Ford Ironman 70.3 California - 2008

I personally did not find the bike course to be overly difficult but of course, everyone is different. (I regularly train on parts of both the run and the bike course) Wildflower and a few other local races were much tougher. There are some hills on the back side of the course but they are manageable if you know what's coming. (The course profile seemed to accurately represent)

The real hidden issue with the course is the trip back. (About the last 10 miles or so) A prevailing "Onshore" wind is very common here and the canyons tend to amplify this. A common mistake for this course is to go out too hard and burn up on the hills and then struggle over the last 10 miles on relatively flat terrain heading directly into a stiff wind.

The thing of it is, the wind did not seem to be there this year and so the last 10 miles were quite enjoyable. (I cruised the last 10 miles and prep'd for the run)

As for the "Sand Road'. The course was rerouted due to the fact that beach erosion had eaten most of the beach away. Instead, we got a small up and down in the beginning, and they chopped off a bit on the other end of the out and back.

I doubt if the sand road will ever be a feature of this race again. The city is currently building a proper bridge over the river to replace the current road in the river bottom that we ran on this year. (Not to mention the fact that the beach is still missing a lot of sand.

I personally found this course to be very fair and quite PR friendly. The one issue I might have with it is the run course is mostly concrete. I will probably opt for a set of Cushioned Trainers rather than Racing (Performance) shoes.

The best part about this race IMO is that it is an NA race. Everything about this race is first class and they leave nothing out. The Pizza Feed at the end along with the "Muscle Mangement" area were top notch. (They never did run out of Pizza even during the awards ceremony)

Oh, the weather was perfect this year, but has been both hot and cold in previous years. 2007 was the year they moved the race to the end of March and this seems to have worked out well. The air and water temps were ideal.

Come out and join us

I noticed that you did Ironman Hawaii 70.3.

Just a quick comparison of the bike course elevations, I would bet you would find IMCal's Bike Course to be either about the same or even a bit easier than Hawaii.

Hawaii was an out an back with a big hill at the turnaround. IMCal is a single loop and the first half of the course is pretty flat. (Rides along the coast)

The hillier parts are on the back side but your basically done by mile 45 and have some flats and downhills that you can make up gobs of time. (Or do what I did and take it easy to  prep for the run)

I wish NAS would graph both of them together like you can with the other races

Thanks for all the info!  I'm seriously thinking about joining you all.  I wanted to do Hawaii 70.3 again, but my best friend is getting married on that day...so, I wanted to find another 70.3.  This one looks fun.

Did not seem to be a too much of a problem for me, but then I raced through the winter season. I did the Orange County Marathon in January and the PacShore Half in February.

PacShore was sort of a Tuneup race that several of us did (Who were also doing IMCal) and that seemed to be excellent timing.

Maybe we can get some interest going in doing PacShore as a Tuneup again. (I am already planning for it but not sure if anyone else is)

Might also be cool to start a weekly training thread for IMCal. (Might help a bit to keep us all motivated)

Aw heck.  I went ahead and signed up last night.  Figure it will be a decent tuneup for Lanzarote.

iwantotri: I was watching the signups last year and it didn't sell out until sometime early this year, but I can't remember when exactly.  plus, it's so new, it's really hard to predict when it will sell out. 

I would be careful about doing the marathon than the HIM.  Xan did both last year and it was tough he said.

 Do a lot of hill training for the bike.  There was one big hill on it (the first one) that took a lot out of me.  Hurt my run as well.

 The swim wasn't bad at all.  It is in a protected harbor.  A little on the cold side...just need to practice in cold water prior and you should be fine.