Subject: RE: Has anyone done Ironman 70.3 California The weather was perfect this year. It has two major hills that may make you cry. The run is a two loop run that is pretty flat for the most part. There is a hill that you have to run up but it's not that bad on the first or second loop. The one part that I didn't like was that you had to run on the sandy beach ... some of it was compact hard sand while maybe 30-40 yards of it was soft sand. It's just a small stretch but it takes you out of your groove. Things that I liked about it: weather, bike course (outside of the two major climbs ), and flat run Things that I didn't like about it: The first time that you could swim on the course was when your wave enters the water on race day. No practice swims allowed on race day or the day prior to the race. Running on the sand (soft and compact ). I would just rather run on roads throughout. The sun is in your face on the back leg of the swim. It was almost blinding and makes sighting extremely difficult. The pre-race talk was you watching a DVD in a room with no officials around. It was just you, the other athletes, and a small TV. All of the other 70.3 races that I've done had a live person there that you could interact with. I would definitely do this again if the opportunity presents itself. I thought Longhorn 70.3 was a better support race with more swag. They had a lot of festivities before, during, and after the race. Eagleman 70.3 was more athletes friendly because they set up the course bouys the day before so that you can swim it if you'd like. You could do a practice swim before the race started. CA 70.3 didn't do this. However, I don't think that there are many races out there will more ideal weather. It's in SoCal afterall. |