Norman, the run course was changed in 2013. (I ran 2011 & 2012 when the big hill was still there). Here's the new run course map that goes through the Huntsville downtown instead.

I found the new run course just as hard as the old one, but I am probably in the minority, or more likely just suck.

I also found it tougher, but if you look carefully at the posted map they took out the nasty hill behind canadian tire, and the other one on lake for this year and for both laps of the full.

Hi all
Yes the two monstrous hills in the mid portion of the run have been eliminated. This is account for the bike leg elevation and the average percentage of hills. Still no cakewalk and the run will still be a challenge. The run will be coming right through the downtown core where spectators, music and celebrations await at one heck of a half way party. Our club was instrumental in designing the new run course and all levels and abilities were involved in the multiple "test runs". So, for Muskoka, this is as "flat" as you can find here but of course still has some hills. Just not as steep as in previous years.

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Jon Morton
President, Triathlon Muskoka (TriMuskoka)
http://www.trimuskoka.com

Yes the two monstrous hills are what I remembered! Thank goodness I don't have to try running them twice!!

IM is supposed to be tough.

Per ST rules, "Your seat is too high"......scratch that.......HTFU :-)

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I vaguely remember doing the Muskoka Oly race in 93? (the year after it was world champs). I was pretty new to tri back then but my memories were as follows:

1. Damn that water was warm after standing around on the grass for a few minutes :-)
2. Holy freakin moly, the hill out of T1 was a soul destroyer
3. I passed a guy with a disc wheel
4. Just how bad does it hurt to run off the bike
5. Erin Baker came 2nd female just a few months after giving birth to her son (that was the first time she beat me)
6. Muskoka is really beautiful when viewed from a car
7. I think Spencer Smith (or was it Simon Lessing, I'm old and my memory is going) won, his first year as a grown up.
8. 2 years later, doing my first IM in Montreal, I thought......thank christ this isn't Muskoka!

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

That's what I thought people would think. I live here, run these hills 3 days a week, and they still kick my butt every time. The best question is when people ask me where I do my hill workouts. I tell them I go for a run. Period.

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Jon Morton
President, Triathlon Muskoka (TriMuskoka)
http://www.trimuskoka.com

Wow, that's awesome! People still talk about that race. That hill is still there, but it is for sightseeing now.... Good luck this weekend. I will be there, so come say hi if you see anyone with a TriMuskoka jacket on.

Rich

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Jon Morton
President, Triathlon Muskoka (TriMuskoka)
http://www.trimuskoka.com

OK, stop it. I'm getting too excited about this race and it's still over a year away. ;-)

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_____________________
Don't forget to attack!

I have another question for all.
What would your best guesstimate be on Kona qualifying times for M35-39? I assume it would be a little slower due to two factors.
1) course difficulty
2) top AGer's from the area will not race so close to Kona.
any thought's?

I would expect that times will be 30-45+ min slower than flat/fast courses such as Arizona or Florida and 15-20 min slower than hilly courses such as Tremblant, Canada or Placid. If the field is in fact less competitive, then these time differences may be less. Regardless Muskoka will be one of the slowest if not the slowest North American IM due to non-stop hills on the bike/run and the road surface which is poor in areas (we can always hope that there will be some resurfacing done and not with chip seal).

I did Tremblant last summer followed by Muskoka three weeks later. My goal had been qualifying for Kona at Tremblant, but I missed by 7 seconds, so I decided to do Muskoka to get a 70.3 WC slot for 2014 (went 4:45 and got a slot). My time at Tremblant was 9:56, but if nutrition had been better I should have been closer to 9:40.

With 50 slots for Muskoka in 2015, I'd guess that there would be 5-6 slots for 35-39 and that you may have to be pretty close to 10 flat for a slot.

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

Thanks guys! I was thinking 10hrs as well would hopefully grab a final slot. Now if was only that easy!

Does anyone know the elevation gain for the new run course?

I ran one loop a few weeks ago, and my garmin said 275m. So, I guess the full will have a gain of 550m.