New swim location and bike course for Pocono 70.3

Yes, I was asking a couple friends who did this last year and they said to make sure I do an earlier race too so I'm not disappointed if it's a mess again this year.

The swim was supposed to be in the Delaware River, by the Delaware Water Gap. I hear the bike course was a mess, too. Wet, with muddy spots and lots of crashes.

I didn't register for Diamondman yet, it's not close to full. So I need to make a decision. This is my first HIM, so I want to actually do it. Diamondman has a good reputation as a smaller, flatter, event, and a good first HIM. But I would like to do an actual IM-branded event, too.

The river was flowing really fast, from the hurricane and then tropical storm in the weeks leading up to the race.  Since parts of the swim had you going up-stream, they would have needed nets to catch all the bodies, and the lifeguards would have been exhausted just staying in one spot on the kayaks. 

Delaware River, night before Pocono IM 70.3 2011

So hopefully the lake/pond swim will have a higher chance of happening.  Spring fed sounds good but cold.

For the bike course, they had to make some last minute adjustments due to floods, and there were a lot of sections that got re-paved for the race.  Now I'm coming from more of a mountain bike background, but I didn't think the course was too technical.  Also didn't have a TT bike, so that may have helped as well.

I've done Diamondman twice and will most likely do it again this year.  It is a nice coarse I highly recommend it.

The bike has a couple af bad sections, you have to be very careful of like an old metal grate bridge and some nasty railroad crossings.  Overall a good coarse.

Yes, I am going to stick with Diamondman. My tri club gets points for me doing this, even though I'll probably be finishing an hour after the awards are done.

I paid for Pocono last year and didn't race it when I saw the weather report and that the swim was cancelled. 

Something is compelling me to go back.  Waiting to see what the Host Hotel will be.  My only worries is the logistics of my wife and kids seeing me at the swim then getting down to Stroudsburg for T2 and the Run portion.  Also NOT crazy about the bike sections where you have to snake around out &  backs with oncoming cycling traffic.  However, since they moved the swim start almost 8 miles north, I 'assume' this should be resolved a bit.   Hopefully

Water will probably be high 60's, low 70's. Oh wait, I just looked on the website, it says that already

If it's wetsuit legal I will definitely be wearing a wetsuit. It may be possible to do without a wetsuit, but anything under 72 or so I personally would be cold.

That is one heck of a downhill to mile 3 on the bike course!