Beach to Battleship

Hello everybody,

I am very happy to make my 5th long distance triathlon in Wilmington. I will arrive at oct. the 27th in Wilmington.

What is the total elevation on the bike course?

And another question.

Is the bikecourse well-signposted? In the week before, I will check in part by bike and fully by motorcycle (rent a Harley).

Thank you in advanced.

Total elevation must be at least 10 feet. Seriously, it is flat aside from the bridge.

I don't know about the days before the race but i doubt it would posted that early. It would be pretty hard to get lost if you follow the map though.

I plugged it into my Topo software last year and came up with 1,717 feet of cumulative elevation gain. Over 112 miles, that ain't much. You're going ever-so-slightly uphill as you go inland. When you reach the most in-land area and, just before you start heading back towards Wilmington, there's some bad pavement and some very slight undulations. Then you get onto Hwy. 421 and you're descending ever-so-slightly back to the ocean with just a few slight undulations along the way.

The only catch is, a mile before the finish, you have to cross the bridge over the Cape fear River and it's quite a nice little hill. I raced it with a single chainring last year. I had no trouble -- not even with the bridge at the end.

As for the bike course being "well signposted," I doubt it. I arrived on Thursday before the race last year and drove the entire course that afternoon. I saw no signage at all that day. If I hadn't had the map printed out from the website, I'd have been lost. There's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OUT THERE after you leave the immediate Wilmington area. It's VERY remote. Even on race day, it was quite desolate and even a bit unnerving when I got 40 miles or so inland. There's NOTHING there. It's a barren, coastal plain landscape with almost no development whatsoever. The good news is, little to no traffic.

Psycholist, Your not suggesting a map on race day, are you?

ColumbiaMan wrote:Psycholist, Your not suggesting a map on race day, are you?

No. On race day, it'll be fine and you won't need a map. I drove the entire course the afternoon I arrived last year (Thursday) and saw no markings. If you're going to get out on the course prior to the race, take a map.

I did the 1/2 last year and as best as I can remember, all the course changes had volunteers directing which direction to turn. And I even want to say at some intersections (big busy ones) there were some form of law enforcement to direct traffic. You won't have a chance to get lost on race day and I didn't hear of anyone getting lost last year either. If you plan to do the pre-race recon like you said, a map is a necessity or you will get lost.

Oh also the elevation gain is minimal. Again, I did the 1/2, so that is where my experience is. But I'm also only 1.5 hours away, so I'm somewhat local. The largest 'hills' will be the bridges by far with the last one, right before T2, being the biggest, in my opinion. If you want flatter than this course you're looking for IM Florida type of a course. You might have to shift a gear or 2 here and there , but there are no chainring changes, aside from maybe the bridges. I was spent last year at the last bridge and went lowest ratio and still pedalled over it nicely.

Flat and fast, not unlike some of the women I once knew.....