by the race organizers, and just makes for a challenging ride.

But the poorly paved stretches of road was an unpleasant surprise. There was one particularly rough patch that not only slowed down progress going up a hill, but - by the third loop - was just plain painful despite the fact that I have a very comfortable bike seat.

Worse, there were numerous holes and bumps that made the biking a bit hazardous. I saw more cyclists pulled over to the side to change a tire or make other repairs than I ever have before on an Olympic course - despite the fact that this is small race. This indicates there are proportionally far more bike problems on this race - which is not surprising given the road quality.

I realize that the race organizers are not responsible for paving the road and that there is probably little they can do about the poor road quality other than petitioning the city to repave it. But this is a review of the course, not the race organizers, and I have to say that I would discourage folks from selecting this race until these problems are addressed.