Event Details
The Day 3 event format is Aquathlon, or Run/Swim in stages with time gaps in between stages. This means a run stage is conducted in running gear, and a swim stage that follows is conducted in swim gear and a wetsuit. In between stages there is time programmed for gear changes, nutrition, and hydration. Day 3 starts with a 1-mile educational walk around Pointe-du-Hoc, the point in the American zone with a dangerous artillery site but with cliffs so high and precipitous it took an Army Ranger battalion to plan and carry out the attack. The Stage 1 walk starts and ends in the parking area, and the Stage 2 run will head out from that same spot. The stage 2 run finish is in Vierville, where is followed by our Stage 3 educational walk, this time through the Vierville Draw. Soon after, you'll launch from Vierville on Stage 4 and swim roughly 2 miles along the beach to your next stage transition, where gear bags and pop-up changing tents will again be available for your use. Stage 5 is another educational walk leads us across the section of beach below the American Cemetery, and our final stage transition happens near the Combat Medics memorial roughly a mile distant from the start. Stage 6 is an out and back run on the trails above Omaha's southern troop exits, and you'll finish in the parking area outside the American Cemetery. From there you'll transition to clothes suitable for entry into the Cemetery, where we will lead the final educational walk of the day. That will get you into the Cemetery, and leave you with roughly an hour to experience it for yourself before it closes for the evening.
The map on the main event page serves as a reference to help you sort through these written details.
Event Day Logistics
You'll get yourself to the start at Pointe-du-Hoc, which has sufficient public parking in the event you need to leave a vehicle there while the event is in progress. We'll have pop-up changing tents there if you need them, and the site has restroom facilities. Your gear for the ensuing stages and for the walk through the American Cemetery at day's end will need to be bagged and deposited in a designated area in the Pointe-du-Hoc parking. These bags will follow you during the day and be available at the stage transitions, along with pop-up changing tents for you to you to switch from run to swim attire and vice versa.
When the event day concludes at the American Military Cemetery, you will be free to depart, If you need a ride back to the start there will be two coach bus runs separated by an hour that will take you and your gear bags the roughly 20-25 minutes from there to Pointe-du-Hoc.
