Aside from the course being long (116) it really is a pretty and fair ride. Pavement seemed pretty good but I rode it prior to the current map and most of the elevation seem to occur prior to the turn onto Hog Jowl. If your gonna pre-scout the course I would focus on the run. The first 8 miles are exactly like the Waterfront. Once you cross the bridge and head up Barton is where the elevation begins. Barton and the North shore will be the game changer and you will see people totally deflate here. When I ran up Barton I had to double check the map to make sure it was actually part of the course. It is not crazy hard but it is surprising that we have to tackle it twice. The Walnut street bridge also has a little elevation to it but I am counting on crowd support here in that it will hardly be noticed on race day.

Do yourself a favor and stand at the bottom of Barton and take a mental picture and keep that in your head every time you want to "mash" your pedals during the bike.

This is not a gimme course by any stretch and will be a well earned IM in my opinion.

Except no stairs. I'd scout out the 4 mile run loop on the other side of the river where the hills are, but not worry about the rest. For the bike course, there is some bad pavement particularly on the pre- and post-loop segments, but I'm still expecting a lot of 116-mile PRs.

Forgot about those damn stairs. Good call.

Haha, yeah the stairs. That was a wtf moment the first time I did that race. Thanks for the info jarbot & 7.