TimpTriClub Icebreaker Triathlon Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Mike M.
Syracuse, UT

  (05-18-2009)

"Icebreaker lived up to it's name in 2008, being bitterly cold, accentuated by an icy northerly wind. It's a well organized event, and a fun one to start the season with.

Due to the cold, they reversed the order of events, and so we ran first. Numbers had been assigned based on anticipated swim time, and they used this to divide the field into a number of heats for the run. The run consists of a single loop, up a hill, along a nice flat and then down the hill back to transition.

The run went well, and my transition went fairly smoothly.

Heading out on the bike meant heading right into the wind, uphill and on a road that could probably use some maintenance. I would estimate the wind at over 20mph. Similar to the run, this course was an up, along and then down, except 2 laps on the bike. The climb was rough, and the while the top road was flat, it was also in need of repair.

The course was well marked, with Police Officers on all corners and signage, directing drivers to beware of racers.

With a strong tailwind, the downhill portion was really fun, although a little hairy at times. The shoulder was pretty wide, but I know at least one participant got caught in the air wash behind a large truck/trailer and ended up taking a pretty bad spill.

My bike went really well until the second loop, when I hit something coming down the big hill and blew my rear tire. 10 minutes down, I finally got back into the race, avoiding the emergency vehicles from the accident and nervous that I was going to lose another tire.

T2 went well too - My wife was extra relieved to see me, after hearing the ambulance, and then my being late in, but she wished me luck as I stripped down and ran over to the pool.

After the cold, the pool felt great. The swim was a serpentine style one, and had a lane for each direction. The only problem I had was trying to get by a number of the slower swimmers, taking about 50% longer to get done than I anticipated. Probably wouldn't have been an issue had I not flatted, but that's life. After cursing the names of a few very wide swimmers, I got done. And gladly got back into my sweats and coat.

Well organized race, definitely.
Fun Race to start the season, yes.
Would I do it again, maybe - due to the cold, it's not high on my list, but maybe I'm just a weeney!! "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008