Considering doing the race as an early season tune-up and am curious if anyone knows how close the race is to selling out? Did it sell out last year?
Thanks in advance!
didn’t sell out this year as far as I know.
I’m pretty sure registration was open relatively late.
It has never sold out. Not saying it won’t someday but it hasn’t happened yet. I know people that signed up to do the race the week of the race.
There were a few hundred more registrants last year than in 2010. I think it will become increasingly popular with folks doing IMTX (especially local) because they can use Galveston as a tune-up race. Not that the courses are remotely similar or anything like that.
It’s a well run race. It looks easy on paper but the wind wreaks havoc on the bike course. You can bank on 15-20 mph winds all day long and the bike course is completely exposed and offers zero blockage from the wind. The mystery is what southernly direction it will be coming from. 2010 was basically directly from the South which meant crosswinds the entire bike ride. 2011 was more of a SSW direction which meant crosswind/headwind on the way out and crosswind/tailwind on the way back.
Although the swim is in a “protected” bayou and not in Galveston Bay itself, it can be challenging depending which way the wind has been ripping through the Bay and what affect it has on the current. 2010 was pretty awful. The swim was cancelled for the Oly race the day before the 70.3 and it was still pretty rough the next day for us 70.3 participants. I normally swim anywhere from 32-35 minutes for a 70.3 swim and my swim was like 42 minutes that year. This year, while not calm by any means, was much better.
The run is 4 loops with a lot of twists and turns. Not the most ideal setup but it’s great for the spectators. Moving the date to April 1st next year might help a little with the heat. Temps got into the mid-80’s in both 2010 (when the race was at the end of April) and 2011 (mid-April).
Wow! Thanks for all the great info. Much appreciated. I guess I probably have a little time to decide then. Thanks
It has never sold out. Not saying it won’t someday but it hasn’t happened yet. I know people that signed up to do the race the week of the race.
There were a few hundred more registrants last year than in 2010. I think it will become increasingly popular with folks doing IMTX (especially local) because they can use Galveston as a tune-up race. Not that the courses are remotely similar or anything like that.
It’s a well run race. It looks easy on paper but the wind wreaks havoc on the bike course. You can bank on 15-20 mph winds all day long and the bike course is completely exposed and offers zero blockage from the wind. The mystery is what southernly direction it will be coming from. 2010 was basically directly from the South which meant crosswinds the entire bike ride. 2011 was more of a SSW direction which meant crosswind/headwind on the way out and crosswind/tailwind on the way back.
Although the swim is in a “protected” bayou and not in Galveston Bay itself, it can be challenging depending which way the wind has been ripping through the Bay and what affect it has on the current. 2010 was pretty awful. The swim was cancelled for the Oly race the day before the 70.3 and it was still pretty rough the next day for us 70.3 participants. I normally swim anywhere from 32-35 minutes for a 70.3 swim and my swim was like 42 minutes that year. This year, while not calm by any means, was much better.
The run is 4 loops with a lot of twists and turns. Not the most ideal setup but it’s great for the spectators. Moving the date to April 1st next year might help a little with the heat. Temps got into the mid-80’s in both 2010 (when the race was at the end of April) and 2011 (mid-April).
I went and raced Galveston this year, largely due to some of the feedback from GMAN and a few others here. Race was easy to get to, flying into Houston for mid day and getting across town and out of Houston proper towards Galveston island before the traffic kicked on Friday before the race. The swim was choppy, but quite fine. I was well trained for the bike having done most of my training in the lead up on the Computrainer. It’s definitely a good race to hit straight out of indoor training as a CT ride is basically like riding into a headwind continuously. Averaged 220W going into the wind and dialed it back coming home with the tailwind (final 217 ave) to save some legs for the heat on the run, which I needed to respect given that I was coming straight out of Canadian winter. I found the run difficult, with all the people on the course, and the concrete surface. I’m not really sure how I would prepare for the concrete as I refuse to run on concrete in training (no race is worth all that pounding in training).
The flat windy course does not favour an athlete my size (140 lbs), but it was still a good day overall. If I can get my body all sorted out, I would like to do both Galveston and either St. Croix or Wildflower next spring…as a point of reference, my time in Galveston was only 8 min faster than what I have posted at St. Croix and Wildflower in the past!!!
Dev
As always thanks for your input. Ack the comment on a flat windy course not favouring us little guys. Appreciate the comments on racing straight from the Computrainer as that is what I would essentially be doing as well. I’ll have an oppertunity to cycle in Tucson in March for a camp so at least I would have a little post winter riding in before Texas. From your comments and those of GMAN I might just have to drag my sorry ass to Texas for this.
The nice thing about Texas 70.3 from my vantage point coming out of the last Men’s wave (45-49) there was ZERO drafting. The waves were well spaced, and perhaps Texans just race more honourably than elsewhere, but I felt the race was entirely fair, even though flat, hot and windy does not benefit me as much as mountainous and HOT. Because my second half of 2011 was basically non existent, assuming I can get all my body parts working, I’ll have some extra vacation time and a few more spare $$$ for tri related travel next year, and would probably want to go back. Galveston is probably not my number one vacation destination so I’d keep it to a bare minimum or tie it in with some business in Houston-Austin-Dallas (assuming the dates line up) as I did last year…St. Croix on the other hand is definitely a good vacation spot. I was thinking about San Juan too, however, I hear that you can’t really ride race week. If I was going to an island, I’d want to be able to also roll in some riding.
However, I highly recommend the event from a racing experience perspective especially if you are coming right off the trainer…Galveston as a vacation destination, no disrespect to the locals who no doubt take pride in their community, but if I’m spending my $$$ on vacation, for the same $$$ I’d go elsewhere given that i need to get on an airplane. But I’m willing to fly there exclusively for the racing experience.
Dev