The run should be relatively fast however I hope the McDade Trail doesn't get to crowded... I ran many miles there during college.

I'll be there. First time with a two-separate-transition-area event, hoping it goes well.

Ponds up there can get "icky", hoping for a non-muck & seaweed swim.

Last event of the season for me, kind of glad for that as I could use the break.

Oly distance.

Agreed. Could be a tricky logistical situation with the two transitions. I expect some chaos on Sunday morning.

I'm in, and looking forward to it. Looks like we're in for a chilly bike! What solutions do people have in mind for the cold?

Arm warmers, gloves, socks on the bike. Temps should be fine out on the run course.

Agree 100% on run. I'm thinking ls jersey for bike...

They had 2 transitions in Virginia and it was very smooth. No issues at all.

I'm in, this will be my first 70.3 after a couple of years doing Olympics, first two transition race too. Drove the bike course today and almost hit a black bear running across the bushkill falls road at 9 in the morning. Be careful bombing the decent. He must have been 200 pounds and running full speed across the road. Scared the shit out of me in the car, then the "what if I hit one on the bike" sank in.

In for OD

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@adamwfurlong

Well that was different.

First - the bear. I pre-drove part of the River Road course on Saturday, and sure enough a small-ish solo black bear ran across the road in front of us. We were driving, so no big deal. But then on Sunday, I'm moving along on the bike and come upon an incredulous rider in front of me - who just had to stop because the bear was in the road in front of him. It was right by an aid station, maybe someone there got a picture. So if the course is the same next year - watch for bears!

The swim itself was okay, the lake is actually pretty clear and not too much gunk in it. The walk-in start though was ankle-deep mush out into a rocky area. Starts gross, then gets tricky, then the air horn. Finally, sighting on the cross-lake part of the swim was brutal with the glare. Lucky for me, I only ran into one kayak.

The bike was a challenge. The flying-mount area was uphill enough that only a perfect jump-and-go would have got it done AND it was on some rough pavement. Personally after seeing the mount area, I went with shoes on in transition to avoid the issue. (and embarrassment) After that, the ride down Bushkill road SHOULD have been a screaming descent, and in fact there were times when I spun out - but for the cars! Rev3 / local FD had coned the yellow line for a lot of this portion of the road, which has a 30 mph speed limit. Cars (few as they were) got stuck between bikers and couldn't really get safe passes because of the cones.

The Rt. 209 portion of the ride was great tri riding. A little rolling, a little wind, and mostly courteous drivers. The turns were pretty well managed, although I did have the FD(?) volunteer at the first turnaround wave an oncoming car across directly in front of me. I don't think he was expecting me to turnaround; there were a lot of half-distance people around who were going straight. I had stood up and was all the way to the left, but whatever. I made a rather loud exclamation (not at him, just a really loud "Oh Shit!"), then finished the turn behind the car.

The Community Road portion was mostly uphill, and considering the road condition I would say thank God for small favors. Judging from the local area and road signage, I don't think that road sees much traffic (or road maintenance). It was a patchwork of repairs, cracks, and seams and had an unusual amount of tree stuff (small branches, nuts, etc.) on it. But it was nothing compared to ....

The last few miles of River Road. What a nightmare. Long, 1-2 inch wide cracks running in the direction of the road, square-edged 10" potholes, blind corners, patches, bumps and tree garbage. I ended up riding a good portion of this road on the drops, trying really hard to see what evil little thing was going to spring up in front of me on a sun-mottled, drying road surface.

The last half mile through the townhomes into the bike finish was very technical (lots of gravelly 90-degree turns) and included a few speed bumps for fun. When I finally made it back to T2 to get my bike, I discovered that I had a flat rear tire. Lucky for me it must have been a small leaker!

The run was out and back on River Road, and the road worked great for that since it was mostly shaded.

Good support on the run and bike, as expected from Rev3, and the post-race food was great. The local brewery was giving out drafts too, which was a nice touch.

Overall, I'd say it was good event, but probably won't make my "do again" list. The two-transition thing was really well managed by Rev3 for the athletes, but my built-in spectators had some challenges getting from the swim area to T2 for the rest of the race as there's only so many ways to get there, and there's no way to avoid being on the bike course to do it. Finally, the swim area itself is kind of a dump. The "resort" in that area seems mostly abandoned, so there's no nice park or grassy bank area to hang out on for spectators. Just trudging through knee high overgrown field mess. Again - a fine swim for athletes, but not as "family friendly" as the other Rev3 events I have done. Since they tout themselves as being family friendly (one reason I seek out their events) - I was a little disappointed. It was their first year though.

I hope everyone else had a great event.

ben

Here are my thoughts on the course but beware this was my second 70.3 and I was at the front end of the half results (back door brag). I also went to college at the local university so I am certainly biased.

Bears are quite common throughout the Delaware Water Gap but attacks/collisions are not... I will say I have never been more terrified then when out on a run as a freshmen and happening upon my first cub rummaging through trash cans in town!

The swim certainly could be improved... Maybe the school buses could take spectators back to T2 and cut down on volume? Glare was an issue if you primarily breath to your right but unless they change direction of the swim I'm not sure what else could be done. Mount line was interesting as per my scraped up legs and bruised ego...

Community and river road were defiantly torn up, I did quite a bit of drifting towards the yellow line and but the head referee (Rob Alford?) noted they were expecting to see this at the athlete meeting.

I loved the run but am very biased here since the trail/road we ran on was a favorite long run spot. Running in the fall with some mist coming off the river and the leaves turning is a beautiful site!

Certainly some areas for improvement but if I ever get another chance to compete in the pocono's again I will jump at the chance! Hopefully challenge keeps pocono and improves on it, rev3 certainly provided a better age group experience then my single experience with WTC.

Maybe T2 at the ski area? There's certainly more parking there than at the golf club, and you could still have a good portion of the run on River Road, but might create other logistics issues. You could eliminate the River Road area from the bike, and have the course follow 209S down to Hollow Road, then down to the ski area. For the bike - if we went left out of Tamiment we could go up to 402, maybe out to Peck's Pond for half-distance, a bit less for Oly. That way the spectators would have time to get down to T2 before the road got clogged with bikes.

Back door brag? Congratulations on a great finish! I had a pretty good day too...

Yea, there is definitely some room for improvement there. But overall, I had a good time and I set a PR, so I can't complain too much!

Swim - The "resort" was a scrubby area with a lake in the middle. Not much Rev3 can do about it I guess, but I agree with you - not "family friendly." The water was clean enough and although sighting was a little difficult, it was fine after the turn to come back to shore. The bald eagle sighting before the start was nice though!

Bike - Fortunately I had no trouble with cars on the descent, but the last minute change by Rev3 allowing spectators to come up to Swim/T1 did make me worry a bit about the bike/car interaction on the descent. The cones in the middle left little room for either car or bike, let alone both at the same time. I'm not even sure why they were even there, they weren't there on Rt209 the whole time. The course itself was a lot of fun, rolling hills and great scenery. I had some wildlife company above head in the treeline for a while too which was fun. Although, I wish I could have seen a bear. They weren't kidding about slowing down for that turn on to Community, I fishtailed a bit but found some dry pavement and stayed upright. The remainder of the ride was spent dodging potholes on Community and River Rd., Olympic bikers, and Olympic runners that were migrating over to the other side of the road at their turnaround. I almost ended my race and an older woman's by coming through that turnaround at 20+mph screaming "on your left!" as she continued to move left towards the yellow line, I probably missed her by about 2ft. Race organizers should have addressed this potential hazard area in the pre-race meeting.

Run - The McDade trail was gorgeous. Easily one of the best portions of any run course I've ever done.

Overall - For an athlete the course was great. For spectators or athletes wishing to see spectators along the course, not so great. The out and back bike and run courses made it nearly impossible for spectators to be anywhere but the finish line.

Did you stay warm? The weather gave me my first 'mechanical' - I dropped to the small ring up front for one of the short hills, and I couldn't move the lever back to shift up to the big ring at the crest - my fingers were so cold that I couldn't physically generate enough force to move the chain up! I had to move my hand inside the drops and use my forearm and fingers as a lever to move the chain back up.

Also, it took me 2 miles of the run before I could feel my feet.

The swim was the warmest part!

I missed 2 bottle grabs due to cold hands, luckily it didn't screw up my nutrition at all.

My feet were so numb to start the run that I didn't notice the GU packet under my toes for the first 2.5mi of the run. I'm happy it didn't burst inside my shoe.

Worked well for the upper body. However, I do suspect that the cold contributed to a cramp (working Dx) of a smaller muscle running across the hip on my left leg. Became quite difficult to put out much power with left leg and I dropped time like crazy after turning at the North Ranger station. Luckily worked it out after 2-3 miles of run course.

Overall fairly happy with the day though. I think the location has a lot of potential, especially if/after community road gets tidied up (it did look like it was closed to general traffic for construction anyway).

Also, am I the only one who doesn't get too phased about seeing black bears?

It's a forested mountainous area. Of course there are going to be bears. That just added to the colorfulness of the day.

I had a blast. It was a great race. I loved the fact that the T2/finish line area was "fall down" distance from the host hotel. Everything seemed well organized to me.

The swim was what it was. The pond was actually clean in the middle but right at the beginning/end clearly everyone kicked up a bunch of muddy silt.

The bike was really nice for the first 45 miles. Rolling hills are my strength so I was able to just put my head down and get the work done. Once turned onto community drive, I was dodging rough road, but so what, it kept it interesting.

The run was the best part of the day. Challenging hills when on River Road, followed by an absolutely awesome middle section on the soft trail.

For anyone that trains in the PA hills, this race was right in their wheelhouse. No massive climbs to deal with on the bike but still challenging with good rollers. And a scenic run course that was challenging enough to force you to keep your head in the game.

I'll be back for sure.

I loved this race. Loved love loved it. I had done the race the very first year that it was produced by PhillyTri and branded IM703. I did not do the race in 2012 and no one did it in 2013. So I cant speak to improvements made between 2011 and 2012 just the overall impressions of 2013. Second caveat, I am applying for the Rev3/Challenge team next year, so clearly I am already a fan of these guys ....

Expo: I felt so bummed for the expo guys, the weather on Saturday was downright fall in the mountains crappy. It was cold and wet and the normal energy just wasn't there... but it was handled well. First, the location had a built in pavilion and which allowed for athlete meetings to go off as planned. I though that the brief on the run changes was great and wasn't too worried about the two transition race. The transition box setup that Rev3 uses (please keep this guys!) is great for organizing transition stuff so I knew i could quickly settle the next morning. We drove our bikes out to the swim ... and it was typical Poconos. Gorgeous, but needing a few years of love to catch up to the times. This place used to be *the place* but just hasn't stayed popular with changes in the economy and ease of getting to more exotic vacation locations. Came back, checked in to the hotel, spent a little money at the expo and swam in an endless pool **lust** before grabbing some grub. We went to the pub down the road for a pleasantly surprising dinner (good food, great service and some darn good beer). The Inn at Shawnee was a great place for us ... we had three in our room and it was a little snug, but clean and we faced the river. We watched them light a bonfire and racked out. Unlike the last Tri that I did, the entire hotel checked in early and I got some great sleep. No dj's, no live band, no people returning to the room at 2am really does make for an easier time sleeping ;)

Race Day! Woke up early (i hate that part), applied numbers and rolled down to T2 to drop of run stuff. The lifting fog was incredible and i was looking forward to a GREAT race day. Hopped the first shuttle and made our way to T1.

T1: promptly froze my butt off. No idea what i was thinking, but i didn't bring sweatpants. It was 47 and still a bit damp. Pants and a hat would have been much smarter than just grabbing a cruddy old sweatshirt. Did all the morning stuff, and didn't feel like I was dragging my feet too much when I heard them call transition closing in 10 minutes. WHAT? Potty time and hurried down to the start. Everyone seemed to get a bit surprised by the time - maybe having the buses a bit earlier would help as it was a bit of a drive to get to second pond. Dropped off dry bag to some amazing volunteers (really these people were there in the wet and freezing cold to make sure we all had fun... they were awesome!) and walked down to the start.

Start/Swim: it was a little disorganized and trying to back up the entire race to behind the arch was a bit of a struggle with some announcement logistics difficulties but it got done. One thing i love is when there is flag for the anthem - I didn't (or couldn't) see one and it seemed to catch people a bit by surprise that the anthem had started. Soon we were off - very much on time and organized. I thought the change in the swim course was well briefed ... and while the change was undoubtedly made due to low water levels, the zigzag buoy helped spread everyone one. I thought the course was brilliant, i didn't run into any traffic or aggressive swimming. I was in the third (and final) half wave and was expecting to get clobbered by the Oly, but even I was past the oly turn-around by the time those folks got there. I had a slow swim, but it was all on me ;) being in the pond there were no waves or currents to speak of. The water was clean and clear.

T1: Slow due to the cold, but it was totally serviceable. Would have been nice to have some help with wetsuit - but that's OK. I can do that myself when required :) Took extra time to dry off knowing the wet downhill could sap a lot of energy. Took some extra time to stuff everything into the bag ... but got going eventually

Bike: First off - i am a highly technical rider - the harder the course the better. I ride a lot on the roads, and I am used to looking for road hazards. So with that background, I actually thought the course was pretty ride-able and fast. The hills were great - just hard enough to break up the ride - and some fast downhills. I lost a good 2 minutes on the initial decent behind a car, I didn't have the cojones to pass him on the inside or outside so I just had to cruise down at 30mph. Sigh .... but from there on it was head down and work. I thought the course might be crowded, but after the oly turn around it was so open it was almost lonely in parts. I loved the course so much ... it was stunning at the back turn around. The turn onto community was tough indeed, not because of the turn but because i wasn't prepared for the difficulty of the last 10 miles. The road was a little rough in places, but I had more trouble not being able to predict the terrain... when i come around the corner is it going to go down or up? The ranger on the big hill was hilarious ... thanks for laughing with me as I nearly bit it being cocky going up that biter of a hill in my big ring and congratulating me when i got up rider and bike intact. A bit more briefing on the last 10 miles would have allowed me to plan a bit better.... but really that's on me ;) I don't really have an issue with road hazards (although i did completely annihilate a dead squirrel) but a pre-sweep of the course would have removed some of the large gravel piles. In some places i was riding outside the white lines to avoid potential hazards ... which is something i would rather not do. At the big intersection (don't know the road sorry), cone out a lane for riders and staff with more folks. I was riding inside the car line and the ranger directing traffic was in the middle of the road, so I am not sure that they saw me until i poked out the front of the line. Also, the one area with big holes that was marked, move the marking earlier and more of them ... I saw it and just as a I crested the rise i was like WHOA!

T2: Relatively easy. Slow, but easy. There was a timing glitch too, I've contacted Rev3 timing and hope to have everything sorted out - while I know i was slow, i wasn't 11 minutes slow!.

Run: This is the leg that was most challenging for me. My back was pretty cramped coming off the bike, and i just don't run enough hills. The course kicked my butt and I lost about 15 seconds/mile off my goal pace. But thanks for making it a challenge and rewarding those that do their hill repeats. The trail was awesome ... I didn't encounter too many crowds down there, it may be something to keep an eye on as the race scales up though. The shade was nice, and I thought there was enough room for both people and bikes - although I didn't pull in when there was a large crowd.

Finish: Rev3 don't change a thing ... except get more spectators! The run in was a little empty, but it was a small race. I had to pump the crowd up a little as I came through... but the finish line was so cool. The personal shout-outs make us feel special. The beer and post-race food was a godsend. The little finishers area at the pavilion was really well done. Please also keep the awesome medals and unique race bibs. They are collectors items and the remind us of the personality of each race/venue. My buddy placed in his AG and the snap on medal had bear paw prints. That's as close to a bear as I want to be, although i hear there was one out on the race course. The bike seat covers are a favorite and everything from T1 was sitting nicely next to my bike. Huge shutout to the girl who got my bike out away from the yellow jackets who were eying up my P2 as their new home. Rev3 staff goes were walking around asking for feedback, sorry if I just gushed ... I was still recovering from a hard effort on an amazing course.

Volunteers: as always, they made the race ... my two favorite aid stations were the soccer club and the table tucked in on the trail. Thanks for being such a positive motivating group of people. Sorry for threatening to steal your legs :) All of the volunteers the entire weekend were amazing. Thanks for being out there in the rain and the cold. Thanks for stopping cars and keeping the peace for us. Above all, thanks for giving up your time so that we can all go out there and race.

The innkeeper at Shawnee thanked me for staying with them on checkout and let me know they were excited to have the crowds. While the two night stay was a little eh ... i used the facilities on Sunday, so even though we headed out around 5ish and didn't spend the night it worked out well. On our way out we saw the pub was full and the energy was just so good. When i checked out, the innkeeper expressed his thanks and invited us back for next year. I can safely say I will be there.

Agreed. I got a little lonely on the run. Maybe if I had some more leg speed I could have run with the guys who kept passing me! Regardless, the trail was gorgeous, just a little quiet is all.

As always, a very well put on event by Rev3. I sure hope that it's a proper merger between them and Challenge, because I think both sides can offer a lot of good things to the other to make their product even more competitive with WTC.

Olympic notes:

Swim course seemed to cause some confusion in the morning - yellow buoy generally does not require that you *have* to go to one side or the other, but in this case #1 and #2 you did. After passing the first red buoy and then turning at the yellow/orange buoy, I turned and swam back toward the shore, and with the sun right in my line of site, could kind of make out a orange turn buoy on the other side of the lake. I knew I had swam away from the field a bit, but was surprised by the lonliness of my swim. Finally stopped, looked around, and realized that I had swam to the wrong turn buoy... so I swam back to the correct one, and then worked my way back to the arch. I suppose a paddle boarder would have been nice to lead out each pack of swimmers, or at the very least, the first Half pack and the first Olympic pack.

Bike course was fine - descent was a little hairy with one or two cars on the road, but the shoulder was plenty wide enough. I quickly moved into 1st, and a few of the volunteers were un-prepared for me, after we did the two loops, the gentlemen at the sharp right turn tried to yell at me to keep going, but I told them I was already on my second loop and proceeded on, almost hitting them because they didn't get out of the way (not on purpose, I promise!). River rd was bumpy, and I ended up getting a flat somewhere around .75mi from the finish. I decided to just roll in rather than stop and change, and hope that my lead was big enough. Was on target for a 57:xx ride, finished more along the lines of 59:xx. Oh well. Wish I had a lead motorcycle just to keep my roads clear and alert people I was coming, but that's a fairly minor grievance.

Run was nice - well shaded, rolling hills but not terrible. A biker coming in told my lead-out cyclist there was a bear right by the first aid station, but we didn't end up seeing it. Volunteers were great, as always. Kids were a bit unprepared, but I tried to give them enough of a heads up by yelling a couple yards away from them what I wanted.

Finish area was solid, Sean English was great, free beer is awesome, and the food was delicious. Hard to complain about the event for a first time try (tri)!

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@adamwfurlong

I felt the same way. I lead the Half bike for the first 20mi and the lead moto was always at least half a mile ahead of me. While it alerted the aid stations that I was approaching, it didn't really help the cars on Rt 209. I would have liked it a little more if the moto was closer, maybe 100-200m. Close enough to draft would have been even better!

Holy crap you were so fast....

The guy who warned you about the bear had to stop to let him cross, he ended up 4th overall, and I was right behind him (at that point, at least). The first few runners coming back up River Road were just flying (you, I assume), and made it look so effortless.

The run volunteers were great after your breeze-through, after you prepped them that the competitors were coming.

For the swim, I just hung back a bit and hoped the people in front of me know which buoy to turn at. I missed the athlete meeting (my fault, but had to drive up with my kids from a lacrosse tryout) so I didn't hear the lay of the land. I asked a volunteer or two at T1, but they didn't know either. (not dinging them, they were doing their volunteer tasks splendidly, not asked to be course wizards...)

Congratulations again on the great finish!

aww shucks...

yea, I talked to Hunter after the race, he was the one that told the lead cyclist. I was a little petrified to be on foot (not very fleet-footed, mind you) and approaching a bear.

Glad the volunteers had it all together, all in all were great, especially for being pretty young kids... you couldn't pay me to be that chipper that early in the morning when I was their age, let alone do it for free!

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@adamwfurlong