Webster Lake Triathlon : Official Thread (Page 2)

I am riding this course tommorow at 10am with a bunch of women who are doing the Danskin tri in July. ANyone who would like to join us is welcome. We are meeting at the bowling alley on Thompson Road. PM me if you want to come join us. We will also do an OWS practice...probably about 500-800. No one gets dropped during the ride so dont worry about your ability.

I love this course...as ^^^^ above there is only one big hill, the rest is rolling/flat.

Does FIRM send out info before the race? Like what time to arrive for signup, what time the race is and so on? Or is that something that only Max Performance does? (this is only my 2nd tri)

I have a thing tomorrow morning at 10:00 and will be driving up to webster after that. What does OWS mean?

OWS = open water swim. 

I'm also doing the Webster tri and don't have a wetsuit, was thinking about renting from Quad Multisport in Arlington. This will be 2nd triathlon, I did Appleman last year without a wetsuit and was fine. But that was in July so I'm a little worried about the water temps too. Anyone know what the temp is now at the lake?

I swam today with a group of 7 and I was one of the only ones with a wetsuit. I would have been fine without a wetsuit!. It should be OK. I'm guessing it was close to 65*

Hi Lina,

I'm not so sure about the 20%.  I mapped it out on mapmyride.com and it was about a mile long, and 6% at the steepest part.  Don't worry - you will totally dominate the climb! 

I sent them an e-mail a few weeks ago asking some of the same questions, and they said an e-mail would be going out to the participants on Thursday (I believe.)  Maybe it was Friday.  Anyway, we should be getting something this week.  As for it being your 2nd tri, you are one up on me! 

You are correct on the grade, minor miscalculations. I drove up to Webster Saturday evening, had to check out this course on my own. Yes it is VERY HILLY. I hate to admit it but yes I did have to walk my bike up the hill a couple of times. I wish I had stopped just before the hills and gotten a drink of water before the climb. By the end of it I thought I was going to die. But the steep downhill kinda takes on the other extreme. It is very very steep and fast and curvy. I wish the stop sign at the end of the downhill wasn't there. I was too nervous going downhill so was riding on brakes most of the time and still maxed at about 31 mph. The rest of the ride is fairly easy. Rolling hills, nice scenery. I did kind of get lost at one of the turns and ended up taking a 2 mile detour. But that wasn't too bad. With the breaks and traffic and the detour, took me about 1.5 hours. Yes, I know pathetic, but it was nice to know I won't die out there.
The swim on the other hand a whole different ball game. I have never done OWS, gym swimming pool only. So this was definitely interesting. All the stuff at the bottom popping out definitely freaked me out at first. I saw a bunch of kids playing in the lake so figured can't be that bad and went for it. I don't think I swam more than 25 yards, just till the buoy and thought was going to drown. The waves added an interesting dynamic to the swim that I had totally not counted for. The water definitely was cold. I am probably going to try to see if I can rent a wetsuit somewhere. With nothing available around here, the chances are looking very slim. I want the wetsuit not necessarily for the temps, but more for the buoyancy, something to give me confidence that I won't drown in the middle of the lake. I also noticed that there were 2 parts to the lake, a smaller part with less waves and a bigger one with much bigger waves. Anyone know which part the swim is going to be in?


Edited by linawalton 2009-06-15 9:09 AM

I've done the route a few times in prep for the danskin.  It does have a steep hill that is broken up into 2 good size hills and 2 smaller ones. The 1st time I had to walk the last of the larger hill. Now I know what to expect and it is not bad at all.  I am a new to cycling and it was using speed and getting in the rihgt gear that kinda threw me off.  By the 3rd time I did the route got up all the hills no prob....they are still work but I didn't feel like I was gonna die.  The route is beautiful and after those hills which are at about mile 4, it is a lot of flat, downhill and gentle rolling hills.  I am a runner and did not like cycling too much until I met hills....now I see the fun side

btw newton is no where near webster(about an hour past), esp if you are coming from CT...rent a wetsuit out that way. Haven't got in the lake yet so don't know the water temp...maybe check that out 1st.  It's probably not that bad.

Just ended up renting the wetsuit from the sponsor - Quad multisport. Unfortunately they only have full sleeve wetsuits. I was hoping for sleeveless. But at this point I can't find anything else in my size thats not too expensive and will still get to me on time for the race. So I just rented it from them. Will see how it goes on Sunday. The water is fairly cold, and I am very big wimp about cold. Plus, I hear its supposed to rain on Sunday.

Although I have done next to nothing for the last 2.5 months, I am still thinking about doing this tri. It is only like a mile from my house so I feel obligated lol.

If I can get myself motivated enough to come down it will be nice to see some of the people I lost touch with since I have been on this no exercise/junk food binge lol.

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Oh, just sign up already!  You know you'll really enjoy it and it won't be a matter of obligation-- just fun!  (And I do envy that you don't have to drive an hour to get to race site.)

I got an email today that says:

Additional timing chips have arrived so we have added 200 more slots for the Webster Lake Triathlon scheduled for Sunday, June 21, 2009. We ask that you register for this race ahead of time to minimize lines on race day and make sure that you get one of the slots. (Last year over 100 people registered on race day for the Webster Lake Triathlon).

That's talkin' to you! 

So now that you've decided, where should we go for drinks after?

You're gonna have a great time on your first!  Clean lake and pretty course - I'm excited for Sunday!

I don't know that there's really too much benefit from sleeveless.  I tried on one a while back and felt like it would probably chafe around the sleeves if the fit wasn't perfect.  Besides, it only adds to the buoyancy and I don't think it's any harder to get off one with sleeves.  It's a bit of a hike for you, but if you want to buy from Quad, they'll apply the cost of the rental to a purchase, which is nice.

Haha, I got that email too, that is what reminded me about it. I will come and do it, as long as I don't end up doing anything crazy, or staying out late Saturday.

I'm not really sure where to go for drinks, the only 2 places I have been in Webster are Mario's Showplace, and Sinni's (sports bar) and I don't think either would be that much fun around noon lol.

Oh come on, you've probably closed down a bar... but have you ever opened one?

I wish all of you success in this race! GOOD LUCK and I look forward to reading the race reports!

JD

I have fun everyone!

I did the race a couple years back a few years. It is a fun course..water is nice.

Seth!!! Welcome back!!  We've missed you around here.  I'm not going to be able to make it to Webster this weekend but good luck to all of you!  Get out there and have fun  

Well, the weather forecast frankly leaves a lot to be desired.  I was hoping against hope for decent weather for my first tri, but I guess it can't get much worse in the future!    Good luck tomorrow, everyone!