Ironman 70.3 Steelhead : Official Thread (Page 2)

2 Logistical questions for anyone who has done this race:

1. You have to take a shuttle from the parking area to the start/finish/transition area.  The shuttles close at 630am.  Does anyone have advice for how to get your family there later in the day?  My wife and two little ones want to arrive later in the day to see me finish and the prospect of getting them up early enough to catch the shuttle is not appealing.  Is there parking available nearby that is not "official" race parking?

2. Same type of issue:  You have to take a shuttle to get to transition, so what do you do with your bike pump?  I intend to pump up my tires race morning, but you are not supposed to leave the pump in the transition area and they will not take it in the morning check bags.  Do I need to just pump them up the day before and chance it race morning?

Sorry for the new guy questions, this will hopefully be my first full HIM following the Muncie 37.2.

Thanks,

Jonathan

There is plenty of parking south of the race site and your family shouldn't have any problem finding a spot after the race has started.  There is a large industrial park with several large lots.  It's about 1/2 mile from the race and walkable on sidewalks through a neighborhood.  No need to rely on the shuttle, I've taken my bike in on race morning both times with no trouble.  There are usually pumps floating around the transition areas and are supposed to be supplied by race staff.  Finding one should be easy enough if you leave it over night.

Go to bing maps and take a peek at the satellite view of St. Joseph/Benton Harbor.  The parking areas are directly north of the St. Jospeh River and are along Upton/Momany/Renaissance/Momany drives.

Good luck!  PM me if you need any other info.  I live in the area and have done the race 2X.

Never have done Kansas.  Most of the hills on the course are on M-63/Blue Star Hwy.  They're not difficult and it's pretty similar to Muncie, or at least the shortened version of Muncie this year.  The middle 30 or so are pretty flat with a few hills, nothing that's a killer. 

Funny you mention Kansas.  My wife and I were eating out last year and some guys from WTC in town for Steelhead sat near us and were from Kansas.  I asked him about the bike course there and he said Steelhead is much easier.  Kansas was much hillier, in his words. 

Thanks!  Yeah, Kansas is fairly challenging.  A little over 2000 ft of climbing.  It's one of my favorite races.  I'm hoping to come to the area to ride the course beforehand!  It's so hilly where I live which is helpful for training, but sometimes you just want a good stretch of flat roads to really go fast!!

Thanks, jgs733  We appreciate it!

Amazing how fast it changes simply because of prevalent wind direction.  Just the other day it was littered with 60 degree temps and now they are showing high 70s!

http://www.coastwatch.msu.edu/michigan/m52.html

I'm strangely calm before the race Of course, we still have a week and a half, so the nerves still have plenty of time to ruin my cucumber-like cool..

Couple of questions (based on what I read about other 70.3 events):

1) Do we rack the bike on Sat, or do we have to drag it with on Sunday?

2) Do we set up transition as per usual, under bike, or do we have the transition bags and can't leave anything in transition?

3) when do they publish waves? I'm REALLY hoping i'm not in the 4th to last wave again (Racine last year).

The Athlete guide really doesn't seem to have anything about that.. unless i missed it? totally possible.

4) Are the course talks worth the time? If they are, are there some you'd recommend specifically? I'm coming in with my husband and our 2 little boys, and my MIL and FIL are meeting us there, so I kind of want to hit the meat and potatoes stuff and get going

thanks!!!

Bib numbers are posted in the participants list.  I'm 1094.......I'll choose the 1094 standard for my tax return.  I have a lot of deductions......

ha!  is training time/equipment tax deductable?  looks like im #853, swim wave at 750 w pink cap (my daughter will like this)

btw, i grew up in this area and did the race in 2010 (swim included!) if anyone has last minute questions, i would be glad to try and answer.

Wouldn't that be nice.  Especially since I bought a bike this year. 

You are not just pink you are FL pink.   I'm FL Orange and if I see you, you might be having a bad swim.....I usually take about 40 minutes for my swim so no speed demon here.

Chris, thanks for the input!!!

I will rack my bike on Saturday, i assume the transition is secure? Then I'll just bring my pump on Sunday and leave with with MIL.

I'm 412, and I am SO happy to say I'm in the 6th wave, 7:20 start!!!!! I'm ecstatic.  Last year, I was in the 4th to last wave (i think we started at 8:16), and then I had that disastrous Tire Shredding on the bike and whew........ I'm VERY happy to see I'll start in the beginning.  I'm not fast (probably will finish between 7:10-7:30), so I need that extra time before the clock start ticking to cut off, in case of another mechanical nightmare.  Which won't happen.  But I'm still happy!

...oh, and I have a super cool RED cap!!! I usually get weird colors, so not too upset about that

It's going to be a fun day, you guys!

Transition will be locked down.  Your bike will be safe. 

See eveyone next week. 

I've sucked at training since Boise 29.3 (bike got cut to 15 miles)two months ago, but I'll be shooting for anything under 6 hours.  Good luck everyone and stay safe in your travels back to Michigan.