It was pretty terrible. Bike course was more akin to an Xterra one; I must have seen at least 10-15+ punctures. Last section heading into the city was on supposedly closed roads but I must have ridden the last 20kms next to an old Peugeot swerving between the motorbikes... Run course only had aid stations every 5kms in 30C degrees weather. I also heard that they ran out of small water bottles towards the end. Overall, the organization was clearly under the water and inexperienced.

Quite disappointing as the setting itself could have been great. Quality of the roads were questioned multiple times before the race itself. I was told it had been accredited by the Ironman organization but seriously it was a joke... If they do a second edition, they should seriously consider moving it to an alternate location such as Essaouira.

I was interested in this race as a European end of season race, having been to Marrakech this year for a long weekend as well I thought it would be a decent venue.

I didn't race but I picked this up from The Ironman Journey Facebook group, think I'll give it a miss in 2020.

Some people saying there was no race briefing??
Swim & T1 is 40km from Marrakech and there is NOTHING nearby.
Very little to non existent signage for bike transport to T1 the day before race day.
Next to nobody on the Ironman team or volunteers spoke English.
No lighting in T1 on race morning, absolute pitch darkness.
20 portaloos for 3000 athletes in T1.
Poor road conditions, potholed and bumpy lots of punctures & mechanical issues on course.
First half of bike you ride on the left second half the right but it sounds like it descended into a free for all.
Live traffic on the last 30km of the bike!

However, this is North Africa so I'm not really that surprised to be honest.

Thanks for the feedback, I was also looking at this as a potential for next year but think I may also give it a miss based on this feedback.

A buddy of mine did this race as a precursor to IMAZ. He used a rented bike and was not given any flat repair kit. Mile 14'ish he had what he described as a tire blowout on the crappy roads. He told me he figured, no worries, neutral bike support will be along to help him repair / return to the race. He said he waited for over an hour and a half for someone to get to him to help. By the time the tire was repaired he was not able to make the time cutoff on the bike and was puled from the course. Said he'd ended up waiting over two hours in the "hot-ass sun with no shade, water, or sunscreen, dying for nothing."

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"I drank what?!?!" - Socrates
Poor Swimmer. Weak Cyclist. Slow Runner.
TriDot Ambassador / Sacramento Triathlon Club

One of my good buddies flew over from the states and said the race wasn't a pleasant experience. The roads look the dirt jungle roads on Zwift!! He said he's never seen so many athletes with flat tires on the side of the road.

It was not all bad considering it was the first event in North Africa!
Yes i agree with most of the comments posted but if they get the rough roads re surfaced and sort out the few relatively minor issues like the lighting in T1 and better enforcement of the road closure i do think it will definitely be worth considering.
Positives for me were;
Great location, with super weather guaranteed.
Bike course was challenging and minimised drafting up to the 60km mark.
Lake swim so no chance of swim being cancelled for "safety" reasons.
Great choice of quality accommodation at cheap prices.
The aid station volunteers were excellent and there were loads of them on both the bike and the run.
There were actually 2 aid stations in each 5km of the run course.
The race briefing was on You Tube and this was explained in the athlete guide.
The post race recovery area and food / drinks was excellent.

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Chris Walker.
Gibraltar,
Europe

Exactly what i expected!
I can see the interest as the location is exotic, but that is why i would go there for a vacation not a race-cation! Simply too much hassle, ofcourse some must be expected for first time race. But i would also guess the conditions are very hard to arrange a race within. Is there a volunteer tradition? Bad roads, very hot weather, stable electricity, traffic rules are very different etc.

So happy i turned my head towards Turkey this weekend instead. Not the most interesting location, but good roads, nice hotels, done it multiple times before etc.

The race in Algeria that Petr Vabrousek and his mates put on would be a better option..

https://trinorthafrica.com/...x.php/en/ambassadors

I went and wasnt able to race due to stomach sickness, but experienced the whole thing and bad.

But few points (most already mentioned) below:

• Expo and registration opened at least 40min late.
• Expo had 1 shop related to bike with no inner tubes or enough co2 for all athletes. They were buying from decathlon on a daily basis.
• Expo had one Isostar booth (official race drink) with no drink at all, neither to taste or sell. They were just giving a plastic bottle for each participant.
• Mechanic at expo & T1 was improvised. One person for all 300 athletes.
• No race briefing, only for pros.
• Lake and T1, 45 min away from city and T2.
• Bike transport to T1 on saturday was on trucks and took hours. Poeple by bus.
• Not possible to swim at lake on saturday to test.
• Race day:


• T1 had no lights! Opened late and pitch dark. Only 4 toilets with no light either, so a freaking mess.
• Outside T1 there were 6 other toilets.
• Organization had no clue at T1. Relay participants who would swim and then run, were not being confirmed a transport to T2. They ended getting on the spectator buses which left only 2 hours after swim was over due to some roads closed for cycling course. Some probably didnt made it on time as the bus back to T2 took over an hour.
• If you had friends & family at swim start, it was a disaster. Nothing for them to buy reg drinks or food, and buses to go back were mega late and not properly communicated / organized.
• Bike:


• roads were not good. i did a test run day before and was poor conditions. Lots of flats.
• Last 30km roads were open with bikers betwene cars and motorcycles. Super dangerous.
• Tim Don and other 2 pros ended up in a town as the road was poorly marked / or were told wrongly were to go.
• Run:


• 30+ degrees and not enough aid stations.
• One crossing for spectators which was poorly managed. Waiting for at least 20 people to pile up before opening and closing quickly. A staff woman ended up with a bloody cut on her eyebrow at one crossing.
• Spectators mostly under the sun as not enough coverage if one wanted to watch and cheer on runners.
• Closing:


• Bags from T1 arrived late so participants had to wait for them before checking out.

Def not an Ironman event. Nice location and well intended, but not value for money.

I've done 7 Ironman branded races, and this by far was the worst one, and was at times dangerous.

Pre-race

• To echo everyone else thoughts, the organisation was terrible, bike course was changed 3 days before the race.
• On race registration they demanded that you produce a medical certificate to be able to compete, if you didn't have one then you had to pay 20 euros for someone to listen to your heart and declare you fit (as a doctor I couldn't believe what I was seeing!).
• T1 was 40km away from T2 which would be fine, if the transport and organisation left on time at any point.
• The trucks to transport the bikes up to T1 were terrible and they just shoved everyones expensive bikes on top of each other and they arrived in a heap (see pic).
• Expo was terrible, it had one MTB shop who had no gels or energy bars or CO2 canisters- nothing. I couldn't pick up an energy gel at an ironman expo?!

Swim-

• No lights in T1 at all, pitch black
• 8 toilets for 3000 athletes and spectators
• Swim itself was fine, nice enough lake. Quite muddy, couldn't even see my hands in front of me, but that doesn't matter really.
• Spectators had to wait 2 and a half hours to be transported back to the city and T2. They missed us coming into T2 on the bikes. The area they had to wait in the sun had no food or water. There was no communication as to when or where the buses were leaving from. Not really what you expect.

Bike-

• Felt like I was riding on the moon's surface. The road was so so bad. I can't even describe how bad the condition of the road was until the last 30km. I saw so many punctures, I lost all my bottles out of my cages (has never happened before), bottles all over the place which had bounced out of peoples cages.
• I think the worst part of the race is that there was traffic on the roads. We had to weave in and out of cars, carts, donkeys, mopeds etc the whole way along the 30km back to the city. This is not 'closed roads' and is dangerous.

Run-

• Hot, but that's to be expected racing in North Africa, so that's fine. Run surface was fine.
• Traffic on the running route was not ideal, especially at the roundabouts where the cars would try and go despite seeing you running there and police trying to stop them.
• Probably not enough aid stations on the run, as others have said.

Overall- would not race here again, would not recommend it to anyone. Falls well short of Ironman standards and the price we pay for the race experience and cost of racing and travel etc. I expected way more from an ironman branded race. I get that it was the first edition of the race but some of the above should not be allowed to happen.
People had been complaining to Ironman Marrakech for months about the road surface, and they did nothing about it. No excuse for poor organisation or traffic on open roads.

that is the coolest race ever such magic loction

We went to Marrakesh (and Essouaria) around 10 years ago on our honeymoon.
Everyone's comments on the race sound a lot like what I'd've guessed.
Great place but it's not really set up for people who are on any kind of schedule.