Mexico gets a bad rep for being really dangerous IMO. Like most places if you have a shred of street savviness’ and stick to rule 1, its unlikely you’ll run into anymore trouble than you would in most other places.
I travelled for 4 weeks on my own from Tulum (next to Cancun) to Oaxaca over Christmas/NYE just gone and never once felt unsafe and I wasn’t staying in hotel complexes! They were loads of female solo travellers as well. The was always a police pickup cruising around even the smallest towns. The ‘roadblocks’ they are talking about are mostly locals repairing the roads demanding the equivalent of 20p for their efforts, done via some string across the road, not at gun point. In these instances I was in a local minibus anyway so the driver dealt with them. Alot of the places mentioned on that page are places you wouldn’t have any interest in going as a tourist anyway. Its an amazing country and one I wouldn’t hesitate going back to or recommending to others. I’d hazard a guess there are more people walking round in public with a gun in the US than Mexico, I know where I’d rather go!
Or can you just fly out on say, Thursday at maybe 0605 and arrive at say 1744 local time.
Maybe going via Paris and Seattle, for instance.
Register Friday.
Race Saturday.
Less time to faff around then and more time to
Relax afterwards?
I guess it depends on whether you are going out there to race seriously, or if you’re just going for the experience.
In an ideal world, you probably do want to get there early to get used to the heat and humidity and you probably wouldn’t want to do much more than the odd swim, bike or run to keep things ticking over, but the Hawaiian islands are a great place for a holiday and as others have alluded to, the race has the potential to ruin a great holiday
May have mentioned before that wife and I went there in 2004 to watch, and for a holiday. (Normann Stadler won fwiw and oh did I mention I met Scott Tinley, and sat at a table next to Jurgen Zack at Lava Java having a coffee </name drop>)
It was a bugger to get to - 24 hours of airports and flying. We had a 3 month old baby in tow too, must have been mad but we did it.
The climate was fantastic, hot and humid. I tried running but it was tough as unacclimatised. Flying in on Thursday would seem brave especially as there would be a good chance your bike might not arrive until the following Tuesday, or it might arrive in bits and need repair etc.
A friend from my club was racing that year too. Think we had a better time than he did. Congratulated him at the finish line & he had that 1000 yard stare and just said “never do this @@@@ing race”
When I did IM Regensburg in 2011, Jurgen Zack was sat on a park bench on the run clapping people along! A bit later I passed a walking Andreas Raelert; reckon it all cost me 45 seconds
ETA: @Mungo2 - are you riding your tubular tyres for this?
I’ve just checked my good pair…
Vittoria Triathlon Speed 23mm (same awful puncture protection as Corsa, but butyl inners for no air loss overnight)
I might order some G2.0 in a 25mm.
They’re £40 from Merlin.
I reckon a few watts trade off is worth it for the comfort and protection they offer over Speeds.
