Nope.

---

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

im doing the long course on sunday. looking forward to this odd distance race.

heard today there are forest fires in the area. OK falls in particular. Hope it gets cleaned up.

Yup, I'm doing the cross triathlon.

Long course. Going to grab a spot for the long course worlds next year.

I've done the 3/120/30 distance twice before... might be my favourite.

Just rolled into town. Doing the Long Course on Sunday to atone for a sucky run in Whistler. Temperatures in the low 30s I hear.

---

http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Doing the LD on Sunday. Drove the bike course today...love it. Run course isn't overly exciting but I'm probably going to appreciate the lack of hills on second loop of the run

I'm suspecting in a race of this distance there will be no special needs stations... Anyone know for sure? Going to have to double up on my Moose Juice for the bike if that is the case.

---

http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Since ITU Long Course Worlds do not provide special needs, and because this is a dry run for 2017 ITU Worlds, then I would suspect not.

Athlete's Guide says no special needs aid stations on bike or run.

Loads of aid stations. Apparently that PhD stuff ain't bad. I'll probably just use it.

Looks like a great week so far and the pro race today looks like theres some excitement at the front of the mens race at least.

Did the race today. Was very happy with the result. Twas an unusually choppy swim. Really like the course as well as that distance of a race. Thanks to M. Brown, Steve King, the cast of 1000s, and Babbitt!

---

http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

How'd ya find the run? By the time I got to the run it had started to cloud over but a couple of times the sun poked through and when it did, it was brutal - at least for me.

Spent the previous week in Palm Springs, so I was ok when the sun came out

---

http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I thought the run was gross. Hot and exposed and the path was poorly maintained. nor was there any mile or km markers. I was really disappointed the lack of any spectator energy along lakeshore. The last 800 meters was in no spectator zones! I even stopped behind the bike transition to ask a volunteer if I was on the right path because it seemed so wrong.

I liked the run.

Agree the paved pathway is in need of maintenance & repair. I'll follow up with an email to Penticton parks dept. tomorrow, to thank them for fantastic public spaces in the area and the work they do to support events, then to suggest or bring to attention repairs needed.

Agree that km signage beyond 50k on the bike and 4K on the run would have been nice, will add to the list of things I hope they consider thinking about next year.

I liked that the course was close to town, it's so good to see family and friends half way through the run. Also, it was nice to choose from pavement or gravel at times. And, I like a double out & back, maybe boring... but it's great to see a steady stream of athletes in both directions. It wasn't lonely.

I went in with pretty low expectations to be honest as I've spectated the last few years and it's felt pretty lonely and sad and I've been very hesitant to go back and race there. But I have to say my expectations were beyond exceeded. I though the vibes in town were great and there was definitely a buzz. I thought the spectators were pretty enthusiastic along lakeshore, but maybe that's because I interact with them. I'm looking forward to next year, it ought to be a great event once they work out a few kinks in logistics.

"nor was there any mile or km markers"
______

sorry to hear your expereince wasn't top notch. But re: signage on run I saw 4, 7.5, 10, 15 (obviously, thats the turnaround)....then do the easy math on lap 2.

I agree the run was hot but it is the Okanagan. It was brutal along East side road during IMC days then dropping into OK Falls was an oven. That said, yes that path on a hot day is a complete oven. I am not sure that run will work with 2000-3000 athletes during worlds next year. Not sure it has enough room.

A few kinks and tweaks I will take forward to organizing team but overall, year over year IMO they did an amazing job. I few observations that really worked:

1. condensing the race "into town" by having 2 loops on bike. Being a former (hack) bike racer the corners in town were to my advantage though so I have some selfish opinions there specific to racing. Still it was nice to hear my wife cheering me on a few times vs. being out on the rollers all alone towards Cawston!
2. 2 loop run made the race feel more busy AND let me know who I was relative to competition (well, during the time i was actually racing. After 10K I was surviving and from there didn't care)
3. Really good after race food! Way better than any other year I have raced Penticton dating back to 2001. WAY BETTER!
4. Well organized finishers area and tent. Awesome massage.
5. GREAT beer garden! Let me say that again....GREAT BEER TENT!
6. volounteers were amazing especially ice in bags on the run
7. strict attention to bike check out gave me full confidence no bikes are getting high jacked.
8. I didn't go as I was tired, but my homestay raved that the awards and after party was exactly that....A PARTY!
9. Also in the expo I really enjoyed seeing the kids doing signs up and having it linked to Feed the Valley charity via small donation. I heard some people complain to the volounteer sponsor Valley First staff "I have to pay?" and I was like WTF, really? Its a donation to a charity that feeds the homeless. For the cost of a gatorade have some fun with your kids!! Sometimes I lose my faith in humanity. Sometimes!
10. And I got great service from the Asics booth and bought myself some racers for my fall marathon build. Knowledgable guys passionate about running and triathlon. I enjoyed the chat there for a bit.

---

@rhyspencer

PhD was awful. Too sweet, too much flavour.

Loved the race this year.
It really felt like Penticton has shaken off the ghost of Ironman and created something possibly very good.
The 3/120/30 is way more enjoyable than iron distance, and everyone is finished by 7pm. Plenty of time to get a shower and out for some drinks!

One complaint about the swim start - where was the starting line? The kayakers didn't corral everyone into a fair starting position.

Loved seeing Elvis out on the run course. Sure there weren't a lot of real spectators, but we got a lot of cheers from the people tubing down the canal!

I wonder about the path with a lot more runners. It might be uncomfortably crowded but I'm not sure of a solution other than widening the path or making it one way on gravel and the other way on pavement?

In terms of km marking, even a countdown of you have 5 km left, 3 km left and 1 km left would be useful. The finish and the turn around are at least 500 meters apart.

I think the finish line on lakeshore would be better. I finished at just over 7 hours. Had a massage etc and by the time I left they were taking down the expo tents etc....anyone who finished after 8 hours must have felt like they were in a ghost town.

Also a spotter for the announcer. He didn't know who was coming until they were in the shoot. The timing board also reflected the pro start time...so he was just basically winging it and as a finisher you had to subtract 28 minutes?.

I think the announcer and finisher shoot add a lot of excitement and wind up the spectators as well. It felt to me , in this case, that it was too separate. If the finish shoot was on lakeshore then spectators can grab a place on the road and stay there. Watch their racer leave come back and head out again and then finish.....they can get pumped up by the announcer and root on others. Instead they had to leave to go to the finishing shoot where they watched their racer then left.

It's impossible to have the finish in the park without going around transition, otherwise you get a crossover with the bike course.
If you finish on lakeshore, there is no place for the tents or beer garden. Plus you move all the noise and music in front of a large condo tower.
At least it was better than last years finish along the narrow path behind the hotel.

Only way to straighten it out is to build a ramp over the bike entrance/exit. Not sure my leg muscles would like that but it would be cool!

I participated in the Duathlon at Challenge Penticton. I liked the course (even the killer hill on the run!) but I have to say I was kind of disappointed with the lack of "stuff" around the race.

We had to check in within a three hour window in the day prior to the race. We were handed an envelope with some stickers and a race number. No shirts, no samples, nothing else. There was no bike maintenance support pre-race for duathletes as that service was only to begin on August 25, the day after the duathlon.

The post-race food consisted of fruit, yogurt, granola bars and water. There were finishers medals, so I'll give them that.

If it was a smaller town race with a lower race fee, I'd be totally fine with a pared-down race experience. However, given all the publicized excitement around the Challenge race week (events, panels, meet ups) plus being there to see the *actual* race expo being constructed, I feel like the duathlon participants got the shaft relative to the participants in the other races.

The athletes guide for our race referred to some items (wristbands, bike bags, etc.) that didn't apply at all. The changes didn't matter, but things like that made it obvious that the duathlon was more of an after-thought to the main event. This shouldn't be the case for the national championship race.

Yeah, had some friends do the cross tri with the same complaints.
Next year should see big numbers.. should improve the frills for participants and the atmosphere all around.
Here's another complaint... my long course finisher's shirt has the iron distances on it instead of 3/120/30.... WTF?

I thought the race was really well done overall. I liked the run better than I expected, however as others have mentioned the pathway along the river would really need to be improved for next year. New and wider pavement would make a big difference. Too bad about the wrong distances on the finishers shirt...but one of the nicest looking finishers shirts I've gotten

I wouldn't have really appreciated it years ago when i was in Pen for IMC but this time around noticed the area is also really family friendly...the kids loved the beach and my wife actually enjoyed a race trip!

Did the relay this year so I both participated and spectated


Good job for the most part a few small things - 2x I went through aid stations on the run and asked for a gel - the gel was the last item they were handing out, I think most folks want the gel first so they can chug some water to rinse the nastiness away. Minor inconvenience in the grand scheme. I also agree with the other comment that the finish was kind of odd running of the street and around the hotel into the park - no atmosphere for the several hundred meters before the finish as there were no spectators.

I watched the bike near the left turn off main on the way and riders were coming back straight on the way in - I cant remember the cross street. It was dangerous! there was no advance signage letting folks know that there was a sharp left. There was a volunteer shouting out at the corner but it was too late. I am not sure if anyone actually crashed there but I saw numerous folks come in hot and nearly blow the corner into the oncoming lane.

Your SOUND SYSTEM SUCKED - you have the awesome Steve King and standing next to the peach at the start it was nothing but muffled back ground noise. You could not even make out the race countdown - didn't actually know it was going to start till the gun. You need to improve this and add some music!!!!

Good job for the most part and good luck next year!