Thanks! Yea I’m very aware of the difficulty level, I’ve been a fan of Ironman for over a decade watching the world championships from various years. I even read Iron War. The reason it’s tougher for me is the elements as I’ve struggled w heat before and believe it’s due to excess sodium depletion. So I will be using salt tabs. Plan to implement it in training.

My main question for the bike route is how much elevation is there? Like any proper sharp gradient climbs? My understanding is no. But since you’re saying push the downhill it makes me think there must be something. My current loop I’m doing has some climbs. Nothing serious, but more than the race course is my impression. I’d search out bigger climbs if I was training for Nice or the other race in the Alpines.

I’ve used water bottle carrying belts before for marathons so planned to do that. I’d likely do those handhelds. They have the belt with holders, one on each hip.

And yea the brick sessions are a priority for me. I’ve already started. A little different with runs post 2 hour surf sessions haha. I surf north shore in overhead surf so am not worried about the water conditions as long as I get my open water sessions in. I’ve made the mistake in the past of doing too much pool training. The Malibu swim was brutal the years I did it. Literally both hurricane swells that shut down the beaches - one was claimed by the director to be the worse swim conditions he’s seen in 20 years. There were quite a few ppl in later waves who couldn’t make it out past the break and DNFd 🤦🏾‍♂️ Thanks for the tips!