Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens : Official Thread

Thanks, they must have just put that up, I checked a couple days ago and it was the two-loop course.

At first glance, I thought it was different than the one they planned for last year too.  But, for some reason, they have turned it 90 degrees with West at the top.  I took it and turned it so that North is at the top and it matches the one-loop course from last year that I found on MapMyRide.

lol. I did the same. Just looked at the shape of the course, didn't bother to check which way was North. Someone posted a summary of the 1 loop course on the Washington threads last year.

You'll like this race. The swim has an underwater guide that makes sighting unnecessary. I loved the bike last year, based on the review in the other thread, I should like the 1 loop even more. The run is a little blah as much of it just goes through neighborhoods, but it's not terribly difficult and nice when you're along the lake.

Only other thing I've seen is a post on last year's race thread by someone who rode the new course and wrote a pretty good report (they were going to use the new course last year, but changed to the old course at the last minute).

It's the sixth post down:  2011 Lake Stevens Thread

Interesting....thanks for the info!

Three of the 2011 race reports on this page have the temp at ~ 69F.

They moved the race up a month this year, from mid-August to mid-July.  I'm sure the water will still be comfortable in a wet suit, but I doubt it will be as warm as last year.

Good point!! 

I think your only option is to fly into Sea-Tac (Seattle International), which is about 15 miles south of Seattle - Lake Stevens is about 35 miles north of Seattle.  Total distance from airport to race site is about 50 miles - mostly on Interstate 5, until you get within a few miles of Lake Stevens.

I rode the new bike course a couple weekends ago and it's a great course.  I'm doing my 1st half and am probably an average cyclist - finished the ride in just under 3h 30min.  The course is lots of rolling hills but it saves the hardest for the last third of the ride.  At approx mile 38 you come screaming down a hill (30+mph) only to come to a hairpin right turn onto Ingraham (basically slows you nearly to a stop) and then immediately climb the steepest hill on the course.  Ouch.  Then at about mile 44 you turn off of Spada onto 171st and proceed to climb an almost perfectly level 5.6% incline for about 1.5 miles.  Once you get past that you're home free and back to the easy rollers the last several miles.

Hope that helps.  It is a really pretty ride - although I've been warned against riding it alone as apparently some of the locals aren't terribly friendly to cyclists on their back roads...

Thanks Brion...see inbox

Thanks for the info Brion!  I'm thinking of getting a 12-27 cassette to replace my standard 12-25 so the hills don't take too much out of my legs.  Were you running a standard cassette or did you have something with more climbing gears?

What hotel did you stay at and did you like it?

Anyone else have a recommendation on a hotel?

Was just reading some of the Boise info on ST. Sounds like a tough weather day. I had a great time at Lake Stevens last year, looking forward to it again this year.