Ironman 70.3 Oceanside

April 02, 2016 · Oceanside, CA

Distance: 1.2 mile swim, 13.1 mile run, 56 mile bike

Athletes will enjoy the calm waters of the 1.2-mile swim course in Oceanside Harbor, the tough one-loop, 56-mile bike course that includes the coastal beauty of San Clemente State Park and the challenging inland hills of Camp Pendleton 13.1-mile run through the coastal neighborhoods of Oceanside.

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pre-race	course	post-race
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Review

Pre-Race:
I didn’t stay long at the expo, but packet pickup went smoothly. It was exactly what you would expect it to be in terms of vendors and size.

The only annoyance was that bike drop off didn’t start until 2pm on Friday, and we arrived at 10am. Wish it had just started when the expo started.

Course:
The run was the same loop, twice, which was kind of annoying. I also didn’t like having to run up and down the pier because it was too steep to run down with a natural stride. Also, they didn’t mark the miles on the run, so it was really hard to figure out how much longer I had to go (no GPS watch).

Volunteers were great. They were enthusiastic about cheering, and actually looked at your bib so they would cheer for you by name, which was enormously helpful.

Post-Race:
For the last couple miles of the run, all I could think about was pizza. They had pizza it at the finish. Win.

Overall:
My first half Ironman. A very well organized race. Can’t say enough about the great volunteers. Pretty cool experience.

(submitted on behalf of Paul Hoban)

Review

This was my first Ironman 70.3 event and I was blown away by how well this event was run. The crowd, volunteers, and race organizers were all amazing and I had a lot of fun. The swim was in the protected waters of Oceanside Harbor and the bike was challenging and fun. The run was awesome as it was split between the strand (right next to the beach) and the great neighborhood around the event. I highly recommend this event to anyone considering the distance as well as those people who have done many of these distances in the past.

Review

I take great honor in being the first to grade this race! 2011 was my first time and my first Half Ironman race. The swim was cold and got choppy around the turnaround point. The bike was fast except for the couple of hills (will definitely train more hills next year). On the run, I was too conservative…waiting for the bonk that never happened. I can’t wait for 2012!!!