Has anyone here done both 70.3 Musselman and 70.3 Maine? And for anyone else with multiple tris to compare them to, if you have done either 70.3 Musselman or 70.3 Maine feel free to chyme in…
What are your thoughts on each race, specifically regarding:
-Swim course/conditions: Musselman is lake, Maine is a river. I am not looking for an easy down stream swim necessarily. More interested in risk of a swim cancelation, or if water quality is distinctly better or worse at one or the other (considering I’m going to submerge my face in it for a while)
-Bike course/conditions: Does one or the other have significantly better road surface quality (smooth, less holes, ruts, cracks, etc) Both Musselman and Maine are loops which I greatly prefer to out and back courses so that’s a plus for both of them in my mind.
-Run course/conditions
-Overall course/transition
-Weather: does one have a reputation or history of worse weather than the other?
-Town/Restaurants etc.: which is a nicer town to spend the weekend in? Restaurant recs?
-Best hotel options, or hotels to avoid if you had a bad experience
I did see this thread on 70.3 Maine from 2022, but wanted to learn more about 70.3 Musselman, hear an update on 70.3 from the past couple of years, and also get a direct comparison between the two if anyone is able to offer that from actual race experience. Thanks!
I’ve done both and some other Tris.
I liked Musselman more. The most important difference is that Musselman is in a nice tourist destination (Finger Lakes region) and Augusta, ME is absolutely forgettable place.
The courses are probably of equial quality and difficultly. I’d repeat Musselman, but not Augusta.
A couple of notes:
Augusta might have crazy fast downstream. When I got out of water in 17(seventeen!) minutes, my wife thought I was pulled out for emergency or something.
Musselman is in a very deep lake. Which results in cool water and cold morning air even if it’s going to be a scorching day. I wished I had one more layer on the bike.
I did Maine 70.3 last year and the swim was crazy fast. The current is very strong. I typically am a 1:50/100m swimmer and i finished in just over 16 mins on the Maine swim course. People were floating down the river not actually swimming and finishing in 30-35min range. It honestly felt like cheating it was so fast. I enjoy swimming and didnt feel like i got my moneys worth. I actually prefer lake swims over super fast river swims.
The bike course is much hillier than was anticipated. They tout it as rolling but id definitely say it was hilly. My Garmin Enduro 2 watch had 3600 ft of climbing and my Edge 830 had 4100 ft. I am a bigger guy and went in with a compact crank and an 11-34 rear and ran out of gears on a couple climbs. Ended up pushing way more watts than i wanted for the bike portion which hurt me on the run.
The run along the river was nice and was shaded off and on. There is a pretty monster hill to climb around mile 11 or so (is was an out and back up the hill). Was ready for that that far into the run but other than that it was a nice run.
As far as the city of Augusta goes i didnt stay there so i dont have much feedback for that. But it was a fun race although i probably wont be doing that one again simply for the amount of climbing on the bike (i enjoy flatter faster bike courses and lake swims over hilly bike courses and super fast river swims).
I have Florida 70.3 and Maryland 70.3 on my list for next year.
It’s a great little city. The swim is really nice and the bike is rolling on good quality roads. The upper portion of the run loop is more hilly / windy.
I am not sure about weather for Maine 70.3 but I can say that musselman was VERY hot this year, and from the Facebook groups that seems to be a trend. So be prepared for a hot race - especially a hot run.
It’s also not a giant race so has a bit of a smaller feel. Enjoyed it even though I’m not a lover of hot and humid conditions
Seneca Lake is a beautiful lake (part of the finger lakes). The lakes do get algae blooms from time to time and can/will cancel swims. (it happened to me 2 summers ago on Cayuga Lake. If there is a strong southern wind, it will get rough at the north end which can also cancel the swim (happened to be a long time ago on Skaneateles Lake)