I wrote a post before about choosing a race, but it focused on running. After my first Ironman 70.3, search for a full Iron distance (ok, I want it to be Ironman because I want to hear those iconic words: you are Ironman!) and talking to other fellow triathletes, I came up with a number of triathlon-specific considerations.
What kind of open water are we talking about?
There is open water and there is OPEN water. What do I mean? Well, thank you for asking! All that is required of the body of water to be eligible for open water swim is that it’s outside and is not a pool. That leaves you with wide variety of possibilities from calm lakes to the raging ocean. If you are a beginner triathlete or a not overly confident swimmer, go with lakes and such. Actually, I heard (second hand) from a man who is a pro open water swimmer and did sprint triathlon in Gdynia a few weeks ago that the water was so awful that he wanted to withdraw several times and had to keep talking himself out of it. Seas and oceans are very unpredictable and you may get yourself into a quite dangerous situation. I’m not saying you should never do a race with swim portion on the ocean. But you should definitely make sure you understand what you are signing yourself up for.
As I was looking last weekend for Ironman races in North America, I tried to pick ones with relatively flat bike course (more on that later) and looked at swim portions of those races. I remembered seeing an ad that Ironman Florida is flat and people come there for their personal bests. I clicked on swim course description and here is what I saw:
And this is the image that immediately appeared in my head (maybe better executed by my imagination than my hand 😉):
Wetsuit legal?
Most race pages will tell you whether the race tends to be wetsuit legal or not. How you feel about swimming in a wetsuit is a matter of personal preference. First of all, you may not own a wetsuit, so you would prefer not having to experiment with that. I also doubt that anybody would argue that swimming in a wetsuit is a pleasant experience. You get to choose between them being too big and ineffective or feeling tight (mine made me think I would suffocate at first, but after a couple of minutes I got that under control) and possibly chafing. On the other hand, wetsuits add buoyancy, making you swim faster and tire less. There is also one more benefit of a wetsuit: it protects you from touching the ‘marine life’. In Gdynia, there were jellyfish in the water. The ones in the Baltic Sea don’t really sting, but that doesn’t mean they are fun to touch. I really appreciated the protective layer between me and jellyfish and their friends.
Ability to bring your own bike
You may have an option to rent a bike, but no matter how fancy it is, it will never be YOUR bike. In case of my race, I couldn’t pick my bike up until the day before the race and there was some discomfort in there. Also the sizing wasn’t quite right…
Whether you can bring your own bike depends on a number of factors. One example: are you flying all the way destination or will you need to load it into a rented car? (God forbid) take it on public transportation? Another example: will it be prohibitively expensive?
Hills on the bike course
I think we can all agree that hills on a long bike ride may be a killer, especially if they are steep ones. If you are just a beginner, you may want to look for a flatter course. Something I find important to keep in mind: you lose more time on uphills than you gain on downhills and they don’t change cutoffs based on terrain. At least majority of races doesn’t. If you’re trying to just finish, flat course increases your chances of making it past the bike part and having enough left in your legs for the run.
Wind
This is a common concern whenever you have to ride a bike. Check typical weather in your race’s area during that time of the year. Getting hit by a gust of wind from the side when you’re trying to grab food or water can be deadly! And headwind is about as great as uphills, so I will refer you to the previous section. I think majority of races are picked reasonably, but it’s better to check and be safe than sorry. You don’t want to look like this:
I don’t think that you need any additional considerations for the running portion of the triathlon past what you looked at when choosing a good bike course or for any sporting event.
Selection process is part of the fun! Choose wisely and enjoy!