Wondering what it’s like? Let the racers tell you themselves.
“The course is great – absolutely beautiful, and just a bit of “adventure” thrown in. Staff/volunteer support and finish-line activities and food were MUCH appreciated. Wish I could have stayed longer at the finish area to enjoy a beer!” – P. Taylor
“I trained a lot for this event but nothing prepared me for the actual event. The swim was harder then I thought, the bike was great and the run was challenging because of the sand element.” – M. Rockey
“I enjoyed the run. I hate to run!!!!!! So it seems odd that I would pick this section with the never ending run in the sand. But I enjoyed the changes from an open trail run to a dense wooded trail to an open beach run along the ocean to a paved fast finish. I have never participated in an event that had a run as nice as this!!!!” – B. Coop
“The scenery is amazing. That’s part of why I do this tri every year. I also love that the run course is different than other triathlons (in that it includes a variety of terrain).” – C. Bare
“The biking! It was so fun and not too hard and SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. And all the tough spots had CHP and/or volunteers directing traffic which was so awesome. And the course was verrry well-marked.” – L Schwartzman
“I think prior to the tri starting the transition areas was a great place to be. Participants were very nice, in good spirits, and very friendly. Also as I was finishing the swim there were several great spectators cheering me. I also enjoyed very much riding along HWY 1. It was absolutely beautiful and a fantastic ride.” – B. Reynolds
“It is very nice to ride/run along the ocean and watch the waves roll in. This is one of the best location races I have done.” – B. Coop
“I think the setting for this tri is gorgeous, and it is fun and nice to have a different type of experience with the small tri venue.” – R. Stevens
“I have participated in triathlons for the last 30 years in many different venues. This is one of the most beautiful areas in which I have done a tri.” – A. Leuker
Had a horrible experience doing the Morro Bay 2024 triathlon (Olympic distance). It was all disorganized, volunteers did not know the track and didn’t help when I was exiting T2 and got lost. There were also no signs of where to run. Doing laps around the transit zone asking everyone if they’ve seen runners (including volunteers) and no one knew where I was supposed to go. Eventually I just made my way over to the beach, saw some people running towards the finish line and joined the crowd. In 10 min I found myself at the finish line, turns out I only ran about 1.5 miles (instead of planned 6).
The water was insanely cold. When the temperature drops this drastically, usually organizers shorten the distance. But instead the buoys were what it felt like wrongly placed, the 2 laps turned out to be 1800m instead of 1500m (based on my garmin watch). Why weren’t they enforcing wet suits?! This is a basic triathlon rule (when the water is below 60F). It was 53F out there. I was wearing a wetsuit but I also saw people crawling out of the water and into the transit zone on their fours… there were buoys in the water (yellow) that apparently were not marking the lap but rather just floating in the water playing no significant role. None of this was explained at the briefing. Briefing in general was very wishy washy with no clear walk through of the route.
Coming out of the water, there were no carpets in the transition, we were all running bare foot through the concrete road. Not only was it inconvenient and painful running to T1, it must be dangerous too. Now add that on top of what seemed like hypothermia that swimmers were experiencing…
All in all, I’m very disappointed and am not planning on coming back here. Do not recommend this race, especially to beginners. There were a lot of first timers, and I can only sympathize. They should not advertise this race as beginner friendly given the intense weather/water conditions and lack of proper organization that doubles the brutal effect of the environment.