Am I missing something? Is there a set date?

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Shawn
TORRE Consulting Services, LLC
http://www.TORREcs.com

From the website:

Race registration will open Saturday August 2, 2008. One year to the day of the inaugural event

Well I'm about 100% in for that!

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I know I'm promiscuous, but in a classy way

Welcome to the Calgary Ironman 70.3 Experience

Experience the beauty and hospitality of Western Canada. It all starts here. Calgary Ironman 70.3 is more than a race, it is an experience. Come for the race, stay for the mountains. Calgary is nestled in the foothills of Western Canada’s Rocky Mountains with Crystal Clear Blue waters and rolling terrain, this Ironman will be challenging and scenic. It has 40 slots to the 2009 Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater, Florida. Registration opens August 2, 2008. Don’t be left out! NEWS:
July 28, 2008 - Race registration will open Saturday August 2, 2008. One year to the day of the inaugural event. Don't be disappointed. Register early!

Course

"Calgary 70.3 showcases the clean waters of Ghost Lake against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. You'll bike through the rolling foothills and enjoy the panoramic views of the wide open Prairies and ranch country. With Calgary's skyscrapers in the distance, the run through the valleys of the Glenmore Reservoir will be a breathtaking race that combines big city energy with Western Hospitality."

-Lisa Bentley

Swim
(1 loop) The swim starts and finishes at the boat ramp located at the mouth of the Ghost River. The course is one loop and begins heading directly south across Ghost Lake before turning 180 degrees to the right heading back towards the shore. The course will then parallel the shore line back toward the boat ramp. Transition 1 is located in the parking lot adjacent to the boat ramp.

Bike
(point-to-point)
A Course overview map in pdf format can be found here.
Exit transition traveling east on Highway 1A toward Calgary.
Turn Left (north) on Grand Valley Road
Turn right (east) on Township Road 280
Turn right (south) on Horse Creek Road
Turn left (east) on Highway 1A
Turn right (south) on Highway 22
Turn left (east) on Township Road 250
Turn right (south) on Rural Road 31
Turn left (east) on Lower Springbank Road
Turn right (south) on 69th Street
Turn left (east) on Glenmore Trail (HWY 8)
Continue past Sarcee Trail to the right on Glenmore Trail
Turn right (south) on 37th Street and proceed into North Glenmore Park to Transition

(Click image for full size pdf)
(Metric elevation can be found here)

Run
(out and back)
Exit Transition Area heading east through North Genmore Park toward the Canoe Club
Turn around and head back past transition
Follow the path through Weaselhead Natural Environment Park
Continue up to South Glenmore Park to the turn around point
Return following the same route
The finish line is adjacent to T2

(Click image for full size pdf)

Cut Off Times
Swim: 1:10 after the last wave start
Bike: 5 hours after the last wave start
Run: 8 hours after the last wave start

Great to see a big event show up in Calgary. There is a huge tri community there and they definetly deserve a big race (especially for cycling most of the year indoors).

Too bad it was not during Stampede...

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Scott McMillan, M.Sc
Twitter@Factor9Coaching | Factor9Coaching.com | Facebook

Holy point to point Batman! I thought Great White North was spread out.

Now that would have been awesome, but also an insane amount of debauchery!

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I know I'm promiscuous, but in a classy way

Pick your hotel wisely...that is quite the drive to the start...

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Scott McMillan, M.Sc
Twitter@Factor9Coaching | Factor9Coaching.com | Facebook

Getting to the race start early Saturday morning shouldn't be a problem since traffic is light then. There are no hotels anwhere near Ghost Lake so there will be a long drive regardless of where you stay. The good thing is Calgary being over 1,000,000 population, has lots of hotels.

Having the race during stampede wouldn't work because you couldn't close the roads then

Yayy!! Great to see a big race (finally) coming to Calgary!!

That is super spread out though and only the run is really "in" Calgary....

I thought that they might try to use the Chinook Half route which for the most part is quite nice.

Exactly 3 weeks prior to IMC. Thoughts on doing it if you plan to race in Penticton?

Post: I thought that they might try to use the Chinook Half route which for the most part is quite nice.

The problem with using the Chinook Half route is the lake is private property owned by the homeowners of the neigborhood it is in and the run is in a Provincial Park.

It would be very difficult to get permission to use these for a larger event.


The race is a week after the Sylvan Lake half which is a well run race.
http://www.sylvanlaketri.com/

The swim I could see as being difficult to get but I don't think the run would be a huge problem. My concern is the bike course which crosses a lot of busy roads. Too bad they don't go up the Cochrane hill as that would be entertaining.

I would have thought Sikomi lake would have been a swim venue but then congrats to the organisers anyway. It's a month after Ironman CDA. Enough time to recover you think ? I'm tempted to enter but not sure what shape I'll be in.

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The nice thing is the race is on a long weekend (if you are in Ontario at least) and it's on a sunday!

Those hills look fun :)

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Proud member of the Guru Cartel, EH!

Have you ever seen that lake? I live near it and is nothing more than a large puddle (which usually seems to have contamination issues). You would have to do about 15 laps for the swim. It's not very deep either.


Anyways so after thinking about it for an hour... I am definitely in for this race!!! I'm excited about it already!

It's a long weekend in Alberta too.

The hills are fun and with the average elevation being about 4000 feet you'll notice the altitude

Actually, most Calgarians are out riding the roads - even in December, January, as there has been limited snow. I was envious when I was there last Christmas - out for a long run and saw three hard core cyclists who were bundled up but had clean roads at 3 degrees Celcius!

But yes - awesome they have a 70.3! May have to check it out!

I think, it's going to be a verry beautiful race

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http://www.triathlonranking.com

Nice the bike course is only a couple of blocks form my place, should be good, and those hills on the run should be fun to by the end of the day. I think I'll have to get involved with this one.

I'd be curious to know a bit more about the logistics of this race before signing up.

T2 is 50km (as the crow flies) from T1. The only other race I've done where T2 is away from T1 is Great White North - that's 10km I know that they tear down T1 and move everything to T2 in the time between when the last swimmer exits and the first cyclist returns, including the athlete's T1 and T2 bags - I think that's pretty tight and it's a mass start. If I read correctly, this Calgary race suggests wave starts - I'd wager that the time between last swimmer out of T1 and first cyclist into T2 is going to be a much shorter time in a wave scenario than it is in a mass start. Factor in that 60km+ drive (probably a good hour, depending on traffic) to get stuff to T2...the only way I see this working is if there's racks at both T1 and T2 and the T2 bags are on the road before the swim even starts.

The other issue I see is just getting around. I'm local, so I don't have to worry about hotels, but I know there are none near the start, and there's not really any near the end either. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any hotels west of Macleod Trail and south of downtown, so it's a drive from anywhere to the finish area. So, I'll assume you have to drive to the start area and they'll run shuttles from the finish back to the start to pick up vehicles. I can't see pre-race shuttles being a good solution, since that would depend on everyone arriving at the pick-up point, moving bikes to T1, etc. So, if my assumption is correct, you'll drive to the race start, set up your T1 area, turn in your T2 bag, swim/bike/run to a point 50+ km away, catch a 60ish minute shuttle back to the start, drive another 60ish minutes back to pick up your shit at the finish area, pack up and drive back home, or hotel, or whatever....

I'm not predicting doom and gloom here, just some questions I'd need answers to before registering, and I got no travel issues...

It looks interesting. It does cover a lot of the west part of Calgary.

As for hotels, there are a couple in Cochrane which would make for it a short jaunt to the start line.

I lived next to the Glenmore Reservoir (the run course) and I wouldn't call the selected run route hilly. The run course will have two real hills (each time you come up out of the Weaselhead area). Families will have a great picnic area and get to see you come by up to four times on the run. Pretty good.

Sarge

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"it's also a personal choice to remain ignorant" - Slowman

I like the course, and I agree with not describing the run as hilly - I'd say it's mostly flat with a couple of hills (actually, that description fits the Chinook half run course pretty well too). This won't be a course to PR your half IM - I measure the bike at 94km, plus there's a couple of good climbs in there.