Hopefully someone (Kentiger maybe?) here can answer a couple questions for me…please?!! I am doing the Off Road Tri on Sunday (750M swim - 15K mtn. bike - 7.5K run)
Layout - how far is the Tzone from the Swim out?
Run Course (7.5K) - Dirt roads? Pavement? For me, the run times from last year are faster then I ever do, so I was wondering what the course was like.
This race is starting to stress me out as there were only 17 racers in it last year and my mtn. bike skills are on the lacking side. I am preparing myself to be the last one in!
Swim out to TZone is quite a hike…maybe not quite a km but it sure feels that way. You get to run over a golf course so no worries about hurting your feet along the way…though I do recommend wearing shoes of some sort anyway…makes you faster. Just leave them off to a spot on the beach where you’ll remember them and don them coming out of the water.
Run course is over local roads (as far as I know they didn’t change them from last year) with a decent climb about 500m out of TZ and some rolling terrain thereafter. Don’t recall much of the off road race but I am pretty sure the run is the same as for the roadie version.
Wouldn’t sweat the technicality of the bike too much. A few newbies who did it last year were quite pumped about it afterwards saying that the hardest part was the climbing and not so much the difficulty of it. Don’t count on being last no matter what you think. Do, however, be a bit more careful on the descent back to TZ. If it’s wet the night before, and you’re not confident in your handling, you can slip. One of the leaders last year got a bit ahead of himself and came in covered in mud…laughing. Not hurt though…mud…not rocks.
Course is beautiful (but I guess living not too far from there you’d be sued to that by now) and the view at the top of the hill is awesome.
And if you checked the results you’d have noted the reason for all the fast times…most of the people were from Ottawa. I swear it must be something in the water.
PS…howz my structure this time?
I was wondering if there was a hike from the swim to TZone as the swim times were slow.
The climbing part will be the best part for me, as I love any kind of hill.
I emailed John’s crew and asked about the course, the trail builder said there’s a couple 3.5 (on a scale of 1-5) parts and the rest is around 2. It’s just the log jumping and trees that jump in my way that I have issues with!!
I did the off road race last year so if the course is the same here is what you can expect…the conditions were cool and wet = rain for most of the bike.
Swim to transistion is closer to 400 m I believe. The run is on a smooth soft golf course.
The bike starts out with a climb up the mountain, you can pass alot of people here if you can climb The course isn’t too technical, mostly fire roads/double track with some single track sections. There is lots of loose debris, rocks and when its wet it was interesting but everything is very rideable, even in the rain.
The run is the same as the regular tri run, I recall rolling hills and an uphill before the turn around.
I would say that this is a great course and a great event.
Last year my husband did the off road du while I did the off road tri. As I was coming out of T2 I got to see my husband crossing the finish line…he’s a much stronger biker then I am (I think he beat everyone on the mtb bike) however, I think they only had to run 5 km instead of 7.5 km.
I also convinced a friend to enter the race with me. We came out of the swim together, I snuck by her out of T1 (although not by much) and managed to put in more time on the first climb. She’s a super fast runner though so I spent the entire run waiting for her to catch me.
All three of us had a great day and loved the race. The rain made the bike a blast! You’ll have a great time on Sunday.
The weather is supposed to be rain Weds, Thurs, Fri and then sunny on Sat/Sunday, so I expect it will be still a bit wet in parts on the course.
I also convinced a friend to come and she’s been mtb. biking for 4 years or so. Luckily, I swim about 5 mins. faster then her so I hope to hold her off on the bike course as long as I can!
Sounds like a great course. I’m going mtn. biking tonight to practice!
