Okay, I have done all of the previous Tri-Rock San Diego and have been a big supporter of this brand of race as kind of like a WTC-like sprint race. The first year the race was done was an automatic, out of the park home run with the exception of the railroad tracks. However, let us look at this years race.
This year, I had really high hopes for because of the change in the bike course.2 weeks before the race, I find out that they changed the bike course from 11 miles to 8.5. Wow, that is a huge change and their concern was the course would be too crowded which it was not. So for me, this was strike one against them. They could have cut out the stupid bridge that they love to have people go over by the hotel, and have you do 2 laps and it would be around 14 miles which is a good distance for a sprint. (I mean really, do you need to put a U-turn right by the end of the bridge to go right back over it with not changing gears from coming down)
Next, they changed the sprint race to later in the day (my wave went off at 8:30 instead of like 7:45 in the past). It was already getting warm in transition, and people were sweating buckets in their wetsuits. The last wave for the sprint wound up going off at 9:30, that was a little insane.
Lastly, their distances were off the mark a lot. My Garmin calculated the run at around 3.5 miles instead of the 3.1 that the run used to be. Overall, if you are in the area, this is a good race for a beginner. However, to travel here with hotel and everything else it is extremely expensive. I think this is probably my last year doing the race, and I will go do LA next year and save an extra 100 bucks.
I hope they look at the concerns that all of the legacy people have with this race. Maybe move the course to Fiesta ISland where they hold more triathlons throughout the year.