Here is my report on the race.
1. Travel to Cartagena: Relatively easy to get to from the U.S. I'm not certain there are direct flights into Cartagena from anywhere in the USA. You will likely need to connect in Panama City, Panama or Bogota, Colombia. I used my United frequent flyer miles so I connected in Panama City. Taxis are pretty small there so you might have to do some planning ahead to get a taxi big enough to fit people, luggage, and bike boxes.
2. Hotels: Most of the modern hotels are in the Bocagrande section of Cartagena and about 3 miles from the race venue. So you need to once again factor in logistics about how you will get your bike to transition for bike drop off and how you will get back to your hotel after the race. Cartagena is rather small geographically but there are over 1 million people there. The roads are what I would call barely adequate under normal conditions but were super congested around the convention center area during race weekend. Getting out of there after the race was really difficult.
My #1 suggestion is to stay at one of the boutique hotels in the Old City/Walled City. It's right next to the race venue, and much of the run is within the Walled City. Yes, you will pay more but you won't have to worry about schlepping your bike to and from Bocagrande. I can't understate how much of a pain in the ass that was.
3. Restaurants: There are some really great restaurants around Cartagena. Some of the best coffee in the world if you're a coffee person. Their domestic beers are not good. Stick to European or American imports.
4. Athlete check-in/Bike Drop off/Expo: Athlete check-in and Expo was at the Centro de Convenciones located just south of the Walled City. Once again, you'll need to arrange for a larger taxi if you're not staying within walking distance. Check-in was normal. By normal I mean it still takes entirely too long. We spent an hour getting through the line. You will need to buy a one day pass from the Colombian triathlon sanctioning body.
The expo was a joke. The expo was so crowded they basically weren't allowing people in. I went by there twice and both times I was told it would be a 60-90 minute wait to get in to buy any merchandise. I find most of the IM merchandise to be complete crap so no biggie but I do like to buy a Headsweats visor/hat for my international/destination races.
T1/T2 and bike drop off was in a little plaza to the north of the convention center. It was fenced off and chock full of Colombian national police so it was very safe and secure.
5. Swim: The swim was in a bay right next to the convention center. One loop rectangular course. We were told the water was 86 degrees, so there's zero chance this swim will ever be wetsuit legal. Salt water swim but the water was not super clear since it's in a bay. Maybe a few feet of visibility.
The swim start was delayed by 40 minutes. There was zero communication with the athletes about the delay. We were all standing around wondering what was going on. Rumors I heard were: 1) they had not closed the bay and some boats had come in, and 2) they had not closed down all the roads yet. Maybe Sylvan can chime in.
Other than that the swim was typical.
6. T1: it was a fairly long distance from swim finish to T1. This is not going to be a fast transition.
7. Bike: There were some admin miles getting out of the city and onto the main part of the bike course. The course was basically an out and back up the coastline to the northeast. Roads were actually pretty good for the most part. The worst sections of roads were closer to Cartagena. The scenery along the bike course was pretty nice. The course does go through some poorer coastal areas and there was a huge presence by the Colombian military/police in those areas. It's a little weird seeing a bunch of soldiers carrying assault rifles along a triathlon bike course but it is what it is. That stated, there were a fair amount of locals along the bike course and I thought they were awesome.
There were four aid stations along the 56 miles. More or less about every 12 miles. They were handing out water and Gatorade. Volunteers were great and it ran as smoothly as any race in North America. There was one problem. They weren't using the water or Gatorade sports bottles we're accustomed to here in North America. The water and Gatorade were put in those cheap hard plastic water bottles that are given away for free in swag bags and such. They were hard to squeeze and the spouts were so cheaply made that it required a lot of effort to get fluid out. They really just need to use the same stuff we use in North America.
Mostly flat, with a bit of a climb near the turnaround. Winds were fairly calm.
8. T2: same place as T1. Nothing out of the ordinary.
9: Run: Most of the run is in the Walled City, some of it around the Walled City, some of it was on the Wall. It was a fun run course. Two loops with 10 aid stations per loop, so roughly one every 2/3rds of a mile. A ton of spectators and volunteers. Water, Gatorade, Pepsi (which was not flat or de-fizzed), gels, bananas.
What they didn't have a ton of were bathrooms. There was only one aid station with port-a-potties on the entire run course, and even then it was only three potties. My guess it was around mile 4.5 or 5. I had to go to the bathroom really bad after the bike and kept running by aid stations asking about banos and nobody had a clue. So I just had to piss myself. I understand that it would have been difficult or impossible to put potties along many areas of the run course as a lot was on narrow cobblestone roads but many of the aid stations were in larger areas where there could have been bathrooms.
The course was pretty well marked but it's very confusing if we weren't all following each other. We had no idea about the problems the pros had earlier.
10. Finish Area: Finish line was full of people and they had a few grandstands put in place. Decent food/drink area for athletes after the finish.
11. Post race: It was quite a chore getting back to the hotel. Traffic was horrible. We even had a vehicle arranged to get our bikes back to Bocagrande but it still took about three hours from the time we decided to leave until I was back to my hotel. This is not something you want to do after doing a 70.3 in 100+ degrees.
There was a post race party around the race venue later that night but there was no way most people were going to want to go back towards the race site after spending however long it was getting out of there.
12. Heat and Humidity: This is the giant X Factor with this race. It's extremely warm and humid in Cartagena. Average daily high temps are around 90 degrees and the relative humidity remains above 80 percent at all times. Accuweather had the heat index reaching 110 degrees on race day, and it was often very sunny. That made it absolutely brutal on the run. This is not the race for you if you don't do well in heat and humidity. I live in the Houston, TX area which is one of the hottest and most humid places in the USA and the Cartagena humidity was on another level of nasty. There's also no way anyone from the US, Canada, or Europe is acclimated to this kind of heat index in December. It was rough.
Overall it was an awesome experience and Cartagena is a beautiful place.
My negatives, and it's mostly nitpicky:
1. Transportation concerns with bikes and bike cases. This is mitigated if you stay in the Walled City but most of the hotels people will choose are in Bocagrande so the race organizers should pick one of the hotels as the "host" and have shuttle buses going back and forth from that hotel in Bocagrande to the race venue. Kind of like they did in Panama for the Panama 70.3 (RIP).
2. Delays happen but have some communication with the athletes.
3. Use the sports bottles similar to North America for water and Gatorade on the bike course.
4. More freakin' bathrooms on the run course.
5. It's damn hot and humid.
Favorite Gear:
Dimond |
Cadex |
Desoto Sport |
Hoka One One
