Pre-race: any two transition race creates a little extra hassle. The T2 bag drop-off at registration went OK this year. One small gripe: the race number bib was cloth and didn’t have holes for race belts. The expo/registration workers didn’t have hole punches or safety pins. I ended up using some guy’s knife to cut small holes for my race belt. Not a huge detail, but easy to fix.
I heard the shuttle service was a bit of a mess. Luckily I didn’t have to rely on it, and pay the $30 fee for a bus ride.
T1 was fine, and there was plenty of area to warm-up in the water before the race.
Course: While I love the remote locations like Wildflower, racing in an urban setting was really cool. Swimming at the famous Venice Beach, cycling on Venice and Olympic Blvd, running along Grand Ave, and finishing in front of Staples Center, these are what make the race and course great. I can see why this race costs more than most, and I’m sure it wasn’t cheap to have all of those roads closed and all of the police out on the bike course.
Post-race: The good: location and amenities. plenty of food, snacks, volunteers.
The BAD: Disorganization….it was hard finding volunteers/workers that knew where the T1 bag pickup was. When we found where it was, the T1 bags still hadn’t shown up. I’m not sure why it took more than 3 hours to transport the T1 bags about 15 miles. Fortunately, I wasn’t in a rush to get out of there, but standing around and waiting with hundreds of other athletes was a big waste of everyone’s time.
If you decide to do this race, plan for this time delay. Finish the race, clean up a little, go grab some lunch with your friends and family, and then go back for your T1 bag.
While I hope this race continues on into the future, it seems that registration numbers are declining. Would I do this race again? Probably, but when it costs nearly the same as doing a 70.3 race, it comes down to budget.
Also, there’s an LA Triathlon App….it’s great if you want to look up results from 2 years ago…Don’t tease us with an up for ‘tracking’ and then not actually implement the steps (cost) to make it a useful tool. Glad it’s a free app.