Has anyone ever done the ESPRIT Irondistance in Montreal? What was it like? Would you recommend it?
http://www.esprittriathlon.com/
-Matt
My buddy Bill did it, albeit some years ago. He set his IM PR at it. Said it was kind of boring…
I just raced nationals there in september… i raced olympic distance there, but due to how the course is set up, (lots of laps) its exactly the same.
Swim - in the rowing basin… have these lines underwater to see with… however i didn’t really pay attention to them… i was concerned with sticking on everyone elses feet.
Bike… completely flat, COMPLETLY!.. 4.5 km loop on an F1 track, its pretty cool… but I couldn’t imagine doing it 40 or so times… man, that would be sooo boring! One of the guys we saw mounted a radio to his bike, to have something to entertain him/everyone else who was within 10 feet of him.
Run… around the rowing basin… 8*5 k loops… completly flat!.. you have to go over this one ramp they put up to avoid crossing exiting swimmers paths though, but well marked.
Seemed to be well organized… i wouldn’t want to be coming in after 12 or so hours though because they’res simply not enough cheering.
Other bike problems… they also have an AG olympic distance race, and an AG sprint race… so periodically you have a huge influx of people onto the course… my buddy actually had someone crash into him… and ruin his race… (and destroy his new zipp 404 wheel… he was a little pissed). So thats the one problem you might have.
Our race was draft legal, and no IM people were on the course by the time we started, so i didn’t have that problem.
If you have any more questions PM me, and i’ll see if i can help you more
-david
I did that half IM this past September. It is a really well organized race. Contrary to what I was expecting, the 20 laps on the bike flew by (much faster than single loop Half-IM courses). Probably because there is a large group of spectators every 4.5km on the bike cheering you on. The looped course also means there is an aid station with bike mechanics every time round so that is also a benefit. As David said, the swim was in the rowing basin which is a 2km long by 100m wide “pool”. Water was clean and warm and had cables underneath the surface to help swim straight. The only hard part was the lack of hills. I used only 2 gears the whole ride (one for tailwind, one for headwind) and my legs were really hurting on the run (I should have tried to stretch them out for the last lap or two on the bike). So all in all it was a good race to do.
Dan
i did the 1/2 in 03 and loved it. i didn’t think the bike was boring at all - doing a full ironman there on the other hand might get a little old. but there are like 5 races going on at the same time so at least you’re always surrounded by other people. plus, it’s a great spectator race as you see friends and family on the ride like 20X.
i would recommed it and plan on going back next year.
I did it in summer 2002 and thought it was great! Make a search on this forum for Esprit Triathlon and you will find many comments on it. If you have any more question after reading them, feel free to PM me. I’ll be glad to answer all your questions.