If you’ve done IMAZ twice, I’d give CA a shot.
Most others have covered the basics. I went in super undertrained and a couple weeks out was a DNS but then decided to do it. Mostly because I’d signed up in 2020… 2021 bomb cyclone 2022 got covid they allowed me to defer. Was supposed to be my last so didn’t want to go out that way, just wanted to get it done. Course was easy enough to go in with crap training and finish comfortably
The swim I was ridiculous. Swam easy warmup pace to a 42. However surprisingly the tides will affect the delta that far up, we had a dropping tide so that just helped.
Like the swim my bike was an easy bike all day pace. If I hadn’t stopped to pee would have been under 6. Not fast but basically got off the bike feeling I hadn’t done much all day. Mostly smooth pavement but there are three worse to awful sections so you’ll hit them 4 x each. They are short tho.
Poured the last 28 miles of the bike for me.
Run as mentioned is mostly all flat but there are some underpasses on the river trail. Good crowd support, but goes into a park that can get quite dark. They had some lights but not all worked. Second loop was pitch black pouring rain with very few race officials, not a great setup if someone were to have an issue. If you’ll be after dark grab a headlight in special needs. Had one but didn’t take it (haven’t needed one in 5 IMs even tho after dark in most) and regretted it.
Like the bike poured rain miles 13 or so to 21 for me. Last 4 miles of the run are totally uninspiring.
Most others have covered the basics. I went in super undertrained and a couple weeks out was a DNS but then decided to do it. Mostly because I’d signed up in 2020… 2021 bomb cyclone 2022 got covid they allowed me to defer. Was supposed to be my last so didn’t want to go out that way, just wanted to get it done. Course was easy enough to go in with crap training and finish comfortably
The swim I was ridiculous. Swam easy warmup pace to a 42. However surprisingly the tides will affect the delta that far up, we had a dropping tide so that just helped.
Like the swim my bike was an easy bike all day pace. If I hadn’t stopped to pee would have been under 6. Not fast but basically got off the bike feeling I hadn’t done much all day. Mostly smooth pavement but there are three worse to awful sections so you’ll hit them 4 x each. They are short tho.
Poured the last 28 miles of the bike for me.
Run as mentioned is mostly all flat but there are some underpasses on the river trail. Good crowd support, but goes into a park that can get quite dark. They had some lights but not all worked. Second loop was pitch black pouring rain with very few race officials, not a great setup if someone were to have an issue. If you’ll be after dark grab a headlight in special needs. Had one but didn’t take it (haven’t needed one in 5 IMs even tho after dark in most) and regretted it.
Like the bike poured rain miles 13 or so to 21 for me. Last 4 miles of the run are totally uninspiring.