I need detailed tips for the Los Angeles Triathlon (Toyota not Nautica) race for Sunday (Sep 9). Did a search on the forum and came out with bits and pieces of information but no detailed tips and advice. An example of previous discussions were about road quality: Some said I can use the disk, while others said not to use the disk. I need much more advice …
Some important matters:
Best time to go to expo? I will be staying in the hotel.
What is swim like?
Tide against or with? My wave starts at 7:50 AM.
Should I swim on left of competition or right?
How far is T1 from swim finish? Any tips for T1
Can wife and kids spot me on this Transition? Best place for them to watch?
What really is the quality of roads for the bike portion? Should I use my 404 or my 909? They are both tubular.
If roads are bad, How bad is bad? How long is the bad portion?
I am a strong cyclist and can sustain 24 mph for an hour on a flat course. Do I need a 39 chainring or should I change it to a 42? Would I even need to use a small chainring? The bike course should be flat correct?
Tips on T2? Can wife and kids spot me on this Transition? Best place for them to watch?
Best way for wife and kids to head downtown? Shuttle? Drive?
Best spot for viewing run?
Can wife hand over coke and gels? Which spot?
Best way to head back to Venice to pick up bike? Shuttle? Drive?
You seem a bit confused…LA is nothing to do with Nautica, that’s Malibu.
Go to the expo whenever you feel like and it’s open, there are course talks at certain points which may be helpful. As the swim is L-shaped you’ll be have to go both with and against the current. The tide shouldn’t be an issue. If you’re a weak swimmer start praying for small surf, it’s been quite big this past weekend. T1 is in a parking lot at the top of the beach, you have to run 200-300 yards up the sand. This is a good place for your family to watch you. They could then try to beat you to the exit of T1.
The roads are crap. All of them. It’s LA. You have about 3-6 lanes to play with for most of the race so you can ride around the worst holes. A disc is fine, I’ll be using mine for the third year in a row. There are a bunch of rollers on Sunset and 1st st near the end is a decent hill, you’ll need the small ring to get up that one. T2 is a bit of a mystery as it’s moved this year. Keep checking the website and at the expo. It’s very near the finish at staples center.
The run should be watchable from anywhere on the course. If you’re doing the oly it is a 2 loop run except that the loops aren’t the same each time round. Wife handing over coke and gels is outside assistance so illegal but I doubt anyone actually cares unless you’re planning on placing. Your bike won’t be in Venice, it will be at T2 remember. Your wetsuit etc get put in a bag (by you) and will get shuttled to T2 so you don’t need to go back to Venice except that your hotel is there.
Both transitions are big and have catch frncing around them so you may not be visible, especially as you’re in a later wave. I think the shuttles may be for competitors only so your family may have to drive. I’m not as fast as you on the bike and last year I beat my wife to downtown riding while she drove so your family may miss T2.
ps the detour off highland on 6th is also rolling
pps the whole course is basically gradually uphill as you’re going away from the ocean, the net gain is actually quite surprising but I’ve forgotten the number
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Your bike won’t be in Venice, it will be at T2 remember. Your wetsuit etc get put in a bag (by you) and will get shuttled to T2 so you don’t need to go back to Venice except that your hotel is there.
Got me on this one. I knew I missed something somewhere. Thanks for the tips. You ain’t lazy at all dude!
In addition, I rode the course on Saturday!
Bike:
Watch yourself when you make the right turn from Fairfax onto Wilshire. Large Metal plates in the road. Then the right turn from Sunset to Beaudry there is construction in the middle lane.
Run:
1 trip up the hill on Grand. The second turnaround is below the hill.
T2 is next to the convention center.
The swim. I swam in Santa Monica this morning about 2 miles north of the race course and there was some decent sized surf. Curling faces and double breaks…
The forecast is for minimal wave action on Sunday.
Have your wife drive downtown.
Use the disk.
It doesn’t matter about the 39 or 42, if you average 24 on the flats, you will be in the big ring the hole way.
The run course is different this year, you have to run up Grand twice and that will be a Bitch.
Good luck!
Practice in the waves the day before if you can…it’s a bit scary if you aren’t used to it.
Stay right when you are exiting the swim. I think the current kind of pulls you left and you’ll be swimming straight into the later waves running into the water.
Try not to miss the out and back section of the bike like 75% of the pro women did last year…or maybe that is more a detailed tip for the RD: Mark the out and back section on the bike this year please!
Shuttle worked pretty well. You get onto school buses with your bike.
There is a great ice cream place (Cold Stone or something) just by the race start but I’d wait until post race to stop in! It’s possible to eat yourself sick there.
So are we running up Grand once or twice…it says both in the above posts…the course maps online mean nothing to me as I dont know the area.
Twice. The Olympic run is 2x the sprint run this year. It’s a 5K loop going up Grand. So once for the sprint and twice for the Olympic. In past years, the Olympic run was one large loop.
The run is not a 5k loop. The first loop is longer than the second. It doesn’t look like we go up grand on the second loop. The sprint is a different loop from either of these.
The run is not a 5k loop. The first loop is longer than the second. It doesn’t look like we go up grand on the second loop. The sprint is a different loop from either of these.
I stand corrected. My bad for not reading the details earlier. So it is good we don’t have to climb up the hill twice. However, with Sprint and Olympic racers on the course at the same time there will in effect be 3 different turn arounds. Seems like a recipe for course cutting (inadvertant of otherwise).
Yup, with a 4th turnaround at the T2 end for our second loop. Agreed that there’s a high chance of chaos. I still have no idea how the run interacts with the bike course as there is no longer a way to get the runners under Grand like they did for the last few years. That means we might using one side of Grand for both directions of the run which would be awfully crowded…
I think I’m actually going to have to attend one of the course talks to get my head around this unless they have better maps at the expo.
I’m just happy to only have to run up that thing once.
I remember last year…I was having the time of my life flying down that thing on my bike until I realized 1) that T2 was directly at the bottom; and 2) that I would be immediately running up!
Hopefully they will explain it better at the course talks.
I don’t even remember the actual running up the hill…i think I blocked it out…i just remember this woman standing at the bottom cheering super loud. She was funny.
I did the race 2 years ago and the scariest part of the whole day was flying down Grand at 30+ as the traffic police where trying to get a bunch of pedestrians across the road. I thought I was going to take out little 4’ 10 Grandma Rodriquez with her freshly bought fruit. I am not sure who looked more scared.
I did the race 2 years ago and the scariest part of the whole day was flying down Grand at 30+ as the traffic police where trying to get a bunch of pedestrians across the road. I thought I was going to take out little 4’ 10 Grandma Rodriquez with her freshly bought fruit. I am not sure who looked more scared.
I also raced 2 years ago and about 50 yards ahead of me a racer flying down Grand smashed into a homeless person walking his bike across the course. He was bloodied but was walking, and his bike looked to be in bad shape. Be careful descending, as someone mentioned you can crack 40 fairly easily down that hill.
On another note the latest Triathlete mag has a big print of that great pic from last years LA race where several racers are knee deep in the water nervously watching a rather large wave break.