Mont Tremblant Ironman Volunteer - Race Day

Sunday I was slow getting started.  Most volunteers were up at 4am.  Anyone with a morning assignment had to hurry off.  I was able to take my time.  I spent the night with other volunteers on the floor of a classroom at the local high school in St Jovite.  A light breakfast was provided, and we took the city bus for a 20-minute ride to the resort.  Busses were free of charge for everyone all day.

The collection of shops in the center of the ski resort is known as the pedestrian village.  It is anchored by the clock tower.  Above and around the shops are hotels. That's the buildings you see in most of the photos of the resort.  Being hotels, you don't generally get a kitchen, so you are eating at restaurants.  The condos are all further from the action.  They are larger and let you do your own cooking in their kitchen.  Kitchenware is all provided.  The place known as the "old village" is the suburb of the Municipality of Mont Tremblant located 3 km to the west of  the resort, on Lac Mercier.  The run course goes from the resort's pedestrian village to the old village, where the P'tit Train du Nord trail is picked up.  About 10 km to the south is Centreville of the municipality, also known as Saint-Jovite.  The bike course goes through downtown St-Jovite.  They were amalgamated back in 2000 to become the single municipality of Mont Tremblant.

My plan was to hike a short ways up the ski hill and videotape the Snowbirds flyby.  I didn't make it for that.  I was still on the bus when I heard the jet.  It wasn't the Snowbirds either.  It was a single CF-18 fighter plane doing the flyby.  Still on the bus when the cannon went off.  Up the hill I went.  The lake was too far away to see the swimmers at all.  I could barely make out some water turbulence.  You could only tell exactly where they were by the flotilla of support boats.  When they passed turn-around, the course took them along the near shore, and they were entirely obscured by the trees.

The swim underway

I had 4 hours to kill before my assignment began, so I wandered the area.  I went to the shore at swim exit.  Wetsuit peeling looked like a fun assignment.  Swim cutoff was 9:20am.  By 9:10 there was still a dozen or so out in the water.  Cheers and general encouragement were really ramped up for the last few to make it.  I love that about Ironman.  The last ones to arrive get the most glory.  We all feel really happy for them to make it.  It was announced that if the swimmer could stand up near shore, it would be classed as within cutoff, even if they hadn't reached the timing mat.  Since the route is near the northeastern shore, it's shallow for a couple hundred metres.  The kayakers had a guy stand up way out there, but it was deemed insufficient.  When he finally made it to the beach, he was out and had his timing chip taken away.  I think there were 3 of them who didn't make cutoff.

Coming out of T1 change tent, athletes had their helmets on.  Helmets weren't kept at the bike like other triathlons.  I'm tempted to change into my bib shorts.  With my tri suit I don't need to change at all, but nothings as comfy as the bibs.  I could run in them after, or change into running shorts at T2.  I've done some long rides in the tri suit, and it gets hot in the sun.  

Special needs looked like a fun job.  When a cyclist arrived, a volunteer with a megaphone called out the number.  Runners then hurried to fetch the bag for that athlete.  It would be busy and exciting.

Special Needs Pickup - Bike

My afternoon assignment was working a crosswalk in the resort plaza (the pedestrian village).  It was busy.  The run path bisected the resort, so there were lots of people wanting to cross.  Sometimes there would be a couple minutes waiting for a sufficient gap between runners, in which time a couple dozen people would be lined up to cross.  They would sometimes barely clear the lane before the next runner arrived.  Each runner passed through the pedestrian village twice.  The fork where they were routed back for the second loop was right near the finish.

Here's another cool job -- runner escort.  Cyclists had a motorbike escorting the leader.  On the run, there were bikes leading out the top five runners of each gender. 

3rd-place escort awating the runner

My evening assignment was less of a chore.  I was at the crosswalk directly in front of the church.  In the morning, this lane was the run path from swim exit to T1.  In the evening, it was the arrival back to the pedestrian village for the runners.  Hardly anyone wanted to cross the road here, so it was simply a cheering station.  

My crosswalk for the evening

Around maybe 7pm a storm cloud passed and it poured rain for about 20 minutes.  There was a lovely rainbow up over the pedestrian village towards the end.  This left the runners soaked and cold.  I had the foresight to bring my waterproof jacket.  Staying warm and dry helped me maintain the energy to welcome everyone back to the village with cheers, fist pumps, and the occasional jumping up and down.  When I first arrived, there was a girl doing the cheerleading, and she had much enthusiasm and a seemingly unending supply of witty remarks of encouragement. When she left, I felt I needed to at least try to leave a similar positive impression on everyone. For first-loop runners, I promised to be there when they came back again, and I was.  I stayed past midnight, to see the last one in.  He had a bicycle escort also, and a flock of angels to carry him home (girls with angel wings tied to their backs).  As with the last few out of the water, the crowd was just wild for the last runners.  I could hear them across the lawn at the finish.

Sunday evening, a rumour flashed through the volunteer ranks that the athletes who didn't register on Saturday for the 2013 race were intending to come en masse to Monday's registration.  Theories were that they hadn't know about the Saturday registration, or that they had waited to see what the course was like.  This led to many of us arriving an hour early Monday before the 9am opening of registration for volunteers.  About a hundred of us packed the hallway in the Congress Centre.  One of the volunteer captains came and told us all to chill out.  We could see that obviously that we weren't about to sell out 2013, so no one had to worry about getting a spot.  Although Monday was officially for volunteers only, they let the athletes register also, but after the volunteers.  All others were told to take a hike.  They weren't taking registrations for the general public.  I was giddy with delight and babbled at the volunteer doing my registration.  There were no card readers, no receipts.  She just typed it into the computer.  My credit card was initially rejected, but she retyped the name, and it went through.  They should just give us an access code to let us register online ourselves, and have a few days reserved for volunteers and returning athletes.

Mont Tremblant Ironman Volunteer - Pre Race

On Saturday the 18th I arrived in Mont Tremblant for the second time this summer.  I signed up as volunteer at the Ironman race. 

Hill on Montée Ryan road

Saturday I went biking throughout the area.  I brought my commuter Fiori since the weather was unpredictable and I might end up leaving it out overnight or something.  The hill on Montée Ryan road is as awesome as I remembered.  I let my bike coast freely.  I don't have a computer on the Fiori, but the wind was blasting in my face like it normally only does up over 50kph, so I was really moving.  Then the speed wobble hit.  The front wheel and handlebars began making fierce oscillations.  I was in the drops, so I grasped tightly to see if I could get it to steady itself, but it wasn't going to happen.  I clamped down hard on the brakes and it quickly came down in speed, and I brought it to a full stop.  I don't suppose I've ever had that bike going that fast.

At the bottom of the hill is a crosswalk where Le P'tit Train du Nord crosses Montée Ryan road. Le P'tit Train du Nord is the converted railway trail used for the run portion of the triathlon.  Turn-around for this leg of the trail is just to the left in the picture.  They have really made the region inviting for triathletes.  Montée Ryan is a busy highway, and they installed these wide shoulders for cyclists.

P'tit Train du Nord crosses  Montée Ryan

They had a small number of 70.3 cycling jerseys remaining.  I bought one of those.  A sign announced, Mastercard and Visa only.  I had a moment of panic thinking that if my Mastercard was damaged Monday morning, I would be left without my registration for 2013. 

The starting cannon on display Saturday

In the evening, it was beer, beers, and more beer.  I couldn't believe how dead the town (St-Jovite) was.  The morning had the streets full with cyclists and cars with racked bikes.  Wherever they went for dinner, it wasn't here.  

Mont Tremblant ski hill seen from St-Jovite

This wasn't an all-hands vacation with my dependants.  I came alone and stayed with other volunteers at the St-Jovite high school.  Lights-out was 10pm, with everyone anticipating an early start on Sunday.

Mont Tremblant 70.3 Pre-race (2)

My dependents were just getting up.  We readied for the scheduled adventure.  The girls and I were booked for the Via Ferrata du Diable at the National Park.  They mounted climbing rungs all over the rockface.  You get a climbing harness for safety, and a guide.  It's as easy as climbing a ladder, but you are on a sheer cliff 200 ft. up.  The harness is a fall arrest.  If you lose your balance it will catch you on the way down, but doesn't provide any support for the climb.  It's not like the climbing wall at the water park where the attendant is pulling so hard that you are being hoisted up.  I don't go for easy sit with your feet up vacations.  You have to work for it.  Our beginner-level trail took about 3 hours.  The girls were great, with no problems traversing the course.  We were all very tired when we got back to the condo for dinner.  This was the only location in the entire trip where insects were noticeable.  It wasn't a problem.  We expected this and wore repellent along with plenty of sunscreen.  On my usual long-run route back home, there's a short swampy section where black flies attack.  I had some concern that either the Lac Superieur bike leg or the P'tit Train du Nord rail trail, since it is right by the lake, would have swarms of bugs, but there weren't any to be noticed at all.

Via Ferrata du Diable rockface

Bridge obstacle

Saturday morning was another early one for me.  I took the bike out for a short jaunt around the neighbourhood.  The village of Mont Tremblant, not to be confused with the resort's pedestrian village, is about 5 km away.  I would be biking and running through it again during the race.  It has a much smaller supermarket that St Jovite does.  For full-service banks and shops, you need to go all the way to St Jovite.  

Jen heads up

Looking down

No fear kid 1

No fear kid 2

Meghan reaches the bridge

Bridge obstacle #2

Saturday was a rest day. My time was taken up by registration, bike check-in, and benevole orientation.  That plus eating.  Lots of eating.  Bagels and a ton of white rice.  I've tried other day-before foods, including the typical pasta dinner, and I find that rice gives me the best carbohydrate fueling.  My dependents amused themselves around the resort, riding the gondola, riding the luge, browsing for souvenirs. I went up the gondola with them later in the afternoon. There it is.  I'm swimming there, biking over there, running there.

Orientation meeting

View from the mountain

Mont Tremblant 70.3 Pre-Race (1)

*** This is a companion piece to the Mont Tremblant Ironman 70.3 Race report published previously.  it seemed more important to write first about the race itself, since it would be several weeks until I got this posted. ***

With my dependents in the van, our gear in the overhead carrier, and my racing bike on the back, we headed out before dawn Thursday morning.  The weather that week had been very hot and humid.  We ran the air conditioning on full for most of the trip.  Everyone was advised that this was to be a low-expenditure trip, so they shouldn't expect to see us pull into a plaza of fast-food restaurants and have everyone stick out their hand to dad for funding.  It was Tim Hortons bagels for lunch.  The big expense was for the lodging, so everything else would be done on the cheap.  The drive went smoothly, with a range of music, and a couple driver changes.  My squire Jennifer happily got a long turn at the wheel.  

Bike in back

Sunrise

Jennifer was driving the leg from Ottawa to Mont Tremblant.  We were headed off the edge of my Ontario map, but the highways shown made it seem that route 315 would be the most direct.  What a nightmare.  It turned into a twisty gravel road through the hills.  For many kilometers it went on with steep drop-offs to one side or the other of the road, and hills and turns obscuring the way ahead.  She wasn't impressed with my navigating.  It was like one of those Google Maps blunders that gets the family stranded in the woods and eaten by the mutants.  Except that the occasional farm was well-kept and presentable.  And there were routine signs indicate school-bus stops.  It must take the kids hours every day to ride this road.  The gravel put a heavy layer of dust all over the bike.

Gravel road to nowhere

It's hilly around here

We arrived at the check-in center around 2pm and got our condo assignment.  Official check-in is at 5, so on a busy day we might have had to wait.  Stepping out of the car was into the oppressive heat.  The unit was basic quality, so it was not equipped with air conditioning.  Perhaps you normally don't need that around here, but today, as with the week preceding, was over the edge.  I got the code for the WiFi.  Maybe some internet would take their minds off the heat.  We doubled back up Mont Ryan road to the supermarket at St Jovite for supplies.  The unit is over $200 a night, but doing your own cooking makes up for that compared to restaurants.  Also, it was important to me to keep tight control over what I ate, so I would be in peak readiness for the race on Sunday.  The condo was gorgeous, with a high vaulted ceiling in the living room, a good-sized TV, and clean bathrooms. It didn't have the two single beds I signed up for, so the girls would be sharing the king.  A king is huge, so they wouldn't be near each other.  All of the condos were set up with the balcony facing downhill toward the lake and the ski hill.  It was about a 10-minute walk to the resort village.  We did a quick reconnoiter that night.  They were still doing construction.  The new pavement for the bike course is going to be sweet!

Construction Thursday

Bike racks

Friday morning, the alarm rang for me at 5.  The early mornings were a part of race prep.  With my dependents all still asleep, I headed out to hike up the ski hill.  Initially, the trail was shallow enough for an easy jogging pace.  Trying to maintain that was unreasonable, and by the time I got to half-way I was vomiting into the grass.  Then came the steep part.  It seemed like a slow plod up the top half of the hill, but my heart rate was nevertheless maxed out.  These were diamond ski runs, steep enough to require occasional hands-and-knees scrambling.  It was a marked trail, intended for this purpose, but the warnings to bring plenty of water were correct.  It was quite a workout.  There was hardly a breeze at the foot of the hill, but up here, a cool wind served to dry the sweat.  

The resort's pedestrian village from above

Climbing day

Almost to the top

For someone accustomed to the flatlands of Upper Canada, this view was tremendous.  The gondala wouldn't start operation for a few more hours, so the trip downhill was also by foot.  

East 

The dreaded Lac Superieur

West

Enjoying the view

Ride For Heart

Attended the Ride for Heart this year.  It's the second time I've done this ride.  They close the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway and allow us to bike on them for a few hours Sunday morning.  It's a fundraiser for Heart and Stroke.

Here's me and Meghan ready to go.  The forecast was for rain, and it was lightly coming down when we left, so I took my commuter Fiori.  It gets wet a lot already, and has a fender. 

You get to see all kinds.  This guy was riding his bamboo-frame. 

Okay it's hard to make out the picture.  My idea here of using the HD video mode and taking crops from the footage isn't working out so well.  It's a picture of a guy with both daughters on a tandem trail-a-bike.  That makes three of them all together.  I love that!  I would totally have had one of those if I had known they made them.  That would have been 15 years ago, and maybe they didn't back then.  I had a Bell carrier that I plopped my kids into.

 Off the starting line, we are in the trench running beside CNE grounds.  It's a shallow uphill climb to the raised Gardiner Expressway.

 There's the CN Tower in the background.  Also yet another skyscraper going up.

 Not a bit of rain all day.  I should have brought my racing bike.  No matter, it was a great time, and I can keep up with Meghan just fine on my commuter.  She's on her Specialized trail bike.  I swapped out the knobby tires with some large-width city tires, so it goes fast on the pavement. 

 The sun was in and out all morning. 

Out along the Parkway there's a couple half-decent hills, including the climb from river level up to the Gardiner.  We used the 50km route, which is from CNE grounds all the way out to the 401 and back.  Basically the same route as used by the triathlon July 22. 

Thanks to everyone who donated to my team.  Shout out to Ted who came along with us.  It was his idea!  Hi Ted.

Mont Tremblant 70.3 - Race day

Mont Tremblant Ironman 70.3 - June 24, 2012, Mont Tremblant Quebec

It was 3 am when I awakened and realized that I wasn’t going back to sleep.  I lay in the dark in anticipation.  My shifts working the overnight help desk have taught me that simply lying quietly is worthwhile even if it’s not actual sleep.  For a week I have been adjusting to an early schedule, and I was rested and ready to go early.  Dawn was just breaking at 4:30 when I got up. 

Dawn

I finished the Lucky Charms yesterday, so I wondered if a new box of cereal had arrived to replace it.  There’s Shreddies.  The family went on a grocery run yesterday.  I haven’t had Shreddies in years, and pour myself a bowl and sit on the balcony to eat. 

I rented a condo on site at the resort so I would be close to the action.  It’s about a 10 minute walk to the staging area.  The place is lovely.  The kitchen comes complete with dishes and pots, so you can save money by cooking for yourself.  I need to do my own cooking the days leading in anyhow.  I’m not trusting restaurant food to be what I want, and my schedule is odd, so this is ideal.  Saturday I stayed close to home, eating massive bowls of rice.  That’s my food of choice the day before.  Food for race day is a bagel with peanut butter.

After finishing the cereal, I toasted the bagel, and ate it while I dressed and packed.  Everything was laid out the night before, and I stuffed it into two handbags.  One is for the bike and the other for the run. 

At about 5 I woke my squire.  Eldest daughter Jennifer had agreed to walk me to the start, and handle my gear.  We headed out the door at 5:30 to find the shuttle bus going past.  These run on a 45 minute schedule taking people from all the condos to the pedestrian village where the shops and restaurants are.  That’s excellent for us, so we board it expecting a free ride instead of the short walk.  He drove to the main road and ordered everyone out.  Roads are closed for the race and he can go no further.  That’s no good, since the walkway at the other end of the cul-de-sac is closer.  We had even farther to walk for having taken the shuttle across the parking lot.

 My squire has to carry the wetsuit, and I carried the two bags.

Squire carries the wetsuit

Emergency crew at transition

First stop was transition where I arranged everything by the bike which had been parked overnight.  I remembered to crack open my Cliff Bars before putting them in the carrier.  They don’t open easily while riding, since I can only use one hand and my teeth. 

All set

I met up with Jen again.  She wasn’t allowed into transition, to maintain security.  We head over to body-marking in the courtyard in front of the clock tower. 

Body marking

There’s still over an hour before I start, so we sat on the bleachers for 20 minutes or so.  They had music playing from the bandstand.  It’s cool this early in the morning, and my hands started to ache, so we got up and took the ride on the overhead tram to the top of the village and back.

Grandstand

We walked to the beach and I put on the wetsuit.  Standing in the sun with it on I quickly warmed up.  I felt the water.  They said it was 73 or 74.  My open-water swims in the local reservoir were in water at 60 degrees, so this was really nice.  Race start was indeed special.  As if they had been radio contact with the flight crew to time it perfectly, only moments after we finish singing the national anthem the jet planes turned on the smoke trails and zoomed toward us overhead.  It was the Snowbirds aerobatic team on duty for our event.  The military also provided a cannon which fired for the start of the race. 

Dressing

It was wave 7 for me, starting 30 minutes after the elites.  Heading out into the water I couldn’t catch my breath.  That wasn’t going to turn out well, so I held up to tread water for a few seconds to calm down.  The other men went on ahead, and I started up again nice and slowly.  I was fine after that.  By the first turn buoy the 40-y.o. women caught up to me in their white caps.  At the second turn, the 50-y.o. men did the same, brushing my feet as they overtook the slow guy.  At that corner, I could see bottom, so I held up and dunked to see if I could touch, but it was too deep. 

Transition 1 was better than last year at Welland where I arrived from the swim to find no socks. They were still in the car, so I biked and ran barefoot. Biking was fine, but I wore holes at the achilles from the run. This time I laid out two pairs of socks, in case I wanted to change them when putting on the running shoes. That pair turned out to be a single.

I love my bike.  That’s why I do this sport.  The weather was terrific – sunny and cool with no wind. 

Beware of falling rocks.  The landscape around here is Canadian Shield. It's a vast rocky area running across northern Ontario and Quebec.

Beware of falling rocks

Canadian shield

For expressways like Hwy 117, they blasted gaps in the rocks to let the road be straighter and more level.  It felt like downhill both ways.  There’s some long hills.  They are shallow enough to keep up a good speed on the incline, and go on for so long that on the downhill you can really pick up some speed.  They gave us the entire northbound lane, with automobile traffic bidirectional on the other side of the median.

Highway 117

 

These two guys in areo helmets would fly by me on the downhills, and then I’d catch up on the climb.  I didn’t like the downhills.  At 60 kph I’d ease on the rear brake. 

Rival in aero

 

These two guys in areo helmets would fly by me on the downhills, and then I’d catch up on the climb.  I didn’t like the downhills.  At 60 kph I’d ease on the rear brake. 

Bike aid 1

 

For catching water bottles, they set up hockey nets. 

Bottle catcher

 

At the third aid station, I had less than half a bottle of Power drink.  On my long rides, it’s essential to keep the bottle carriers stocked when I pass a variety store, since it could be a long hot ride to the next.  I thought of that and picked up a water.  These were big bottles of water, and I was heading into the Lac Superieur area.  I wouldn’t even open that bottle.  The hills are so busy that it’s a bad place to drink. The extra weight wasn’t going to help.

Bike aid 3

Returning from the highway, we rode right through downtown (sorry, no pics).  It wasn’t a big crowd, at least by the time I got there.  Those left still had some enthusiasm.  I rang my bell and gave a good sprint up the narrow road.

McDonalds

In the Ontario triathlon events, one of the cardinal rules is to not cross the center line.  Here, they have pilons along the edge, forcing us over, but it felt wrong.  Then on the bridge, all we had was the left side of the road.

Narrow road

Keep left

Road to Lac Superieur

The road to Lac Superieur isn’t one big hill like some events have.  It’s a winding, twisty, hilly road with an uphill trend.  Both directions have plenty of up and down.  Instead of carving through the rocks, they curl the road around and over them.  I was regularly shifting down to the small (front) ring, but they didn’t feel hard.  Certainly not tough like Bower hill in Woodstock.  The hills were short enough that they didn’t really drain my strength before the next downhill.  A good kick at the top sends you flying.

Curves ahead

Winding road

By Transition 2 my head was in a bit of a fog.  I took off the bike shoes, put on one of the running shoes, put on the other bike shoe and stood up to put on the number belt and the water belt.  That didn't feel right.  I replaced the mismatched shoe and headed to the exit.  The guy held his hands up and pointed over my head.  My helmet was still on.  Back to the bike to drop that off.  I didn't notice that I was still wearing the cycling gloves until I hit the porta pottie.  I secured them to the water belt. 

Le P’tit Train du Nord is a light gravel former railway.  You don’t get much flatter than a railway by a lake.  With the trees there’s some shade depending on the time of day when you get there.  My gel is in the water belt.  I don't know how people did these things before they invented gel.  It took 4 Gu gels to cover the running course.

P'tit Train du Nord

The bad hill of the day is between the resort, where transition is, and the rail trail. On foot, it’s long and steep both ways.

Routing the finish through the pedestrian village was great for us.  It’s a shallow downhill, so you can run fast no matter how tired you are.  Shout to the crowd and they will cheer back at you.

Less 30 minutes