Carpinteria Triathlon - Olympic Course : Official Thread

I've done this race 3 times. It was my first Oly after a few sprint tris and progressively longer runs. As a swimmer, the swim was the easy part, especially in a wetsuit. The bike is my weakness, so I found that leg challenging (several decent size hills) but not horrible. The run has a couple of little inclines, but the finish is flat. It helped that I trained on the course a few times so I knew what to expect. It is pretty well organized and the weather is generally nice. My only complaints were the traffic jams in transition and getting stopped once by the train (which runs through the middle of town). They do credit you for the time lost while waiting for the train, but it is hard to stop and get going again when you are in "race" mode. I would do this race again.

As for being appropriate for a novice, it's hard to say. I think it really depends on your background, training, goals, etc. I got into triathlons without any real running or biking experience, so for me to start with an Oly was out of the question. It took me almost 2 hours to finish my first sprint tri (with a pool swim!), but I continued to train and race and worked my way up to the Carpinteria Oly and it was the perfect race for my first Olympic distance. I have friends that did the race on less than ideal training and just a couple of sprint races under their belts and they finished without any problem. Their only complaint was the amount of time it took them - they were on the course for almost 4 hours.