Guleph Lake Triathlon (Page 2)

Long???  No way, it was short by a km.  Every other year it's listed as 19km, this year it's suddenly 20km.  Don't think so...Look at the average speeds on sport stats, not close to being realistic - as much as I would love to believe I could bike that fast.

I measured the sprint at just over 19km bike rack to bike rack, and measured my average speed at 36.low km/h, nothing like the 38.0km/h on sportstats.

I think the olympic one was a bit long though.

I think I sprained a finger holding onto my aerobars during the 0-10 and 30-40km segments on the oympic distance (as well as the 0-19km segment on the sprint).  Those roads are really awful.  They make me not want to come back next year.

I don't remember why they switched.   Used to have waves with a few minutes in between each, and maybe it took too long?   Last year we had 625 participants.  Perhaps being Father's Day the numbers were down.  

The swim WAS pretty tough yesterday - took in lots of water because I breath bi-laterally and kept forgetting not to breath into the waves.     I liked the way they didn't funnel you into the water this year but that, along with the east wind, made for alot of people really getting off course.

I found yesterday's ride to be a little tougher.  After Rd 29 you only have 1 short steep hill at Oustic and then a bit longer climb on the way back.  With a cross wind on the way out and a head wind coming back we missed having a nice tailwind.      

This is the 'normal' Olympic route for the last few years.  

I believe the explanation I heard for the mass start was so they could do a 2 lap swim for safety reasons. I know it was for sure a learning experience for me. As for the bike course it is one of the reasons i will skip the guelph lake 2 this year and try the milk series. Still  a nice race though.

I did the 1.5km swim in our relay team and was hugely disapointed in the experience.  I expected to get jostled around obviously with the odd elbow in face, etc.  But there were also a few incidents in which swimmers were purposely hitting.  WTF?  I was talking to the swimmer from one of the other relay teams at T1 and she mentioned it was really rough and agressive.  All I know is next time maybe I'll start to return the favours if people want to play rough....for God's sake we arn't going to the olympics...do you really feel the need to grab my arm as I pass you?  thanks...      The sprint up the hill to T1 was a nice going away present!   I actually kinda liked that!

Our cyclist said the course had some really rough spots on the road, it needs to get fixed.  It definitely effected the race.  And our runner was content, but said if you asked him to go back and trace the route he couldn't.  I guess it had some paths, and off road, etc.  But he enjoyed it nonetheless.

Agree 100%. I got to the first turn completely surrounded by other swimmers. Some of
them, not all, were hitting while trying to overpass at any cost. And I'm not
talking of the elite swimmers who make their living with any sec they can
shave. These angry hitting fellows probably swam the 1.5 km in the same 30 min
that took me to do it.

I rather have a real wave start (not the colour cap-position wave type) and they
should seriously look into re-paving the first section of the bike course. As
much as I like the course and the lake I'm not sure if I will register for
Guelph II.

What is the complaint people have about the road? I didn't think the surface was all that bad aside from a couple of small places, and the hills were miniscule. It was a little narrow for the number of racers, pretty crowded at a number of spots but that's fairly normal.

Maybe you were asleep during the first/last 3km - because everyone else agrees that the roads are crap and need to be repaved.  But if you were happy with them then road conditions are something you don't need to worry about.

Were you riding a mountain bike? The road was a battlefield on first (and last) 5 km.