LongHorn Triathlon Festival - Half Iron (Page 2)

And here I was thinking how cool it would look to start a race with a dive knife strapped to my leg, just to battle through the foliage.

(Actually I didn't find it that bad last year.  Still, the intimidation factor alone as I lined up at the start would be fun to watch.)

Keith -

 I didn't see one (or probably missed it), is there a bike transport company as a sponsor? 

Longhorn Course Training Report:

SWIM: So, I was out at Decker Lake today to do some training with a local Austin tri-club on the Longhorn route.  We started with a swim, I just did 500m...swim wasn't my focus today.  The water was typical TX brown, some hydrillia, but really nothing horrible at the spot I was at--no worries. But let me tell you--unless it suddenly becomes WINTER in TX in one month (not likely) there is NO chance of this being a wet suit legal race.  It was WARM water.  Not boiling, but definitely on the warm bath water side of things.  That electric plant is keeping the water toasty.

BIKE:
Climbing: My Garmin had it at around 2500ft of climbing.  BUT, there were only two times where I felt like I really had to climb. #1 The right turn from Lindell onto Blue Bluff (I think) was a pretty steep right turn where, because of turning, you lose your momentum, shift prior to here or it's going to be a little tough. #2 Of course, it's Quadzilla...right towards the end you have a pretty decent climb to get back to the park, and then once you hit the top and take the last turn back towards the transition/park entrance you have a short little climb. Everything in between are rollers and flats.  None of it made me think, awe crap, and I'm a fan of the flats.  Lots of the rollers allow you to pick up enough speed to easily make it up the next hill, fun stuff.

Road Surface: Some of it is really nice, some of it is not so nice. I think the part I disliked the most was the first section of Blake Manor and Littig...I started thinking that at some point Austin must've had an earthquake--the road cracks are pretty bad in some areas.  I hope they are well marked, but at the same time, there are just a lot of them...big enough to suck in a road tire.  So, watch it.  No one out of the group today (and there were lots of people riding it) caught one that I know of, but still.  Also, there were lots of so-called "road patches"--you know, where a repair crew comes out, drops a blob of asphalt on the ground and leaves.  Watch for that too.  For those of you coming from outside of TX, well, you'll get a little taste of just about everytype of TX road surface on this route.

Other notes: It is fairly scenic and it's nice to have a loop. If you've never seen a real Longhorn, just keep your eyes open while riding and you'll see them.  At the beginning you catch a lot of good downhills that are nice and you know you won't have to ride back up as well.  Some parts have a shoulder, some don't--so long as traffic is blocked off well, it won't be bad.  The traffic wasn't ridiculous out there today either.  Will it be the fastest route ever, no, but it's also not a slow route.  The key to riding this one will be rider awareness of the road surfaces, otherwise you're going to have a bad day.

RUN: I definitely didn't run the whole course, did nearly 3 miles (had more in me, but a bee stung my head and I decided it was a sign that I was done a little early), but that included "Quadzilla"--yeah, it's a kicker, but it's not as bad as the Buffalo Springs big hills.  A good section of the run within the park is on the grass, but there are ruts, not big rocks, I had no problems and it was nice to not have blazing hot asphalt reflecting back on me.  Minus Quadzilla, the route is fairly flat. 

Hope that helps some of y'all.  Definitely suggest going out and driving the course prior to the race so you can get an eye for the turns.  No u-turns, but some of the road turns are slightly sharp...we did take a near 2-mile detour when we missed one turn today, but I'm sure race day will make it easy to see. 

Thanks for the report.  I had the same impression of the bike course when I rode it in August.  I didn't get to run any of the run course so I'm glad to hear 'quadzilla' isn't as bad as the hills at BSLT.  I know those hills.

TJ

Tommy, FYI, Quadzilla is the last hill on the bike course.  Its on the fence line on the side of the road.

Okay, so as to be fair since everyone comes from different perspectives on hills, here is what my Garmin recorded as the elevation and grade--you can see the bigger hills, but you can also see how the grades of a lot of the ones in between are minimal, thus my definition of rollers.  Also, if you go to the Longhorn 70.3 website, go to maps, you can get good imagery of the course and elevation by clicking on the "Elevation of the Bike/Run Course" beneath the maps--and where does the link take you...right to our very own BT route tracker!

Not the greatest image, but had to get it small enough to post.  I did take a minor detour for about 3.5 miles in there between mile 24-28, but we went back on course, and most of the detour was really flat.

Dennis,

Taking your theory one step further, what if you are 50 pounds overweight and your longest ride in training is 35 miles? 

Join the BBQ crew?