5150 moved back a month, now weekend before Houston

I can only do one since I will be training for Ironman Arizona and can't miss back to back training weekends.

Hmmm, let me see which one I'll pick...

Drive all the way to Galveston to pick up my packet and rack my bike, then drive back home and then drive all the way back to Galveston again the next morning or pay for a hotel.

OR

Drive 10 minutes to Lonestar College/Berry Center/Towne Lake on race morning.

Tough decision. 

Pretty much this

I agree that Houston is a better put on Race. 

Galveston is a nice course though. 

I can't say it is cheeky - since there were 3 races I was interested in the weekend of the 5150 last year.

I'm not a fan of the Houston swim or bike course.  Personally I think the swim course needs to be completely redesigned.  I'm not against swimming up against people if you are racing but when you start the second loop and have to swim over everyone that just started, completely messes with the momentum.  The bike course needs to get rid of all of the u-turns that it had last year as well.

With that being said though, I would race Houston over Galveston because of the drive...10 min to race site or an hour and a half...

Haha, nice, I will chime in, you all know me so well. It "was" initially accurately measured BUT something happened with the buoys last year which I think added about 25-50 meters so that added some time.

Also... look at the ITU races and you'll see that swimmers like Andy Potts and Hunter Kemper (in the day) would do a loop swim slower than the straight swim. 1) Getting out takes some time, running takes some time, and getting back in takes some time. Also... When you go from horizontal to vertical and back to horizontal all within 1-2 minutes your HR jumps and the first 50-100 meters will wear you out.

Just a little coaching advice if any of you encounter a two loop course besides ours. Don't sprint the run and know to pace or even slow a bit and take more breaths the first 50-100 getting back in.

As for the courses.... we are aware of the issues with the u-turns on the bike (still low compared to a lot of other courses in the city) and the issue with the swim being 2 loops and 1/4 mile from the transition. Remember that Towne Lake is a brand new community. They are growing and doing construction. Our goal is to stick with them and within the next 1-2 years we've been told we may actually have another lake and park that connects and we can do a 1 loop or out and back course. Hopefully this year we can also have transition near the lake.

As for the bike... We have not control as Harris County mandates the course and are super strict. You will be noticing a lot of changes in bike courses around the entire city this year and next in tris and bike races. We are all lucky the city still lets all of us do them. The more I can keep you all off a main road and out of harms way the more likely the city is to let us do this year after year. We've always got you covered and are always looking for ways to make courses as fast and as enjoyable as possible. Our worst nightmare is to have any of you get hurt.

Thank you for your kind words, loyalty, and support of our events, even if it is because they are closer : ) lol.