How was it this year? Saw in a newspaper report about multiple bike crashes. Did logistics work out? Any advice about the course? Considering doing it next year during the cooler time in may.
I never heard of or saw any bike crashes but that doesn’t mean much.
My experience was that it ran just like every other Ironman but my one complaint was that there was like NO ONE at run special needs. I was the only person looking for a bag and I had to sift through on my own to find it. I did get the feeling that they need more volunteers in general as I heard numerous people complain about unmanned aid stations on the run but it didn’t really hinder my experience beyond that one moment. Especially since there were like 30 aid stations for 26 miles.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the day. The bike was actually “harder” or “slower” than expected but the run wasn’t nearly as hot as expected because of all the shade.
I enjoyed it. Some of the roads on the bike are rough but overall it wasn’t an issue. The run was pleasant (relative to the last couple of years with the Vineman run) as its mostly in the shade. Support was good throughout and I liked the three loop run portion more than I thought I would.
Having it in May next year will help with the temperature. The half this year was absolutely perfect weather wise. The shade makes a huge difference and it’s more or less a flat course with some very nominal inclines.
Mixed feelings from me.
The Pre-race was great - lots of parking, they had day before packet pick up which i really appreciated, and plenty of good restaurants. The drive up to the lake to drop off your bike was a bit annoying, but you could pay an extra $40 dollars to have Tri-Bike Transport do it.
Morning of - for the half the shuttles ran great, about 40minutes from drop off to t1. My shuttle took 70minutes to get there this weekend, as did my friend’s. I got on one of the first shuttles, am a 1 hour swimmer, and was almost late to the start. I was running down the ramp to get in about minute further back than I should have. There was a long line of backed up buses and cars trying to get into t1. I can only think given that so many more spectators were at the swim start than during the half that too many people decided to drive themselves instead of using the shuttles.
Swim - the two lap is probably great for mid pack, but for front and back it has to be awful. I started my 2nd loop w/ people still walking into the water and spent the next 30minutes running into them. Nearly everyone i looked at in the results had a 3 or 4minute slower 2nd lap than first.
Bike - the first 60 miles are SPECTACULAR. Loved it. Roads were smooth, lots of rolling hills, and a couple of out and backs to gauge the competition. The two loops in town were stupid. I was just angry most of the time that they used roads no one who lives in the area would think of riding. Some of the loop sections were very smooth and fast, some of them were very rough and narrow making my 2nd loop a bit sketchy getting by the lapped riders. The aid stations were also shorter in length than when I did the race before it was IM branded, 4-5 people holding water bottles but pretty much standing back to back. They had gatorade and gels, just not much room to fill a bottle and still dispose of it. The bike is fast, but not as fast I think it looks on paper. A lot of the 2nd loop in town was spent coasting trying not to get taken out by lapped traffic. The other guys I was riding near most of the day did the same thing, taking no risks, but I can see how there would be accidents if everyone wasn’t as patient.
Run - I really liked the run course. Mostly flat, no real hills just a lot of going up to and down from roads crossing the creek. It was not shaded, but I can understand why it was advertised to be. I was running from about noon to 3 so the sun was pretty high, but there was very very little shade for my run. It might be a different story in the evening. About 1/3 to 1/2 of it is crushed gravel trail which i enjoyed. The run had a little out and back on each loop with lets you see the the competition.
Misc- The course changed last minute a few times. The run changed a few days before hand, twice. On the bike I kept waiting for an out and back like the map and youtube video showed but it never came and the course was a little short.
Locals response - I think the town will be unhappy. A few newspaper articles after the half were very negative, and this time around the pre race news promised a more controlled and less intrusive race but it seemed the opposite. I saw a very distinctive vehicle in a line of cars on my first loop, then ~50 minutes later saw that same vehicle in the same line having moved up about a few car lengths…
Overall I probably wouldn’t do it again unless they change the bike course a little and get the morning spectator situation sorted. A one loop or mass start swim would be nice, but I think it was worse for the people getting swum over than the faster athletes. It’s about a 5 hour drive from where I live, but I’d rather travel a little further and do a different one. The course was so great (albeit harder) in years past that I’m still pissed they changed it. If you do want to do it, make sure to leave super early for lake and understand that the 2nd half of each loop is going to be a rough ride that’ll require some patience.
Agree with previous comments.
Swim was the worst part. Traffic up to the start left me without about 10 minutes to get ready. Couldn’t seed in the right swim group because of the crowded boat ramp (and being late). Swam over top of people for an hour, which was no fun for anyone. 2nd lap made it worse. The shuttle system was great and efficient - traffic management was the problem.
Bike course was mostly awesome, but much harder than expected. The key was to keep momentum on each roller. Todd Rd. was awful (miles 80-85; 100-105) - a pothole minefield, which became a pothole AND bike gear minefield on the 2nd lap. Plenty of alternate routes here, so hopefully this road will be dropped next year.
Run was perfect. Not as congested as I expected. Soft trails with shade. Good aid station placement. One thing I noticed is that both out and back loops felt slightly uphill… especially on the 3rd loop!
I competed in IM Santa Rosa this past weekend. Here are my thoughts on the race:
Swim: The swim is a two loop ‘L’ shaped course, with a long long steep boat ramp out of the lake and up to transition. The lake temp was warm - about 76.1 degrees. (Clearly, IM wasn’t going to let their first race at this venue be non-wetsuit, but everyone panicked the day before and bought swim skins at the village.) The water was clean and nice. The rolling start went off well, but it was clear that the faster swimmers were going to catch the swimmers at the back end. I ended up catching the back end of the swim field towards the start of my second lap. So, there was a ton of traffic to work through on the second lap. Lots of swimming over, through and around slow swimmers, which doesn’t benefit anyone. My Garmin showed that the course was long…by about 200m per lap. (I sighted pretty well, so I wasn’t doing a lot of zig zagging…) The start of the second lap had sun directly into your eyes, but it wasn’t that long (maybe 400m) and that sun really helped illuminate the buoys on the remainder of the loop.)
Changes: The lake is huge, so I would like to see a one loop swim course. (The rumor was that there wasn’t enough volunteers throughout the entire course, so that’s why they made the run 3 loops instead of 2…)
T1 - The long ramp wasn’t as bad as I thought. It was actually pretty cool to run up the ramp on the black mats the whole way with spectators cheering you on. Some people put shoes at the bottom of the ramp for the run, which I did…It helped, but it wasn’t necessary. The pads were fine. The changing tents and bike racks were pretty normal…Easy to get in and out. (I’m a sub 1 hour swimmer, so I was early into T1, so I don’t know how it was when the masses hit T1.)
Bike: This was my biggest gripe. The roads in Sonoma County are awful. This isn’t the race’s fault, and it was clear the race officials used roads that were probably the smoothest they could find, but still, a large percentage of the roads were pitted, potholed and rough. My torpedo bottle rattled out of it cage probably 10 times. (tape it down). Lots of bottles everywhere that had fallen off from bikers up ahead. It was really hard to get into a rhythm in aero position when the surface jostled you out of your position every few meters. Too much ‘holding on’ to your bike and bullhorns to survive certain sections than down in aero racing in my opinion. The rollers weren’t bad, but they did take something out of my legs. After about mile 60-ish the hills are done, and it gets flatter and the pavement gets better as you come into Santa Rosa. This is where you can put the power back into the pedals. Some odd little pitted roads that seemed like alleyways on the lollypop loop towards the end… At one point I was riding in traffic with cars, which was dangerous. It wasn’t long, but some sections weren’t totally closed and that was surprising… For the most part, it’s a beautiful bike course, but it is sort of all over the place, with lots of out and backs and turns. It’s very serpentine in it’s current form, probably so the organizers could stitch together sections of good pavement?) When you combine that with the condition of the roads, it made for a frustrating ride in my opinion. (If Sonoma County repaves some of the roads in this area, this will be a spectacular course.)
Changes: Clearly the quality of the road surface is the issue. It’s bad enough that I would probably wait a few years to do the race again until they dial in the course and, hopefully, in that time, some of the roads in the area get fixed.
T2 - nothing special. It’s right in the middle of town, so lots of people watching and cheering.
Run: Awesome run course. Shaded, gravel paths, which kept the heat at bay for most of the run. The three loop course was disappointing, because you had to run up and down the elevated ramps to the street level. (I guess they didn’t have enough volunteers for the aid stations, so they had to double them up at certain locations. It did seem like the aid stations were adequately staffed…So, I didn’t notice any issues with lack of volunteers.) Half of the loop is gravel and the other half is cement. The cement half was more in the sun than the gravel half. Lots of spectators on the path with signs - very similar to IM Boulder in that regard. I expected a lot non-competitors along the run course (homeless people, recreational bikers, etc…) but I didn’t see any, and only smelled weed once! Lots of spectator opportunities on the looped run course through downtown.
Changes: I liked the run course, and it would have been perfect it was two loops instead of three, as it was originally supposed to be. The long stretches of gravel were so nice, and removing half of the ramps would be ideal.
Organization: Very Solid. The buses up to the Lake in the morning were convenient and took a lot of stress out having to drive up there. They dropped you off right at transition. There was plenty of time to get set up in the morning. I never waited in line for a port-potty which was nice.
How was it this year? Saw in a newspaper report about multiple bike crashes. Did logistics work out? Any advice about the course? Considering doing it next year during the cooler time in may.
Santa Rosa was my 15th IM course and definitely one of my least favorite. IMO, there are MANY other courses that are as scenic but that are easier logistically, more spectator-friendly, have less hostile locals and smoother roads with less traffic on the bike course. I didn’t see any bike crashes but did see many unfriendly motorists honking, yelling and cursing at us, flipping us the bird, passing WAY to closely on roads open to traffic, etc. I was not impressed overall and wouldn’t recommend it.
Overall I thought it was a cluster. I won’t be coming back. About my 9th or 10th Ironman and I also did the Vineman half about 7-8 times in previous years. Overall it wasn’t awful but with extra logistics concerned you can’t have too many operational blunders or poor planning before it simply becomes not worth it to come back (bad combo when coupled with a poor bike course). IMAZ as a comparison is a dream location (from an all inclusive expo, T1, T2, parking, logistics, etc… point of view).
They (race management) pulled a BS move on the swim beforehand. There was no mention in the athletes’ guide any where that IM athletes in particular could not swim in the lake before the race. We checked in, heard the course talk then drove up to check out the lake. Sure enough, had a sign out at the boat ramp that said no swimming. I was used to IMAZ making a big deal that you cannot swim beforehand so was looking specifically for this information. Nope, they just decided to put a big sign out at the point of entry.The logistics were handled poorly. They gave out a ton of information telling people (athletes and spectators) how to get to T1 etc… Most turned out to be mildly correct at best. Originally they said no cars to T1, no spectators on athletes’ shuttles from T2 and if you drove to T1 you would have to park at the bottom and shuttle up. Turns out none of that was true. So whatever you planned morning of to get the family to T1 was the wrong way to do it. This contributed to the shuttles taking way longer to get there than they should have as well. We made a conscious decision not to have the family come to the swim start due to how we were told we needed to handle logistics. Turns out they (and we athletes) could have just driven to the lake directly…RD’s - if you specifically tell athletes “you will have access to your transition bags race morning” how about having more support than ONE elderly security guard, not even a volunteer, who has all the access to run bags the morning of? Some of us make plans around what you tell us. When there is a line of people 30 deep at the run bags and the ONE security guard (who looks like they are helping us simply to be helpful and not because they expected this to be their job) takes 2-5 minutes per request how do you think that works out?Agree with the others above on the two loop swim. I swam a 1:03 so I’m not a fish by any means but I swam through what felt like hundreds of people. When you jumped back in for the second loop there were people (a lot of them) just standing/floating in the water, I assume they had just gotten in at about the 30:30 mark. My swim was a few minutes longer on the second loop like another poster mentioned as well. Previous poster said it well - FOPish swiming through BOPish isn’t good for anyone.Talking after the race with some of the decently quick guys I had 5 independent people tell me some version of “was it just me or did that bike course suck?”. Yep, that about sums it up. Oh and I don’t think there was really a technical turn on the course. The “no aerobar” portions were a joke. How about just “caution, pay attention”. I did have an encounter with a vehicle who got tired of the wait, did a u turn into oncoming bike traffic and just stop there.They played the typical “what will the water temp be the morning of” game just like about half the Vineman races over the years. Different swim venue, same story. I wish I could have taken wagers during check in the day before. No one wanted to believe me it would be wetsuit legal. 
I hope Dave reads this thread.
Edit: to add something positive: I’ve never had so many helpful, young volunteers. There were a number of junior high, high school age girls volunteering at registration, bag drop off etc… They knew their shit! and were very nice, helpful, seemed to be having a good time etc… All the volunteers did a great job (cops included) that I saw. Transitions and the run course also went off without a hitch. I did find ti surprising there was no chalk allowed. Compared to other races the lack of signs, chalk etc… was noticeable. They said a few times in the race meeting we attended “no chalk” =\
Agree with all of the previous posts.
Day before race: Why did the check-in open at 11am instead of 9am as it had Wednesday and Thursday? Sorry, but I’m not taking any more time off for this than I need too. Plan to make it a full day for check-in the day before if you intend to race next year.
Race morning: Bathroom lines were awful and didn’t give me enough time to prep. Arrive early or crap twice before you get on the shuttle!!
Swim - Didn’t seed correctly due to congestion on ramp but I’m slow so no real complaint. I enjoyed swimming under the bridge and the course. I didn’t have any issues with other swimmers.
Bike - Tale of two courses. The first 60 miles were epic. This is the most beautiful scenery you can find in the World. The last 50 was a concrete jungle and had parts that reminded me of both the Boulder IM course and the Austin 70.3 course (rough roads, etc.). An athlete from NJ commented that the first 60 miles made the race for him. It was his comment that took my mind off the intersections, congestion and sore right shoulder. I like the glass half full.
Run course - shaded for me. I liked the 3 loops because I got to chat with athletes despite their place in the race. The scenery was nothing to write home about. During training I was running in 90-100 degree weather so the mid-80’s was awesome.
Of the three races I’ve done:
Tahoe '13 - Best course (swim, bike, run) - and closest to homeBoulder '16 - Best venue for spectators - the town is great for shopping and wandering around while your athlete competes.Santa Rosa '17 - Best overall destination and best day of the week for racing (Saturday) - We stayed in Sonoma at my parents house and went wine tasting Sunday. For those coming from out of town I recommend renting a house in Sonoma or Healdsburg. Sonoma is about 40 minutes from the shuttle pick-up race morning but is a better destination than Santa Rosa. Would I do the race again? Probably but not necessarily early May.
Finally, I thanked every police officer I saw. They did a fantastic job with traffic. Thanks to ALL of the volunteers.
On a side note, I live in Santa Rosa and volunteered for the vineman races for the past 15+ years. I, and many people I know, opted to not volunteer for the Ironman race this year. Ironman bought one of the longest running and most successful races in the country and proceeded to change everything about it while insulting the competence of the vineman staff with their arrogance. They opted to ignore the feedback from many people with local knowledge and vineman experience that the two-loop section of the bike course was wretched and would result in traffic nightmares for the locals.
I love sonoma county and want to see the area continue to grow as a destination for world class cycling and endurance exercise. Not to mention the wine culture and other tourist activities. We have many unbelievable cycling events and routes, and countless trail runs and races. Whether it’s part of an ironman event or not, come and ride sonoma county!
J
I posted earlier and tried to not spout off too quickly the bad things and look on bright side because I was still pretty messed up from the effort itself, but, given another couple of days thinking about it… I would not recommend this event to anyone who has the money to fly to a different one. The fact is, I’ll probably be back supporting regardless of what the course looks like because I work with a lot of young people who can’t afford the travel too far, but I can’t recommend anyone pick this over Texas or another race that will be in a similar time frame.
The volunteers were great, but as another poster pointed out there were a few aid stations i came upon out of t2 and on my first loop that didn’t have any or enough volunteers. One was not put up at all, and at another one I found and opened a jug of water to pour into a cup that i picked up off the ground.
As another poster pointed out, organizers just do what you say you’re going to do. If we can’t drive ourselves or have family members go to the swim start then enforce it. I got punished and my friends got punished because we did what they asked. If there’s an out and back on the bike that you take out the morning of the race you should make it abundantly clear that we aren’t to make the left hand turn that leads to it. I knew where it was, and went to turn when there were no arrows indicating left or straight. I saw someone in front of me go straight and no one coming back from the out and back so i went straight but I thought a lot the rest of the bike about “it’s the athlete’s responsibility to know the course” and i hope i’m not DQ’d for missing a mile on the bike that I knew was on the course map.
I’d be a lot more forgiving about this stuff because I’ve put on small races and there are a ton of moving parts to deal with even at the last minute, but not when you take a well functioning race and completely change it.
I saw lots of unhappy motorists too, and had some yell at me too. I got the bird more than a few times! I felt bad for them, as the lines of cars waiting for us to go through the intersections had to be 1/2 mile in places. The unhappy motorist isn’t anything new to IM courses. However, when they started flipping U-turns into bike traffic it got really dangerous.
The bike course needs a serious overhaul. I agree with another athlete that the Vineman bike course was much better. They shouldn’t have scrapped that course.
I agree. I can’t comment on other IM races to point to as alternatives for those who may be considering Santa Rosa only because I haven’t done any others (been doing Vineman as my sole long distance race since 2012). I want to try and move past the comparisons between Vineman and the IM version but for those that are coming in from out of town - the Santa Rosa IM will likely disappoint.
My standards are likely different because I drive to the race the morning of from my home so the cost is minimal beyond registration fees, etc. I can imagine that if I came in from out of town I probably would be less impressed / ok with the race. The traffic disruption could probably be mitigated by having a loop or a longer out and back further north coming down from Cloverdale. Vineman had its traffic disruptions but I don’t recall ever seeing so many backups in so many different locations.
For the swim - I didn’t really mind the two loops although I don’t swim outside of actual races so my expectation are low (1:15 - 1:20 for full distance). My second lap was 4-5 minutes slower and it was likely due to me having to zig zag more. The lake is large enough to have a single loop although I understand the distance is likely controlled by the number of volunteers available. I liked the location although I though the 70.3 logistics were much smoother than for the full as there were a ton more spectators for the full, which it sounds like led to some issues with buses arriving on time. I did appreciate the mats from the swim exit to transition.
Bike - First part was great second part not so much. I would like to see more climbs (maybe pick up some of the Santa Rosa Terrible Two route). Permitting may be an issue given that intersections would need to be controlled but there isn’t a ton of traffic on a lot of those roads.
Run - As I stated earlier in the thread - I enjoyed it. The weather was normal (not like the 2014 heat) which made everything much more pleasant. Having it in May will be even better.
Other thoughts - I like that the race is on a Saturday. I wouldn’t want to do a full on a Sunday.
I agree with the criticisms of the bike course. The second half was boring with terrible pavement in places. With so many good places to ride, its disappointing that is where they chose, or were forced to choose, to put the course.
I have to say that I didn’t enjoy the run course. Yes, it is flat and the unpaved sections were nice. But for someone who is going to be on course a long time (I get my money’s worth), it was visually unappealing. The majority of it is along the river, which in most places is very overgrown, so you can’t actually see the river. On that side, you are looking at mostly shrubs and bushes. The other side is mostly back fences of people’s houses. Some good crowd support nearer town, but on the out loops, not so much. Last year’s Vineman course was harder, but more appealing.
Also, have to agree with the comments about seeming short of volunteers. No volunteers at bike out with sunscreen. I think in all the other Ironman races I’ve done, there have been volunteers there with sunscreen. Also, lack of volunteers, or properly trained volunteers, in town around the bike course. My wife commented that they were directing spectators to cross the street leaving very little room for any error as the riders were coming through. Better crowd control would make it safer.
Not sure why we had a 6:10 start. No pro race, so that was age groupers in the water at 610. Everyone in by 638. With having to get out to the lake, that made for a very early start, and challenging logistics. The extra 30 minutes even would have helped.
I did like the swim venue. I’m middle of the pack, so didn’t get swum over by the faster swimmers or have too much traffic around me. It did seem somewhat crowded, but I think that is par for the course in an Ironman swim.
I did really like the first half of the bike. Love the area too. I stayed in Windsor again this year, and really enjoy that town. Race logistics from there was not too tough. Did some wine tasting the next day which I very much enjoyed.
Basically, the problem with Ironman Santa Rosa was the Santa Rosa parts of the course. However, from a spectator point of view, my wife and family loved it in Santa Rosa. Lots of good restaurants to eat in, places to pass the time, comfortable spectating experience. However, based on the course, without changes, I would choose to do a different race for my next Ironman.
I agree with many of the comments about the logistics - the race morning shuttles getting stuck in car traffic being the worst. Mine arrived about 30 minutes before the 6:10 start, so not terrible, but still cutting it close when you want to get stuff ready, use the portapotty and get down to your swim group on time.
Re the swim, I did 1:12 with even splits between the two loops - I found the second loop less crowded even though I did have to dodge a few very slow swimmers on their first loop. If I were 10 minutes faster, I guess it would have been a different story.
Bike: I didn’t really mind the two loops and even the bad pavement - that section was faster for me than the hilly first part, but of course nowhere near as scenic. There were some sketchy moments with cars and with lapped riders dodging bad pavement just as I was coming to pass them. I tried to consistently call out “passing on your left” but sometimes you need to take a drink. Clearly, though, they need to address the traffic snarls on the course or this race will be very short lived.
I love the run course.
I don’t love that I didn’t get my run bag back (volunteers couldn’t find it post race), so now I’m down an aero helmet, arm coolers and a pair of Oakleys. Does anyone have any experience with how WTC handles these things?
Ian
They lost my special needs bag and I when I asked further about it they said something to the effect “sorry the athlete guide clearly stated they wouldn’t be returned. Thank you” and did not even acknowledge they lost it in the first place. You’re probably just SOL unfortunately.
They lost my special needs bag and I when I asked further about it they said something to the effect “sorry the athlete guide clearly stated they wouldn’t be returned. Thank you” and did not even acknowledge they lost it in the first place. You’re probably just SOL unfortunately.
He’s talking about his Bike to Run bag, not the special needs. It is standard practice at IMs to toss the special needs bags. Are you saying they lost it when you stopped mid race to use it?
They lost my special needs bag and I when I asked further about it they said something to the effect “sorry the athlete guide clearly stated they wouldn’t be returned. Thank you” and did not even acknowledge they lost it in the first place. You’re probably just SOL unfortunately.
This wasn’t the special needs bag - it was the one I threw my bike helmet and sunglasses into in T2. Anyway, fortunately they did end up locating it, and in fact had already fedexed it to my Big Island house (the one I used in race registration; I split time between HI and CA); it apparently arrived yesterday, which is really quick!
Ian
I am saying they did not have it during the race and were again unable to locate it when I went back after I finished. I know the difference between special needs and run/bike gear bags.
RE: Bike Course Change … that was done on TUES race week … there were 6 race briefings and it was described in detail at all 6 (it was changed online -maps- and I believe it was announced through social media channels. That out and back was changed to an earlier portion of the course off Lyton Springs Rd
Race Morning … at all race briefings it was discussed what the, essentially, three options were for arriving to T1 for athletes and options for spectators. I do not recall in any instance where it was noted that there was no parking at T1
Regards,