Wauconda Triathlon - Sprint Course : Official Thread

I am doing the Olympic relay with my daughter.  She will be coming off the half iron man in Racine the previous week.  I typically just do aquabikes. so this is just a fun time for us to do one together.  We've done Wauconda in the past, both as a team and individually.  Generally well run, although this year I think there may be different folks running it than in the past (Wauconda Park district this year). 

Water is OK, but you go through weeds (underwater) by the shoreline.  The swim course has traditionally not been marked off very well and is asymetrical, so it can be easy to get off course.  Bike course is a fairly easy two loops - flats and small rolling hills. (I think about 11.8 miles per loop)

Good luck - maybe I'll see you there.

It looks like they shortened the bike up some to more closely match up with an Oly on 2 loops. Old version was 14.5 mile (even though they said 15). New one seems to be the same as Bangs Lake route, which I had at 11.7. Slightly short, but close enough to work.

This tri has been going on for a few years by Wauconda Parks, it's just that it was easily confused with the Bangs Lake Tri by RAM Racing. Last year they were only about 2 weeks apart. Well scheduled to be as Wauconda Tri was cancelled due to storms that morning. RAM is not running a tri here this year. Not sure why.

Well I think keeping the sprint half the distance of the oly makes a lot of sense  to me.  Especially if its a going to be a 2 loop course for the Oly.   I think most sprints I have done been around a 12 mile bike ride. 

Yeah Bang Lake not being there is interesting.  Maybe they already have 2 many races already.  Also interesting since I think Bangs Lake Triathlon was working with the park district at least the first year.  I just hope it was not something like that happen in Lake Zurich and they got pushed out. 

Anyone got an idea of lake temperature?

I imagine it's pretty warm...and I don't think there's any rain in the forecast between now and race day to cool it off.

I'm wondering about wetsuits.  Might not be legal.  Might not be comfortable.  I've never done an oly without one though...makes me slightly nervous.

Posted on the Event Website Monday, the 16th...no surprise.

I'm wondering how much water's left in that lake...Fox River is dry as a bone in a lot of places.

Ha - yes, I'm expecting a lot of weeds reaching to the surface of the water, especially near the start and finish.  There have been plenty of weeds in past years, I imagine it will be even worse with water levels so low.

Included the course as part of today's ride. The roads are actually alright for the most part. For around here at least. Where Callahan breaks away from 12 (heading east), there are some things to watch out for on the right side. But one only has to move to the middle of the lane. Not the middle of the road. The rest of the course is spiderweb cracks. Nothing big, but lots of little ones that will give a slight bump. On Fairfield, the first part is great. When the road starts to go down to the light at 176, outside of the lines is rather bad, but inside is fine.

Stopped down by the swim finish as well. Saw some of the volunteers raking the weeds out of the finish are. Water temp will probably be close. It was cooler yesterday, but temp will get up to 90 again today, so I don't know. It'll depend on how creative they get with the thermometer. I imagine they want to let people wear the wetsuits if at all possible, so may wait until the very last minute to make the call. So bring the wetsuit if you'd like to wear one. Just leave it in T1 if we're not allowed to wear it.

Really well run event. 

Off to wash out the weeds and lake gunk.  

Sorry! No one was doing anything unpredictable, so it all felt safe from my view. Just had to call out to some floating on the left side. I was wondering about crowds from starting in the last wave, but it turned out ok.

Race results with splits are up here.