My first ironman distance race and i had decided to do ironman austin for one it was reletievely close, it seemed like a good location and the time of the year was good for my current schedule. The race expo was great with lots of info on the race, directions for the racer and spectator and lots of volunteers to answers random questions. The expo was on Saturday and luckily we went early to get my race packet get my bike checked in and look around and see what all they had to offer for the athletes. The check in process was painless and pretty quick they moved you in and out without a hiccup. Outside the check in area they had the Ironman store with a ton of race gear, fan gear and all kind of other ironman products. Outside of the store and registration was all other vendors and there was a decent amount of vendors to pick from. From companies selling new wetsuits, wheels, tri suits, helmets, recovery products, race day supplements and nutrition and everything else. On race day we started over by walter long lake, you had to shuttle over by school bus which took some time and got a little nerve racking after some time we finaly made it there to only find a delay in the swim which would soon turn to a cancel in the swim leading to a bike run course. I was bummed as this was my first ironman race and i had trained for what seemed like forever but i decided to make the best of it and ended up have a fun race. The bike course was open and rolling and displayed what austin had to offer in the country part of austin. leading into the run that was super hot with little to no shade around the park for three laps of a hot mess. Overall a great race!