Hansen Dam Triathlon

Did this race on Sunday August 17^th. It was my first triathlon — sprint distance. I will do this race again, no question. Other reviewers are pretty spot on. I would add that the lake you swim in is actually very clean and filtered. Temp was 77 degrees. The run is tough though, and more than makes up for the shorter bike. I ran my worst 5k in months! :) I welcome the challenge.
My only caveats with this race is that (1) the volunteers that were working the transition area at 5:15am were cluelessly sending people to the wrong transition spots, (2) the race started 20 minutes late, which meant it was that much hotter when we finished, (3) they had no volunteers on the bike course, and most specifically at the merging area coming out of transition. They also talked a lot about safety on the bike course, and some «trouble spots», but nobody on the course giving us a heads up… I chalked this up to lack of volunteers, but then when I came in to transition I saw a huge grip of them warning me about the dismount line. Well, ok ok riding in to transition can be dangerous… but we don’t need 10 dudes patrolling the dismount line ;)
On that note, there were lots of police helping with traffic management. That was awesome… and impressive. I felt super safe and had a blast running red lights ;)

August 18, 2013. This was my third sprint triathlon and the first time doing this triathlon.
I went to packet pick up the day before and stayed around to listen to the information speech and transition set up and how to successfully do a transition. Although I have done triathlons before I wanted to see if there was any helpful information. For anyone doing their first triathlon this would be VERY helpful. It would have been nice to have something like this for my first triathlon.
Race day: Easy to find parking not so easy to set up my transition. I got there at 6am and all the racks were full. Usually the racks are marked by wave. There were no markings and although entering transition I was told to go to my wave, there was none and everyone just seemed to be a free for all. I found a spot in the supposedly «relay» transition. Seemed like everyone took up a lot of room. I don’t get this… share space people it’s not a hotel room.
This was the second year for the Olympic distance. It would have been better to have the Sprint and Olympic transition areas separate. Makes for more room and less confusing.
Although the Sprints weren’t starting until 7:30am, they made everyone exit the transition area at 6:30am. I didn’t understand why but then it made sense. The Olympic distance would be getting out of the water and running to transition and they didn’t want people standing around in their way. Perfect idea, but it would be better to have separate transition areas.
The swim was 500 meters… not too bad. The water was really warm but I wore a wetsuit for buoyancy.
Bike was 11 miles and seemed like a lot of steady up hill but wasn’t so bad. It was nicely marked and easy to follow.
Run was 5K on the bike/​run path and dirt. OMG the run is always hard for me and I’m a runner! I’m just so tired and theres no shade. It’s miserable. MISERABLE! Lots of uphill at the end of the race. I hate running up hill. I HATE IT.
Overall I think this was a great triathlon and I would do this again.

This was my first triathlon after just starting to learn how to swim this late May 2011.
This is a small (less than 1,000 participant) and short event. The swim was 500 yards in a man made pool/​lake, 11 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile dirt path run.
The swim was conducted in waves (i.e. M30−34, M35−39, etc) with 6 minutes between each wave. The water was warm and kind of gross so there was extra incentive to not drink it. You don’t want to get sick this early in the event.
The weather was a little cool in the morning so when all the swimmers got in the lake it cause a lot of steam which made sighting at times tough. However, it would have made a great picture.
You swam a full loop around the lake and come into the transition area to get on your bike for the 11 mile ride. The bike ride was relatively flat with some inclines and declines but nothing hard.
The run was basically a 5K run around a dirt trail that also had some inclines and declines. This part was the hardest for me and I wasn’t sure why.
My goal going into this triathlon was to finish the swim (not drown), finish the event and have fun. I accomplished all three until I got the results. My time could have been a lot better. Probably 5 minutes shorter if I wasn’t effing around doing this and that.
Live and learn. This is a good first triathlon for anybody who is interested in these events. The course is well supported and marked so you can’t get lost. The waves aren’t too big in the beginning (swim) that it is over whelming.
It is an excellent prep triathlon for other races. I highly recommend it! Malibu here I come.