Signed up for Oceanside 70.3 tonight. Going to be next March. I've been wanting to do this one for a couple years now because, as a former Marine who happened to be stationed at Camp Pendleton for three years, this will be something of a homecoming for me. I figure this will be the best farewell for my long course "career". So far I've finished one FIM and two HIM with one DNF. After this, I will stick to sprints and aquabike events. They're just more manageable.

is this (partially) within the camp pendleton confines or all on civilian territory?

Part of the bike course is on the base. As I understand, most of the volunteers are also Marines.

Marines make great volunteers, and motivators for such things. During my active duty career (Navy), I had the opportunity to run the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. a couple of times. There were Marines, and other active-duty personnel EVERY STEP OF THE WAY assisting in what ever way needed. Interesting, however, was that in the later miles some of them were handing out over-the-counter NSAIDs. Surprising that they’d be allowed to do that. — Dan

I've heard about that marathon. Never done a stand alone marathon. That may have to be the one I do.

Well, I gave serious consideration to a last minute entry for this last IMAZ but the work schedule just won't allow it. Oh well. Little disappointing but as much as these events beat me up I have to wonder why I even consider this kind of self torture.

Can I assume an “Aquabike” is a bike-swim, swim-bike event ?. Never seen one of those here on the east coast. I could do one of those as I’m good at both.

Yes. Basically jut a tri without the run. I've only done one so far and it was great. But I suck at the run anyway so I'm happy to do that..

Typically I think they're mostly sprint distances, maybe some oly distances,, but I've never seen anything longer than that. I probably do HIM and FIM distance aquabikes fairly easy.

There are probably near a dozen tri’s on Long Island in season, mostly as good locations to hold the swim. Haven’t seen an aquabike ever. Would be fun. Some of the local tri’s allow teams and I’ve been a member of those, either as a swimmer or cyclist or both. And we see a number of open water swims.

I find that curious. At most events I've seen, outside of Ironman branded events, most run a full tri, aquabike and duathlon all on the same course. I thought that was pretty standard. Guess not though.

Concur. Here in southeastern New England, most of the multi sport events run the aqua bike and du on the same course, concurrent with the tri.

Dan

Well, that was short-lived. I'm registered for Oceanside already, but I looked earlier this week. If I had been able to get the time off, I was going to do IMAZ again since it's the last time for that race. Now I'm planning on Sacramento next fall, considering the Florida 70.3 in December and the FIM in 2027. Of course, there's rumor that Ironman will come back to the Las Vegas area now that Tempe is finished. If that happens, I'm going to have to do that one too.

I’ll ask a buddy who does tri’s locally, it’s possible I’m not paying attention to all the events they run.

And as I researched a bunch of local events, I’d say maybe 50% have Aquabikes. That’s new to me.

My buddy has been trying to get me to do Sacramento. Funny, he is my neighbor in Texas, but we grew up a few miles from each other in the Sacramento area. He said we need to go home for a race.

Do it next year and I'll be right there with you.

Tough part is you never know what weather you are going to have in Sacramento in October. It could be 90 degrees and then it could be 50 degrees. The American River is a cold river. The water comes from snow melt in the nearby mountains and also from bottom of the Folsom Reservoir, which is cold. Even if it's hot, it will definitely be a wetsuit legal swim.

I have a wet suit, I can deal with cold water so long as it's over about 55*. I may not like 90* weather but it wouldn't be too bad on the bike, and by the time I get to the run it will be getting late in the day anyway. More than anything, I would worry about wind and/or rain.

Does Oceanside offer an AquaBike event the same day as the half?

I don't know the answer to that. But it is an Ironman branded event so I suspect not.