2020 EVENT RESCHEDULED FROM MAY.
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Where beer city meets wine country
Triathlon tradition lives in Santa Rosa. IRONMAN 70.3 Santa Rosa is one event you do not want to miss! Santa Rosa is a wonderful community that embraces the athletes for an experience of a lifetime. The course features stunning views of the Sonoma Valley and beyond. Santa Rosa is easily accessible from San Francisco and boasts some of the best outdoor adventures for the whole family.
Nestled in the beautiful coastal foothills of Sonoma County, athletes will swim in Lake Sonoma. Athletes will start their swim from the boat ramp on the north side of the Rockpile Road Bridge. Swimmers will swim one loop in the lake before exiting and running up the boat ramp to transition. The swim will feature a Rolling Start.
Athletes will be traversing the beautiful Sonoma County wine country in the Alexander Valley and Russian River Valley. The bike course returns to its roots and is bringing back the Chalk Hill Road section. This beautiful course will showcase all the beauty of the Sonoma County wine country.
Athletes will transition to the run and will link up with the Santa Rosa Creek trail, this tree-lined 1-loop run course will provide a flat, shaded fast course for athletes to enjoy.
Swim: RESERVOIR
Bike: ROLLING
Run: FLAT
Avg Air Temp: 64° F / 18° C
Avg Water Temp: 59° F / 15° C
LESS
Nice swim and run but bike is dangerous
Mixed feelings. Swim was smooth and properly organised despite it is quite far from run transition. Run was perfect, one loop first down and then up to the city centre. … MORE
Mixed feelings. Swim was smooth and properly organised despite it is quite far from run transition. Run was perfect, one loop first down and then up to the city centre. But bike is simply dangerous for those who do not run for the first place in the race. Roads chosen are poorly maintained and in addition you have to run with traffic besides you. It simply destroyed any incentive to do a PR.
A nice place for an Iron distance event
Thee is a really great & detailed reviewed of this event already, so I will just add some color. Plan to arrive in Santa Rosa on Thursday, if possible. There … MORE
Thee is a really great & detailed reviewed of this event already, so I will just add some color. Plan to arrive in Santa Rosa on Thursday, if possible. There is a lot of logistical planning needed for this event. The lake is so beautiful and clean to swim in. Although it was cancelled this year, it IS my favorite swim venue. The bike leg is scenic and fast. There was a tailwind for many mile along with a reasonable amount of downhill. The climbing is marginal difficulty. The run is not favored by many, but I would say it was nice to always have other athletes around to help motivate you. The fans, volunteers and event production makes this a “must-do”, in my opinion.
Great location, run course needs work
I did the full Ironman in May and decided to give the 70.3 a try. I love this area and the local support but the increase in the number of … MORE
I did the full Ironman in May and decided to give the 70.3 a try. I love this area and the local support but the increase in the number of athletes from 1800 in May for the 140.6 to 2800 in July for the 70.3 caused some challenges.
The registration process was super simple in the Courtyard Square, the location of “Ironman Village” for the duration of the weekend. The athlete briefings were also held there.
The swim was in Lake Sonoma, some 40 minutes away, so the Friday bike drop off was a bit of a trek but there was a transportation company that would take your bike there and rack it for $40. We just headed up at 7am on Friday morning to check out the lake, have a warm-up swim and be ready for T1 opening at 10am. I’m glad we did because it was crazy busy there from 10 onwards as we were leaving. Then it was back to downtown Santa Rosa to drop off the run bag and hit the movie theater next to T2 for the afternoon.
On race morning the shuttles leave the transit area starting at 4:15am and I’m glad I got one of the early ones as I heard some complaints later that people were waiting for a long time for the shuttles to make the roundtrip. The swim was ultimately cancelled due to the fog/visibility but people were still arriving on the shuttles at the time that we would have entered the water.
With no swim (which was the right call in the conditions) the decision was made to just start the bike leg with a TT start, 5 athletes at a time in numerical order. I was bib # 3171 so I finally got going around 9am, some 4 hours after arriving at T1.
The bike starts with a ride across the bridge and then a fast descent where some caution is required and there was a nasty looking crash at the bottom of the hill and another on the 90 degree bend a few hundred yards further on. The ride is through some beautiful wine country scenery but some of the road conditions are pretty rough, enough to warrant some velcro on the bottom of my bottles to prevent them departing the bike. I found this the hard way during some test rides so was prepared on race day. The roads were rough and there were lots of bikes with flat tires on the side of the road. Part of the course had been repaved since May and it was heavenly.
The course control was excellent and the police did a great job to keep us moving through intersections but there were so many bikes on the course that it was really difficult not to start drafting. The constant passing took a little toll on my legs that I paid for later, along with the added heat from starting later.
The aid stations were well situated and well stocked and there were a few small but steep hills to climb with some even better downhill sections following them.
T2 was in downtown Santa Rosa and the crowds were fantastic on the entry, exit and during the run. The run is 2 loops along the creek trail so there is some monotony involved but it was nice and shaded on one side and hot on the other. In May the course was one way along a section of the creek but in the 70.6 there was much more two-way traffic, which made little sense given the number of athletes on the course. It was challenging to try and pass someone when someone else coming the other way had the same idea. Following the structure of the 140.6 course would have made more sense, with two-way traffic only on the wider parts of the trail.
The run also had well situated and stocked aid stations and some great volunteers that kept everyone’s morale up.
The finish was awesome, and a big relief, with a run down the chute in the main square. The post-race food was the same excellent paella they had in May but this time there was also a free beer from nearby brewery Lagunitas.
Great location, organization and local support.
I love Santa Rosa
Perfect weather, beautiful course and professionally produced. The rolling start was really nice. The logistics would have been a nightmare, but IM did a great job of providing shuttles to … MORE
Perfect weather, beautiful course and professionally produced. The rolling start was really nice. The logistics would have been a nightmare, but IM did a great job of providing shuttles to the swim start. The bike was beautiful, don’t even remember any climbing. The run was on a nice bike path, however it was a bit narrow with 2-way traffic of runners. But still nice and shaded most of the way. I’ll be back again next year.
The venue was fantatastic, a must do!
Great people to work with, friendly town, volunteers were great and the course was challenging and beautiful. Swag is ok considering the venue, could have been a bit better. I … MORE
Great people to work with, friendly town, volunteers were great and the course was challenging and beautiful. Swag is ok considering the venue, could have been a bit better. I would highly recommend the event to anyone who has done or has been thinking about doing a half IM.