I am entered in the VT Sun 1/2 in two weeks. Any info on this course?
I’ve done the Sprint there.
Great group of foks.The swim is awesome.Clean clear lake.
The bike can be mildly hilly.I think they’ll loop you around Middlebury.
Run is thru shaded neighborhood.
This is their 1st HIM so there might be a few quirks,maybe not.
Have Fun.
Fish
Thanks for the info. Was it a wetsuit race? I heard the water temp could be high.
I did an almost 1/2 Ironman 2 years ago (1-mile swim, 41 mile ride, 9 mile run). It was a very nice race. The bike course is 4 loops of 14-miles. If I remember right, the beginning is flat for a few miles. You turn right and have a fast short downhill. Then you turn right again and ride in a flat to slightly rolling section along the main road with a big shoulder. Then you turn right again and have a somewhat tough climb of about 1/2 mile. The swim is nice. Water is pretty clear. The run was tough when I did it - there was a short trail run section that I had to walk, and the course was not marked that well, so I wondered if I was actually off course. It was also very hot and humid when I did the race.
I am signed up also - its a nice place for a race, but I decided to skip the race and focus on resting and then training for next season.
Wetsuits are allowed, but I think the water temp is pretty reasonable, so a wetsuit would be more for speed than warmth.
The bike is a 14 mile loop with one climb and some rolls, we guesstimated about 4-500’ of climbing per lap from looking at a topo map. My wife is doing the Aquabike division, she’s pretty much given up on ever getting her running anywhere close to her swimming & biking skills. She rode the loop a few weeks ago, said it was a nice course.
Swim: nice lake. The course says it’s two loops.
Bike: transition is in a state park. You bike out of the park and bang a right. Go slightly uphill for 2 miles or so, and bang a another right. Fun rollers for another couple of miles. Then take another right onto Route 7, a large two lane road with a wide shoulder. The Route 7 portion is a long, straight stretch with (for Vermont) mild roll. Route 7 often has some wind, but the direction of the wind is unpredictable. Your next right turn takes you onto a smaller road, and in about a half mile you’ll see the biggest hill on the course. I imagine by the fourth time around this hill will be pretty tough. Once you’re up over the hill, you can really crank around the top of the lake. There are still some mild inclines before you hit the park again, but the back stretch is still a fast part of the course. The loop is approx 14 miles.
Run: If the run is the same of their old long course run, it’s as Jon described. Nice course, with a part going through the woods. Some mean little hills in the middle portion of the run, but once you have cleared those you hit the top of the lake and can cruise as you did for the “back stretch” on the bike.
On a nice day, it’s a very pleasant venue for race. Enjoy!
I raced there earlier this summer. It was my first tri and i thought the event as a whole went great. Really nice people, quite chill. The course is as people describe it: pretty flat by vermont standards, but rarely actually flat. The run is all or pretty much all on blacktop. There’s apparently an out-and-back at the end of the run, on a different road than the rest of the race, to get it to the 13.1. the swim was warm in early july, it’ll be even warmer now. the lake is very shallow, you can usually see the bottom.
i do think that it’s too bad the bike course doesn’t have anything new. when i raced it was 2 loops; this time it’s 4. so you’ll be seeing the same things over and over.
and the lake is great to hang out in post-run.
hope this helps.
Like Jon and Sparky, I too did the almost-half — it was called Great Keewaydin. Were I to do the new half this year, I would e-mail Steve Hare at Vermont Sun and ask if that trail section is part of the run course. I guess this is my way of suggesting that you should e-mail him. The trail section is not long, but I had to scramblewalk it, and it just caught me by surprise. Overall, though, the run is very beautiful, quite shaded, and it’s nice that you can see the finish from quite a ways off.
Thanks for the update! It is my first 1/2 so I look forward to it. All that info is great. Good luck to all on the course and see you there.