Could someone please help me out with some Muskoka course info? I’ve heard the bike course described as “rolly” and after checking times from last years race, both the bike and run seem to be on the slow side.
Are the slower times due to the course or last years conditions?
Is this a course for a disc? I’ve ridden discs at IMLP and IM Wisco.
thanks for your help.
The course is quite “hilly”, a continuous series of rollers around the lake, and the run has a series of roller as well, but as importantly was the weather last year. The day started as a drizzle, built to a good rain for the next couple of hours, eased a bit, then opened into monsoonal rains.
I suspect times were slower on the bike since you had to have big cojones to attack on the wet downhills, and the run ( at least for me) was a long wet slog…with a lot of twists and turn. The last 5 km ( 7 km ?) is following the cart paths on the golf course.
While I only have experience with a couple of 70.3 courses, this one is definitely challenging - beautiful, but challenging.
The bike course is actually 94km that’s why the slower bike times.
I was wondering about this course,too. How is the swim? Cold, choppy, rough? Any info. you have is appreciated. This looks like a beautiful course.
Swim was nothing special, just a single loop. Not choppy at all. Who knows if there is a lot of wind.
Bike was rolling yes, but nothing extreme at all. Rain is not really a problem because it’s not really winding roads. It nicely grinds your legs if you are not careful though, and then you are up for a looong run. Problem for me was that the run did not offer any breaks, no places to get into a groove. You think you get some respite, but immediately an annoying roller comes up and exhaust any steam you tried gathering. It would constantly goes up and down, sometimes up short and SHARP. T1 will give you a taste of it.
I actually liked the rain last year, made for a cool race.
I believe that the run course is different this year, and does not include 5K on the golf course.
The first 30km of the bike is a lot of up and down (more up than down), then it settles for the next 30-40km, then the last 20-30km is a lot more up and down. According to the Computrainer version of the course, the hills are a lot of 3-5% grades with a couple sections of 7% and some really short increases to 15% (100m each). Its a bit of a rough start but you can settle in nicely in the middle. As mentioned above, the course is measured at 94km so add some time there (6-10 minutes). No idea on using a disc.
According to the website, the run avoids the golf course cart paths this year which removes a lot of the steep inclines. in the last 5km.