I'll open the meat of this post by saying that the logistics of Raleigh 70.3 are a major PITA. Personally, I've done quite a few point to point races (practically every Rev3 or Challenge Race I did was P2P...I think) but none of those were as annoying as Raleigh's P2P system. The main issue with Raleigh was the tiny little swim start location, which is also where athletes need to drop off their bikes the day before. I suppose it depends on what time you went to drop-off on Saturday whether or not your traffic levels were ridiculous or "doable." The organizers tried to ameliorate this a little bit for 2016 by asking participants to choose a "time block" when they picked up their packet. Unfortunately I'd be willing to bet that a not insubstantial portion of the athletes missed this or just didn't pay attention to its parameters.
I also still remain impressed (or maybe surprised is a better description of my feelings) that athletes continue to bring bikes to races that are clearly not ready to race. Just watching people at the expo bringing bikes to get looked at and listening to the issues or problems that they are having as well as seeing and talking to the mechanics (hey, IOS Cary!) was scary in the sense of what people are bringing as "race ready." Someones tube exploded in transition while we were dropping off Christine's bike and apparently the tire was split by the explosion. Imagine being THAT athlete on race morning...! (for the record, I wouldn't worry too much about over-inflating your tubes on hot days if you just stick to reasonable/regular pressures).
Ultimately, the race was a good one to choose if you live on the east coast and you want to do a really hot half distance race with a rolling bike course and hot, exposed run course, with a historically long swim...
Do I sound like I really want to do a half? Because I don't. It looks so hard!!!
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