I posted this yesterday attached to another older thread (which was stupid), so here it is again for the daytime crowd, and as a new post, so those who may be interested will actually know what this post is about.
Race Updates
April 11th - The rain and flooding from last week has washed out the beach at Lake Sebago. A major repair operation is required and the beach is going to be closed until further notice. Fortunately there is another beach site just up the road as Lake Welch. This will be our new main event site. The swim will move to Lake Welch, probably won’t be any warmer. The lake is on the bike loop so the bike course remains mostly unchanged. The only difference is the starting point on the loop. As a result the largest hill climb on the loop will come at the very end of each lap. The largest modification will be to the run course. The current plan is to run from Lake Welch down to Lake Sebago, complete our original loop and return on the road to Lake Welch. This should put us right near 13.1 miles with one loop. The good news is that this will reduce the amount of trail running by 50%. The bad news is that Lake Welch is at the top of the hill, you will have to descend to Lake Sebago which leaves a nasty climb back up to Lake Welch at the end of the race. We will work to finalize all details by next week.
(Sounds like big fun…)
Addendum - I drove the bike course yesterday, and in the ‘reverse Sprint course mode’, it makes for some potentially very challenging descending. The road that you would normally ascend is now a twisty downhill, and it will be quite shady. Doing it solo on my road bike would be fun, doing it with a few hundred of my closest friends, most on Tri bikes and many in the aero bars… could be ugly. The one “positive” (this is a stretch, at best) is that at least for the big climb, you can settle in to one gear and just do your thing, it’s pretty consistent.
As for the new and improved run course, which leaves a nasty climb back up to Lake Welch at the end of the race, it didn’t seem as bad as I thought it would be. There is a moderately steep hill directly after the Sebago traffic circle on the way back, which lasts for about half a mile. Then it moderates quite a bit, and is more like rollers and gradual climbing.