2018 IM 70.3 Victoria Race Day Thread

Brenda Ross

Hi Team, are you ready to give your teammates some serious mojo for this coming weekend? This thread is to be used leading up to the race and on race day for the team to comment on race conditions, observations on how our team is doing during their races, or just to provide some mojo on race day.  Listed below are the members that are racing and a link to the IM Tracker.  We are no longer having an EN Tracker as part of the race day experience, however, we do encourage you to download the following app to your phone should you want to track all the athletes listed below.

IRONMAN Track (iPhone) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ironman-track/id1183983404?mt=8

Or go to the IM Live page and find the race and track via the web, that can be done here: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/live.aspx

Athletes racing

Eugene Partridge
Jason Brandt
Susan Chapman
Marcus Chapman
Jorge Duque
Kent Gavin

Kent Gavin

Good luck to all IM 70.3 Victoria athletes!  I broke my clavicle and 3 ribs 2 weeks in a bike accident ago so cannot participate as planned.  I will be there anyway to cheer on Jason Brandt and the other EN athletes!  I'll also be volunteering at athlete check-in on Saturday morning so if you see a tall guy with his right arm in a sling say hi!

Carole Harbison

Good luck everyone! I did this race last year and it was fabulous. Such a gorgeous place, I absolutely loved it. 

Jorge Duque

@Kent Gavin hope you get well soon. I'm just getting out of a nasty cold but will surely be at the starting line on Sunday.

I will be arriving on Saturday with the family. Hope to see some of you guys there.

@Carole Harbison any last minute tips?

EugenePartridge

Thanks for support & race tracker. This my 1st o 3 70.3 before Worlds in sept”ready to rolll” er! As fast as one can roll at 67. 

EugenePartridge

Sorry to hear Kent of your injury. Heal fast! 

Mike Westover

@Jorge Duque I did the race two years ago. A few notes:

Swim - in 2016 they had major issues with the swim corral being too small (by like 3x), so a lot of people ended up out of position for the rolling start resulting in a lot of contact on the swim (the most I've ever had in a tri). I would get in line a little early so you can get to the right spot and avoid some of the congestion on the swim and early on the bike.

Bike - the course is back-loaded with hills in the last 15 miles, so it's important to go out a little easy. Beware that the course is narrow for the first 10-20 miles and they start a lot of people in a short period of time, so if you aren't one of the earlier ones out of the water you will have some congestion on the bike. It was bad enough that they could have gotten at least half the field for drafting -- but it wasn't the riders' fault since there wasn't really anywhere to go. I just rode as legally as I could and put in surges to get past the big groups when there was an opening. The course opened up (and the drafting motos came out) around mile 15-20.

There is one big left turn to watch out for on the bike just before mile 30. Other than that, enjoy the views! Coming down Willis Point Road the road was smooth and you can really fly if you aren't blocked (I'm not _that_ aggressive on descents, but this one was easy enough that I stayed in the aerobars and hit about 40 mph). Just be careful on the gradual curves early in the descent in case someone in front of you crashes.

There are a lot of rolling hills toward the end of the bike course, and I tried to keep my power more even than most people -- I would get passed going up, but would make it back and then some on the flats and descents. I was passing a lot of people toward the end of the bike who had spent too much energy on the uphills.

Run - just a really nice trail run around the lake, mostly packed dirt. Can be a little narrow in spots when passing but otherwise hard to ask for a nicer run course.

Jorge Duque

Thanks Mike. Great info

Jorge

Sent from my iPhone

EugenePartridge

Really nice, concise, race overview. See you tomorrow.
Eugene

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Mike Westover
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2018 1:11 PM
To: EugenePartridge
Subject: Re: [Endurance Nation Community] 2018 IM 70.3 Victoria Race DayThread



Mike Westover commented on 2018 IM 70.3 Victoria Race Day Thread
@Jorge Duque I did the race two years ago. A few notes:



Swim - in 2016 they had major issues with the swim corral being too small (by like 3x), so a lot of people ended up out of position for the rolling start resulting in a lot of contact on the swim (the most I've ever had in a tri). I would get in line a little early so you can get to the right spot and avoid some of the congestion on the swim and early on the bike.



Bike - the course is back-loaded with hills in the last 15 miles, so it's important to go out a little easy. Beware that the course is narrow for the first 10-20 miles and they start a lot of people in a short period of time, so if you aren't one of the earlier ones out of the water you will have some congestion on the bike. It was bad enough that they could have gotten at least half the field for drafting -- but it wasn't the riders' fault since there wasn't really anywhere to go. I just rode as legally as I could and put in surges to get past the big groups when there was an opening. The course opened up (and the drafting motos came out) around mile 15-20.



There is one big left turn to watch out for on the bike just before mile 30. Other than that, enjoy the views! Coming down Willis Point Road the road was smooth and you can really fly if you aren't blocked (I'm not _that_ aggressive on descents, but this one was easy enough that I stayed in the aerobars and hit about 40 mph). Just be careful on the gradual curves early in the descent in case someone in front of you crashes.



There are a lot of rolling hills toward the end of the bike course, and I tried to keep my power more even than most people -- I would get passed going up, but would make it back and then some on the flats and descents. I was passing a lot of people toward the end of the bike who had spent too much energy on the uphills.



Run - just a really nice trail run around the lake, mostly packed dirt. Can be a little narrow in spots when passing but otherwise hard to ask for a nicer run course.