Ironman Canada Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Brett M.
San Francisco, CA

  (09-12-2011)

"Penticton is a very interesting and incredible place. The people are friendly, nearly to a fault, the landscape is beautiful, and the race is awesome.

The swim in Lake Okanagan is a one loop course, with huge buoys, and warm fresh water (still cold enough for wetsuits to be legal though). I lined up on the right side of the clockwise course and could have been alright except for some traffic 400 meters in when people start dying off from sprinting out too hard. Once you hit this point, things thin out and everyone behaved themselves at the two turns as well. All in all a mellow race, but staying the the left outside might be a better tactic if looking to go for a 1:00 to 1:05 swim pace. I ended up at 1:09 due to the backups.

The bike course is the full highlight of this race. Taking you over two major climbs, neither being overly challenging, but sustained efforts, it can burn out people's legs if they do not pace accordingly. Everyone says the race doesn't start until after you crest Mt. Richter (first major climb). The 40 miles to Richter are flat and fast except for a bit of a speed bump at mile 12ish. There is one issue here where a local has seemed to drop tacks on the road at this point so watch out. Many flats occur. The series of rollers follow Mt Richter and this is where the next batch of people burn out their legs trying to muscle over them. Just stay focused and spin over each and carry speed into the downhill instead of hammering and relaxing.

Yellow Lake is the "harder" climb, as headwinds can increase at this point, and the temperature increases depending on the year. They also ran out of water in 2011 for the BOP(Back of Pack). The course was set up with Bike Aid stations every 10 miles, so its a good idea to make sure you have 2 bottles on your bike at all times in case an aid station is not re-supplied when you arrive.

Heading back into town was a little arduous as the headwind nullified the gradual descent a bit. The final stretch was very cool with the whole town lining the streets.

The run south along Lake Skaha is just a huge tease on a hot day as you would love to just go jump in. Some short climbs, but nothing to really worry about. Well supported until later when there was word that the BOP'ers weren't getting water again. A friend of mine fell victim to this and he ended up 20 minutes past the finish cutoff as a result.

This is one of the best IM events with the exception of the aid station situations and the mini medals handed out. The Race Director sent an email apology the next week trying to explain what happened, but it does not excuse putting people\'s safety in danger. Hopefully its fixed in the future.

Another small note, why did they use dark blue swim caps for the swim for men? I couldn't see anyone except for the pink ladies caps in the water.

You can ready about my race day here:
http://clydesdaletriathlon.blogspot.com/2011/09/ir onman-canada-race-report.html"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2011

Geoff L.
San Mateo, CA

  (12-18-2010)

"Ironman Canada lived up to its hype and reputation. The course itself is very pretty and scenic for most of the 140.6 miles. Penticton is a nice quaint city and mostly hospitable to 3000 IM athletes taking over the city.
First off, the IM experience was in full tilt when we arrived into town. You could feel all the pent up energy just waiting to be released.

The swim was very wide open and despite previous days of whitecaps, the water was relatively calm. I started on the far right which I feel was great cuz there weren’t as many people and I still had a good line to the first buoy and the houseboat to turn right. The swim course itself is a large rectangle with right turns at each houseboat. A huge tip is that you don’t need to be on the left side of the bouys until you reach the houseboats. This allowed us all to swim comfortably for the most part and focus on drafting until we all converged at the first houseboat. All in all compared to other triathlons swims I’ve done, this was relatively less chaotic. Probably because there was plenty of beach to space out all 2700+ athletes.

Transition area lived up to the Ironman tradition as it was well organized, volunteers were great, and wetsuit strippers were amazing!

The bike is really where you get to enjoy Canada. Yes, the course profile looks scary especially when you look at elevation, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not bad compared with training rides that you’ve probably done building up to the race. The one recommendation that everyone has is to stay aerobic the first 25-50miles of the race. I tried, but failed….leading to a tough and looong last 20 miles. The rain didn’t help either. I had some raingear in my special needs bag, but it wasn’t raining by then….sooo Freezing and cold, I entered the last water stop and opted to take one of the spaceblankets the volunteers were handing out for the long descent ahead….don’t know if it helped, but it felt like a parachute in the wind…I took it off before heading into town.

Thankfully, back in town, there was no rain and I was able to thaw out. T2 was equally great with good support and cheering.

The run course was fun as well. Although the course is a 1 way out and back, there is a brief loop at the beginning which allowed me to see my family twice which was mentally uplifting. The run has some rollers which were manageable, but there was a headwind coming back into town. Here is where I learned the value of drafting regardless off of whom the leader is breaking the wind. I started drafting off a Clydesdale, but then migrated over behind a smaller woman who refused to let me pass her to take a “running pull”. So I settled right behind her for about 2 miles…thanks again!!!!

The finishing shoot was great, but I swear that the last 1.5 miles was longer!!!! I thought I had the timing down, but apparently was running slower than I thought. I ended up crossing just past 11:02. A PR and a time far better than the sub-12 I was shooting for. But a time too close to 11 to retire from IM=)

Overall a great course and wonderful city. The pre and post-expo was okay, but far less than IM Couer d’alene. It seemed there were far less vendors and exhibits than I’ve seen before. If it hadn’t been for the IM store, there really wasn’t an definite reason to go to frequent the expo. I also wasn’t that thrilled with the IM finisher shirt so bought a nicer looking one the next day.

Final IM CANADA TIP: Listen to everyone when they say “stay aerobic” in the first 20 miles of the bike. Also, if you are adverse to riding in rain and get cold easily, check the weather for the entire bike loop..not just Penticton.
"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

Gregory L.
San Francisco, CA

  (09-06-2010)

"This was my second ironman and when I was trying to figure out which one I'd want to do, IMCA was highly recommended by a lot of people for the venue and beauty of the course. I was lucky because it came available for online registration as this race normally sells out w/ onsite registration the day after the race. Ironman Canada certainly didn't disppoint.

Expo: Considering how well regarded Ironman Canada is, I was actually a bit disappointed with the expo. It was smaller than other half ironman and olympic distance expos I've been to. Compared to Ironman Florida, there was definitely less vendors with tents, but also less official ironman related booths. For example at Ironman Florida they had a great section for friends and family to make signs to cheer on athletes and also a really neat area where you could put in a special message that athletes would see at the turn around during the marathon on a big electronic sign. There was one cool spot at the IMCA expo, which was a green screen photo area, where you can take pictures and have a few pre-set backgrounds added to your picture. One other thing to note was the AWESOME volunteers at this race. During the check in process, each athlete was escorted through the tent to make sure you got everything taken care of.

Pre-race: As with any triathlon, there's always plenty of race prep. We arrived Wednesday night before the race, which seems like tons of time for a Sunday race, but time sure does fly. One thing missing from IMCA was an organized pre-race swim. I'm thinking it might be due to the fact that IMCA doesn't setup the swim course until the morning of the race. But even without, the swim area is very accessible to get into the water before the race. We also decided to drive the bike course, which takes a while since it's a single loop, but definitely worth it to get a lay of the land. The athletes' dinner was actually pretty good (wish the same could be said for the food), the most interesting was seeing the three guys who have done 27 straight IMCAs. Amazing. Other things to note are that bikes and all transition bags get racked the day before the race. However you do have access to everything the morning of the race. And special needs bags are dropped off the morning of the race.

Race morning: Woke up at 4AM, followed the usual yogurt and granola routine, got all my food, gear and special needs and headed down to the transition area around 5AM. Mom and dad dropped myself and a few other friends down the road from the transition area. After getting body marked and walking into transition, I looked around and realized I forgot my water bottles! I was pretty bummed since I wouldn't have any of the race specific drink nutrition I wanted to use. I was able to scrounge together some gatorade and a friend's water bottle and just resigned to the fact that I'd have to rely on the aid stations for drinks throughout the race. This would turn out to be the first of several challenges throughout the day. Another random note is that there was some note in the athlete's guide that the transition area closes at 6:30AM, but that definitely was not enforced, as there were people still trying to get into the porta-a-johns minutes before the gun went off!

Swim: The swim takes place in Lake Okanagan, which is a really beautiful lake, some call it the Lake Tahoe of Canada. Conditions were ideal, water temp in the upper 60's and calm. Air temp was a bit chilly, probably in the low 60's. The lake is pretty clear which is really nice, and swimming in fresh water is way nicer than salt water. The swim course is a one loop "rectangle" with a shallow water start. Looking around I must say it's a pretty amazing scene to see the over 2800 people ready to get this thing started. I was planning to start on the outside to avoid as much of the chaos as possible, but apparently others had the same thoughts making the sides very crowded, so I ended up right smack in the middle :). When the gun went off (and after the bagpipes played - oh the Canadians), the full contact portion of the ironman had begun. Surprisingly, I went relatively unscathed at the beginning of the swim. Other than the usual small bumps and kicks, it was pretty peaceful the first 200 meters or so. But as we approached the first buoy, it seems like everyone converged. I started getting very cautious as the last thing you want during a swim is for someone to knock you in the head and pop your goggles off or something. Interestingly, this trend continued for almost the entire first half of the swim. Things were pretty calm between buoys, but then every time we approached a buoy it was as if people swam TO the buoys instead of PAST them. Anyways, shortly after one of the buoy "gatherings" I felt like I was in the clear for a bit, and then BAM, someone caught me w/ a left elbow in the right eye. I promptly grabbed the guy's leg and pulled him under for a little payback. Luckily my goggles stayed on, but something didn't feel right w/ my eye. I kept moving (as the worst thing you can do during and ironman swim is to stop since there are so many people behind ready to pummel you), but I noticed I couldn't read my watch clearly. Then I thought to myself, "did I remember to bring my spare contacts?" Doh. This happened around the 1200 meter mark, so I was pretty concerned about doing the rest of the race being able to only see out of one eye. I figured I couldn't do anything about it now, so just keep swimming and hopefully the contact is still in my goggle. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful, but one adjustment I made was to actually swim on the INSIDE of the buoys and just make sure I got around the turn buoys. One cool feature of the race is they use house boats as the turn buoys. There was also supposedly a frogman somewhere down there you need to wave to, but I never saw him. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful, I was mostly anxious to get out of the water to see if my contact was still there...

T1: Normally coming out of the water you would start ripping off goggles, swimcaps and wetsuits. Not this time for me. I carefully removed my goggles and luckily in the right socket was my contact! Now the next challenge was to figure out how to put it back in. I ran over to the eye glasses table (where people leave prescription glasses if they need) and asked for a mirror. No luck. Tried putting it in with a volunteer watching me, but no luck after about 10 tries. Then one of the volunteers pointed out the Subaru truck behind me (Subaru is the sponsor). I ran over, whipped around the rear view mirror and just like that I can see! Ran over to the wetsuit strippers, they helped me get the sleeves off, threw me on the ground and ripped it off my legs. Love the wetsuit strippers. I grabbed my T1 bag (this was different from IMFL, where they brought you your bag). Ran into the changing tent, did a full change of everything and then went to grab my bike. Unfortunately I noticed my contact still feeling a bit weird, luckily there was a volunteer standing right next to my bike so i asked her to hold my sunglasses, popped out the contact, reversed it and got it back in. I have notoriously slow transition times, and was hoping I could improve this time, but the contact snafu cost me about 5 minutes, so the single digit minutes T1 continues to elude me...haha.

Bike: The Ironman Canada bike course is known for being incredibly beautiful, but also quite difficult. One of the tricky parts of the course is the first 40K or so is flat to downhill, so you can go real fast. The key is to keep something in the tank for the long climbs later on. At around the 20K mark, you turn onto a road called McLean Creek Road, which many described as a short, but very steep incline that breaks up the packs, but I think the difficulty of it was a little exaggerated. The first real test is at 60K, when you hit Richter Pass. There's a net 1500ft of elevation to climb over about 10K. I would describe it as a gradual extended climb. Certainly not easy, but not as hard as some others described. The descent down Richter following the climb is nothing short of amazing and probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. I hit 45MPH on the descent that last for a good few kilometers. I've never gone that fast on my bike for such an extended period of time. The first big mental test of the bike came up next - a 20K stretch that felt very slightly uphill, but with a strong headwind. It was difficult to break 15MPH and get in any kind of rhythm cause you felt like you were hammering, but not really moving anywhere fast. Personally this was the toughest mental part of the race. One tip that’s helped me on long rides is if you’re ever feeling tired or mentally exhausted, eat. Getting some extra nutrition in the system always does wonders. The next chunk of the ride is an out and back to the special aid station. Note the special aid station for IMCA is around mile 75, where most other ironmans will do it closer to the halfway point. This section was great because it was the first area where you were able to see a lot of the other athletes. Beware thought, the out and back seemed quite a bit longer than I was expecting. Once you complete the out and back, there are some rollers as you work your way to the last big climb, up to Yellow Lake. If I remember correctly, there were about 3 or 4 climbs, followed by some shorter flat sections, which were great for recovery. The weather had been great up to this point, but as we approached this climb it started raining, and hailing! Yes, hail. It also started to get a little chilly with the rain, as the temps were in the 60's. The best part of this section was on one of the main climbs, spectators line the hill and you feel like you get a taste of what it must be like to ride in the tour de france. So cool. Once you get up and over Yellow Lake it's a fast 20K or so back to the transition area, this is another very quick section where you can pick up some time after all the tough riding you've been through.

T2: This was a pretty standard T2 ironman transition, someone takes your bike when you arrive, then there were volunteers who picked up my gear bag for me. Made a quick run into the changing tent, one stop at the porta-a-john, then it was time to get out on the run.

Run: The IMCA run is a single loop out and back course and simliar to the bike, it is SUPER scenic. The run starts w/ a small out and back section (which you actually double back on at the end of the race) on the best supported section of the course. It's about a 2 mile total stretch, so it was really helpful to get such great support at the beginning and end of the race. Aid stations are every single mile, one little thing to note that I really like about the course organization, they put the aid stations about halfway between the mile markers. This was really helpful in the second half of the race to have something to run (or sometimes walk) to every half a mile vs. every mile. The first 10 miles or so of the run course is very flat making for a really great way to get into the run. But then the next 3 miles had a pretty significant amount of rollers and in some cases, decent sized hills to go up. I'd HIGHLY recommend checking out the course before the race, as I did not, and wasn't really mentally prepared to deal w/ all the rollers. Special needs was at the turnaround point, which was where I picked up some extra gels to try and get me back to the finish. I was feeling pretty good till around mile 20 and some stomach issues started showing up. I had followed my nutrition plan pretty well throughout the day, but the weather was a bit cooler than I was prepared for (not to mention the rain and the hail on the bike). And over the course of a long day, developed a pretty bad stomach ache. Made one stop in the porta john around mile 20 and knew I just had to make it a few more miles. The run back was painful, but the course was well supported so there was lots of energy to feed off of. Finally made it back to the finish line and I must say it was just as sweet as the first time for the announcer to say "Gregory Lou, you are an Ironman!".

Overall this was definitely one of the most difficult race days I've ever had, but would absolutely recommend this race to anyone looking for a great ironman race. This event is the Super Bowl of Penticton so the entire town is really into it. If I ever do another ironman again, this would certainly be high on the list.
"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

Melinda L.
San Francisco, CA

  (09-01-2010)

"There’s really nothing quite like hearing a bagpiper playing while waiting on the beach with 2,799 other athletes for the mass swim start of Ironman Canada. It was truly awesome! It certainly made up for the insane pre-race line for the transition area porta-potties! Instead, head over to the host hotel or across the street to the bandshell.

The swim itself is a one-loop clockwise triangle in Okanagan Lake. Race morning, the lake was like glass and a pleasant 66 degrees. The water was crystal clear--I actually saw fish while swimming. The buoys were well-placed and numbered. The two turn-buoys were houseboats which made sighting easy. Actually, I didn’t do much sighting since there were so many athletes that it was easier to just follow the crowd. It was so crowded that even by buoy #23, I was still getting grabbed and bumped into. The downside of that was that there were only a few short stretches where I had enough room to get some good uninterrupted strokes in. We were told that during the final stretch we’d be swimming into the sun, but that wasn’t a problem this year since the sun was behind a couple of perfectly positioned clouds. The swim finish is really shallow and rocky, so it’s best to swim as far as you can before getting up.

T1 was crowded. There were enough wetsuit-strippers and getting my transition bag was not a problem. However, the general consensus is that the changing tents were way too small for the number of athletes. All the seats in the women’s changing tent were taken by the time I got there, so I ended up putting all of my bike gear on at the end of a row of seats. There were sunscreen-applying volunteers just outside the changing tent and I was handed my bike by a volunteer.

The bike is one loop with an out-and-back part later in the course. The course was open to traffic, though controlled through certain portions. It’s the most beautiful Ironman bike course I’ve ever done--simply breathtaking! Moreover, the weather was a perfect 70 degrees. Aid stations were about every 10 miles. Aid stations were stocked with water, Gatorade, PowerBar gels and bars, bananas, etc. Each aid station had two porta-potties, which was not enough given the stern warnings not to pee freely and the number of athletes. There were so many athletes that, for a lot of the bike course, it was impossible to stay the requisite four bike lengths away from the athlete ahead.

I heard some amazing stories about mechanical difficulties during the bike and how the great people at Bike Barn saved the day. One woman at the B&B I stayed at had a major mechanical catastrophe, and was lent a bike by Bike Barn in the middle of the course. A man also at the B&B I stayed at broke a spoke during the bike course. The guys at Bike Barn lent him a rear wheel. Both went on to finish the race.

The first 40 miles of the bike course were, for the most part, flat and fast… then came Richter Pass followed by some long rollers… then came the climb to Yellow Lake. Having trained around San Francisco, the climbs weren’t difficult. I’d compare them to the top portion of Tunitas Creek Road, where it’s just a long gradual climb. The descents were awesome! The roads were very well-paved and what turns there were, were very gradual, which was perfect for satisfying my need for speed (42 mph).

Bike special needs bags were 3/4 of the way through the course. They weren’t kidding when they said that special needs bags will not be returned. There were a surprising number of spectators along the bike course. What a lot of well-seasoned spectators did was drive along the bike course and stop at certain places to cheer. I kept seeing these two particular burly guys dressed in grass skirts and seashell bikini-tops everywhere! The most cheered portions were during Richter Pass and the final climb to Yellow Lake. The Yellow Lake climb--despite this year’s weather issues (some rain/hail)--was like the Tour de France, with the path lined with spectators cheering each rider on. Very inspiring!

By T2, the athletes had finally spread out and I had my very own volunteer helping me in the changing tent.

The run is essentially one long out-and-back through Penticton and then along Skaha Lake. The beginning and end include a short out-and-back along Okanagan Lake--something to keep in mind when coming back in to finish! As with the bike, it was a gorgeous run course! The run course heading out of Penticton is one long gradual descent, which felt good coming off the bike, but didn’t feel so good heading back into town. There were a few small hills right outside of Penticton and then a long flat stretch along Skaha Lake. There were a few more hills near the turnaround. A lot of the residents along the run course were out cheering and a few even had thumping music playing to keep us motivated. There were aid stations just about every mile. Aid stations were stocked with water, Gatorade, PowerBar gels and bars, bananas, pretzels, Pepsi, grapes, and soup (tasted like ramen soup). And of course the last mile or so of the run was so special. No words can describe running down the chute being cheered on by the crowd that was rhythmically beating the sideboards.

I love Ironman Canada."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

Michelle R.
Sugar Land, TX

  (03-29-2010)

"This was my 4th IM and by far my favorite adn the most difficult! it was extremely challenging, but you had the support of the crowds the whole time which make a huge difference! What a beautiful place to be able to do an IM!!"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009