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The Gillie Girl "Unofficial" Race Report
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Unofficial because I only watched (Wrong Gender)

Apparently this is a very low key women's only race, because they assume that you live in or near Syracuse and know where the park is located. If you don't good luck, because it's online presences doesn't help much. The woman at the hotel knew where the park was located and found an address, but that was not recognized by google maps, my Honda GPS, or my android phone. We found it only because we drove around for 3 hours on Saturday and finally asked a local, whose response was very much typical Long Island transplanted to CNY: “Why in the hell do you want to go to that little shit hole?”

Coordination on race morning was good, actually better than normal. Parking went smooth, set up was as expected, and there was lots of help.

Race start time was 8 am.

The swim is in Gillie Lake, Which is actually a pond (which is actually a big mud puddle). My wife said her hands drug going around the second buoy, and I saw several women stand up at various points on the course. It is a 2 lap 800 meter swim in a triangle (kind of). They have you start on the far left, swim to a buoy, turn right, around another buoy, and then nearly straight back to the beach, almost 50 yards from where you started. You exit, run around a buoy on the beach and dive right back in. This puts your second lap line to the first buoy different than the first lap line. Combine this with 500 participant, 5 year age group waves, and 7 minutes between waves, and there is almost not traffic during the swim. In the water were 8 life guards on boards, 2 sitting on chairs in the water, and several on shore all around the lake. I guess the ones on shore were going to walk out and drag you to shore if something went wrong.

The bike is a 14 mile out and back on open roads, only on a Sunday morning in this part of the country that means a practical closed course. The bike course goes over a very small rise 50 meters out of mount, then down a considerable hill, then flat out and back with a very tight turn around. It is marked better than any course I have ever seen. You could safely navigate this course in total darkness. The hill to the finish caused a lot of women to get off their bikes and walk. It didn't look at that bad to me, but my wife said it was surprisingly long and steep. She had to drop to the 34, something she rarely does.

The run is a standard 5K around the lake on the exercise path with a detour on the opposite side. Again, very well marked, but not very well controlled. I was surprised at all the dumb ass boyfriends and husbands that had no clue - Many of them wearing obvious triathlon clothing, so they should have known better.

Support was provided by the 2 local fire department, which were very good and very bad all at once. They were everywhere watching people, and they had a ladder truck spraying the run course. They had a medical tent all set up and lots of EMTs walking around checking on anyone. They also had some people in 3 utility vehicles that drove the wrong direction on the bike course and caused a lot of problems, and also got in the way during the run. I didn't see anyone treated, so I'm guessing they got bored and stupid - Happens to all of us at one time or another.

All in all, according to my wife, it is certainly a fun race, but not worth the drive from Long Island. Next year she wants to do Iron Girl Syracuse. I'll let you know how that goes.

"...the street finds its own uses for things"
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Re: The Gillie Girl "Unofficial" Race Report [AutomaticJack] [ In reply to ]
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Not sure what you were expecting at a smalln local, independant race, but i thought this race rocked. I was one of the husbands in tri shirts. It is not a world champoinship qualifier for full distance triathletes, but more geared to beginer and intermediate short course athletes. For what they charged, it was a steal. Family friendly, i know cause i had all 3 of mine there all day. Did not see a single problem. I work out at the park with cny tri club. Great site for swimming with water as smooth as glass, open rural roads, and some decent run change elevation if you left the park to see miles .5 thru 2.5. Just my perspective. My wife is already looking forward to racing it again. Oh, and they donate all the proceeds to breast cancer research. Not a bad thing for a local woman's race.
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Re: The Gillie Girl "Unofficial" Race Report [AutomaticJack] [ In reply to ]
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Wow - riding around for 3 hours....????
If you go to the website http://gilliegirltri.com/ and there is a link at the bottom of the page - click on it and it takes you to the Google map (Gillie Lake at Veterans Memorial Park, Camillus NY).
It isn't a big body of water - perfect for the beginner triathlete. It is a bit murky due to the limestone marl that is the bottom - however it is spring fed and stays remarkably clean (bacteria count-wise). The bottom is cold and the top warms with the sun.
The back side buoy tether line got loose and hence why there were some competitors touching bottom at that spot. They were set the night before - and it wasn't discovered until after the race started. The depth of the water is around 10-15 feet normally.
It is run by an all volunteer staff (I'm one of them), and the proceeds go to a great cause. I'm glad that your wife had a good experience.
Good luck next year at Iron Girl!
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Re: The Gillie Girl "Unofficial" Race Report [cny_mike] [ In reply to ]
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cny_mike wrote:
Wow - riding around for 3 hours....????
If you go to the website http://gilliegirltri.com/ and there is a link at the bottom of the page - click on it and it takes you to the Google map (Gillie Lake at Veterans Memorial Park, Camillus NY).

I'll be damned! Looked at the website several times for a map or address and never noticed that link.

The problem is there is no address listed anywhere that we could find that would work in a GPS system. Most parks give an address just of that, but nothing to be found, even to town parks website.

"...the street finds its own uses for things"
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Re: The Gillie Girl "Unofficial" Race Report [AutomaticJack] [ In reply to ]
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AutomaticJack wrote:
Unofficial because I only watched (Wrong Gender)

Apparently this is a very low key women's only race, because they assume that you live in or near Syracuse and know where the park is located. If you don't good luck, because it's online presences doesn't help much. The woman at the hotel knew where the park was located and found an address, but that was not recognized by google maps, my Honda GPS, or my android phone. We found it only because we drove around for 3 hours on Saturday and finally asked a local, whose response was very much typical Long Island transplanted to CNY: “Why in the hell do you want to go to that little shit hole?”

I'm amazed at what people will say/admit in a forum like this. Just as a little test, I checked to see if I can find where this Gillie lake is. It took me about 2 minutes to locate it on google maps. I intentionally did not click on the link on their website. I googled the triathlon site, googled the name of the lake, and went from there. I really hope you weren't driving around for 3 hours looking for this place. That's a lot of training (or resting) time.

This reminds me of the guy who was in Chicago for the ITU and walked around downtown Chicago looking for the transition area (NO ONE knew where it was, evidently).
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Re: The Gillie Girl "Unofficial" Race Report [cny_mike] [ In reply to ]
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So my wife has a question, since you were involved with the race...

What was the official distance of the swim? She swam a lot faster than expected, and some of the results are pretty impressive for 800 meters. Her 910 logged .38 miles (just over 600 meters) which is outside the expected error range for a Garmin even on a course like that.

Just curious.

"...the street finds its own uses for things"
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Re: The Gillie Girl "Unofficial" Race Report [AutomaticJack] [ In reply to ]
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When we used a laser range finder, we included the short walk around the lifeguard chair in the total distance.
The first lap measured from shore to between the buoys as: 135 yds +115 yds + 110 yds = 360 yds.
The second lap is the same (even though there was a slight angle - the geometry of the shoreline made the first leg the same distance) = 360 yards.
Total water part was 720 yards, plus about 15 for the beach run to the second lap for a grand total of 735 yards.
Not sure if slack line buoy had an effect - if so it would be only +/- 10 or 15 yds?
Also not sure how the garmin reacts to the land portion? I am assuming it is land/water/road/trail independent?
Thanks for the feedback - we will factor these comments into next year's event.
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