Carlsbad triathlon course preview
July 8th, 2008 Categories: Carlsbad 'best of', Carlsbad Beaches, Carlsbad City, Carlsbad Community Events, Carlsbad Outdoor Events, Carlsbad Real Estate
CARLSBAD– The 27th annual Carlsbad Triathlon will be taking place this weekend on July 13th. This race is in the top 3 of the longest consecutive running triathlons in the country.
I went out yesterday and shot a few clips identifying some key points of the bike course and run course. The swim course is pretty self explanatory and offers no real surprises. The surf and tides forecast for the weekend call for light surf and the tide will be high at the start of the race. The main thing to remember with the swim for athletes new to the ocean is to TRY to relax. The ocean is a great medium to swim in so make it your friend!!!
The first thing you are going to face coming out of the swim and leaving T1 is the hill that will take you out of the Tamarack state beach parking lot to the coast highway. You need to make sure you have selected a proper gear prior to the race as mounting at the base you will not have time to build any speed. I have seem people almost crash struggling to get up this hill.
Next out on the bike course, you will find a pretty flat nice road. Just south of Palomar Airport Road you will find the only ‘hill’ on the course. It is at the Encinas creek crossing just before the campground. While it is short, it will put a hamper on your effort so be prepared to hit this hill twice. Once on the way out and then on your second lap. One nice thing through this stretch is the city has 
repaved what used to be a very bad road.
Remember this is a two lap bike course. Your first turn around comes at La Costa Avenue just after crossing the Aqua Hedionda lagoon jetty. Remember to use caution as you move over from the right lane to the center divide to make your ‘U’ turn. There will definitely be some fast riders coming up and diving into that turn. Once you have made your turn try to get over to the right as soon as you can to allow others to pass.
The second ‘U’ turn comes at Solamar Drive which comes about 2/3 of the way back to the transition. It is just south of Palomar Airport road. If you were to look at the course on a map, it is a paper clip. When you approach this turn you will need to move in to the left traffic lane, again carefully, as the right traffic lane is reserved for the cyclists heading back for T2.
The run course is also pretty flat with a turnaround almost even with the smokestack of the power plant. The biggest thing to keep in mind with the run course is you leave T2 on the flat boardwalk. At the end of the boardwalk the course goes up a 
short steep rise at Pine Avenue. While this is short it will certainly spike your heart rate as you are already coming out of T2 with some anxiety, urgency, anticipation and an elevated heart rate as it is. If you have spectators coming to the race, the best place to spectate for the run is at the top of this little rise as you will be going pretty slow and they can identify you coming up the hill. From there they can easily get to the finish to see you cross.
Have a great race!!!
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