Done it twice, spectated once, doing it for a third time in 2015.

Very nice race. The bike course is challenging. The first 12-13 miles is uphill, followed by 30 miles of rolling terrain with a couple of steep ascents and descents. Last 12-13 miles is net downhill.

The run is brutal. There's a mile long hill (.5 up, .5 down) that you do twice. It's an ass kicker. I think it's 6-9% grade. It's evil!

It sold out last year as it was packaged up with IMLP. That deal is going for 2015 as well. I would expect a sell out or close to it. I think it sold out in the early spring.

Pretty much the opposite of Eagleman from a topography standpoint.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

The 2014 race sold out around the first week of April.

Water was OK for the swim. Challenging bike course, but also one of the most scenic of the 70.3's. The run was a beast this year. A mixture of hills and sun beating down.

The start/finish area is at huge beautiful park. If there was a race to bring a dog, Syracuse is the one!

Yes, a great course if you like a fairly challenging hilly course. It's the fairest course I've seen as the hills seem to break up the draft packs quite nicely.

The cyclists do get broken up since the first 12-13 miles is uphill. That takes the weaker cyclists out of the cycling equation early. I don't recall ever seeing a drafting problem at 'Cuse. Sure, cyclists will bunch up going uphill but that's to be expected.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I'm in for next year. How do the bike and run courses compare to Quassy?

A buddy and I are looking for a Juneish 70.3 to use for an IM build later in the summer. We're thinking that Syracuse might be par for the course. We just did Muskoka, so hills shouldn't be an issue, but how does the course rate in terms of atmosphere, location, road surface, where to stay? etc.

Alternatively, anyone have any other suggestions (besides MT or Musk)? We're in the Ottawa area.

Atmosphere? If you're near transition, pretty good. Outside of transition, pretty much just athletes (with the occasional cheerleaders near aid stations)
Location? Mostly in the middle of the country. One of the major complaints is that there is limited access into and out of the park for before/ after the race. If you are patient, it's not a problem. If you are in a hurry, it might be a problem.
Road surface? Typical country roads. Not bad. Some areas are worse than others but nowhere near the worst.
Where to Stay? Lost of options in Syracuse proper. The race itself is in a suburb, roughly 15 min away.

Full write up here:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/...oure-syracusing.html

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I am in Ottawa. Did Syracuse in 2014 and 2010. I have done Muskoka and MT.

Syracuse is good. I would rate MT a 9, Muskoka an 8 and Syracuse a 7.
Syracuse probably has the toughest run course. The old Muskoka run, which is harder than the new one is easier than Syracuse.
Road surfaces are ok, not great. Faster than Muskoka (which is long), a bit slower than MT. Road surfaces are probably similar to Muskoka
Swim is not quite as nice as MT and Muskoka but close

Atmosphere around race course is fine. The beach is a great location.
Hotels, places around the site are nowhere near MT and Muskoka is also better. This is probably the only "downside" of this race. Well organized, lots of volunteers

Drive to race is pretty easy from Ottawa.

Loved the write up.

Do the hotels get 'strangely expensive' that weekend? or are they blissfully unaware of our presence in their city?
Anything for kids to do?

I think the 99.9% of the population of Syr has no idea that there's even a race happening. That includes the hotels. The race never even touches anything that could be legally called Syracuse (I'm roughly 6% sure of that). It's outside of the city and run in the country.

Kids? The park is kinda kid-friendly. There's a beach and a play ground. There's a creek for mischief.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Did it for the first time last June. Easy drive from OTtawa. The park is huge so a lot of room for kids to run around. Nice beach area to play as well.
Tough course as people have commented. It was expecting the bike to be easy once through the long climb, but it was not all downhill or flat, some rollers.

Also, there was some congestion on the run for part of the course (where they use the road for both bike and run (2-ways). Another minor thing was a no-pass zone in the last mile of the bike (on a climb, so if you start late and you're caught behind a really slow person you lose a minute or 2).

Did it on bad knee this year, even with that I didn't think the start of the bike was that bad. The run is miserable between cramped course and road conditions but overall not bad I guess. Swim I don't recall much about, mine went well despite again starting in one of the last waves and having to swim around and over 100s of people.

Syracuse is 100 bucks cheaper only about an hour longer drive since there is no easy route to eagleman from where I am in WV, and I can stay at an aunts for free up there. So trying to convice the GF to try it as her first half next year. She just did her first sprint (nations with cancelled swim) said before the race she will only ever do sprints then finished addicted.

I've never made it to the run course but I did the bike as a relay in 2012 and pulled out at T2 in 2013 due to injury. The bike course is great. The road surface was awesome all the way from what I remember. As others have said, the run is punishing (I've had lots of friends confirm this)

The park it's held is in awesome and family friendly. I believe they open up the lake to after the swimmers are gone so the family can take a dip while you're out biking. Atmoshphere is similar to any other 70.3 event I've done. The finish line food and stuff is pretty solid from what I remember as well. I'd recommend it.

They both fall would fit into the challenging category of HIMs. Quassy is a tougher test than Cuse. It's more consistently rolling/hilly for both bike and run. Cuse gets its tough reputation from the one G.D. hill that you get the pleasure of scaling twice on the run.

I have done Eagleman each of the last 3 years and also did Syracuse this year (I was one of those who got the Syracuse/IMLP package). I think the course is generally very fair. Bike is hilly to start, beautiful scenery. It was quite spread out and aside from one group of about 4 people sitting in a tight group I saw much less drafting than you generally get at Eagleman (which is more or less my only big complaint about that race). Biggest issue with the bike is a pretty long No Pass Zone at the end of the course (I didn't measure it but it is at least a half mile....maybe closer to a full mile). It can be pretty frustrating and will definitely cost you a chunk of time if you hit it at the wrong time and are stuck behind someone doing 7mph on a mountain bike.

Run was hard but pretty manageable as long as you don't pound the hills.

There are not tons of crowds, but aid stations are well manned, and the smallish crowds at the finish are enthusiastic.

This year we were lucky to have a reasonable day in terms of weather. I have heard that 2013 was oppressive in terms of heat/humidity. But between EM and Syracuse you are much more likely to find yourself baking at EM.....at least there is a bit of shade at Syracuse.

Overall both races are very good and I would do either or both again. I have a bit of a soft spot for EM as it was my first triathlon of any distance back in 2012...will probably be heading back in 2015 for 4 in a row.

The no-pass zone hasn't been there every year.

2010 - no
2011 - no
2012 - yes
2013 - no
2014 - yes
2015 - ???

Not sure why it's there one year and not the next. I did a sub 2:30 bike there in 2012 and got stuck behind some very slow people from other waves. The no-pass zone isn't long (a mile or so) but it's an eternity if you've been averaging 23 mph and you come up on a bunch of folks going 15 mph or slower. I will readily admit that I passed a couple of people in the no pass zone and that's only because I didn't know there was a no passing zone. Wasn't in the athlete guide and I didn't go to the athlete briefing. It wasn't until a volunteer yelled at me that I realized I was in a no passing zone.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I did as well, I knew it was there but didn't realize it went all the way to the end. It was clearly narrow and then opened back up so I thought oh you can pass again, despite my injured knee I was quite annoyed at the people who thought it was ok to just slow to 12-15mph for the last mile. Didn't get yelled at though and I don't really care that I did it, if it is safe to pass it is safe to pass and it should be something that is left to your judgement.

And there were also cars allowed against traffic and also runners on their 1st lap as well.

I had more modest goals (finishing again under 3h) and I got stuck behind a lady who clearly said: "not in a hurry"... Lost 2 minutes and the will to run hard (just kidding, I cramped up).

2011 run course was great though.

+1 on the bike course being challenging and scenic too (the ski hills towards the end took me by surprise the first time).

Awesome volunteers, great race altogether.

Lots of rooms available near Carrier Circle, Electronics Parkway (hotwire.com has great prices usually).

People go there to shop (Watertown, Destiny USA) and may indeed not even know the race is on.

Gman, do you still have the 2011 shirt with the print error (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike. 13.1-swim.) ? I only noticed when they mailed the correct shirt weeks later...

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Only fools never change their minds and I'll never change my mind about that.

The no-pass zone is even worse when you consider how they seeded the age groups for the wave start. Put the middle-aged males at the very ass end of the waves but the 60+ male and females at the very beginning. That's the big kicker, IMO, about the no pass zone.

For the record, I didn't even know about the no pass zone until reading about it later on ST. Which, of course, means that I passed people.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
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I was wondering the same thing. Looking for a primer for Lake Placid

The bike is a blast!!! Fun rolling hills and beautiful scenery. A good primer for IMLP. I have done mostly west-coast 70.3's and the bike wasn't as difficult at Oceanside or Lake Steven's.

I think they could do a lot to improve the run course, if they just routed it away from the bike course through the town. As it stands, there is a slow section where you're running on a slide slope through and uneven field, then a cramped section where you're sharing an out-and-back run course with the bike course, and of course, the nasty hill. You just can't really build any consistent momentum and stride on this course.

Thanks. Everyone talked about the hilly Quassy bike course, but I thought it was the run that was the killer. The hills were relentless, and then they throw that last one at you right before the finish.

2011 was the only year I didn't have some kind of association with the race. Raced in 2010 and 2012. Spectated in 2013 (cheering on brother and sister doing the race). Coached bor and sis in 2014. Will race again in 2015.

So that's why registration numbers were so low in 2011? I bet that 13.1 mile swim was a killer. :-)

I'm really glad to see this race bounce back. It looked to be on death's door after 2012. I think about 1700 raced in 2010 and that dropped to 900-something in 2011. Bounced back to 1200 or so in 2012 (thanks to 100 70.3 WC slots), 1600 or so in 2013 and 2400 or whatever last year. It really is a great race. I grew up in CNY so it's nice to come back, do the race and see my family.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Another thing to add, about 800m into the start of the run you run on grass/dirt/mulch for about another 800M then do it again on the way back.