Sounds like how it was done in Whistler with the shuttles, I don’t think there be much room for spectators with all of us jammed in on the beach anyway.
I’m also coming in from Barrhaven, legit thinking about crashing at a friend’s house who is also racing and lives closer downtown
About how long of a ride is the shuttle?
15-20min roughly
Hey guys,
If you don’t want to take the shuttle and can get someone to drop you off, you can get very close to Brittannia Beach without “clogging” up Greenview road which is the access into the beach. So don’t drive there. Rather go west on Carling to Ritchie St to Aheran to Farrow and go as far as you can and get dropped off and have your family member drive out of there:
You may want to check it out in advance on a practice swim day. I can imagine if 500 cars drive that way the local residents will get annoyed, but it is what it is. But it can save an extra hour of sleep.
I am not racing but a 6 am start sucks because it means more of the marathon in the heat of the mid afternoon (at least for fast people). If someone does a 1 hrs swim plus 5:15 bike with 10 min of transiitions, they are on the run at 12:25. Add ten min to each split and those athletes are starting the run by 1 pm. That’s a rough time of day for Aug humidity that’s worse than in Kona
Also if you skip mandatory shuttle and get a lift to near start, then you’re skipping out on special needs (not the end of the world, but keep that in mind)
I would have thought that they’d have the whole of Carling shut down on race morning…? Either way a bit more walking is probably worth the hour of sleep.
I’m a bit torn between going downtown and just trying to wing it at Brittania.
My plan for run nutrition was to use 2 handheld flasks - one I leave overnight in the run bag, and one in special needs. Now that special needs is also downtown, I’m going to have to re-evaluate anyway
I’m probably one of the ones affected by the early start. Plan is 1h05 for the swim (assumed wetsuit) and 5h bike (or slightly more) so that puts me just after noon. I do very well in the heat relative to others, so I’m not worried. But I want the extra hour sleep (and probably the 40 mins extra travel time to/from downtown!)!
I would think the west entry off Carling to Richie is open. People live on those streets and have to get in and out. I think the only part of Carling scheduled to be closed is coming out of Greeview to Carling (and my guess it is just the westbound lane that is used for eastbound cyclists to Parkway entry and I would imagine this only happens starting around 7:30 for for 2 hrs until last swimmer clears that part of the street. My guess is Eastbound Carling is 100% open and westbound carling only one lane is closed/coned off for cyclists. So I THINK you can drive on Carling all day, but this is just my conjecture.
The chatter on The Facebook is saying that the shuttle is only mandatory if you’re dropping stuff at T2 race morning.
If I can skip a trip downtown, it might well just do a super concentrated hand flask and put it in my T2 bag the day before.
or find someone to drop off your sn bags for you …
Yeah, the race director Pauline said on the fb thread that you can go direct and park at the Cineplex lot and walk 1km from there. With a 6am start and T1 beside the swim, you can show up at Cineplex at 5:20, walk 15 min to T1, pump up tires and put on wetsuit (if) and be out in the start corral by 5:50. Literally with wake up time at 4:30 AM in Barrhaven, you’re set. I know a lot of people are going to wake up at 2 am, but you need to save your peak biorythms for 2-4 pm performance, not 6 am performance which a lot of age groupers doing Ironmans forget about. You can literally do the swim half asleep and be 1 min slow and be waking up on the bike and go 2-5min slow…that’s probably not a bad thing in terms of burning matches and running 20 min fast right on goal run split
Thank you.
I wonder if the special needs drop off are at bins accessible to spectaors or behind a corral (for ex in T2) . If so it would be possible to have a supporter drop them off, but would need to be done in a timely manner as I am sure you can’t drop off at 8:30 am after watching the swim and heading down to T2
That’s the trick - find someone who can drop it off at 5am for you who isn’t doing the race.
I’ll be fine with the single flask in my T2 bag - I’ve done it before for a stand alone marathon and it’s fine. I don’t want to risk having it not be there in case whomever I ask can’t gain access. If it’s hot overnight I’ll just stick it in a thermos in my T2 bag.
Here’s a new wrinkle, water temp right now is 24 degrees
I am at the cottage 45 min North. The Gatineau river is like a hot tub. Ottawa river is typically same temp.
I have been coming up here 23 years and I have never seen it this warm
Crazy how it can vary so much depending on the system. I’m up at Mont Tremblant this week and just swam in Lac Monroe in the Parc Nationale. Without my wetsuit, it was absolutely freezing and I cut my swim short since it was so cold. Literally 2 hrs away and it’s cold.
Anyway, since this thread is mostly Canadians, do we know which swimskins brands will ship quickly (and preferably aren’t subject to tariffs)?
5 feet below the surface is quite cool. One good wind storm and it would probably cool down a lot
This water was way up north probably a week or two ago.
I am just above Paugan falls
If it’s cold 5ft below and it’s close, you can probably bet that they’ll take a few readings until they get the one they want
Very newbie questions here, but I’m also thinking through these a.m. logistics and whether or not I need special needs bags.
Granted there’s no Guide released yet, but the website is saying Maurten gels/bars and mortal hydration, and so I’m wondering:
How is the mortal provided? In a bidon?
Do they ever provide Maurten drink mix? I assume for carb drinks it’s BYOB?
Maurten is just the gels
Mortal is mixed by the volunteers (so your results may vary) and then put in a bottle. It might be a bidon, or might be a drink bottle that fits in the cage.
Carb drinks are being your own, unfortunately. It’s easiest to bring a concentrate and then mix with water at aid stations
