First Full Ironman Course Decision
I'm really struggling to decide on my first full Ironman location. With all the popular race registrations opening soon, I want to decide relatively quick but I keep going back and forth on priorities.
For background, I live in Calgary, Canada and there is no race even remotely close by. If I really wanted to do a giant road trip, my options would be Ottawa or California or Wisconsin.
Here are my concerns / priorities:
- Swim course needs to be easy/calm. Swimming is what I am least comfortable with and I do not want to be in any rough waters.
- Happy with a decent amount of elevation on the bike but nothing crazy.
- Preferably less than 200m elevation on the run.
- August or fall timing would be nice because training in summer is ideal here.
Originally I thought California would be good because it's in the fall so I get all summer to train, it's a river swim, and the bike and run are flat HOWEVER a bad headwind (20km/h+) on the bike is my worst nightmare. I will climb hills all day but do not give me a raging headwind. I know this course has mentions of pretty bad headwinds due to the flatness.
THEN, I thought Ottawa would be good but looking at the weather history, it seems it's either pissing rain or there is a heat wave going through and that really doesn't sound fun to me. Also the flat bike with only 300m elevation doesn't play to my strengths very much.
Now, recently I decided on Copenhagen because it's a great course (meets all my requirements) but now i'm worried about flying with all my gear and bike. I've never flown my bike before and don't have a bike box/bag and i've heard horror stories of airlines losing people's bikes or people not putting them back together properly, etc. I also stress about how far it is from home and how most of my family/friends wouldn't be able to come...
Based on all this - have any thoughts or recommendations? 🙃 I have OCD if you can't tell so I am spiralling on this...