Hits Marble Falls Half vs. Galveston vs. New Orleans

Triathlon Forum
1

Since Hits has a $100 sale today for 2015 registration, and since Galveston is moving to April 26th for 2015, here’s a quick comparison of three regional halfs in April.

Swim
Marble Falls - one start, good visibility, good course marking
Galveston - wave start, no visibility, good course marking
new Orleans - wave start, no visibility, poor course design.

Marble Falls offers swimmers the fairest race. New Orleans handicaps swimmers the most.

T1
All seem fair. Marble Falls has wheel racks stools and bins, which were plush additions.

Bike
Marble Falls - hills, scenic, no drafting. No road hazards.
Galveston - flat, mild wind, ocean views, considerable congestion. A few road hazards.
New Orleans - flat, heavy congestion and drafting. Many road hazards.

The age group wave starts and congested courses at Galveston and New Orleans handicap faster cyclists and while making the swim more pleasant, make the bike more dangerous.

T2
All seem fair. HITS has bins and stools.

Run
Marble Falls - Hilly out and back along highway.
Galveston - Three flat loops at civic entertainment center.
New Orleans - Mostly flat along the lake and around the park.

Marble Falls favors strong hill runners, while Galveston and New Orleans are less demanding.

Overall
Marble Falls has by far the fewest racers. It is the safest, most fair, and also the most challenging off the three races. It’s the value buy too. Galveston is a fun venue, though it needs some work to keep it safe and fair. Hopefully, the race will move back to the cooler weather of early April. The New Orleans swim venue is inadequate, which sets up a poor and congested bike venue that a fun run can’t redeem. Galveston and New Orleans have the most participants and loudest music.

2

I would argue that the bike in Marble Falls isn’t as plush as you make it out to be. The road conditions aren’t terrible, but its rougher than what I’m personally used to riding. Also, the route is on a rural Texas highway where the speed limit is 70 and everyone drives a truck. I wouldn’t really call that “no road hazards”.

3

The HITS MF70.3 was VERY challenging but enjoyable. The roads were candy compared to the crap I have to ride on here in West Texas…and there is a part of it that stretches along a 70mph highway but the shoulder that we raced on is practically an entire other lane…plus cones were set up along that entire stretch. I felt very safe but its all relative to what you are used to. Out here in West Texas…the roads are attrocious, a good shoulder is about 2 ft wide and gravelled, and the traffic is very often semi trucks hauling ass trying to keep up with this oil production.

4

I’ll start by saying I haven’t done Marble Falls. But I feel you are a bit harsh on New Orleans. The swim course is a bit confusing, but it works fine as long as you understand the shape of the course. Perhaps the one challenge is sighting after the first turn, headed back towards the marina. The biggest negative is the water quality, not the course. And I saw virtually no congestion or drafting on the bike course at New Orleans. The TT swim start breaks it up, and the only drafting I saw was two pairs of riders. The roads were quite nice except for the expansion joints on the some of the roads/bridges, plus the roads are entirely closed to traffic.

5

I meant the transitions are plush, not that the road surface was exceptional. I didn’t see any road surface hazards. Bikes had a coned off lane up to 71. We were on 71 for a few miles, then onto more rural roads, after which I only saw a hand full of cars, that all gave riders slow, wide berth. Your mileage may vary.

6

I thought I was being easy on New Orleans. It’s the most forced swim venue I’ve ever seen. Maybe the waves we started in or our bike speeds gave us different experiences. Starting in the back of the second to last wave, I encountered many back strokers and swimmers zig-zagging across the course. Poor water visibility sometimes made the encounters abrupt. As you point out, the middle segment confused many, who were swimming every direction. As is often the case though, what happened in my tiny segment of the race could have been quite different from yours.

The road along the lake has manhole covers every couple hundred feet, there are bridge expansion joints, small holes and loose debris. They could be avoided if the street wasn’t clogged, but it was when I was there. Apparently, I wish I was in your wave, because I never got to open road, and rarely had enough road to reach my target power. I resigned myself to the dangers early, took my target power down ten watts and I spent the entire bike letting people know I was coming, braking, sitting up behind drafters three abreast, etc. One person who I had been warning of my approach for as far as my voice would carry, still looked over his left shoulder, swerved left, saw me, yelped and almost crashed when he corrected back to his right as I passed. To keep another rider from crashing into me, I had to hold him off with my hand when he swerved left as I passed, and pushed me over the center line. The speed difference is just too great between someone biking 2:20 starting in a later wave, and 1000 people biking 3:20 in earlier waves. Some riders are struggling and swerving erratically. It’s a volatile mix WTC serves up. It’s cool you had a safe experience. From my perspective, it wasn’t at all safe. I complain about it, because I want RDs to fix the product, so everyone is safer and we call race all their events. When I got there, I very much enjoyed the New Orleans run.

7

Ok. Yes, very different experiences for sure. I’m M40-44, our swim wave was somewhere in the middle. I biked a 2:32 and passed a lot of people, but I think only 2-3 times did I have to shout out “on your left” to get somebody to move over. The road closures certainly facilitated that. I saw less congestion than at Austin and BSLT, although it wasn’t too bad at either of those either. I still found the roads to be mostly nice, but maybe that’s more about my time spent on crappy north TX roads during training. I agree, it’s largely an individual experience.

8

Thank you, Damon!!!

9

The swim at Nola is awful. I know there were multiple people in my wave, M30-34, that cut the swim course. A friend dq’d himself for it after the race and he was in a large pack. I thought the bike course was great but I had completely clear roads the entire way. I didn’t have a good ride but that was my own issues. The run is fine but I think they’ll be switching it again next year.