The reviews are in...

From and emotional and physical perspective, I've talked Ironman China to death. Those days are over, "I've beaten that horse to death". This post is a "no holds barred" Ironman China race review.

I wished I had found a review like this before I signed up. I would have been much better prepared to know what to expect or I may have decided not to sign up at all.

First off, the Chinese are becoming very Westernized in their marketing approach. Lots of stretching of the truth.

According to "the brochure", they said to expect race day temperatures of around 26 C. Even though I was training through a Canadian winter, I didn't think heat was going to be too much of a problem. After all, it was supposed to be warm, not hot. Knowing this, I signed up.

About a month before the race, John Barclay called me and was worried about the heat. It was already consistently 30 C plus. Race day it ended up being 40 C / 104F. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I figured it must have been a typo. They hit the 2 on the keyboard instead of the 3. It SHOULD have read, expect 36 C.

According to "the brochure", it is the Hawaii of China. Well, I haven't been to Hawaii in a while, but the last few times I was there I don't remember all the pollution and cars. The brochure also said the host hotel is a 5 Star Resort. It was definitely a 5 star, providing their top hotel rating is 10 stars. It was the equivalent of a nice Holiday Inn, at best. The photo's were definitely retouched.

I will say the hotel staff were very friendly, and if you spoke fluent Chinese, they were also easy to communicate with. Other than a couple of the front desk people, most of the staff didn't understand English. Actually, very few Chinese people I dealt with understood English.

At the resort, everything but the hotel room was expensive. You definitely want to go into town to buy food or water. I bought 4 bottles of water, a can of Coke, a snickers bar and a large package of Oreo Cookies and it cost me $35 U.S. In town, it would have cost me less than $5.

The food is third World prepared, maybe even fourth World, if there is such a thing. The breakfast and pre-race meals were buffet style and I felt like I was playing "Russian Roulette" every time I'd put something on my plate. I've eaten food in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Mexico and it was gourmet compared to China. Ultimately, the food did did me in and food poisoning ended my race early.

Flying in and out of Haikou is an adventure. The airline counter staff understand very little English and seemed to have no experience handling bikes as baggage. Additional charges are not simple counter transactions. You're also never really sure if your standing in the right line. It was a zoo.

John Barclay described it best when he said, "it felt like we were trying to get on the last flight out of Vietnam before the war started". To ensure you get on your flight, you need to show up at least three hours beforehand, two hours is cutting it close.

Pre-race training conditions are less than ideal. The roads are full of traffic and vehicles are going different directions on the same side of the street. The rules are "there are no rules". Traffic lights don't matter, they are basically treated as a "suggestion". It is a little nerve racking when riding or running on the roads.

The basic challenges for me were the heat, the food, the roads, the jet lag and lack of communication. Other than those, it was pretty pain free. If I was to do the race again, I couldn't see myself showing up early to Haikou to acclimatize. I don't know where I'd safely ride or what I'd eat. I'd have to find another country nearby with a similar climate, Western food and safe roads to train on.

I'd also stay at a different hotel. Something in town, ideally an apartment style hotel with a full kitchen. At minimum, I'd bring my own food and I'd most definitely spend the time to research the best and safest restaurants to eat at.

The race itself is unlike any other Ironman I've ever done. It's a small group of competitors and the athletes are not friendly to one another. Even getting on and off the elevator, most of the athletes wouldn't even make eye contact. It's not your regular festive Ironman atmosphere. It is NOT the place you want to do your first Ironman.

It was definitely a high caliber of athlete that is drawn to China. Most of the people I spoke to were there for a single purpose, to get a Kona slot. Hence the intense atmosphere. The first smile I saw was from the pro Chris McCormack. Most everyone else seemed to be wearing their game faces.

My 8 X Ironman buddy Jamie once told me that he's only met one Kona Qualifier that isn't boring. I now know what he means, they are intense, not many smiles. John and I tried to have fun with it by directly looking at people and saying "hi". It still wasn't working and I think John eventually gave up. I will say the atmosphere was a little better after the race.

In terms of clothing, don't expect much. The table was about 2 foot x 14 feet. I think there was only 3 or 4 styles of shirts in 3 or 4 colors. To get my size, I thought I was buying drugs. They didn't have it on the table and the girl looked both ways and acted like she was doing me a favour by going in the back room and finding my size.

Now it wasn't ALL bad. I will say that the course was FANTASTIC. I was skeptical at first about the four lap swim, but it worked out well. No congestion. At one point the pros started swimming up beside me and it was pretty cool seeing how fast they swim relative to myself. With that said, if it was a large race with your standard 2000 plus athletes, I think the four loop swim would be pandemonium.

Although the river water seemed clean, this IS China. Not a lot of environmental controls. I don't even want to think what I was swimming in. The other day John was telling me he has a bunch of red bumps on his skin and wanted to know if I did as well. That got me looking and I think I do. Or the power of suggestion has got me paranoid.

The bike course was great. Even a blind man couldn't get lost. Large roads and three lane highways were completely shut down from traffic and all the roads seemed to be swept clean before the race. The roads were smooth and approximately every 500 to 1000 meters there was Police standing at the side of the road. At least there were standing in the morning. In the afternoon they were sitting due to the heat, most with their shoes and socks off.

The water stations support staff were great. The kids manning the stations were focused and couldn't do enough for you. I once stopped and before I could say a word, they were rubbing ice on my back as I was getting a drink. They were aggressive and were pouring water on me when I didn't want it on me, but I couldn't get mad, their intent was pure and "it felt so damn good".

As Simon mentioned in his race report post, they only had aid stations every 15 km on the bike and 2 km on the run and with the heat, it would probably be better to have them every 10 km on the bike and 1.5 km on the run. To me, the bike wasn't so much and issue as the run was.

The one thing about the Chinese that becomes apparent early, is they are great at following rules and doing what they are told. I've never been in a race where there has been so many diligent draft Marshals. This would be a great course for any world Championship. Lots of space to ride and drafters would definitely get caught.

The only other race item I could think of is the busing. Often the buses would leave on the hour. It would have been nice to have the buses revolving or leaving every 20 minutes. Especially at the end of the race when all you want to do is get back to the hotel. After the race, I had to wait and when the bus did leave, it had to stop for gas. One guy got so "pissed off" he jumped off of the bus and flagged down a cab.

One final note. It's more like a training day race. Unlike other Ironman races, it doesn't have lots of athletes, high amounts of supportive energy, boisterous crowds and fanfare.

This race, the field is small, intense and multi-cultural, with many of the athletes not speaking English. There is very little interaction with others along the course. The crowds watching and cheering are not very large either. Expect to be on your own, you won't be drawing energy from anywhere but between your own ears.

My final Score Card

Ease of Travel - Poor

Jet Lag - Poor

Most Communications with Chinese - Poor

Race Hotel - Fair

Hotel Bathroom- Nice (best part of room, good thing, I spent a lot of time in there).

Hotel Service - Fair

Hotel Prices - Poor /Very expensive

Hotel Food - Beyond Poor

Carbo Loading Buffet - Beyond Poor (many got food poisoning)

General Food in China - Poor

Pre Race Training Conditions - Poor

Pre -Race Organization - Excellent

Festive race atmosphere - Poor

Race Day organization - Excellent

Race Course organization - Excellent

Course Support - Very Good

Caliber of Athlete - High (Small field but World Class Competition)

Post race food - beyond Poor (many more got food poisoning).

Chinese People Cheering - Very Good

Amount of People Cheering - Fair

Airport Travel - beyond poor.

Arriving back in Toronto - Priceless.

Special note to Simon: Thanks for the Ironman Pictures.

Rest and Recovery Week - No training

178.6 / 21.5 BMI