I'm doing it too. I haven't done it before, but I've spoken to several people who have done it, and I'm told it's a great race.

I understand that there are a lot of hills, but nothing too steep. Also, it's a fairly straight out and back course.

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I'll be there (Matt Boliver 40yrM). Tinman description: First of all, don't miss the pre & post feeds (bring a chair for the post feed). Bring tinted goggles - the return leg of the swim is directly into the sun - sight on the gazebo or the ambulance lights. The worst hill on the bike is the first one & it isn't too bad. the hills are mostly rollers that you can use momentum to get thru the first 2/3 of the hills. Out & back course with good shoulders, light traffic. A 25 tooth rear should be plenty for a 20mph ave rider. Run also has the only significant climb in the first mile or so. There is an off-road section that is poorly paved - plenty of shade & mosquitos to encourage you to keep your pace up. After emerging from the path there is a long, unshaded section of the road that I find the most taxing mentally. Overall, a great race - well supported & a good course.

I'll be there too. First time for me as well. Anyone know the water temp right now and if wetsuits are the norm?

I raced up in North Creek last weekend, which isn't too far from tupper lake. I believe the water temperature was either 56 or 58 on race day. I can't imagine tupper will be a whole lot warmer than that...maybe low to mid 60's by race day??

Done it a bunch of times, Swim is pretty straightforward, but like someone said, bring tinted goggles, and the big water tower that is SO easy to see, don't sight off it unless you want to have a kayak come get you for being way left. On a cloudy day, the swim is very easy to navigate. Triangle course, bouys on your right. The bike is rolling, out and back (one time they changed the course for construction, so I suppose it could happen again), with no real climbs over 1/2 mile, but it seems like there are a million of them. The way out has a false flat up to Cranberry Lake that looks like it goes on forever, and on the way back you really do notice a slight downgrade for a while in the same area. The last 15 miles of the bike are in my opinion the most difficult. You have a series of rollers that seem much more substantial on the return leg compared to the outbound one. The wind is predominantly a crosswind here, and about this time it will pick up, so hold onto those bars when you go down those rollers. The transition is preceded by about 1-2 miles of flat cycling through town to get the legs back. The run goes across a field then uphill for 2 to 3 miles. It is sort of steep to begin with, then is more gradual after the first mile or so. At about mile 3 you go into the woods for a trail run that is rolling and maybe a little tricky (uneven surfaces) until about mile 6. This is actually my favorite part of the race. I like the shade and the change in scenery, and it is alot nicer than what is to come. At the 6 mile mark you leave the woods and turn back to town on a main road. It is rolling, with some pretty tough grades. What is most difficult in my opinion is the fact that you can see quite a long way once the road opens up, the wind is generally at your back, and it is the hottest part of the day. You will crest a hill about mile 8 or 9 and you will see this killer hill up ahead. It looks nasty, but you will turn off the road just before this, thank heaven. You will return to the first part of the course going the opposite way down the hill into town, 2 miles. You finish crossing the main street across from the transition, and run across a grass field for the last couple hundred yards. It is a great race, but don't take my word for it, you will be convinced soon enough. Just don't go measure the run course, it would shatter the illusion that we all did great times on the run if we found out it was, let's say, a 1/3 mile short...

BTY, the water has been in the mid 60's all of the times I have done it (5). The lake is fairly shallow, so there may be a chance it will warm up a bit in the next week. The weather... as cold as 45 and as warm as 95, possible to be both on the same day. I think in '95 it was 95, '96 it was 45 at the start, and 85 by the finish. Be ready for anything, I guess.

Good Luck, see you next week.

John

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"Maybe you should just run faster..." TM

I am their to ! Look for my dusty trail or mud if it is wet :-) Oh I will be in the back so no trail for the fast ones. I am going to have the a great time. It's going to be to much fun for the old Dirtball.
See you all Dirtball

Okay, so now that it is over, does anybody know how long it REALLY was? My bike odometer, and my car's, both have the bike course at about 56.8 miles, but I think that the swim was very long, and I know that the run course was short. I'm not complaining, because all in all, it was an excellent, well run race, but considering that my swim split has me at a pace 20 seconds per hundred slower than my recover speed in the pool with no wetsuit, and that everybody was complaining about their swim splits, I have to think it was long. And I know that the transitions were not included in the swim.

I think the run was .5 to.75 short, but I can't verify that.

Any thoughts?

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On the run, did anyone see mile marker 11? For the last two years there hasn't been one! Still a great race, with a run course like that, who cares if it's a little bit short!

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

I saw it, and that's the interesting thing. Considering that the course starts and ends with the same 3 miles or so, the 2 mile marker and the 11 mile marker should be pretty close to one another(say, .1 mile). In my estimation, they were at least a half mile apart, with the 11 mile marker closer to the finish than the 2 mile marker. For this to occur, the course would have to be short by that amount.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to determine what my times were relative to the actual distance.

What did you think of the swim?

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Yes, the swim felt noticably longer than 1.2. My main problem was the triangle formation of buoys which made me think I was swimming way off course several times, when I wasn't, and the red caps of some of the swimmers which looked like distant orange buoys through my goggles which added to my mild confusion. The water temperature though was perfect. The bike and run courses had far more hills than I anticipated, but made for some exciting downhills when I hit 45 MPH on a few of them. The climbs in both the bike and run were enough to make me want to do my next 1/2 iron in Florida or some locale that is really flat. I was happy with my overall time though, and feel that the race was run quite well and the support of the locals sitting out in their yards with hoses and oranges and water really made me grateful towards the end of the run. I should also add that the area around Tupper Lake is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Now it's on to the Hudson Valley tri on July 13th!

It was all to long! Hills and hills and a long swim. And I finished my first half ! I am alive! I am alive ! I am slow very slow ! I will be faster next year. I had a great time and my kids finished the run with me. Very sweet
Thanks for the fun Dirtball

Yeah, that swim sucked. I couldn't sight for my life, even when I stopped swimming and looked around. I don't know if it was long or not but can't they put buoys a little closer together? Water temp was perfect though, you're right.

I thought the bike course was really fair. Take it from me. I've done Gulf Coast twice which is pancake flat and it sucks. Same position, same gear for 56 miles is no fun. Even worse for 112 but that's another story. I'm done with Florida races.

How about aid stations every mile on the run? That would be nice. If I'd known they were every 2 miles in spots I would have worn my fuel belt. I could of used some Coke too. But I guess next year I'll just bring my own.

Great race, can't wait for next year.

How about that swim? Everyone I talked to thought the swim was about 3-4 minutes slower than usual. It seemed that all 880 athletes were out there at the swim turnaround at exactly the same time! What a zoo.The bike is pretty much on with respect to distance (although my computer said it was a mile long) and the run is a couple hundred yards over 20k (that is coming from a friend of mine who used gps and a mountain bike computer to measure it...twice). So if you calculated your pace by 13.1, you may need to readjust your estimates, but be sure and not tell your training partners, let em go on believing it is 13.1. Frankly, at this point I am happy to have survived with my dignity, and not having crapped myself. I really love that race, I do. It seems to be not such a difficult race when you first get out there, but as the day moves along, it presents you with it's special set of challenges. When you are done, you know you did something worthy.

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"Maybe you should just run faster..." TM