Ekaterina Altynova's Staging Area

This was the most beautiful course I’ve ever done. The whole course runs through the gardens, so you are in the woods or by the lakes the entire time. Could not get enough of the scenery! The volunteers were great! There were snacks at every stop, which is not typical! The hills ate me alive though! I was not prepared for that at all! I do train on flat ground so maybe that’s why but oh man those hills! The course is two half marathon loops around and there were hills like 12 of the 13 miles and it was pretty brutal the second time around. I would highly recommend this race for how scenic it is but just do some hill training before 😉

Great first time triathlon!! Beautiful lake, great scenery. The bike was the most challenging for me because I had never trained on hills and this course was quite hilly. However that being said, I managed trough it just fine even with my old steel frame bike. Would love to do the 70.3 next year. I’ve never done tris before so I’m not sure if this is how it always is, but I wasn’t a fan of them not closing the streets for the ride (or the run for that matter, but that is less dangerous). I would also mention that the website did not have that much information for a first timer like myself. It would have been good to know that there would be no place to change other than the porter potties after the swim, or that the roads would not be closed or if there was a cut off for time on the courses. I know a lot of these things are intuitive for repeated triathletes but I had to learn everything the day before and it was quite nerve racking. Other than that, I had a blast! Great experience and great people!!