Soma Triathlon : Official Thread

There will be a lot of the AZ BT'er doing SOMA.  Red Rock is a great race company and they put on a great event.  Assuming nothing is wrong with the Tempe Town Lake, it should be a great race.  I'm hoping to be there.

Wade

Hello. I am coming in from Olathe, KS (Kansas City area). I have never raced in Tempe and have numerous logistical and race related questions. I appreciate any input that I can get.

I am arriving with my family on 10/18 and staying at nearby Hyatt Place in Tempe. Here are some logistical questions I have:

1. Understand no swimming in Tempe Town Lake prior to event, correct? My alternative is Lifetime fitness in Tempe, not far away, any better ideas?

2. Bike training as light as it will be, this being an urban area, I am assuming no chance of pre riding the course. Where can one get some pre race work done on the bike, preferably from the hotel with minimum lights and interruptions or bike in the car and drive somewhere is a must?

3. Pre race run training, is race course accessible during the day for running?

Race related questions:

1. Anybody have an idea on anticipated water temp, I know it will be wetsuit legal, just what water temps should we be expecting?

2. Bike course, pancake flat? Traffic? Most likely will get hot toward the end of it and windy, road conditions.....

3. I think I stumbled somewhere on a comment that run is not entirely flat, can someone elaborate more on the running course, I know it is mostly concrete path and pretty destructive to legs.

Any ideas or insights, thanks a lot.

To the best of my knowledge...

1) Tempe Town Lake is not normally open to swimming.  Only for race events.  I don't see anything on Red Rock's website saying they have open swim times prior to the event so Lifetime is your best bet.

2) Get out to the beeline highway.  It's fairly easy to get there from around the Tempe Town Lake area and there's plenty of shoulder on the road to ride.  Minimal street lights and you can go as far as you like.

3) Should be.  It's a pretty busy area and popular among runners to jog along the lake. 

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1) No idea... it's still warm here but hopefully the temps cool down.

2) Yup, pretty much flat.  I've never done this event so I don't know how much of the streets they close down to traffic. 

3) It's all concrete along the lake except for a small section on the south east side of the lake.  Not sure if we run on that or the concrete sidewalk though.   Looking at the course map, I haven't run that loop on the north east part yet but I assume it's more concrete.