Has anyone done Ironman 70.3 California

Great race!  Highly recommended - gets more popular every year.  Do it - you won't be disappointed...

-John

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.

Go to the race database here and you can pull up several different 1/2s that you might be interested and read what different people thought of the races.  It's a very valuable tool.  Before I choose any of my big races, I'll check the race reports here and see what BT'ers thought of the race.

I've done this race twice now, and I have to agree it's a challenging but very doable course.
The first real hill at 34 miles out hurts !
Last year part of the run was on sand but the year before was not, but all in all fairly flat.

Seriously considering this for next year. Didn't it sellout about a month before the race?

Oceanside 70.3 2009 was my first HIM.  At the time, I thought the bike course was hilly.  I've since changed my mind, it is relatively flat compared to other bike course, but there is one decent hill, and a couple of smaller ones.

Run course is mostly flat, and is along the scenic beach strand, with plenty of crowd support. 

Swim is in the bay, and I wasn't a big fan of it, because the rolling waves near the turn around point stated making me a bit nauseous, but thats something you just have to deal with.  And, as mentioned, there is no pre-swimming of the course.

All in all, I recommend it. I have already registered for 2010, so see you there!