HITS National Championship: Palm Springs - Half Iron Course : Official Thread

Great! I've also got a friend doing it, and my neighbor is likely to sign up too. The "host" hotel is the La Quinta Resort and Spa....this is NOT part of the chain of low cost motel/hotels call La Quinta. This resort is part of the Hilton family of high end places...a Waldorf Astoria resort. The place is amazing, with something like 40 swimming pools sprinkled throughout the property, world class tennis facilities, an amazing spa and some of the best golf courses in Southern California. Bring the family and make a long vacation weekend out of this one. Check out the resort: http://www.laquintaresort.com/

Reserve by clicking the link from the Hits website and get a discounted rate...as low as $139 per night!

Who else is in?

About 200 already signed up for the HITS 1/2 Iron in Palm Springs on Dec 1! Should be great fun and a pretty decent size field. 

Still reduced registration fees of $225 until Oct 27th...$300 after that.

I'm doing this race and staying at the La Quinta Resort.  It is a great place and very close to the event, as noted it is not the same low cost chain commonly seen out there.

1 week from this Saturday! 

Athlete guide just released...check your email! Bike course and run course both looking nicely flat with just some very mild rollers.

Hopefully the water temp will cooperate, sounds like it is around 60 right now. 

The people at HITS told me today the 1/2 has over 300 registered now...should be awesome!

Good luck to everyone.

Since this was my first Half distance I am wondering if anyone has ever seen a course of the wrong length before in a HITS race?

I was amazed to find out that the Organizer had set the run course wrong at the it was actually 14.2 miles, in talking to an official after the race he apologized and said it had been corrected for the Full distance guys thanks to complaints from several Half athletes.  So is this a flook or does this kind of thing happen often with the HITS people?

I was really impressed with the quality of the race set up, on course support and transition.

I raced the half and won my age group. 

I was disappointed in the race.  It was crazy that we needed to swim two loops for the half.  They needed to expand the swim course to allow for a one loop half swim.  The bike course needed more/better aid stations.  There were no race officials and TONS of drafting.  They needed someone out there to break this up.  The run course was over a mile too long.  The aid stations on the run course were sometimes 1.5 to 2 miles apart and I did not see any port-a-potties on the run course.  I did like the transition area and the after race party was nice.  The finish medals didn't say the race or the race distance - they were just generic HITS medals.  I like the idea of the HITS race weekend, but they have a lot of work to do.

@ amymengel - congratulations on winning your AG! I ended up taking 3rd in my AG...hit a bit of the wall on the run...

As for the swim portion, I understood that they were told by park officials, rather last minute, that no boats or other water craft would be allowed in the water, as such, they felt it safer to adjust the swim to keep it closer to shore and 2 loops for the 1/2, 4 loops for the full. That didn't bother me so much as the lack of officials to catch and penalize the many drafters (I yelled at a few of them, but it was really sad to see so many cheaters), the lack of port-o-potties and the additional mile on the run course. (I had to make a pit stop at a construction site port-o-potty that was about mile 6, through on open gate and about 30 yards off the course) 

As you said the transition area was great (but I do prefer picking my spot as I like to be as close to the bike in/out as possible), the pre and post race festivities were solid, the event people were outstanding...I liked the "tri-tats" those were kind of cool. It seems like they just need to put a little more effort and pay a bit more attention to the details and their events will be top notch.

It seems to me, that at HITS races the races seems to be second thought:  Low volunteers, no officials, no port o potties, inaccurate course distances, etc.  I've read reports on this site and that other site.

But, things like the pre race, post race and transition areas are "top notch". 

Maybe it is just me, but I don't need a stool in transition.......

Yes, I've heard HITs lauded to the heavens, but from my experience (at the Oly) and what I am hearing from the long course foks, I am not getting it.

Best thing is being able to show up as late as we want to set up our spot.  Had I known that I would have hung out at Starbucks longer.  Other than that..... 

Speaking of the stool, my wife saw some older gentleman walking back to his car with all his stuff.... and the stool.  Maybe it was his., but that's funny if it wasn't