San Juan (Puerto Rico) or Rapperswil-jona (Switzerland) 70.3

[Parker]

Right, so, next year I need to make a decision for 2013, its normal for us to plan to go to ironman places a year in advance because that's when the registration opens.

San Juan is in March and Rapperswill is in June.

Puerto Rico looks very cool, costs about 2.2k to get there and its a great destination race by the looks of it and then of course Switzerland which costs about 1.8k where I can carbo load on Chocolate (and I've got a mate there).

There's some climbing on the Switzerland course, but nothing over 4% which happens to be my favorite gradient for climbing and Peurto Rico is pancake flat (think beach road and get a sledge hammer and make it even flatter).

Boyfriend might be working (school goes back), do I ditch (not permanently) the BF and go to Puerto Rico and enjoy the blue blue water or do I go Switzerland at a time when he's probably more able to come and we can enjoy some European summer whilst we're at it and get away from winter here?

Thoughts?

[SeditionTrial]

Have never been to either country, but have spent a little time in both Central America (Guatemala) and Central Europe (Austria).

If price is an issue, I think you will find Puerto Rico much cheaper in terms of accommodation, food, transfers, entertainment (although possibly not if you can stay with your friend in Switzerland). That said I personally would much rather travel to a place where I know someone on the ground, who can give me local advice, and a bit more insight than your average tourism information desk can provide.

Also, I am sure there is a lot more gastroenteritis in PR than Switzerland, and this could easily spoil a fitness holiday.

Both places will definitely have a lot of English-speakers around, also wenn man kein Deutsch oder Spanisch sprechen kann, no importa, porque habra cualquier cantidad de gente que habla ingles -- just showing off!

Travel time... Probably about the same to both destinations I am guessing, neither is what you would call handy or easily accessible.

If your swim is weak, you might enjoy Rapperswil-jona -- I think that's the one where they do the swim leg DOWNSTREAM in a fast-flowing river, and it allows you to achieve 8 to 10 kph averages, hooray.

So in the end I'd probably go to Switzerland if it was my holiday, but hey...

Oh yeah, you can probably get any spares (broken spokes, brake cables etc) a lot more easily in Switzerland than PR.