This event over all is well organized. 2016 was a challenge with local politics, construction, flooding in the area and the organizers still managed to hold a top notch event.

The check in is during the week a few days before the race and is held inside IRONMAN village. As long as you have your USAT card and ID ready they check you in with all your swag, gear bags, numbers etc… You exit through the IRONMAN merchandise tent and I recommend you arrive prepared to make any purchases at this time. Items like the name shirt will sell out very fast.

The village itself has a lot of activity from vendors, mechanics, athlete tracker pick up, athlete orientation, volunteer check in and meetings with the pro racers.

For the gear drop have all your bags ready and sealed up before arriving. I also recommend you mark your bag with some colored tape to help it stand out. You will check in at each gear drop (2016 had a split transition because of changes to the course the day before due to heavy rains) your bike will also be dropped off the day before so be prepared to air up tires the morning of.

Parking can be tricky if your not staying within walking distance of the main race site. We found it east to park on the south side of the woodlands waterway. There is an orange and green parking lot located in there that always had parking throughout the weekend and doesn’t cost anything like some of the parking garages.

The morning of the race plan to arrive early. There are thousands of racers and each one is checked before being allowed into the transition area. They will also be making announcements on the water temperature in the transitions areas. For 2016 the swim start was located inside of T2 because of the changes to the swim course caused T2 to be moved. In past years you would walk from transition to the swim start with your swim gear. I thought it worked very well with the swim start and T2 being in the same spot. You were able to get your bike ready and then walk over and get lined up for the rolling start.

The race itself is very well supported with water/food stops about every 10 miles on the bike course and every mile on the run course. The community also gets into the race with people cheering from houses or setting up water hoses to cool off runners if it's not.

This was my first full IRONMAN and the course is challenging with the Texas temperatures but if you stick to your plan and trust your training it's a great race.