Can anyone review this course? Or point me to a review? I
I don’t have any good pointers to reviews, but I have ridden and run the course – both are hilly. Here’s the bike course profile:
And here’s the home page for the race (which I imagine you’ve seen): http://tricolumbia.org/ct.html
If I find a good review I’ll post a pointer.
-Bam Bam
The swim is in a small calm lake which seems fairly clean but doesn’t offer much for visibility. The bike course is hilly and pretty challenging depending on your reference point. A top tri cyclist could do all the climbs in a 39-21 but most AG’ers would be better off with 25 in the back for sure. The run course starts off flat around the lake, and then enters a pretty hilly neighborhood with rises about 100 meters long or so. The last mile or so of the run is around the lake again and flat.
The big unknown for this race is the weather b/c it’s so early in the year. It can and has been in the 50’s and raining for the duration of the event in recent years. On the flip side it could also be 75.
Very fun course and well run event.
I’ve done Columbia the past two years, and am planning to do it again this year. Good race, fabulous organization – tough course. I’ll give you a review.
The swim is about as calm as you can imagine, with the only drawback being that for the later waves there is a long wait. Transition gets closed fairly early (6:30?), the elites and pros go at 6:45, then the older folk (that’s me) at 6:50…and then it’s a 25-minute wait until the next wave at 7:15, with the last wave starting at 8:13. But the lake is very comfortable to swim in, with neither current nor waves.
The bike is difficult, at least for a flatlander like me. It is a “lollipop” shape, with a couple of decent hills at the long end loop and a stretch along Homewood Road that you hit both ways. The bike course itself might not be a killer, but doing it too aggressively can set you up for a very difficult run – at no other international distance race that I’ve done can the price for a hard bike be paid so detrimentally on the run.
The run is winding and features a few steep climbs, both within the park and in the adjacent residential area. The first few minutes of the run are the time you make sure your cadence is right and that you are feeling comfortable. You will be tested within the first two minutes by a twisting little climb - not a hill, and not steep, but just enough to get your attention. In the cold, raw, conditions of '03, when my feet were still numb at the end of the bike, running up this thing on my “stumps” was not at all pleasant. The race info says there are four “moderately steep climbs”, and calls them the “unique challenge”; I think that’s accurate. (Although it doesn’t mention the stretches that are less-than-steep, but still taxing!) Finally, because of the climbs and all the turns, it is difficult to settle into a really comfortable rhythm.
Columbia is a great test of your early-season fitness. You will have to work on this course, and with a strong effort you’ll be feeling it at the finish. And when you finish, head left and climb the hill - that’s where all the food is, as well as the much-welcome massage tents. It’s easy to kick around down at the finish line at the bottom of the hill without realizing that the “goods” are at the top! Enjoy this race, it’s right at the top of the pile!
One final thought, as an add-on to what I wrote before, is to plan to arrive EARLY on race morning. Route 108 can get very congested, and the traffic into Centennial Park moves very slowly with late-comers. Both years I have done Columbia I have seen a number of frustrated people who probably wished they had allowed much more travel time. Mandatory bike-racking the day before helps some, but I’d suggest arriving at least 90 minutes (probably more) before whatever time they are planning to close T-zone. I can’t find the info on this, but I’d guess it might be around 6:30, shortly before the pro/elite wave starts.