What is the consensus on Galveston, is it a decent race? Worth traveling for?

Wife and I are doing IM Boulder and ideally we would do St George as our tune up, but there may be a wedding impacting our ability to race that first weekend in May. We live out west so there aren't any moderately priced travel options in March/April, given that Oceanside is obviously off the table. I booked a room in Galveston, but fingers crossed our friends don't decide to wed on 5/5/18.

It’s nothing special. I wouldn’t travel to it unless you are super aero and will tear up a completely pancake flat bike course. Run is flat too.

Good race. I've done it five times. Galveston is an island and the swim is in a somewhat protected bayou that's sandwiched between two parts of the island. Saltwater swim, wetsuit legal most of the time, kind of choppy. Look up Offats Bayou in Google Maps for reference of where the swim is located. Bike is very flat but is very windy. Basically 28 miles southwest, turn around, 28 miles northeast. Winds generally come from some southerly direction. So usually a cross/head wind the first half and cross/tail the second half. All along the Seawall Blvd. except for a couple of admin miles near the start and finish. Run is a multi-loop around the Moody Gardens complex. Flat, lots of spectators, but can be warm for that time of year.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Like GMAN said, it's pancake flat and usually pretty windy. A lot of people complain about the 3-loop run because it's basically in the Moody Gardens parking lot and so can be a little boring. I really liked it, because it's super spectator-friendly. Lots of people cheering you on. My family found a spot where they got to see me 6 times on the run. They have a DJ set up on the run that you pass a few times, and that was nice.

If you already have a room at Moody Gardens, it's very easy to get to transition. However, we stayed at a VRBO condo with an ocean view for cheap. Getting to/from the race wasn't all that difficult, so staying off campus doesn't necessarily mean you'll have to wake up 2 hours earlier to get transition set up in time. Along those lines, if you haven't done Boulder before, be sure you leave early on race morning - I did the 70.3 there this year and there were cars still backed up on the entrance road when transition was supposed to close. They delayed the race start to accommodate people, but you don't want to rely on that.

The town of Galveston is ok. Pretty standard Gulf Coast beach town. The race won't prepare you for the hills or altitude of Boulder the way St. George would, but it's not a bad race.

Thanks for the thoughts on Galveston.

Yeah I booked at Doubletree via booking.com. Because it is zero down, and easy cancellation. A bit more than I want to pay though. I guess because it is spring break time of year all the airbnbs I checked don't have free cancellation, even though I preferred the cost via that route.

Yeah we were at Boulder 70.3 and it was a mess getting to thr reservoir, I think there is a back way though that nobody uses

There's a back way that's faster. I stayed in Sunshine Canyon and my GPS took me on a different route than I took when checking in, and we avoided the massive backup on the main highway coming in (Diagonal Hwy or something like that?). I'll see if I can find it on the map later today. It saved me at least an hour in traffic.