St. George Trip

Can't wait to hear your course report!

Did the loop today and it is no joke, full report when I get back home with pictures. Took a peak at the lake and will try and get out to the run tomorrow.

Uploaded some photos today, here are a few:

More in the album: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=12454

I did not get a chance to run the Run Course, but we covered some while on the bike and I drove most of the rest on the way out of town. Only had 2 ful days there and most of the time was spent up near Zion with the family. I will add more after I get things back in order around the house and work.

Official Course Maps: http://www.ironmanstgeorge.com/course.php

The pictures are the same as in the above post, but used here for context.

Swim: We went up to the lake and had a look from the road. It is a pay-use area and I didn’t want to pay, but you could see from the road on the outside of the fence that parallels the road on the inside. I think that the swim start is across the lake from where I was. Here are the photos I took of the area:
 
Swim Start across the way

Swim Start across the way

Bike: This should be a challenging ride, how it compares to other IM courses I cannot say since this is going to be my first IM. We rode one loop of the course and back down to T2 from our motel that was about a block from the finish so we missed riding the section between T1 and the loop start, but we drove it.
(Drove) From T1 to Hwy 9 it is flat/downhill and then Hwy 9 has a climb up to Telegraph that is about 2 miles long and goes up about 350ft. Turn left on Telegraph and go over to Washington Pkwy, there are a couple of hills along this part with about 300ft of ascent. Then across the freeway, this is where the roads are under construction and I had to get on the freeway. I skipped the rest of the course up to the loop since the family wanted to get back to the room and it was late. This section looks to have a hill with about 400ft of climbing.

(Rode) The loop starts at Snow Canyon and Bluff St(Hwy 18). We missed the turn at 2000n and then 400e that puts you on Center St. and just stayed on Snow Canyon. Snow Canyon turns into Center St. so we didn’t mss much, but I cannot describe that section. Center St. to 200w to 400s was basically flat/downhill. The only thing of note was that 400s was being repaved and should be nice. Once on Hwy 91 the uphill starts, but stays mild about 300ft over the 5 miles. Pavement isn’t great, but not the worse one the course. Nothing more than 5% gradient so far.

Looking up Highway 91

You now turn off to CR-3184/Gunlock Rd. and the pavement get worse here.

The start of CR-3184

The next landmark will be Gunlock Reservoir. This is about 5.5 miles out on CR-3184/Gunlock Rd. There is one steep section leading up to the reservoir maxing out at about 8% with the rest being fairly constant with maybe one other bump up and a cattle guard.

Climb up to the Reservoir

Once past the reservoir there is a lovely gravel pit and then another cattle guard before entering Gunlock. Gunlock is has just about the only shade on the loop, so enjoy it. After leaving Gunlock there is a nice field with a white fence that is right before the steepest(but short) part of the loop.

After Gunlock

You can see the road go up in the distance of the above picture. It is about 1/3 of a mile long and gets up to about 13%. Should be fun the second time around. Here are a few more pictures of it.

About 2.5 miles after this hill is the switch-back that climbs up to the top of the plateau. You can see it as you approach in the side of the plateau and know you are about to have some fun. It is about a mile long and gets to about 12-13% near the top. This too will be enjoyable the second time around. These show the lead up to and the climb on the switch-back.

Switch-back getting closer

Looking up to the top of the switch-back

Corner to start the switch-back

Climbing the switch-back

Looking down from along the switch-back

This really was not that bad, you just need to save something for it. After this Highway 18 is about 2 miles and is still a steady up. Nothing over 5% and about 150ft of ascent. Once on the 18 there is some more of the going up stuff. Five more miles and 300ft and you are at the top. The first mile and a half is the toughest part and has most of the ascent in it along with maxing out at 7%.

Highway 18

Now the downhill, time to relax. It is about 12 miles to the loop start and most of can be done without much pedaling. I got over 40mph on at least 3 sections without trying and was easily in the mid to high 20s for the rest except for a couple of small bumps up. The pavement was decent, but I was on my road bike with clip-ons so I used my drops on the faster sections instead of being areo. I didn’t get very many pictures of this part, here is one.

Going down Highway 18

After the second loop, you will have about 2.5 miles to T2. This too is mostly downhill and should be straight forward. A couple of round-abouts to navigate and then into the transition.

T2 is at about 2500 elevation and the top of the bike course is about 4700 elevation and that is just before the descent on Highway 18. The course profiles on the Official website are a bit misleading because they compressed them horizontally. Here is mine for the loop and back down to T2(The first mile of uphill is not part of the course).

The run course goes back up to the bike course to the loop turn around and head back down the bike course that was before the loop start. The hills will be fun, especially if you went too hard on the bike. Not much else to say about it since I only drove it.

Thanks for the awesome course report!  I'm weak on the hills so I have some work to do.  Fortunately I have some good rollers nearby to train on - this summer.

We stopped at the intersection CR3184 and Highway 18. There is a store there that has bathrooms and just about anything else you want.

My Garmin showed about 2900 for the loop, I think that is a bit high though. Probably around 2500 per loop and some more leading up to it.

Does anyone know if they will cover the cattle guard or leave it and park an ambulance there?