My thoughts and opinion on the race in general. I wrote this for the Southern Utah Triathlon Club but figured I would share it here as well…

Altitude:

Despite what people think, you do not need to go up to Boulder more than 2 days in advance in order to acclimate to the higher altitude. ( http://blog.trisutto.com/5-invisible-race-performance-enhancers/ )

Accommodations:

I usually stay with friends at races, so I am not one to ask about accommodations. Since the race finish and expo is in the middle of the city, I am guessing that finding a hotel there won’t be hard. There are no hotels right by the reservoir as far as I know. The start/T1/T2 is only about 15 minutes from the finish. If I had to choose whether to stay close to the finish or to the start, I would stay downtown by the finish. You have to go there for packet pick-up before the race and special needs drop-off + shuttle bus on race morning anyway.

Logistics:

This is the first time I have done a race where the start/T1/T2 is in one place and the finish in another. This means: a point-to-point run. It also means that race organization needs to transport all bikes to the finish. There is also NO parking at the reservoir. Which means: Not only you, but also your family needs to take a shuttle to the start in the morning. If they want to see you come off the bike, they then need to hang out at the lake for many hours until you start the run or take the shuttle back and forth from the finish. The bike course doesn’t go RIGHT by the reservoir on the second loop. They won’t see you then unless they walk half a mile or so. It doesn’t seem to be a spectator-friendly bike unless you really know the area. The run does loop back some and goes by the finish 3 times so it’s fairly easy for families to see their athlete go by then. It’s not a bad place to hang out with the river and plenty of trees providing shade. There seemed to be plenty of parking fairly close to the finish line.

There was scheduled times to swim in the lake on Thursday and Friday before the race but NOT on Saturday. Cost was about $10. I chose not to swim in the lake before the race. There are plenty of nice pools in Boulder to swim in also. Bike and gear bag check-in was at the lake on Saturday afternoon.

It was easy to get an idea of the bike course pre-race. Everyone parks in the Watson Park on the other side of the lake and bikes from there. I biked a 90-minute loop on Friday and got a good idea of what to expect on race day. It would’ve been easy to drive the course as well. I tried to bike the run course to get an idea of the lay-out on Friday morning (before they had put down arrows) and I couldn’t figure it out because Boulder’s path system is quite elaborate, and it seemed a bit complicated.

Race Morning:

The pros got one free parking pass for the reservoir, so I do not know what the shuttle situation was like on race morning. It was quite a long transition, which is not uncommon for Ironman, but pretty easy to navigate if you took the time to preview it. Plenty of space to do a little run warm up. Perfect temps, beautiful sunrise. They did have an area where athletes were allowed to get in the lake for a warm up prior to the race start.

The Swim:

Wetsuit legal. The water warmed up quite a bit over the last few weeks and was about 70 degrees in the morning. Rolling start. The course could not be any simpler. Triangle with straight lines. Sighting was easy. No waves. Water wasn’t clear but also not gross. It got a bit shallow in some parts and plants were coming up but not too annoying. A very short semi-steep ramp to run up to the wetsuit peelers and bike bags.

The Bike:

I would consider this bike course flat. Too flat in my opinion. There was a total of 6 short inclines that packed a little punch. Each time you came back to the 36 from the east. 3 on each loop. Other than that, it was flat or a false flat. The course is fairly susceptible to the wind and it did pick up significantly on the second loop. It was hot but there were plenty of aid stations with lots of volunteers. The scenery was nice. Better than I expected. Farm roads with mountains in the distance. I saw a mostly fair race with no drafting packs and a decent number of race marshals. The roads were in great condition. The course was about a mile or so short. Not sure as I turned my Garmin off early…  Overall, I enjoyed the course. More so than IM Arizona, less so than IM CDA or Nice, about the same as IM Mont Tremblant.

The bike had 2 problems: 1. More than half of the course was NOT closed to traffic. And many roads ran regular traffic in both directions with us simply riding on the shoulder. This is unusual for an Ironman race. We need more safe space. 2. The course was confusing. A rather high number of people (including the female overall amateur) ended up with a DQ because the accidentally cut the course by turning early onto the 2^nd loop. Most of them realized this at some point. Some rode right back to correct their mistakes. Some kept riding and made up the difference at the end. The latter got a DQ. Yes, it is our responsibility to know the course. Yes, I studied the map a million times and STILL had to make sure that I wasn’t accidentally turning early. Yes, they had a lot of volunteers at that intersection to direct us. Yes, it was still confusing and should’ve been avoided.

The Run:

Positive: Spectators were great and plenty. Not everywhere but in enough places. Aid stations were well-spaced and well-stocked, especially considering the heat. There was plenty of ice and coke (which sometimes there isn’t). We ran by the river a bunch and had permission to get into the river to cool off during the race (as long as we exit and enter the course this is always allowed). Some of it was shaded, most of it not. There were virtually no cars as we ran all but the first few miles on a paved path.

Negative: The entire path was concrete. The worst surface (in my opinion) to run a marathon on. The course was deceivingly difficult. And I am still not sure why. The female pros all ran about 20 minutes slower than we usually do. I have done very hot races before and it usually doesn’t account for that much time. We all handle the heat pretty well and agree that this was a hard course for some reason. There are no real hills to speak of. But there are plenty of little ups and downs and arounds and it is hard to find a rhythm.

Post-race:

The food area was right next to transition in a little park by the river with grass and lots of shade. A nice place to hang out. It was a bit of walk to our bikes and bags but doable. I was able to get my bike and 2 bags about 90 minutes after my race, waited for the 3^rd bag for a while, then gave up and had friends bring it for me. It was a bit of a mess to bring all that crap from the lake to the finish and despite their best efforts, there were some mishaps.

Overall, I am not sure why they had us run from the lake. I would’ve preferred to run from the finish. My guess is that road closures in town are a problem and with us on the path, they had to close only a few in that area. Which made driving away from the race easy.

I would give this race a B- overall. (STG 70.3 gets an A-)

The Boulder Ironman will be around for another 2 years. They renewed the contract with the city for 2019 and 2020 before this race.  My opinion? If you want to do this race, I would do it then and not wait. Between the high DNF rate this year (heat) and the high DQ rate (course) + the course changes every year + the fact that it doesn’t sell out, I am not sure how much longer it will be around. The locals that I talked to, agree.