This review is intended for the 2013 TriRock Race in San Diego.
PreRace Packet Pick Up: Hassle free. A good amount of vendors. ToughChik had the cutest apparel for women. It was your typical pre-race event with clothing, swag booth, GU’s, other race gels, and sunglasses. The t-shirt given was not true to size since it was unisex. It was 2 sizes bigger than what I would normally wear. It was a nice quality shirt, very simple logo which I appreciated (I hate when shirts are so busy and loud). But that being said, it’s probably not something I’ll ever wear due to the fact it’s so oversized, and fit more for a mans body type.
Race Day: Transitioned zones closed at the time stated which lead to some chaos for procrastinators. Get there when transition opens, and get to the porta-potties. There is always a line for those.
Race Start & Swim: I noticed when the gun went off for the first wave, more than half the wave was still swimming to the start because the waves were so large and only two people could enter the water at a time. The same trend continued into my wave, which was just the start of a very disappointing race. In prior years, I heard there was a “band on the barge” while you swam. There was no band for this race. It was a trend that continued throughout the entire race. But back to the swim. I think initially the course was marked well. But due to currents, it became a chaotic hot mess. And the lifeguards told people one thing, and others different. I’d imagine that’s hard to orchestrate a change in course while people are out in the water already, so I feel like this was beyond their control.
T1: Transition was sectioned off for racers, and was clearly marked. A job well done.
Bike: The initial start of the course wasn’t bad. They had volunteers heavily warning riders to slow down over the train tracks, and they did a great job. Then the course moved onto the naval base for a course that makes the road to Hana look straight… maybe not so much but it certainly felt like that. For the Olympic distance racers, you got to do the course twice. Yay me! I only saw one mile marker sign. I felt like this was odd because the day before I saw them setting signs up and magically they all disappeared. And still no music, or bands.
T2: Great great great.
Run: The run portion was very scenic which I appreciated, but after mile 3, you really started to share the road with a heavy amount of pedestrians who were all ignoring the signs posted to stay off the course. I wish there would have been more even staff watching this. Again, there were sporadic mile markers, some I think people moved, because right after mile 3, there was a mile 6 marker. It was just a mess.
Post Race: Medals are given out to everyone who finishes. Cute little guitar that also serves as a bottle opener. It’s the smallest and lightest of any of the medals I own. Post race food was great. Nice to see a race provide quinoa. It was delicious. The post race band was also very good. I appreciated the massage tent. A great amount of masseuses who went above and beyond.
Overall: I gave this race a D based on the 2013 event. I had such high hopes because I had heard such great things about the race. They did several things great, mainly the transition areas (which were heavily secured… MUCH APPRECIATED), amount of volunteers, and post race experience. But they failed on the most important factor of the race, the course itself. Due to poor organization of course, I had give this race an overall D grade. Kindly note, I heard years prior, this race was absolutely top notch. It’s because of such great reviews from friends that I signed up. Sadly, myself, and those same return racers will not likely be coming back unless there’s some significant changes.