Toronto Triathlon Festival Race Review

This past weekend was the inaugural Toronto Triathlon Festival, a race which had none other than Simon Whitfield as its marquee participant (he did a "demo" sprint that day), and which was the first truly urban tri race experience available in the Toronto area. It was like our equivalent to the Chicago or New York City triathlons. A great idea and long over-due.

Kudos to the team who brought this together. It must have been tough to get Mayor Ford and the rest of  city counsel to close down two major highways for a whole morning, especially given that triathlon is still not that high profile of a sport (and never will be with Lance gone). To the credit of the race organizers, they did not try to do it alone. They sought out guidance and consultation from those who have experience with such urban races, and as a result, the whole thing went off rather well.

"triathlon??, oh yes, eat, drink, laugh"

RACE BUILD UP:

For many, the race experience begins months before, when you log on to the website and register. The TTF team had this part down; nice logo, slick web-site, newsletters, Facebook, twitter, the whole deal. 10/10 there. If this was your first tri, you could stay motivated and feel like you were part of something special. 

There were even training tips and open water swim clinics available, put on by head coach at NINE17 sports, Travis Mckenzie, who routinely and repeatedly laps me at the local pool as we both train for IMAZ later this year. Travis is a class act, you should check out his web-site. 

Perhaps they could have spent more on advertising? I am just not sure how aware people in general were that something so cool was going down in Toronto?  

RACE WEEKEND:

This is the only race I have ever done in which the mandatory pre-race meeting was truly mandatory. One could speculate as to why this was? Insurance issue? Lots of first timers? I don't really know. There was some helpful information at the meeting, to be sure, but nothing that would prevent anyone with even the least  amount of race experience from completing the race safely without attending. I just don't' get it.

The good news is that the meeting was short and the rest of registration pretty smooth. The worst part was listening to all the complaining going on by the middle-aged lady with a personality disorder who was lined up behind me. Oh well, there is more than one at EVERY race. 

The race site has tons of parking and is easy to get to. It was kind've cool to see lots of athletes riding their bikes to get there, in the pre-dawn, down the Don Valley Parkway, but there was really no need to do this. I thought there would be more congestion than there was around the race and ended up arriving with tons of time to spare. I imagine this will become different if the race grows to 2000 or more participants instead of the roughly 1500 who were there. 

THE RACE:


Overall, this was a fun race to do. It was well run and organized and the atmosphere couldn't help but be very cool given the novelty inherent in the concept of a triathlon in downtown Toronto. 

Transition was nicely set up and everything was easy to find. I don't think there was any music playing, which can be a good thing given the propensity to overly upbeat pop-trash that you can hear at many races, but in this case, I think they could have used some transition zone music. Who knows, maybe it was there and I just didn't notice. 

The swim takes place in the Ontario place harbour, which is a protected part of Lake Ontario, so the water was calm, pretty shallow, and a great temperature. Space is a bit tight, and there are plenty of turns, but overall, a nice swim that is consistent with the theme of an urban race experience. It was kind've interesting to be swimming among the bridges, canals and buildings of ontario place. And I even swam right behind the Molson Ampitheatre, where I saw Iron Maiden the week before. Cool. 

the swim exit

The bike leg is the major attraction to this race. 99% of it takes place on downtown highways. The only shame about this is that, being the kind of course where you can groove in the aero position and crank out some power, you don't get to sit up and enjoy the views too much. There is some contour, about 500 feet of uphill, so not pancake flat, but pretty flat overall, and a nice, fast bike course that was not too congested. It made for some stunning race photos, and the gang at My Sports Shooter did a great job of finding cool spots to shoot this race. 

my kind of rush hour traffic

The run felt like home to me, and I am sure it would to anyone who has done any running in downtown Toronto. In fact, it was the exact place where I often sneak away from work to do tempo runs, so it really felt like being at home.  It was a simple out an back along the Martin Goodman trail. So, what more could you want? A run on paved trails, beside the lake, with fantastic views all around.  There were more than enough aid stations, which was good, because it was pretty hot and humid. They had plenty of Gatorade and water, no ice, no sponges (but do you really need that for 10k?)

near the finish at the Princess Gates

The finish line took place in coronation park, about 1km from transition. This was not a major pain for me. The park is alot nicer than the parking lot where transition was. I did not really stick around for the festival so I can't comment on that, but live music and kid's activities were promised. None of that was going on when I finished. The only criticism I have about the finish was that the food was rather sparse. I am not someone who typically chows down too much at a race anyways, but this area did stand out as a weakness. Oranges, Bananas and bagels with dressings, were what was offered, and in cheap quantities. I was informed that I was allowed one orange wedge and one banana piece and that was it. I mean COME ON!!!

SUMMARY: 

This event was very well done for an inaugural event. There were no major kinks. I didn't get much of a "festival" atmosphere, but it was a well run, fun and safe race. They really could have put a bit more thought into the post-race food.  

The course is fair, and fast, but not ridiculously easy. I PR'd by 12 minutes for the Oly, but not having done one for two years and having trained my ass off, I would have expected to see good improvement on any course. 

I would definitely do it again and being so close to home, make it a part of my regular racing season. 

The race organizers have proven, if nothing else, that a triathlon is possible in the downtown core. My only question is: why not a 70.3? two loops on the bike and run? I would DEFINITELY be there, and I bet a 70.3 would bring more participants and more money for everyone, including local hotels and restaurants. Just  an idea.

ADDENDUM ON THE DUATHLON:


There was one glaring weakness in organization of which I have just become aware, and that deserves mention in any review of the race. Apparently, the duathlon course was not marked properly and this had a major impact on many people's race. On reflection, I did see the sprint distance turn arounds marked but I can't remember seeing duathlon markers anywhere. This is inexcusable, a major glitch and, given that the race was the Provincial duathlon championships, just unforgivable.

Those interested in reading more about this can look here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/TTF_Duathlon__P4062641/

However, for someone who raced the tri, none of what I have written above is void in any way. I am just glad that I wasn't racing the duathlon.