IRONMAN ST. GEORGE VENUE RACE REPORT...

What can I say, IMSG is one damn good race on every possible level.

I had never heard of St. George before the Ironman. When I heard Utah, I thought it must be near Salt Lake City, not a 90 minute drive from Las Vegas. Just being able to fly into Vegas and drive to St. George makes it easy to get too and Vegas flights are always reasonably priced.

The landscape in and around St. George is beautifully spectacular. I've always liked Sedona, Arizona, and I now prefer St. George. It's a smaller community, and once you drive around it a few times, it's easy to figure out directions.

St. George is into the Ironman, they have Ironman fever. You would never guess that this is the first year that they have held an Ironman in St. George. Throughout, businesses have "welcome Ironman" on outdoor signs and windows. They also hung Ironman banners on, what seemed like, hundreds of light posts. It's cool driving and seeing them hanging, you soon realize that this town thinks the Ironman is a big deal and welcomes it.

The people of St. George are amazing. Amongst the friendliest I've ever met in my life. Every store or restaurant I went into, everyone was friendly and most everyone knew about the Ironman and when they noticed my Ironman shirt, they'd ask me about it. It didn't take long before I started feeling welcome and safe in St. George.

Another benefit of having the race in St. George is the amount of hotels. They have a lot of clean hotels and motels throughout the City. I think they could double the field to 5000 and no one would have trouble finding a place to stay. From one end of the City, to the other, is not far and it's not necessary to have to stay near the expo at the convention center or the race start, which is downtown. Everything is a relatively close drive.

I LOVE the IMSG course. It's the first time I've done a race with two transitions zones. At first, when I heard about it having two transition zones, I thought it was going to be a logistical nightmare. I was wrong.

The course starts way outside of the City at a water reservoir, which is transition one. It's a bit of a drive, but worth driving it for the scenery alone. Downtown at the finish is transition two. The day before, we dropped our bikes off at transition one and run gear at transition two. In both cases, it was highly well organized. No waiting and all. The volunteers seemed like they knew exactly what they were doing. If you asked a question, they had the answers.

The athletes registration was a well oiled machine. From station to station there was people guiding you. I once had to walk through that area to get to the trade show side, I thought is was a short cut. At least 4 people grabbed me to ask what station I just came from so they could point me to the next one. I was like, "no, sorry, just passing through, I've registered already". It was tiring just explaining myself. Needless to say, that was the last time I tried that "shortcut".

The expo was good. Lots of clothes and stuff. They also had a lot of vendors set up and they were demonstrating and selling their products. They helped open my wallet. After a couple of demonstrations and education, I bought a Tanita scale and compression socks. The only complaint I had about the expo, was they had no mirrors, other than the change rooms. That's it.

The tattooed race numbers were also cool. The organizers took the time to make stencils for every competitor with their number. I can't imagine how long that would have taken. You would then take your stencil to one of the many stations they had and they would airbrush on your number. It is a water resistant tattoo, the only way you can get it off is with rubbing alcohol. I wonder if beer will work?

When I heard that we would have to be bused from the downtown race finish to the swim start. I thought, "nightmare". I've done these before you tend to stand in line a wait a long time. Not, at St. George. They had buses galore. I think my wait was about 4 minutes. Again, organized beyond belief. Which made it a relaxed and stress free environment.

The swim start was also well organized and trouble free. I liked that they had a tent for changing into your wetsuit. It's nice to change in a warm environment and chat it up with all the other guys while doing it. When we left the tent, we didn't even need to go to the morning clothes drop off truck. They had volunteers grabbing your bags as you left the tent.

The water reservoir was a well laid out course. A single loop and I much prefer it over a two or more loop course, you could get into a groove. The swim course is also well marked. Even with the sun in your eyes, it doesn't take long until you see the buoys if you keep swimming forward.

The bike and run is challenging to say the least, and it is extremely scenic. A few times I caught myself looking at the landscape and going "WOW", that's beautiful. A camera can't do it justice. You have to see it first hand. I also heard about 500 athletes didn't race after they saw the difficulty of the course. It may be an exaggerated number, but it was high and there was a lot of DNF's.

In both cases, the volunteers on the bike and the run are second to none. There was lots of them and they knew what they were doing. It was the absolute best special needs set up in the world. At the special needs drop off, all the bags went in boxes. they seemed to have 50 boxes based on race number. On the course the boxes were laid out over a 200 meter stretch and when you yelled out your number, you knew exactly where to go. I rarely use special needs because it's a hassle, but not at this race it isn't.

They had a good amount of water stations on the bike and and, what seemed like, an unbelievable amount on the run. I was blown away. It was like they were prepared for the worst hot day and made sure you didn't have far to go for water and aid. They also had water stations on both sides of the road. They didn't cut any corners.

Every station also had more than enough food and beverages. At virtually every aid station they were giving sponges, water, Gatorade, Coke, Chicken broth, gels, pretzels, chips, grapes and banana's. The only thing missing was dining tables. I can also attest that they had at least 2 or 4 porta-potties at each aid station. At the front and the back of the line.

The volunteers at the aid station were amazing. You've run up and they would be telling you the order of the beverages. They'd be yelling out, "Gatorade first, Water in the middle, Coke and then Chicken broth. And all the other stuff they were yelling out as your ran buy. They had a lot of school kids and adults at every aid station and not only were they giving you stuff, but they were cheering like crazy.

The route was extremely well marked. The roads were all closed on the bike and the run. Other than one road with crossing cars on the bike with a Cop guiding traffic, I didn't see any cars or other cops. The bike roads were pretty good from my standpoint. There was some that were a little bumpy and that's to be expected, but all in all, they were smooth and clean. I saw very few people with flats or mechanical problems.

On the bike, they also had lots of race officials on motorcycles and it worked. I didn't see much, if any, drafting and even saw a guy in the penalty tent. It was definitely a fair race. If there was potholes or bumps, they notified you of them. There would be spray paint on the road identifying potholes and signs identifying bumps.

The bike course is tough. If the hills don't get you, the wind will. The wind is ever changing and even on some downhills the wind can slow you down. I was told afterwards that many of the roadside signs of support blew away. It's the type of bike course that gives you bragging rights to finish. Some of the hills were pretty steep and it wasn't uncommon to see many of the mid to back of the pack riders walking their bikes up.

The crowd support was amazing, second to none. There was 700 first timers and that may have helped. It seemed like the roads were lined for the first 3 miles of the run with spectators, all yelling and cheering. It was a great course to watch if you were a family member because it was an out and back, you'd get to see you the athlete 4 times. The bike course, surprisingly also had a fair amount of spectators.

The finish was packed with cheering fans. For the last half mile, on both sides of the road, it was packed and the cheering was overwhelmingly loud. Coming down the chute was even better. I've never seen crowds that big.

Once finished, every athlete was escorted to the food area and everyone was offered massage. When you went to pick up your bags and bike everything was organized and they even tied all three of your bags together. The pre-swim gear bag, the bike and run gear was so easy to pick up and put over your shoulder. No having to find one bag, then the other and the other. It was all ready for you.

The only, and I mean only downside, was the post race food. It was your standard fair of cold pizza. .

With that said, I can't say enough about this race. If you finish this race you are an Ironman with an asterisk mark beside your name. When other triathletes hear you've done St. George, it will notch you up a little on the Ironman scale rating. If it gets over 28 C, you will deserve a double asterisk.

In closing, Disneyland is not as well run and organized. I also think St. George deserves the moniker, "the happiest place on earth", not Disney. The people are fabulous. I've done Ironman Canada and think that is a very special race location and has great support, I think St. George may be slightly better, although I did notice a LOT of similarities with he people and scenery.

One last comment, the race is big, about 2500 athletes. Which is great. With an out and back you are constantly in contact with other and the drawing of energy from each other is superb. Even during all the pre-race events and meeting people in the elevator, all the other athletes are positive and talkative. Lots of smiling from one to another. Even the pre-race meal was well run with tributes. The pre-race mandatory video was also a nice touch.

Other than the prestige, I think it's rivals any Ironman on the circuit, including Kona. It has lots of great energy. It was worth the food poisoning in China and paying for an expensive community slot to get here. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Rest and Beer Day - Full race report tomorrow

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