I had never spectated an IM race so was surpirsed by this
2nd loop on the run, at the turn around, many many men were walking. Few women were walking. They weren’t flying, but they were running.
Would not be surprised if these dudes looked at their bike computers while riding east with the tailwind, saw themselves going 40kph+ and ended up overbiking the course
(I hope you didn’t see me walking)
Did you see a Rottweiler around the turn around ? If so, I probably saw you 
Ya, my upcoming IM AZ goal was to get under 10hr and hope for roll down or two for Kona. Seems like that’s been shot in the foot with much less slots than normal for AZ and the new adjusted score dynamic. I’m also starting to think I’ll need to wait another year until I age up, but I assume by then they’ll work out the kinks in the other direction!
Not gonna lie, I was kinda in my own world at that point. Apparently there were donkeys out in the area as well and I also missed seeing them.
Two really awesome age graded performances were from a couple of my friends in 60-64.
Sheila Kealey won F-60-64 and was a smidge above 11 hrs. She’s been an elite XC skier and top age group triathlete her entire life and barely slows down. She still wins of podiums in various international XC ski races. This woman is amazing. While the 8:01 age grades is a stretch calculation what this shows is SHE is a major outlier relative to all 60-64’s male or female (so she benefits). She’s barely running slower than when we were 30 (I think she barely ran a 1:35 half then and she’s doing 1:40 now at 62).
Alec Main won men 60-64. Alec is a multi time tech entrepreneur and has had some solid tech company results but long before that he was Canadian champion in the 400IM in swimming in his youth and if I recall correctly he was on the 1980 Olympic boycott team. After 1980, Alex Baumann emerged and started beating Alec at swimming. Eventually Baumann won the 200IM+400IM gold medal double at LA 1984 (same events that Summer McIntosh won in Paris 2024). By then Alec retired and “got a real job”. He decided in his late 50’s to get into triathlon for a challenge but kept swimming through his tech career, now the guy is unstoppable at short races and 70.3’s usually posting the fastest local swims, bikes and runs. Alec’s 10:30 translated to an 8:40 age graded for 9th overall. I have no doubt if you took a time machine back to 1984 and got Alec to train with today’s tech and science he would log an 8:40. I don’t think Sheila would log an 8:01. I don’t think Sheila at her peak is in the same range as Laura Phillippe and Kate are. Sheila has just aged better than all of us 60-64 year olds globally. But it was really cool following them and cheering for them on race day. I think you need to be in 60-64 to appreciate how “relatively fast” their “slow times” are.
The age grading actually helps with some degree of motivation. Based on my half IM times that are 5:25 to 5:37 in the last 6 months, I doubt I can break 12 hrs…but that translated to an age graded 9:50. That feels much more motivating than to slug it out to get a 12:xx finish.
So watching all of you, I was like, “why would I go through this to end up in between 12-13 hrs at best”…well turns out that’s not a bad time at 60-64 so maybe in a few years when I am retired that can be my big retirement project.
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Interesting business case that this could pull some oldies out of full distance retirement!
But, I’d assume you would be competitive anyway if they allocated slots by AG?
The NCC is starting the repavement of the Gatineau parkway from Alexandre-Tache blvd up to P3. Getting ready for including a loop of the park next year???
Also boy did we avoid a weather issue with 40C heatwaves both a week before and a week after the race.
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I think that the NCC paves what it paves regardless of what events may or may not need it. And Ironman can choose the route it chooses from there.
There’s a few issues with adding a loop of Gatineau… For starters, it adds too much vertical for an IM. The trend for these things is fewer metres of elevation. Plus, unless you start in Lac Leamy, you pretty much have to go up Black / down Fortune - which IMO is the more dangerous loop if you’re putting 2500 athletes through the park.
Edit: Actually, you could do it on the way out on Gatineau, and then do one more loop, and its 177km. Close another 1.5km along Carling for a few hours and you could do an easy out and back to start the course. Here’s a rough and dirty map with 1200m of elevation. Considering the course last week had 688m (by my count), its adding roughly double the elevation count.
Interview with men’s winner Luke Evans. In all honesty this was just as surprising to us… but this is how he did, it as he explains…
Over on the Reddit, it’s being reported that the course description now has a blurb saying ‘Gatineau Park’ as part of the course.
I think it’s likely that this is just a misprint for ‘through the existing course part of Gatineau’ but this would be awesome if they redid the course to have a loop of Gatineau. Up Fortune and down Black would be safest, and stick a photo guy at Champlain while we’re there.
I don’t think they’d do it, simply because the trend is towards less elevation for IM courses, but I do think that it would make a much better course
It is probably all rumour given the course goes into Gatineau, and likely won’t go through Gatineau park, but it’s really nice that the road from Tache up to the entrance is now repaved. Some days I would feel that my tiny VW eGolf could dissappear in the crater size potholes. It is going to be nice riding that road into the park with the snow melts. As things stand I was still using the road, as I find the bike path too unsafe with downhills, switchback and blind corners and idiots on eBikes going 50kph who have zero bike handling skills
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I’m racing Ottawa in August and have seen some reviews of the bike course pavement. It looked pretty narly for the 2025 race. Any thought that the course will be in better shape for the 2026 race?