Esprit Half Ironman Race Report by Tim Deakon

Race report: Esprit Half Ironman triathlon in Montreal

The demi-Esprit half Ironman triathlon is held on the Ille de Notre Dame, the site of Expo ’67 and the rowing events for the ’76 Olympics. It’s also the site of the F1 track, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. As it turns out it is one of the oldest tri’s in Canada running 26 consecutive years.
The swim takes place in the Olympic rowing basin, a 2 km by 100 m body of water adjacent to the St Lawrence. It is for all intents and purposes an “outdoor swimming pool”. It is 3 m deep the entire length and has cables running along the bottom to secure the lane markers for rowing competitions. The swim starts from the east end of the basin on a sand beach and is an out and back loop going down the south side and then along the north side back to the beach and T1. There is a less than 50 m run up the beach over to the racks in T1. For the half Ironman the bike racks were about 30 m from the entry to the bike leg up a slight hill. Once over the mount line you ride 500 m down an access road and left onto the Circuit GV running the track counterclockwise. The F1 races run the track in a clockwise fashion and I was told the direction is reversed for the triathlon because the prevailing wind is usually a westerly and this gives you a push on the open south side of the track and is less of a factor on the tree protected north side of the circuit. You can begin to see a trend here; this triathlon is designed for speed, your perfect PB course. Unfortunately the day I raced the wind was from the northeast so there was a headwind on the open sections, but it didn’t make much difference though as this bike course is very fast. You do 20 laps of the racetrack that has some gentle rollers with about a 4-5 m rise and drop and four tight turns plus a 180-degree hairpin. You can take all of the turns in the aero bars except for the hairpin but you better be comfortable at speed, leaned well over on the bike while in the aero position. There is a water station and mechanical pits right before the hairpin (perfect since this is the slowest part of the track). They have water bottles and e-Load in squirt type water bottles at this station. There are bike mechanics to help with flats etc. here as well. The bike chip timing mats are right after the aid station. Every lap the announcer calls out your name and what lap you have completed. You are supposed to keep track of your laps but I distinctly heard my name and “last lap” called so it wasn’t at all confusing. You exit the circuit to the right through a separate access road to the entry point. It’s 300 m to the dismount line and then 20 m to the bike racks. From T2 you run through the parking lot about 250 m to the run start. The run goes onto a dirt path for 3 km at about 400 m into the run. This was much appreciated for my bike weary and age challenged knees!
The run turns onto the pancake flat path around the rowing basin and you do four loops of this course before crossing the finish line. There are three aid stations on the loop with e-Load, Coke and water as well as gels and bananas.

So as for my race experience; this was my first real triathlon so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I picked the demi-Esprit mainly because the swim looked easy and the bike had no steep downhills so I would be comfortable riding it if it rained.
There were 250 people in my swim wave, men 45+, women and some relay participants. I decided to go right to the front and go for it and this turned out to be the right thing to do as after about 100 m I was pretty much free of the masses except for two guys that keep bumping into me and grabbing my legs. I stopped for a few seconds and let these guys go, veered to the left and just put my head down, after another 200 m I was well past them and starting to catch the wave that started ten minutes earlier. The swim was a breeze and actually a lot of fun. I never had to lift to sight as the cables on the bottom showed me the way. The turn buoy came up on my right and was easy to see with my right breathing. Out of the water 1st male in my wave. I was a little slow on T1, learned I had too small a towel and too much stuff on it! The bike went great as I held back a lot (Thanks to Jamie’s Endurance Nation DVD) for that one. Kept my HR under 155 and still averaged 39.6 k/h. Stayed in the aero position for the whole lap except the hairpin. The bike was a hoot. Nutrition and hydration was primarily done on the bike with 700 ml/hour, 300 cal/hour and 3 Saltstick Tabs working perfectly for me. I used all e-Load, e-Load Fly and Gu gels to accomplish this.
Got off the bike feeling really fresh. Screwed up in T2, started the run without my number and had to go back to get it, probably costing about a minute and a half.
I had a great run. I anticipated a run of 1:45 because every one told me to add 10 minutes to my open half marathon time in a half Ironman but felt really good and started running 4:30 k’s with a HR of 163, right on target. Caught a group of thirty year old dudes from Ottawa that were running 1:38 pace and I thought I would try and hang with them as long as I could. They were great as we all took turns blocking the headwind on the north side of the course. Well as it turns out I had lots “left in the tank” as I broke away from this group on the last lap and ran 4:10 k’s to finish with a 1:33:47. That’s better than my 10 k pace at my last race, go figure.
Final time 4:28:27. First in AG. First in AG on swim and run and second in AG on the bike. Good first HIM!

I strongly recommend this race for first timers or people who want to do a PB. This course is probably good for 5-7 minutes over other flat courses like Peterborough. The swim is fabulous to allay the fears of a first timer and the bike and run are fast. It is also the best spectator triathlon as your “support crew” get to walk beside you on the swim, see you 20 times from any vantage point on the bike and 4 times on the run.