Not that I can relate to what it is like to get that close to 9 hours many times and not break it, but I am sure there are studs on this forum like Fleck or Jonnyo who have come close. It took my friend Rick Hellard 20 years to get there and he finally pulled it off at the age of 40 at the Esprit Ironman. Here is the story:
…and if anyone wants to set a half Ironman or Ironman personal best, Esprit and demi Esprit is the place to do it…it would be scary to see how fast someone like Craig Alexander could go on the half…also the course is “Bjorn Favourable”…never really that hot in mid Sep in Montreal.
Finally for those pissed off with the 365 day advanced registration at Ironman North America events and the $275 per nite rip off 5 day hotel minimums, consider Esprit. It is right in the heart of Montreal, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its a great spot for a vacation and a fast Ironman time. Spouses can go nuts shopping on St. Catherines street blowing all the money you saved on the cheaper hotel compared to IMNA events…this keeps everyone happy…and for kids, there is LaRonde (amusement park) and the Aquapark, on the other end of the Island where the Ironman goes down.
The best/worst part is he is only 6 months younger than me, so I have to spend 4 out of 5 years in the same age group as him (not that it is an issue…the guy is racing in different time zone anyway…). But the best part is having guys like this around to kick you in the ass whenever he shows up to ride, and let me just say, that the pain inflicted is “high” and “continuous”…I’m in less pain on race day :-).
I think having Rick around has simply elevated the game of all the masters athletes around here in Ottawa. Let’s also keep in mind that locally we have another fast masters triathlete in the form of Dave Harju…he just choses to race pro. The cool part is that when I first started triathlon I was 100th overall in the same race that Rick podiumed in back in 1985…but having him around has pulled me from mid pack to front of the local pack…it just took 22 years of floundering and getting thrashed!
Cool article and accomplishment. I wish the article had gone into his training a little bit. What did he do different that he hadn’t done in his prime? How out of shape did he get in retirement – not very out of shape I’m guessing.
Good article Dev. But the description of the race makes it sound, to be honest, boring as hell:
“The swim held in the Olympic rowing basin, offers “swimming pool like conditions.” But this is simply the start. Onto the bike, with multiple loops of the 4.2K track, athletes are assured of fast bike splits. For those concerned about counting laps, a chip is attached to the bike fork and the timing team at Sportstats personally gives each athlete a “bell lap”. The run is likely the toughest part, with no hills, but just flat 4.5K loops of the rowing basin, where the athletes can see 2K down the road to the other end.”
He did a number of 9:0x races on tougher IMNA courses, so part of it was picking a quick course. Aside from that, he spent the bulk of his 39th year working on bringing down his marathon time, so I think that gave him the core fitness needed to really rip on the bike and run.
But realistically, he’s had the same or better fitness and preparation in the past. This time, the cards just fell in the right place…just three weeks earlier, he had a 10:35 “blowup” at IMC…,maybe that was the difference in his prep…he had a 2 week taper, a hard 10:35 race a week of recovery, another week of hard training and then another 1 week taper. If you look at it, that makes 4 weeks of easy training out of 5 with one hard workout and 1 hard week in between all that…so it looks like “lots of rest”. I suppose that might be considered a “different approach”.
Trust me, the race is not boring. Its one of the most fun halfs or full Ironmans that you can do. Things go by very quickly, and you have tons of crowd support vs being out alone 50 miles from T2 suffereing in your personal misery. Also an aid station every 6-8 minutes depending on bike pace and neutral support pit lane is never more than 2 K away!
I’ve done this race twice and would love to go back, but would only do the half.(I found it did get during my 2nd race for the IM distance)
It’s an awesome race to do once and it’s mighty fast on the bike.(Since it’s an F1 track and smooth as glass, you can pump your tires up to about 150 psi!)
It’s flat as a pancake and if the wind’s just right, you’ll get a tail wind on the West side of the island and the casino and other buildings block a fair bit of the wind on the East side.
Dev,
Have you ever done the full Iron there? I can imagine it being fine for the half but the full it sounds like quite a while to be going in circles. It actually sounds super cool… especially for the spectators. I always feel bad that they wait for hours to see me pass and if they miss me feel aweful. Sounds really cool. Maybe that will go on my list of races for 2008 as I am already registered for IMLP in 07.
Why is the bike course “fast”? If it’s under 5K per lap, seems to me you’re doing a lot of turning, don’t have it ramped up hard and long, and have to accelerate a lot out of turns, which after 40+ laps might burn the legs.
Details, man . . . as you are intriguing me with this race, and especially the location as a cool vacation for the spouse!
RA, I’ve yet to do Esprit but have many friends who have done it. In the right conditions you have a tailwind in the right places on the bike and where it should be in your face, buildings block it. Rick said you could do 40km/h down the main straight this past year without even trying…
I’m sure others who have actually raced there can corroborate this…also roads to die for…
Sorry I am not Dev, but I did race the full this year. It is an excellent race and not nearly as boring as I might had expected. It was nice to be able to register for the race about a week before the event. In addition as a medical student money is an issue, and was able to book room through priceline at a very nice downtown hotel for about 70 bucks a night. The swim is next to ideal although there weren’t many feet to draft off (but a welcome experience compared to getting mauled like most IM’s) although I did start the second loop as the half was starting so I was swimming through them some of the second lap, still the cable underwater to sight off was great. The 41 laps on the bike are not that bad, at least the first 36 laps and then the last 2 were fine. The “technical” sections made it fun, although I did see first hand why triathletes get a bad rap for their bike handling skills J Much has been said about how fast it is, which I found to be true, never in a million years did I think I would go as fast as I did (sub 5). Also much has been said about what a draft–fest it is, although I would argue that it was very easy to race a clean race. The only time I was out of my aero bars were at the Aid station/pits, or to let an occasional group pass, but they were not that many of them, nothing like the pictures form Clearwater 70.3 I’ll be honest the run isn’t so fun. You can see all the way up and down the end of the basin and realize you have to go around it 9 times, which is much harder that going out on a 26.2 mile loop, out and back etc, you have to be tough (that’s where I screwed up I guess J
The aid station/pits on the bike were excellent, and the run stations were fines. One thing I wish is if they would let you know what place you are in, because as the day wears on you have no idea what lap people or on etc,
All in all an excellent race and would recommend it to anyone!
There is only one turn where if you have to slow down and if you do it like I did (see picture above) you don’t even drop below 35 kph :-). Others are correct, if the wind is blowing the right way, you get a solid tailwind on the east side, but on the west side, you are protected by buildings and a wall. The pavement is silky smooth. The half Ironman bike IS 1.5K short, so add ~2 min to my bike split. The Ironman is the full distance though, cause they do an extra lap to account for the shortfall in the half. Also if you are a fast rider you get a huge legal draft as you are riding 35-50 kph lapping riders going 30-40 kph. As a point of reference, my 90K at Esprit (actually 88.5) was 2:11, 2 weeks earlier at the Canadian 2:21 with 12 real slow hairpin turns that take you down to 10 kph max. And earlier in the summer on hotter, windier and hillier courses at Tupper Lake and Peterborough I was 2:29. That being said, my riding legs were a lot better in September than back in June…something to do with absorbing all the huge volume for Ironman LP and finally being truly recovered.
Other areas: the swim course requires zero navigation. The run course is as flat as a pancake with ~2m of vertical per lap as your run over a man made wooden bridge.
Anyway, on a side note, I was actually hoping that I would at some point over 90K catch Rick who was doing the full Ironman, but the dude held me off. For the longest time, he rode the same pace as I was doing, expect he was racing the full. I guess I am just “half the triathlete he is” (double my 4:14 and you get 8:28+(2 for the shorter distance)…not that far off his 8:41 time)!
I think sometimes we can’t really put pro Ironman times into perspective, until you take Norman’s Kona time and realize that he did a 4:05 half Ironman pace for double the distance. Its simply insane when you put it in that context!
DISCLAIMER: At least previously the bike went clockwise and run went counterclockwise, so if you got a good wind on one, you got a bad wind on the other. Now, you either hit the jackpot with favourable wind on both, or you get hit with it on both with no real tailwind. While the times at Esprit can be VERY fast, if you get a North Easterly wind and cold rain (which is very possible in Sep), the times can suddenly get a lot slower. The entire run course turns into a windtunnel, where you have no tailwind on the southbound section due to being “protected” and a huge headwind during the Northbound…same for the bike. With the new course set up, pray for ideally a South Easterly (almost never happens in Montreal in Sep), or South Westerly (this is what you get on a warm autumn day…and what we had).
Slimjim is correct. Last year the wind hammered everyone on the run. This year, we got it good both ways. In the half Ironman with the good wind and temps, the run was easily 5 minutes faster, maybe more.
This is also the “track” where I set my Olympic tri PB in 1994. I went 1:59 also on a “good wind day”. But on a “bad wind day” on perhaps less fitness and swim training, I also went 2:18 there, so it goes to show you how much the times can vary.
So in fairness to Rick, while he did get a “good wind day”, he showed with his 8:41 that he could certainly pull off a sub 9 with the same performance on any IMNA course.
