In this episode of the Be Fierce and Try podcast, host Jill Bartholomew and guests Elizabeth, Angela, and Cheryl discuss their experiences preparing for and participating in the Ironman Canada race. They share insights on training, nutrition strategies, swim conditions, and the challenges of split transitions. The conversation highlights the importance of preparation, the role of volunteers, and the camaraderie among athletes, providing valuable lessons for future races. In this conversation, the participants reflect on their experiences during the Ironman Ottawa race, discussing various aspects such as the bike and run courses, nutrition challenges, and the support from spectators. They share their highs and lows, emphasizing the importance of community and personal growth in endurance sports. The discussion also touches on future aspirations and the potential for the race to serve as a great entry point for new triathletes. Are you looking to up your Triathlon game to better meet your goals? Train with Be Fierce Multisport at http://www.befiercemultisport.com
Takeaways
The importance of preparation for Ironman races.
Nutrition plays a crucial role in race performance.
Swim conditions can significantly impact race outcomes.
Split transitions add complexity but can be managed effectively.
Road conditions on the bike course can vary widely.
Athlete camaraderie enhances the race experience.
Understanding the course layout aids in mental preparation.
Volunteers play a vital role in race organization.
Managing expectations is key to a positive race experience.
Learning from past races can improve future performance. The bike course was generally well-received, with minimal traffic and enjoyable conditions.
Participants noted the flatness of the course, which was a pleasant surprise for many.
Spectator support was a significant highlight, providing motivation throughout the race.
The run course had some unexpected elevation changes that challenged the athletes.
Nutrition played a crucial role, with many experiencing difficulties during the race.
Despite challenges, crossing the finish line was a moment of triumph for all participants.
The camaraderie among athletes was evident, with many supporting each other during tough moments.
Future races are on the horizon, with aspirations to return and improve.
The conversation highlighted the importance of mental resilience in endurance sports.
Participants expressed a desire to encourage new athletes to try Ironman races.
Jill Bartholomew (00:00)
Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Be Fierce and Try podcast. Today, I'm here with several guests who all raced at the recent Ironman Canada event in Ottawa. And we're going to chat about the course. So I'll leave it to Elizabeth, Angela, and Cheryl to introduce themselves.
I'm Jill Bartholomew, your host, and today we're going to walk through what we thought of the course, how we prepared for it, and kind of some final thoughts on, you know, would we do it again? So Elizabeth, why don't you start us off, tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll go over to Angela.
Elizabeth Wood (00:44)
Okay, thanks. Hi, Jill, Cheryl, Angela. Nice to see you guys again, not in Spandex. So I'm Elizabeth Wood. I've been a triathlete for about 15 years, and I've been associated with Ironman Foundation for the last seven of those. I'm currently on the board of directors for Ironman Foundation. One of the things that I do in terms of my involvement with the foundation is I'm very active in building and leading our
Angela (00:49)
you
Elizabeth Wood (01:08)
teams of women who go to the world championships and this year that's Kona. So I'm really thrilled that the three other women on the podcast today are all members of our 2025 Kona team. The Ironman Canada in Ottawa was my ninth full Ironman and I have done 10 70.3 races. So really excited to hear what Angela and Cheryl thought about it and share some of that information with your listeners, Jill.
Jill Bartholomew (01:31)
All right, thanks. Angela?
Angela (01:34)
I'm Angela Hubber. I'm from Burlington, Ontario. So this is kind of like Ottawa was a hometown race kind of for me because it was relatively close. I'm a mom of four boys. And this is my fourth Ironman, sorry, third Ironman, and probably I've done about 670.3. So
Jill Bartholomew (01:49)
I heard the Canada in there.
Cheryl (01:49)
Thank
Angela (01:52)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (01:54)
All right.
Cheryl (01:54)
Thank
Jill Bartholomew (01:55)
All right. Thanks, Angela. Cheryl?
Cheryl (01:58)
Hi, I'm Cheryl Bergeron. I live in New York City. Let's see, this is, Ironman Canada was my eighth full distance Ironman and I've done about 26, 27, 70.3s and I don't even know how many other little ones, but I've been a triathlete for about 15 years. I thought once the kids were older, it would get easier.
but it doesn't. I work part time so that I can train the other times. My husband and I do these together. He also raced, but I get to go to Kona without him this year, although he is gonna be sharpening, so that's fun.
Jill Bartholomew (02:38)
So you're both going to Konai, but only one of you gets to race.
Cheryl (02:40)
Both gonna do Kona, but only
one of us is crossing that finish line.
Angela (02:43)
you
Jill Bartholomew (02:44)
That'd be a little strange if he was raising in the women's race.
All right. Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you. Thank you all. So what I'm taking away from this is across the four of us, I think we've crossed around 30 full distance Ironman finish lines, which is.
All right, so before we talk about the race, as we were saying earlier, across the four of us, there's a lot of experience with Ironman branded races. So what did you do to prepare for this one?
This is where we will talk.
Elizabeth Wood (03:16)
go. Yeah,
Angela (03:17)
Hahaha
Elizabeth Wood (03:17)
I can go. So, so this race was not my a race Kona is my a race this year. And so really my training was was has been geared towards Kona. So typical doing some hill work doing obviously the endurance work, both for the bike and the run the swim, you know, just just building up the endurance the last few weeks before I went to before I went to Ottawa.
My coach had me do a couple of flat hundred mile rides and that was supposed to be very, very, know, very course specific. So I think that's really the only thing that I did that was kind of a nod to the course.
Jill Bartholomew (03:51)
And remind me, where are you from again that you can get at 100 miles?
Elizabeth Wood (03:55)
So, yeah,
so I live in, I know, right? So I live in West Michigan now, which is very flat. have, unlike you, Jill, I have a hard time finding hills. And so it was, other than finding the distance, finding something flat around here was pretty easy.
Angela (03:57)
yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (04:02)
Yes.
Cheryl (04:06)
Thank you.
Jill Bartholomew (04:10)
Yeah, here in Southeast Pennsylvania, in order to find flat, have to ride on rails to trails, kind of paved trails. Yeah, otherwise it's like 900 to 1200 every 10 miles kind of thing. All right. Cheryl, did you do anything different to prepare? You're going to Kona, so was this just a stop on the way?
Elizabeth Wood (04:17)
and then you're dodging all the pedestrians.
Angela (04:24)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (04:32)
Yeah, so
Much like Elizabeth, my A-race is Kona. But we go up to Lake Placid as often as we can to train there because in New York, there's very few opportunities to even ride outside, especially where I am on Staten Island. It's just not, ⁓ it's very dangerous. There's no long, I mean, I can go for like,
Jill Bartholomew (04:43)
Mm.
yeah.
Cheryl (05:00)
maybe 5K loops at one of the marinas, but it's really better to just get out of town. So we've been trying to go take our bikes with us wherever we go to try to get some good rides and then Lake Placid is one of our favorite destinations. So also the open water swim in Lake Placid is like, again, one of the only places we can go open water swim.
I have not been running very much. I've had a series of injuries over the past year. So my strategy for falls and Kona especially right now is just to swim a lot, strength train. I'm working with a mobility coach to keep everything flexible so that when it comes time to run, I'm not overtrained. So that was a little disastrous on this race.
But yeah, the other thing that I was doing is trying to work on my nutrition, which is something that I've kind of ignored up until now, but I know Kona is no joke. So you need to nail that. And so I've been really trying to every run that I do, try to do something very hot and see what I need to take in terms of salt and carbs to get through it.
Jill Bartholomew (06:09)
Mm-hmm.
And
what was the injury that you had that you're working around?
Angela (06:15)
Yeah.
Cheryl (06:18)
I had a stress fracture in my hip in 2019. And so it's always kind of, I don't know if it's just in my head that I feel like every time I feel a twinge in my hip, I'm like, it's broken again. And then more recently, my Achilles tendon has been really flaring up. I just running in me, I did the New York City marathon last year.
and really kind of did a really not fast, but a really good marathon. And I couldn't believe it, to be honest. I was like, oh, everything just worked. The day was good. It was not hard. My nutrition had got nailed. didn't go too fast and nothing hurt. It was just a really good race, which is.
Angela (06:54)
Okay.
Jill Bartholomew (06:58)
Isn't it awesome when
things just like fall together
Angela (07:00)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (07:00)
like that? Yeah. Well, so if it makes you feel any better, I had a femoral shaft fracture that was like 95 % through the shaft three years ago, two years ago, three years ago.
Cheryl (07:01)
And then sometimes things fall apart.
Angela (07:03)
Yeah. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (07:04)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (07:14)
And in the fall of last year, I was still having the every twinge must be a new fracture. I have countless MRIs and x-rays of that one because I kept going in and I'm like, can you just reassure me that it's not broken again? Yeah. Yeah, I totally got it. All right, and Angela.
Cheryl (07:31)
Yeah, yeah, I do it every fall.
Angela (07:34)
Yeah.
So same as the rest of you, Kona is my A-race. So I was going into Ottawa kind of thinking it'll be a good chance to test my nutrition. Nutrition is a big deal for me. I'm a kind of a longer, like my first two Ironman were like just over 15 hours. So I was like, okay, I'm out there a long time. I want to make sure my nutrition's on.
I was training the bike on like hills in Muskoka. So you don't really get a lot of flat stuff there, but ⁓ I kind of got a really nice rolling section where I was able to just kind of go out and back. so that actually really helped like to me, not without getting too much of the course, I didn't like, it was basically flat for me based on what I've trained on. So, you know, it was great. I loved the course.
Jill Bartholomew (08:05)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (08:24)
And then the other thing, like I said already, my nutrition was something that I, in my first two, I really didn't nail. So I was really trying to get that down and wanted to make sure that in the heat, I'd be able to do it. Cause I did know like watching the Canadian weather, it's been really, really hot. So I knew we'd probably have heat, even though a couple of weeks ahead, was going to be a really nice temperature. But then that changed come race day. So yeah, so.
Nutrition was a big thing for me and I thought I nailed it in training but I didn't. So it changed all on race day. So yeah that was one thing that I worked on but I'm back to the drawing board. Like last night this morning I'm all looking up how to tweak my nutrition now.
Jill Bartholomew (09:07)
Yeah,
if you listen to my recent episode about the big acid, I had kind of the same problem where I've been using kind of more or less the same nutrition plan for like the last two years. And then my coach and I were experimenting with a different nutrition plan that was more like fat adapted versus like carbates, the less carbs.
Angela (09:11)
I did, I listened to Lake Placid, yes. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (09:12)
you
Angela (09:20)
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (09:32)
and
had some other products in it to help promote the fat burning aspect. And yeah, I totally no. I was expecting a 530 plus or minus bike, and it was 618.
Angela (09:42)
Did it work? No. OK. I'm like, I'm looking for all new ideas. I've got two months.
Elizabeth Wood (09:56)
down.
Jill Bartholomew (09:56)
And
it wasn't because I wasn't physically prepared for a 530 bike. It was because my nutrition was so off that at one point, like my legs were so on fire that like what would normally be like an easy, you know, output, like take like 30 % off and it felt hard. So, and like,
Angela (10:14)
shadow.
Jill Bartholomew (10:20)
That that's when you get to that point where like your body no longer has any glucose to burn and it's now like devouring anything that can find, which is not good. all right. So I think it's awesome, for, folks here all going to Kona. we'll talk more about that later, I'm sure, but let's talk about the swim, how the swim go.
Angela (10:27)
huh.
than it can, yeah.
I had an amazing swim. It was choppy. It was choppy. Yeah, it was super choppy.
Elizabeth Wood (10:45)
Happy.
Jill Bartholomew (10:47)
I was going say on paper
it looks like it should be an awesome swim.
Elizabeth Wood (10:54)
Yeah.
Angela (10:54)
Yeah,
and it, I don't know if you guys know or you ladies notice this, but when like you're about to get into the swim, like you're looking out and you're like, the water looks great. And then like you swim in a few strokes and you're like, wait a second. No, it was really choppy. So, and then, I mean, let's talk about the, the walking section, right? The, the Island and halfway or whatever that you, you're swimming along and you look up and you see people. I didn't even know what these people were doing at first, cause it took me a little while to.
Jill Bartholomew (11:07)
Yeah, yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (11:20)
they were walking.
Angela (11:21)
Yeah, and I was like, what's happening over there? Like, did someone drown or something? why are all those people gathered there? And then a few more strokes and you look again, you look again, you're like, they're walking. I did not get up and walk because when I reached the island, there were some muscles, like clams and stuff like that or whatever. And I was like, I'm not standing up because I don't know what I'm going to hit with my feet. So kept swimming and digging weeds and stuff like that and just kept going. Had to pull some weeds off of my goggles and...
Elizabeth Wood (11:33)
and yeah.
Angela (11:49)
I have a feeling next year if they change it, they'll go around that section, but it wasn't bad.
Jill Bartholomew (11:49)
Well, I mean...
Yeah, I mean,
so what was it like an actual island or just like a sandbar kind of thing?
Angela (11:58)
So.
Elizabeth Wood (11:59)
out of heart.
Angela (12:00)
Yeah, so apparently, was like, the more I read, apparently this section, the water is pretty high right now. So normally the section would actually be out of the water. So you, they would have gone around it or something. But anyway, but yeah, you could, I don't know, you didn't see it because the water was so high, but yeah.
Cheryl (12:01)
Every
Jill Bartholomew (12:10)
⁓
you could stand up and dredge forward.
Elizabeth Wood (12:16)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (12:18)
So interestingly,
we stayed with some locals and he swims there a lot or like maybe a little bit, not right at Fretonia Beach, but a little like maybe like a kilometer south of there. And he said to me, was like, how are we gonna swim that? There's like this big shallow area where you're gonna have to like walk or whatever. And I was like, and I kind of dismissed the comment, like, well, they wouldn't put the course through a shallow area. But when we got to that, I was like, ⁓ that's what he's talking about. So I guess they just ignored it.
Angela (12:42)
Right. So you know, yeah.
Cheryl (12:46)
So when I got to it and I saw people standing, kind of was like, oh, it clicked. was like, but I also didn't stand because we had done Muscle Man and everybody that did the practice swim and tried to get out off the rocks sliced up their feet. So I was like, my feet are not touching anything down here if it's not perfectly soft sand. And it wasn't, so just kept swimming.
Angela (12:46)
Yeah, I was.
Jill Bartholomew (12:46)
and Edison.
Angela (12:50)
You knew.
Jill Bartholomew (13:05)
And those cuts take a long time to heal.
Angela (13:13)
Yeah. I am in this.
Jill Bartholomew (13:15)
So Elizabeth, did you walk
on the swim?
Elizabeth Wood (13:18)
I did not know I was so I typically swim
on the inside of the siding buoys. So I was a little further to the left. And I will say that in the in the practice swim a little bit, but definitely on race day, the water weeds. Yeah. But I knew they were going to be there because I had done some practice swimming actually over at the beach, which is a little to the to the right of where the the race starts. But yeah, I'm like Angela, I'm like, what are those people doing?
Jill Bartholomew (13:23)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (13:42)
but I was not gonna put my feet down and it was just deep enough that I could still get strokes. So yeah, yeah, thought this swim was good.
Jill Bartholomew (13:47)
Mm-hmm.
Yes, I was thinking
like running through water is maybe harder than swimming through it. Right?
Cheryl (13:53)
See.
Elizabeth Wood (13:57)
Exactly. That's the other thing too.
Angela (13:57)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (13:59)
Yeah.
Angela (13:59)
I'm guessing nobody was running. Like, I feel like they might have been like trudging a little bit or something, but no one was running, so.
Jill Bartholomew (14:04)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (14:04)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I didn't see any running. And I kept thinking, go ahead, Angela. Yeah.
Angela (14:07)
It wouldn't, I wouldn't have been running friendly. I was just say it wouldn't
Jill Bartholomew (14:07)
Yeah.
Angela (14:11)
have been running friendly, right? You'd have to be careful with your stepping.
Elizabeth Wood (14:15)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you go about 500 meters, 500 yards out, and then you make a left and both of those were choppy. And so I kept telling myself, well, on the way back, we're going to have a nice, you know, a nice assist. And I felt it maybe a few times, but not to the degree that I thought I would given how choppy it was, given how choppy it was going out. I did feel like maybe it was because Canadians are so nice, but this was probably the race where I had the least amount of
Jill Bartholomew (14:16)
Right.
Angela (14:30)
Not really.
Elizabeth Wood (14:41)
going around the turnbouys. You normally there's like flailing and people breast stroking and practically kicking you in the face. And I found that the turnbouys were not congested. Maybe people were just swimming wider. I don't know, but I thought the swim was great.
Angela (14:43)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (14:54)
See, I've had like mixed results on that. At Lake Placid, I actually didn't feel like the Trembrays were super congested. But when I was at Texas this year, it was very congested. It's not the words I want to use, but it's very congested.
Elizabeth Wood (15:11)
Yeah.
Angela (15:12)
I found the same. didn't get too jostled around in the swim, but I also swam wide, so trying to make sure I stay away from people.
Cheryl (15:12)
I feel like
Elizabeth Wood (15:18)
Yeah.
Yeah. Jill, I don't know if... go ahead, Cheryl.
Jill Bartholomew (15:21)
Okay.
Cheryl (15:22)
So.
I was just gonna say that I started farther back than I normally would, because my husband and I were doing this together. And since I was like, this is not my A race, I'm not gonna try to push my way up to the front. We just kind of hung back and he's a slower swimmer than I am. I definitely started back farther than I would have normally. And I got kicked in the face a lot, because I would come up onto people and...
Jill Bartholomew (15:34)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (15:47)
Yeah, slower.
Cheryl (15:49)
You can't,
it was so murky, you couldn't see the feet until they were like right there. So I was constantly trying to get around people and they would, you know, there would be contact. So I tried to swim a little wider. I felt the current was pulling me back towards the shore the whole time going out. So I was constantly correcting, running into people, people were going crooked. I was like, you know what, next time I'm just gonna start in the corral that I'm gonna start in. I can't.
Jill Bartholomew (16:02)
Thank
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (16:16)
Yeah.
Cheryl (16:16)
It
was too, I felt bad. I felt like I was the asshole swimming over people. I tried very, very hard not to swim over people, I was clearly not in the right place.
Jill Bartholomew (16:26)
I mean, especially
if you're starting like towards the back, if you're a faster swimmer, it's kind of hard not to, because some of, like some of those people you're swimming over are not going to finish the swim.
Elizabeth Wood (16:29)
Yeah, that's her. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (16:36)
I mean, we weren't
Elizabeth Wood (16:36)
Yeah.
Angela (16:37)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (16:37)
like
in the back back. were, we started in like the 130 or whatever that, whatever the one, I mean, it wasn't that slow because that's what my husband usually does. So I was, I was surprised, but like my swim was probably one of the slowest swims in an Ironman that I've done so far.
Jill Bartholomew (16:42)
Okay, that's not that far back. It's like in the middle.
Angela (16:43)
120 to 130.
Elizabeth Wood (16:44)
Yeah, that's not that slow.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (16:55)
Okay, okay.
Angela (16:56)
my
Elizabeth Wood (16:56)
So Jill, one thing that... Yeah, sorry. One thing that... Go ahead, Angela, because mine's a little more overarching than just specifically the swim.
Angela (16:57)
thought during the swim. Go ahead.
Okay, yeah, so my thought during the swim was there's gonna be a lot of people who aren't gonna finish the swim because like I'm not a fast swimmer, but I'm a strong swimmer. So I'm swimming and I'm like, you know, the water's hitting me in the face and you know, I can breathe both sides. So I just switched side. I'm breathing on depending where the waves are coming. And, but my thought was there's people who are not gonna be able to handle this. Like if they're used to swimming in nice calm water, they're gonna freak out. They're gonna just, so like.
Jill Bartholomew (17:20)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (17:31)
I was curious how many DNF to swim. I don't know that I ever got that information, but I feel like it would have been more than a regular nice calm swim.
Jill Bartholomew (17:39)
You know, uh, I saw a post on Facebook and I didn't fact check it, but it looked like there was over 20 % DNF on this race. Yeah. Like it looked, it looked high. Yeah. Yeah. As a usual, yeah. Typical Ironman is like 10, 13%. So it looked like it was a bit on the high side, but I, like I said, I
Angela (17:49)
Really? Yeah.
Cheryl (17:50)
Over how much, Joe?
Elizabeth Wood (17:51)
Hmm. 20%. That's high. Between the swim and the heat.
Angela (17:54)
Well, I... And the smoke.
Elizabeth Wood (17:58)
Mm, true.
Angela (18:02)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (18:05)
Yeah.
Angela (18:05)
It wasn't and it
wasn't due to the course. It would have been the other conditions that that people would have. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (18:09)
conditions, yeah,
Jill Bartholomew (18:10)
Yeah, I was going
Elizabeth Wood (18:11)
right.
Jill Bartholomew (18:11)
to ask about the smoke. saw the warnings that it might possibly affect the race. ⁓ It did. So where do you think it affected you the most? Like the run, maybe?
Angela (18:18)
her.
Elizabeth Wood (18:18)
It did,
for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (18:19)
It is. Yeah.
Angela (18:21)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (18:25)
I noticed it right away on the bike. ⁓ And for me, it was just like a headache all day on the bike. so I'm thinking, and that's not unusual for me, but usually it's like, know, I've tightened my MIPS liner too tight. so, you know, loosen off the helmet or, you know, the further I get into the bike, well, okay, maybe I'm a little bit behind on my electrolytes or on my water, but this was like in the first hour. And so I knew that it wasn't my nutrition and loosen my helmet.
Jill Bartholomew (18:29)
Okay.
Angela (18:32)
you
Elizabeth Wood (18:51)
And at one point I was so frustrated, I basically loosened the Mips liner completely. I'm like, well, that's not really very safe. So because if I crash, then it's not really gonna protect my head. it was just so frustrating to have that low grade headache all day long. And then I'm gonna be interested to hear Angela and Cheryl's experience on the run. Of course there's the heat. And I've never, I've I've never really never raced with wild house smoke, with poor air quality like that.
Angela (19:06)
you
Elizabeth Wood (19:18)
And I know some of the symptoms of it, but I experienced things on the run that I've never experienced before, even in Kona, and I've raced in Kona twice. So I'm really interested to hear what you guys experienced from the wildfire smoke, it definitely impacted.
Angela (19:28)
you
It's interesting because
Jill Bartholomew (19:31)
How about you?
Cheryl (19:31)
I mean, I felt it on
the swim for sure. I I felt it in my throat. I had two episodes of like coughing fits in the swim where it was like, breathe, cough, breathe, cough. You know, it's, my throat was irritated all day. It's much like your headache.
Angela (19:46)
Yeah, don't think, yeah, I don't think during the race, I thought that I was affected by it. Like definitely during the swim, when you're swimming and you can see the sun is red and it's hazy or like, like the smoke, clearly the smoke is here. But like, couldn't, didn't think I could feel it. I had a friend who actually didn't start the race because of the smoke, because she was already like coughing in the morning. So she didn't even start.
Jill Bartholomew (19:46)
How about you, Angela?
Elizabeth Wood (20:05)
Actually didn't.
Angela (20:10)
And it was probably a good decision in the end. Through the day I kept thinking, like, I don't think I'm noticing it. I don't think I'm noticing it. But the next morning I woke up with like a terrible headache and like my throat hurt. And I just, I was like, I did like, it's here. Like I can feel it. It has affected me. So perhaps that was part of what affected me on the run. But at the time I was attributing it to other things for sure. But yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (20:27)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (20:34)
Later on I was like, no, that was probably partly smoke.
Elizabeth Wood (20:37)
Yeah. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (20:38)
Yeah,
yeah, like I can't imagine it didn't affect you in some way.
Angela (20:42)
Yeah,
Elizabeth Wood (20:42)
Yeah, there's no way that it couldn't.
Angela (20:42)
no, would have for sure. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (20:45)
All right.
Elizabeth Wood (20:45)
Jill, one thing that I want to mention before we move on to the bike is about the setup of the course. So your listeners may or may not know that this was a split transition course. And so the T2 and the finish line are right in downtown Ottawa by Parliament. It's like a great atmosphere for the finish line. But you start about, I think it's like about 10 miles south of there at Britannia Beach.
So, you know, just adds, they did a great job managing it. I want to say that. I thought that the race director and all of the volunteers and staff did a great job managing it. But when you're racing Ironman, it just adds that extra level of complexity, right? To have to get your bike and your T1 bag to another location where there's literally no parking. And then on race morning, mandatory shuttles, because again, no parking. So like I got up at three.
Jill Bartholomew (21:15)
Thank you.
Angela (21:24)
Thanks
Jill Bartholomew (21:34)
Yeah,
I saw there's a lot of confusion in the lead up to the race around the shuttles. How did that end up working?
Angela (21:39)
Yes. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (21:41)
thought that on, at least
for me on race day, everything went very smoothly. I got up earlier than I ordinarily would have because I just wanted to allow for, you know, it's the first time they've done this. Maybe they're not gonna have enough buses. I actually got five and a half hours of sleep, which is so unusual for me. Normally I like get an hour and then I lie there and think, well, just like rest your legs. But yeah, I did sleep.
Jill Bartholomew (21:46)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (21:47)
.
Jill Bartholomew (21:50)
Wait, you sleep at night before a race? Can we talk about that for a second?
Yeah, the night
before a race, totally have the don't miss your alarm. Don't miss your alarm going through my the whole night. So like sleep is in like five minute intervals.
Angela (22:07)
Yeah, yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (22:10)
Yeah, two alarms. Yeah. Yeah, I
don't know. I don't know why I slept so well, I like, five and a half, but still it's five and a half. But anyway, I, on race morning for me, it went, everything went without a hitch. The shuttles were there. It took a half an hour, which was about what I expected that it would take. And so I was able to just be really calm through it because I had planned for it and had allowed plenty of time, but.
Again, some people, if it's a first race or you get really anxious about pre-race stuff, that split transition, as I mentioned, just adds that extra level of complexity. And you did not have access to your T2 bags on race morning. You did have access to your T1 bags, all of that. But again, I thought that the race crew handled it really well.
Angela (22:33)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (22:53)
See, I always assume that you're not going to have access to your transition bags on race morning. So like this year felt kind of weird at some of the races where like people were at, I saw it at both Texas and Lake Placid where people were like missing like whole parts of their kit.
Angela (22:53)
Yeah
Elizabeth Wood (22:58)
you
Angela (23:08)
putting stuff in.
Jill Bartholomew (23:12)
in their bag and putting it in race morning. And yeah, like in, Texas, there were people putting down empty bags and then the morning of the race going in and putting their stuff in it. And I'm like, what? No.
Elizabeth Wood (23:15)
Really?
Why would you do that?
Angela (23:25)
I thought it was just for nutrition. Like you can just add your nutrition. Like I thought you were supposed to have everything else. I it doesn't matter, but.
Elizabeth Wood (23:26)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're supposed to.
Jill Bartholomew (23:31)
I, yeah,
yeah, this year I forgot to put my inhaler in one of the bags. ⁓ you, no. Someone from foundation helped me get them in. Actually, I think it might've been Michaela.
Elizabeth Wood (23:39)
Mm-hmm.
Andrea probably.
Jill Bartholomew (23:48)
And yeah, Andrea wasn't at that race. And yeah, like even that, wasn't sure I was going to be able to get it in. And then I get there and like, everybody's hovering over the transition bags. like, it feels strange, but, so.
Elizabeth Wood (23:48)
yeah.
sticking around in their bags, yeah. Yeah.
Angela (24:02)
want go off what
Elizabeth said about the transitions and stuff. Felt like execution of like race morning and all that stuff was amazing by organizers, but they could have stemmed a lot of people's anxiety by having more information or like it was almost like it almost felt like they were doing some stuff on the fly or like they added shuttles on the fly for bike drop off and stuff like that.
Jill Bartholomew (24:05)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (24:26)
Yeah.
Angela (24:26)
Whereas if it had been planned ahead of time, if the athlete guide had been out sooner, a lot of people would have not spiraled and stressed so much about the two transitions. Like I think the execution of it was actually done quite well. And it wasn't as hard as it seemed like it was going to be, but it seemed like it was gonna be hard because there wasn't enough information. Now I do have to applaud, am I gonna get her name wrong? Like one of the co-race directors, I think her name is Aline.
Jill Bartholomew (24:34)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (24:35)
Thank
Angela (24:53)
She was amazing on the Facebook group of answering questions. Pauline, is it Pauline? Sorry, yeah. Yeah, of answering questions. So it was kind of nice to know that you had a race director looking at the Facebook page and answering questions. you got, yeah, so like you got information. so I sort of like, was like, it's a first time race. I'm gonna try not to freak about everything. And my view was just see how things go before you like,
Jill Bartholomew (24:53)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (24:53)
yeah. Pauline. It's Pauline. Yeah. Pauline Alix. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (25:06)
That's unusually engaged. Yeah.
Angela (25:20)
say bad stuff about the two transitions or how terrible it is. Like, cause it did end up going okay. It was just, you know, the way triathletes are right. Like we're all spiraling beforehand cause you don't know exactly how things are going to go and whatever. So it did turn out great. I thought they did a great job in the end, but more information upfront would have helped ease everybody's anxiety. I think so it was good. Like it turned out okay.
Jill Bartholomew (25:30)
Right here.
Cheryl (25:44)
I have to say that this was the first race that I've done that going to the athlete briefing was absolutely critical because there was a lot of information in the athlete guide and my favorite page in that guide was like all the different bags, where you drop off and when, like it was just a visual. Like this bag has to go here, right? And it wasn't like a lot of text. was just like.
Jill Bartholomew (26:04)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (26:08)
Here's what the bag looks like, here's where has to go and what time and what day. it was just, was the, that I was like, that's perfect. I took a picture of it. So I had it, you know, just in my things. But there was a lot of information in the athlete briefing that either didn't, they didn't know about when they printed the athlete guide or that just was, you couldn't really even visualize until you got there. So I said like, you know, like the three laps on the bike, like.
Angela (26:30)
Yes.
Jill Bartholomew (26:34)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (26:34)
All
the signs said was, laps finish. It's like, well, if you don't know you're doing three of those and passing that two more times, like that could really go south very quickly. So, and then they did talk about the shuttles and stuff like that. I've done races with split transitions and they didn't go up as well as this one. This was excellent. excellent. Waiting for the shuttle to get to the swim start, 10 minutes. I mean, in Ironman, California, that was like a 45 minute wait. People were getting to the swim.
Jill Bartholomew (26:43)
Yeah.
Yeah, was going to say, have we all done split transitions before?
Angela (26:52)
Good to know.
Elizabeth Wood (26:54)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (27:03)
after the first athlete tour in the swim. Like it was a part of my French, like a shit show. So this was, I was like, wow, they really, they learned lessons. They did a great job. The second thing I would say about that with like expectations and things was that every volunteer on all the days leading up to the race, if I asked a question, everyone knew answers. The volunteers were the best I've ever.
Angela (27:07)
Wow, that's stressful.
Elizabeth Wood (27:07)
Thank
Jill Bartholomew (27:08)
Wow.
Angela (27:13)
So sorry.
Cheryl (27:29)
scene. I mean, know Lake Placid gets really amazing volunteers, but these guys were enthusiastic. They were smiling. They were triathletes. They had been briefed on a lot of different things that usually you ask a volunteer like, where am I going with this? And they're like, I really don't know. I'm just in T1 here. know, everybody knew everything. And if they didn't, they asked somebody. It was really, really well done with volunteers.
Angela (27:30)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (27:43)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (27:46)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (27:50)
So
the race director for this race is a very experienced race director. Do you think that that's because the race director kind of intentionally did that or because it was the first time they did the race, they maybe over-indexed into it a little bit or was everyone just super excited to be there?
Angela (28:10)
My understanding is that Ottawa
is a huge event town. They run lot of marathons, other triathlons, shorter distances. ⁓ And so someone had said, although it's the first Ironman, these volunteers, it's their first Ironman, it's not their first event. So they kind of know what they're doing in other aspects of too, and they know about triathlon.
Jill Bartholomew (28:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Right.
Angela (28:34)
I feel like the triathlon community in Ontario came out huge to volunteer. So I feel like you had a lot of people already knowing like it wasn't just some random off the random person off the street who just wanted to volunteer, who doesn't really know anything. I think you had a lot of knowledge in the volunteer base already. So I feel, and I feel like Ottawa does that really well. So I feel like the race directors probably did a great job. Like the head volunteers and stuff gave great information.
Jill Bartholomew (28:49)
Okay.
Angela (29:02)
But I feel like you also had a really experienced volunteer base with other races, even if it was their first Ironman. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. They were amazing. They were all great.
Jill Bartholomew (29:08)
Right. It's a lot of experience and engagement.
Cheryl (29:08)
and great.
Jill Bartholomew (29:16)
All right, so split transition. How about the bike? So you finish the swim, walk, swim, and now you're in transition. How'd the bike go?
Elizabeth Wood (29:23)
you
Angela (29:28)
I like there was a lot of negativity about this bike like that was one of the first things that people were negative about on the on Facebook page like this was terrible the road conditions were just awful and I again I feel like it's totally about your perspective because were there some sections that were bad exactly exactly and in the like in the information leading up which was basically the Facebook group
Elizabeth Wood (29:29)
you
Jill Bartholomew (29:34)
I stole that.
I always wonder what people are expecting.
Angela (29:51)
people did say there are sections that are bad, right? So like I went in thinking, okay, there's gonna be sections that are bad. There's gonna be some sections that are gonna be good. So when you see a good section, take advantage of it. And when you see a bad section, be careful. And when you're passing people, be careful, because you know they might have to avoid a pothole or something. just, yeah, sort of be careful. So like my biggest concern was not the road conditions, was the other athletes who were passing me too close, knowing what the road conditions were, right? Like I was like.
Elizabeth Wood (29:54)
.
Jill Bartholomew (30:06)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (30:07)
It's
real.
Angela (30:18)
That's why people would crash was because the athletes are not respecting the road conditions, not because they necessarily hit a pothole. Like you have to give people space so that they can like ride to the road conditions. Now, my perspective is fairly different than other people. I'm riding at like 20, between 27 and 34 kilometers an hour. Like on average, that's kind of where I'm sitting. And
Jill Bartholomew (30:22)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (30:43)
I'm not riding in aero with my head down also, because I know what the conditions are. like I'm riding. No, I know, but like I felt like there was people who were like, yeah, the road conditions were crap the whole way. And I'm like, well, if you were watching them, like, I don't know, I just felt people know they weren't right.
Jill Bartholomew (30:47)
Well, mean, nobody should be having their head down.
Elizabeth Wood (30:57)
Yeah, and they weren't. Yeah, they weren't.
Jill Bartholomew (30:59)
mean, anybody who
Cheryl (30:59)
Stay warm.
Jill Bartholomew (31:00)
thinks the road conditions is crap the whole way, they are invited to come out and ride with me through Amish country, Pennsylvania, to our state flower is a construction cone.
Angela (31:05)
Right.
Elizabeth Wood (31:08)
Yeah. ⁓
Angela (31:10)
Exactly, if you're running
country roads, yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (31:13)
Yeah.
Angela (31:16)
Like, so for me it was good. I liked the course.
Elizabeth Wood (31:16)
Yeah. Yeah. And I, yeah, I'm
so, so I agree with Angela. had pre-ridden a short section of the bike on Saturday before I turned my bike in. and from just texting with Angela, I knew there were going to be some sections where the road surfaces may be. There was like a sort of a construction area. So I knew that there were going to be some sections, but I felt like the, the, the proportion of, of bad road surface to good road surface.
Jill Bartholomew (31:35)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (31:44)
there was, to me, there was much more good road surface. The, the bad parts were like coming out of the swim. And then the first part of the turnaround, when you finished the loop, that was, that was rough. ⁓ and then the parts around the city, were, were, were choppy. There were actually, three, passing zones, two that were right there in the city. And then another one, which we can talk about later. I'm not even sure why it was there. It was like leading up to an aid station.
Jill Bartholomew (31:55)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (32:08)
Yeah,
Elizabeth Wood (32:09)
But then as you got
Angela (32:09)
that was weird.
Elizabeth Wood (32:10)
out, the course is almost like an right? You come out from the swim and then you go down south and then you come back up to the city and then you go out east. so there was a, the part going out east was the longest stretch. And once you got sort of away from town, I thought the road surface was great. I actually rode on the shoulder because it was smoother. But the roads were about what I expected. And I don't think they were any different from really any other Ironman, you know, every course that uses.
Angela (32:25)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (32:36)
you know, city, city or state or whatever roads, nothing is going to be smooth as silk.
Angela (32:37)
roads.
Jill Bartholomew (32:38)
Yeah.
Yeah, I if you're in the north, if you're like north of the Mason-Dixon line, the roads are not gonna be always awesome, right?
Angela (32:41)
Yeah. Yeah, you've got snow plows in the winter. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (32:44)
with the winters exactly, snow plow, salt, cold. Yeah.
Cheryl (32:46)
Right.
Elizabeth Wood (32:51)
Yeah. Yeah. Now I will
Angela (32:52)
Exactly. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (32:53)
say that writing
in Kona is going to seem really, really smooth compared to that course.
Angela (32:57)
Nice. ⁓
Cheryl (32:59)
I also wanted to
just commend Ottawa because wherever it was bad, the orange paint was spot on. They did an amazing job marking everything that would have been dangerous. mean, not like, where it was just kind of like little cracks or whatever the whole way down, but like if there was, it was like a part where it was like sort of buckling, they like painted that thing all the way down and potholes and they had, yeah, they were very, very well-marked sections. I'm like, that.
Elizabeth Wood (33:04)
Marked. Yeah, they did a great job.
Angela (33:07)
Bye.
Jill Bartholomew (33:12)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (33:15)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (33:21)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (33:26)
to me was ⁓ unusual.
Jill Bartholomew (33:27)
I love it when courses do
a really great job at that. Because you get a couple miles in and you notice like, hey, they did a good job at this. And you know you can push it a little bit because you can trust that if there's a hazard that it's going to be marked.
Elizabeth Wood (33:38)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Angela (33:40)
Yeah,
the other thing that I think helped, like if you're thinking, okay, these roads are really bad, the roads were, it was closed. It was all a closed course. So we had the entire road, right? So you had the entire road. So if there was a bad section, like I said, as long as...
Elizabeth Wood (33:41)
Yeah.
That's right, good point. That was so nice.
Jill Bartholomew (33:49)
that's nice.
Cheryl (33:50)
my gosh.
Jill Bartholomew (33:56)
⁓
so you had both directions on the road.
Angela (33:59)
Yes,
Elizabeth Wood (33:59)
Yes.
Angela (33:59)
yep, yep. And so you could avoid, right? Like you could avoid people. There was no traffic anywhere. So you had tons of space that if there was a pothole, if there was something, you could avoid it. You have to check your shoulder. You hope people are saying on your left or like, know, hope that, anyway. So there was lots of space if you did come across a really bad section to find another line. So, you know, and if everyone's keeping their space like they're supposed to,
Cheryl (34:00)
Yes,
Elizabeth Wood (34:00)
Yeah.
Cheryl (34:01)
completely closed.
Jill Bartholomew (34:04)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (34:16)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Angela (34:27)
then you can be, could have had a very successful ride. And I like the ride. I actually loved it. I loved the three sections out and it was easy for my brain to comprehend, okay, I'm 60K in, okay, now I go out this section, now this section, now this section, now I'm 120, okay, now like, like I, my brain loved that course as far as compartmentalizing.
Elizabeth Wood (34:32)
Yeah. I want... Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (34:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (34:40)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (34:49)
So did.
Cheryl (34:49)
I agree. Your part was good.
liked it.
Elizabeth Wood (34:51)
Yeah, I agree with that. Originally I thought, gosh, three loops, but the way that the loops were structured with those like three individual little legs, it was just really easy to kind of tick those off as they went. And the one thing I also want to add as a positive before the race, I thought, gosh, you know, the first loop may not be that bad, but I was concerned about the course being really crowded on loops two and three. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (35:03)
Okay.
Angela (35:13)
Hmm. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (35:14)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (35:14)
And I don't know about you guys, I never felt like it was crowded. Part of it might've
Angela (35:15)
It wasn't. Nope.
Elizabeth Wood (35:18)
been the pace, like my first loop was really good, my second and third were okay, not what I wanted. I think also what Angela mentioned was the fact that we had the whole road. We had both directions of the road. But I never once felt like I got stuck in traffic and I was worried about a drafting penalty or I got boxed in. So that was really a pleasant surprise.
Jill Bartholomew (35:26)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (35:36)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (35:38)
Yeah, I love getting stuck in traffic.
Cheryl (35:38)
I second that, I thought it was,
yeah. And I also agree with Angela. I loved the fact that it was, you could take like, this is the short section. That's a little bit longer. That's a little bit longer. And since I was racing with my husband, we saw each other all the time. Back and forth, or he passed me, I passed him, or whatever. At one point when he caught up to me after the swim, we were riding side by side and kind of like talking about the swim and the race official came over and was like, hey, break it up. And it was like.
Jill Bartholomew (35:46)
Okay.
Angela (35:52)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (35:52)
nice.
You
Cheryl (36:06)
We could
have definitely gotten an impeding penalty or whatever, but he was just like, there was no, but like he said, there was not a whole lot of traffic. So it wasn't even like, there was really nobody behind us trying to come through, but he was just like, kind of jokingly like, hey, break it up.
Angela (36:10)
Blocking, blocking penalty. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (36:16)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (36:17)
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes.
Jill Bartholomew (36:23)
⁓
I mean you avoided a blue card.
Cheryl (36:25)
We did it for it.
Jill Bartholomew (36:25)
Um, yeah,
the, the, I've talked about it before on some courses where you only have like one lane that traffic and, know, every once in a while you see like a whole Peloton of usually guys just kind of floating by and blocking the whole thing.
Elizabeth Wood (36:39)
Mm-hmm. Yep. I didn't see that at all.
Angela (36:39)
huh. Yep.
Yeah, there were a couple groups,
Cheryl (36:46)
I did get passed by a couple
of the fast guys and girls going, you know, on their, I guess, second or third loop. But again, like the whole road, they were just, okay, fine. I'm like, all right.
Jill Bartholomew (36:51)
Yeah.
Nice. Okay. So all three of you enjoyed the bike course. So yeah, when I saw it, yeah.
Angela (37:01)
⁓ Yeah.
Cheryl (37:01)
Thumbs up the bike course.
Elizabeth Wood (37:03)
Yeah, and one other thing on the bike course
Angela I think you alluded to this earlier and I heard some grumbling like I thought it was supposed to be flat my gosh it was flat there were maybe a couple a couple of little inclines but most of them I didn't even need to get into my little ring for ⁓ and yeah so like it was 2,000 feet of climbing over 112 miles so it was a flat course and honestly those little rises were a nice break
Angela (37:11)
It was flat, yeah.
Cheryl (37:18)
Yeah, I don't think I got out of the big ring at all.
Angela (37:19)
Yep.
Yep. Big ring only.
Elizabeth Wood (37:28)
you know, from just like the flats all the time. from that perspective, I don't know. I don't know what California is, but this might be the flattest course on the North American circuit.
Angela (37:28)
They were, yeah.
Cheryl (37:28)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (37:36)
⁓ think, I yeah. Isn't Marilyn.
Cheryl (37:37)
California was pretty flat. I think it was a little flatter than that. unlike, I mean, like
California also flat gives you the wind. And I did find on this course, the second loop, was like, my gosh, the wind picked up, it shifted. Now I'm on the crosswind. had, there was one section, I think by that airfield where, you know, where that no passing zone was next to the airfield where I was like, I can't drink, I can't grab my bottle. I can't do anything because my bike was just going to get blown off the road. So.
Elizabeth Wood (37:45)
Mm-hmm. Yes, right. Mm-hmm. It's a...
Angela (37:56)
Yep. Yep.
Elizabeth Wood (37:58)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (38:05)
interesting.
Cheryl (38:05)
There
were a couple of wind issues and I never was quite sure which direction the wind was going. Was it helping me? Was it hindering me? One point I'm like, I'm flying. I looked down and I'm like, I'm going like 15 miles an hour. That's not okay. I'm pushing it and the wind was just coming right at me. But other times you're like, this is great. Did I slow down? And you look down and it's like, I must have a tailwind. So I never knew what to expect with the wind. I just took it when I could and pushed through when I couldn't, but there were a couple of
Elizabeth Wood (38:08)
Yeah, I forgot about that.
Angela (38:12)
you
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (38:27)
Yeah.
Cheryl (38:33)
crosswind sections, especially on that second lap where I was like, this is, that's a little, yes. Well, yes. And then that's what I kept thinking. I'm like, okay, I can, if I'm doing this and you know, I mean, my, my bike was the bike time was not great, but like my bike experience was really good. I mean, in, terms of like my
Elizabeth Wood (38:38)
Practice for Kona.
Jill Bartholomew (38:40)
So I think.
Okay.
Cheryl (38:58)
I don't have a power meter, but I'm sure I wasn't pushing too many watts because I felt great off the bike. And yeah, so that worked. So yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (38:59)
Your execution? Yeah.
Angela (39:03)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (39:06)
I don't know that I could survive without a power meter at this point. I'm so used to having it.
Angela (39:09)
Yeah
Cheryl (39:10)
Training run, I
Elizabeth Wood (39:10)
Same, I know.
Cheryl (39:12)
didn't wanna have any expectations. This was all about training and getting through and doing it, you know, and just nutrition. And I didn't wanna look at power at all. was like.
Jill Bartholomew (39:23)
I get that. I totally get that. So I think when we talk flat, I just looked up Ironman, Maryland, because I know in the Northeast, a lot of people go and do that because it's flat. 460 feet across the 112. So that's flat. That's flat, right? That's what, like 10, 15 feet per 10 miles? It's not that much, right?
Elizabeth Wood (39:34)
Yeah, right.
⁓ my god. Okay. Yeah, that's flat.
Angela (39:38)
that is pretty flat.
Elizabeth Wood (39:47)
It's crazy.
Jill Bartholomew (39:49)
Okay, so the bike, you know, was reasonably flat and I agree with you, like to me, you know, I've never done an Ironman with that little elevation, right? Even Texas has twice that on the bike. Okay, so you said it was split transition, so T2. What was T2 like?
Elizabeth Wood (40:09)
Well, first of all, bike handlers, yay. Yeah.
Angela (40:09)
Thank
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (40:12)
know, when I heard there's no bike catchers at Kona, I disappointed. I'm like, I love it when they have bike catchers. It makes life so much nicer.
Elizabeth Wood (40:16)
I know it's so nice. So much nicer. Yeah.
Angela (40:17)
I know.
Touchdown your transition, huge.
Elizabeth Wood (40:22)
Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So bike handlers, and you come out of T2 like right there on, it's like, think Mackenzie or McGregor, don't know what the road is, but there are so many spectators. And I, and I want to say for this race as a whole, even out at the farthest points on the bike, there were spectators, the farthest points on the run.
Angela (40:41)
Yes.
Jill Bartholomew (40:43)
Really?
Elizabeth Wood (40:43)
there were spectators.
Angela (40:43)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (40:44)
There were spectators on the run. The run course, you you come out, you get to a certain point and then you do two loops of that and then you come back and you finish. But there was this group of spectators. They were there all four times I went by and like everyone was cheering and encouraging and some was in French and some was in English. But I think this was probably of all the races I've done. So which is like 20 races, you know, total.
Jill Bartholomew (41:04)
very Canada.
Elizabeth Wood (41:06)
the best spectators and fan support, especially in some of those darker moments for me, you know, it allowed me to get out of my head and, you know, engage and think about, okay, you know, just keep moving one foot in front of the other.
Jill Bartholomew (41:18)
Okay.
Angela (41:18)
Yeah, was like
on the bike, was spectators everywhere. Like you probably didn't go, you know, a kilometer, you know, a couple of kilometers and there would be someone else. Like you were not alone anywhere on that course. Yeah. Even at the farthest points of, because there's bike trails along these roads too. So there people would bike out or they'd park along the road and they were everywhere. Yeah. Which was nice.
Elizabeth Wood (41:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, never.
Jill Bartholomew (41:28)
wow.
Mm-hmm.
I mean,
that's pretty awesome. Although if the course was closed to cars, I think they were probably trapped there. So they couldn't leave.
Angela (41:49)
No, because
so what it is is the way the course is, there are parkways and then the people just park, like you could park under, like my brother came and he parked under the overpass, like the parkway goes over the overpass. So he parked underneath, he could drive under there and then they just walk up the hill and they're there. Or there's the bike trails along the side. And so there was lots of cyclists who would stop and they would cheer and then yeah, there just seemed to be people everywhere on every part of the course.
Elizabeth Wood (41:50)
Not for the... yeah, maybe.
Jill Bartholomew (41:55)
Okay.
I see.
Yeah, I've been in... Yeah...
Yeah.
Yeah, that's how Texas is. There's a road that goes next to the highway and people just park there and hop the fence to spectate.
Elizabeth Wood (42:16)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (42:16)
Angry? It was great.
Elizabeth Wood (42:24)
Yeah. So you come out in a transition T2 and you've got all these spectators, you know, and the run course, to me, the run course was kind of like the bike course. It was advertised as being flat and generally it was flat, but you come out and you make a turn, right. You make a turn onto Rideau street, which is right by the Fairmont. And there's kind of a long gradual climb. I'm like, all right, just, you know, put it in a low gear and suck it up. Don't start walking now.
Angela (42:40)
Not completely. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (42:51)
And so you go up that street and then you kind of go around some, you know, down some hills and turns and whatever. And I remember seeing the directional arrows coming the other way. I was like, holy fuck, pardon my French. We're going to have to come up these hills at the finish. But I'm like, okay, don't worry about that now. Just think about that later. But then you get out and you're on a road that basically parallels, think, first I think it's the Rideau Canal and then is it the river, Angela?
Angela (43:04)
to come back this way.
Cheryl (43:06)
Go.
Elizabeth Wood (43:19)
But anyway, it's very flat. There are, like the bike, a few little rises, but there was never anything that I would really call a hill on the RunCore. So I felt like that was very much as advertised. What about you guys?
Jill Bartholomew (43:27)
So.
So I'm curious.
So I'm curious. the athlete guide does not list an elevation gain at all on the run. No, no, there's no elevation profile.
Elizabeth Wood (43:40)
didn't.
Cheryl (43:42)
I thought there was.
Angela (43:43)
Well, so somebody posted
somebody posted something recently where like last year it was listed as a flat run and now it's listed as a rolling run or something like that.
Jill Bartholomew (43:52)
I saw that too. It is listed as flat. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (43:53)
I thought it was flat in the athlete guide.
Cheryl (43:56)
it was flat in the athlete guide. I
have to say coming down that first ginormous hill, well the one and only ginormous hill at like the 1k mark was like, okay. And I saw it on the elevation guide. So I knew it was coming in, but it's just like, okay. So my quads are on fire from this bike because I've been, you know, arrow the whole time and now I'm going down this hill. So that was a little bit of a shuffle. And then I saw the third
Elizabeth Wood (43:59)
Yeah.
Angela (44:03)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (44:04)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Cheryl (44:22)
I think it was the second or third male coming in, going up the hill. And I'm like, right, we have to run up this hill. And then I'm thinking, are we turning around on top of the hill? Like, we have to do this like twice, but whatever. Once we got out, I'm kind of in the camp where I don't think this was a flat course. I mean, I think there were a lot of like gradual uphills that you didn't really see, but you could feel. And I
Elizabeth Wood (44:25)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (44:40)
and
Cheryl (44:45)
thought that there was a couple of rollers that were sort of like, hey, this wasn't up and over. I just, I didn't find it that flat. But again, it's no placid. It was not like a, like where the road.
Elizabeth Wood (44:55)
Yeah, right, right. Yeah. God,
Jill Bartholomew (44:57)
Yeah, as
well.
Elizabeth Wood (44:58)
River Road and that hill coming up to Main Street. Angela, what did you think? Did think it was flat?
Jill Bartholomew (45:00)
I
Angela (45:03)
And so,
well, so I walked a lot, like I walked a lot, my nutrition didn't pan out. So I ended up walking a lot. And it's not like, like I've done Montreux Blanc and then I've done the Skoka a lot. And those have hills, hills, like where you're like, you've to put your hands on your knees to walk up a hill, right? Like if you're walking, like the section, like when I was coming to the end, it definitely wasn't flat, but
I kind of felt like, and I don't feel like I'm actually that qualified to talk about because I walked so much, right? So, but there was nothing where I was like, God, I got to walk up this, like when I was walking up the hill, wasn't, I don't know. So I agree it's not a flat course and they've changed it now to say rolling like for 2026 for the run. But coming up the very last hill just behind parliament, just before like at 41 K or whatever,
Jill Bartholomew (45:38)
I mean, you were there.
Mm-hmm.
Angela (45:54)
it actually felt really good to come up that 10 % grade for like 20 seconds or whatever. Cause I was like, my gosh, my legs, like I'm stretching out my legs. So, which I laughed at myself. So like you're at 41 K and you just want to get the finish line, but you're like, this feels good to actually change the way my, muscles that I'm using. So yeah, it wasn't flat, but it also wasn't crazy. But again, like I said, I walked a lot, so I, I wasn't running. So I don't know how that feels.
Jill Bartholomew (46:03)
you
Elizabeth Wood (46:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
So I walked
a lot too. I know I saw Cheryl and mine was not my nutrition plan, at least I don't think it was, because I have struggled a lot with nutrition in my previous races and I've worked with a nutritionist and based on what I normally look for are things going off the rails with nutrition, I didn't have any of those symptoms. But I had and I saw so many people, uncontrollable vomiting.
Cheryl (46:21)
Thank
Angela (46:43)
you
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (46:47)
early in the run.
And I was able to push through it. But like, you know, I use water and then pick up Martin gels on course. Like, I couldn't even get a Martin gel down. was like, to even try to swallow it. And I know I saw a lot of people vomiting. Now, that can be that their electrolytes are out of whack, or they're dehydrated. But I know for me personally, that was not the case. So I don't know if it was smoke, or if it was just the heat or what it was. But
Cheryl (46:49)
Yes.
Yeah.
Angela (46:59)
Hmm.
Interesting.
Jill Bartholomew (47:08)
was going to
say I have some ideas.
Elizabeth Wood (47:14)
I was disappointed in my run because I walked so much of it, but I finished and you...
Angela (47:17)
Yeah, me too.
Jill Bartholomew (47:18)
in.
We should catch up later,
because I have some ideas on why that might be with the nothing else coming down. ⁓ Yeah, no, I've heard of the vomiting. I talked to someone who vomited every other mile on their Iron Man, and they still had like a 230 run. And I'm like, ⁓ yeah, yeah. I'm like, my god. And I'm like, was it a nutrition problem? They're like,
Elizabeth Wood (47:23)
Okay, all right, good. Okay, good, yeah.
Angela (47:36)
Earth.
I couldn't do that.
Elizabeth Wood (47:43)
Mm-mm. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (47:47)
No, my belly was just unsettled on that day. I guess it's better to go up and down, right?
Elizabeth Wood (47:50)
I think that's nutrition. I don't know. Yeah.
Yeah. And like there was, saw one post that was like, well, was it the water quality? And somebody else said, oh, well, my husband tested the water quality and it was fine. Cause I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think that it was from the water. just, I don't know. It was just, you know, one of those days.
Jill Bartholomew (48:05)
I mean, that would be really quick
if it was the water and the swim. That would be really fast.
Elizabeth Wood (48:09)
Exactly. Yeah, I didn't
think it was that, but yeah, I probably saw more people vomiting there than I have in Kona.
Cheryl (48:15)
I agree, when I was coming down that hill right after, so like in the first 5K, I was actually surprised how many people were walking already. And cause you know, you just usually don't see that so early in the race. So yeah, I agree. And I did hear a lot of people talking about unsettled stomach. I had a very unsettled stomach.
Jill Bartholomew (48:15)
interesting.
Elizabeth Wood (48:23)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (48:23)
Okay.
Cheryl (48:36)
that I was ignoring, but also was not able to choke down the gels that I was supposed to be choking down, nor drinking the tailwind that I brought with me, anything that I was supposed to be doing, did I do. So I don't know.
Elizabeth Wood (48:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (48:47)
Well, I mean,
it sounds like that probably didn't help.
Angela (48:50)
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Cheryl (48:50)
that watch
out.
Jill Bartholomew (48:52)
I said it sounds like that not following your nutrition plan probably didn't help the case.
Angela (48:56)
you
Cheryl (48:58)
Now it landed.
Elizabeth Wood (48:58)
Yeah, but when you
can't get it down or keep it down, yeah, like I resorted to Coke and potato chips and just trying to keep some stuff coming in along with water, but yeah, was just one of those days.
Jill Bartholomew (49:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (49:02)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (49:08)
So was it Martin,
was it, sorry, was it the mortal on the course for the electrolytes or is it something else?
Elizabeth Wood (49:14)
I don't do mortal. I do
Cheryl (49:16)
I don't feel well.
Elizabeth Wood (49:17)
precision
capsules.
Angela (49:19)
I didn't touch the mortal either.
Jill Bartholomew (49:21)
But it was mortal that was on the course. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (49:23)
Oh yeah, that's what they offered.
Angela (49:23)
yeah, that was the fuel.
Elizabeth Wood (49:25)
Yeah.
It was Martin 160s. I believe they had the Martin solids and then they had mortal, um, Yes. The one sixties, which was weird. I felt bad wasting them, but I'm like, I can't gag down a whole one 60. I'm not going to carry it with me.
Jill Bartholomew (49:31)
I was the 160s they had on the course.
Yeah.
Cheryl (49:37)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (49:39)
Yeah, I love the 160s on the bike.
Cheryl (49:39)
I know my husband said that too. He was surprised.
Jill Bartholomew (49:42)
I love the 160s on the bike, but when they have it on the run, I'm always like, what? These are huge for a run.
Elizabeth Wood (49:44)
Yeah.
Yeah,
I know. I guess lucky for the volunteers when they were surplus and they got to take them home.
Jill Bartholomew (49:51)
Yeah, I mean, those things are.
Cheryl (49:52)
I
overheard one of the medical people in one of the aid stations saying, there's a really big concern because nobody's taking the mortal. Nobody's taking the electrolytes. I'm like, yeah, no, we've all been talking about not taking the because it's gross. I think most people brought their own, yeah. Or we're doing just...
Elizabeth Wood (50:02)
Yes.
Angela (50:06)
Everybody brought their own.
Elizabeth Wood (50:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (50:08)
Yeah, every time I- Yeah, every time I-
Elizabeth Wood (50:11)
Or they didn't and
that's why they were vomiting.
Jill Bartholomew (50:14)
Yeah, every time I use the mortal I get headaches and feel very unsettled. Yeah.
Cheryl (50:14)
Yeah, it was hot.
Elizabeth Wood (50:17)
I think that's from the stevia.
Cheryl (50:20)
They took it out.
just saw it. Did you see that in the newsletter? There was a, I got an order from the feed and they had a big newsletter in it and Mortal took out an ad and it said, all right, you've roared, we listened, Stevie is out. And they're also doing, I don't know. Well, see.
Elizabeth Wood (50:22)
did they? No, what did they?
What are they using instead?
Jill Bartholomew (50:38)
sugar, hopefully.
Elizabeth Wood (50:38)
have to look it up and see what their sweetener is now.
Yeah, just pure sugar, nothing wrong with that.
Jill Bartholomew (50:43)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what we've been screaming for now a year and a half is like, some glucose in it, Instead of tricking the body into thinking that it's there.
Elizabeth Wood (50:49)
Yeah, right. Yeah. The finish line.
Yeah, I have to say the finish line. You know, again, yeah, at that point I was walking, had blisters on the balls of both feet. So yeah, was, it was, I've never had that before in a race. So, you know, I'm, you know, I'm still smiling, I'm power walking, but like the spectators, when you come around that corner on a whatever that is, McGregor or whatever. And it's just like,
Jill Bartholomew (51:01)
Oof.
Elizabeth Wood (51:16)
They were just amazing, so encouraging. And then the finish line itself, the athlete food, poutine and pasta and gelato, three or four flavors of gelato. Yeah. Yeah, it was good finish line. Good athlete food, tomato soup. And they had real beer, four different kinds of beer, not athletic, but they had real beer.
Angela (51:29)
And tomato soup, there was tomato soup. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (51:38)
See, I'm a fan of the athletic because that's what we drink at home. But every once in a while, you want the real stuff.
Elizabeth Wood (51:41)
Yeah, no, it's nothing against the athletic, but you know, in Yeah, yeah.
Cheryl (51:41)
Me too. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (51:47)
It did not sound good to me, but I'm like, ⁓ you can tell this isn't a North American. This isn't an American race because they've got beer instead of instead of athletic, but it was good.
Angela (51:48)
No, me neither.
Jill Bartholomew (51:53)
Yeah. I don't
know. My expectations for finish line food is generally pretty low.
Elizabeth Wood (52:00)
Yeah,
Angela (52:00)
Yeah,
Elizabeth Wood (52:01)
this was this was really good finish line food.
Angela (52:03)
had my family bring me a Fair Life, like high protein, just chocolate milk at the end and a cheese pizza. Like I was like, I just wanna know what I'm getting. I wanna know that it's gonna sit well so that I can review it. So I did get some poutine, had bite just to say that I did it.
Elizabeth Wood (52:20)
Yeah, I just had the fries. I didn't think I could stomach the gravy and the cheese curds, but the fries with the salt were delicious.
Angela (52:24)
Ha ha ha.
Jill Bartholomew (52:27)
I bet they were. Get some starch in ya and some salt and the so I'm curious. We've all done Ironman races. We've crossed many finish lines. What is your post race ritual at this point?
Cheryl (52:28)
I skipped the third, I was too nauseous.
depends on if I go to medical or don't go to medical.
Elizabeth Wood (52:46)
The
Jill Bartholomew (52:46)
All right, let's
assume that medical is not part of your post-race.
Cheryl (52:50)
Generally, it's hopefully meet up with my husband who usually races with me and a burger and a beer. Let's go find a pub and have a burger and a beer. And we talk about the race and generally I fall asleep before I can eat more than like two or three bites. But you know, that's, that's usually.
Jill Bartholomew (53:00)
There you go.
How about you, Angela?
Angela (53:12)
Yeah, it's funny. don't like, do I have a ritual? this, like I said, this year I said to my family, bring me this and bring me this. And I was really glad I was able to eat it. Cause after my previous two, I haven't really felt like eating. So I kind of finished and went, okay, like I'm feeling well enough to eat. And once I had like my fair life, was like, I actually feel really like, feel good now. And I, and my family was there. We chatted, we went to pick up my bike. We walked back to the hotel.
I usually take a shower and then an Epsom salt bath and then put my massage boots on and fall asleep with my massage boots on usually. And I'm like a later finisher too. So I always say to myself, okay, I just want to get myself sorted and then I'll go back to the finish line because it's not too long. But then I'm like, like I, I couldn't do it. I haven't been able to do it yet.
Elizabeth Wood (53:45)
You
Jill Bartholomew (53:47)
Yeah.
I, I'm the same way. always, I
always mean to go back to the finish line. It doesn't always happen. How about you Elizabeth, what's your kind of post race look like?
Angela (54:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know and I'm.
Elizabeth Wood (54:09)
So in my last handful of races, what I like to do is I'll go to the athlete food area and the salty fries and a Sprite. So a little glucose, a little salt, all this settles really well. And then, you know, get back to wherever we're staying. usually my fiance, Craig, it seems like
Most of the races we've traded off. So either he's racing or I'm racing in the full distance races. And so go back to wherever we're staying, take a shower. And then I like to then go out and get something to eat because each and by that point I am starving. So sometimes it's standing in front of the refrigerator, eating leftover pasta out of know, the Tupperware container, but I wish there were a burger and a beer. And that's what I really wanted on Sunday night. And I was staying in the Fairmont, which is right there.
Jill Bartholomew (54:32)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (54:54)
by the finish line and their restaurant, like they had the finish line camera going in the lobby. So, you know, they weren't oblivious to the fact that there was an Ironman, but their restaurant didn't stay open late. So I got there at 10.50. Sorry, the kitchen gloves closed at 10.45 and room service. Everything was pre-prepared and they had a BLT, which sounded so good to me. I'm like, so you're gonna bring me a BLT and the bacon's gonna be cold? Mm-hmm, no, that's okay. So I ended up having a salad.
Angela (55:01)
cool.
Jill Bartholomew (55:03)
Right. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (55:23)
I know, I know it's just wrong. I was so hungry at that point though, I was gonna eat anything.
Jill Bartholomew (55:24)
Ugh. This salad.
Yeah, you know, I was surprised we saw that Lake Placid to, you know, talk about a town that's used to this kind of stuff and still like the rest, most of the restaurants closed at like nine.
Cheryl (55:44)
But down at Bayward Market, like right past the finish line, the Bayward Market, right, the opposite direction from the Fairmont, it was hopping. It was this, the bars were out, was, yeah, that's where you needed to go. I'm sorry, I should have probably told you, because that's where my husband, oh yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (55:46)
Yeah.
Angela (55:49)
Yeah, buy word market.
Jill Bartholomew (55:52)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (55:56)
Really?
nice.
Jill Bartholomew (56:00)
That's what you'd expect.
Elizabeth Wood (56:02)
Yeah.
Okay, yeah, that's okay. Shoot, yeah, wish I had known we would have.
Angela (56:07)
Let's go.
Cheryl (56:12)
was, I mean, that was our plan because we parked over there at the garage and we were like, all right, that Irish pub, we're going there. And, you know, we did our pre-race dinner there. It was just, you know, just a great spot, night spot. And it was open very late. So.
Elizabeth Wood (56:17)
that's right, yeah.
Nice.
Angela (56:28)
Uh-huh.
Jill Bartholomew (56:29)
So
my soon to be husband, when we first started dating, he realized very quickly that after any endurance race, we somehow always managed to find ourselves in a steakhouse about an hour after crossing the finish line. And I'm like, yeah. And there's nothing like a good piece of beef after.
Angela (56:43)
You ⁓
Cheryl (56:43)
Yeah. Protein.
Elizabeth Wood (56:46)
Yum.
Yum, that
Angela (56:52)
We
gotta refuel. We gotta refuel.
Cheryl (56:52)
That's usually us after marathon.
Elizabeth Wood (56:52)
sounds good.
Cheryl (56:55)
We don't eat a whole lot of red meat, but after a full, like a standalone marathon, we always just hit the steakhouse. get in the good places. Need it.
Jill Bartholomew (56:55)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (57:00)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (57:01)
Yes, it's the same for us. I don't
need a lot of red meat. They do, but after an endurance race, you better believe it.
Angela (57:09)
Hahaha!
Cheryl (57:09)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (57:10)
Hehehehehe
Cheryl (57:11)
All food stuff is off the Everything is fair game.
Jill Bartholomew (57:13)
Yeah, it's like I earned that man.
Angela (57:15)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (57:16)
All right. So we've been chatting for quite a while about the different aspects of the race. I'm curious, what was your highs and lows? So Angela, why don't you go first?
Angela (57:26)
my high I would say was getting out of the swim because the swim was so choppy and my goal going in though was just go in have an easy swim like it's not gonna make or break make or break you so so have a nice easy swim but kind of coming out of the swim I had a decent time for me so I was like yes like so I came out of swim with a really positive attitude and saw the people I wanted to see in transition and
had great volunteers helping me, got my stuff on, got on the bike, like felt pretty good. Besides the fact that I had my tires, I thought they were inflated properly and I got on and I was like, oh, they feel a little, like not soft, softer than they should have. And I was like, okay, well, what do you do here? Like, cause you know, it's going to be a bad course. Anyway, like all these things going through my head, but then, and then I had a great, like my bike, actually stayed quite positive the whole time besides having a few little issues, but.
Like I stayed really positive. So I went into the, the run with a super positive attitude and thinking, okay, I can do this. I've been working on my run a lot lately. I've been getting a lot stronger and I walked a lot my first two. So I was like, this one, I'm not going to walk a lot. Like, you know, it's going to be great. And I was like, I might even finish in the light. And I was so pumped. So that was like, I was on a complete high starting the run.
And then actually Elizabeth, was right when you passed me on the run around the backside of parliament there. ⁓ It was like all of a sudden, like I was feeling so amazing that I was going to have this great run. And it's like the world just went imploded on me. was like, it is so hot. I am so hot right now. like all of a sudden just like, I've probably never felt that kind of bonk before, but I was like, okay, I need to walk. And so, and I kind of started walking as a K.
Jill Bartholomew (58:46)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (58:52)
and
Mm.
Angela (59:13)
after you get off that hill, you're going to start running. And I did. And I was like, okay, you can do this. You can do this. But then it was just like, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but I went from like feeling so, so high to so low all at once. And then being like, okay, it's okay. You can get this back. You can get this back. And it just never came back. And I, yeah, it was, I had a really disappointing run because I had felt so good going in and I felt so great at the beginning of the run. And it's very quickly just nose dive. So.
Jill Bartholomew (59:18)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (59:42)
That was super disappointing. I crossed the finish line. My goal is to just never go to medical. So if I have to slow down, slow down, slow down so that I can cross the line standing and with a smile on my face, that's my goal. So I did that. So you know, I guess I was successful, but just disappointed in the run part after feeling so, so high. So it is what it is.
Jill Bartholomew (1:00:04)
Okay, Cheryl.
Cheryl (1:00:05)
I think that the volunteers, I just can't say enough about the enthusiasm, the helpfulness, cheeriness, the positive attitude, just everyone knew what they were doing and the amount of volunteers helping and just being incredibly excited to be there and excited for us. It made such a huge impact, I think, for the whole race from the bike, you know.
people in the tents, the people giving out water on the bike. The run aid stations were amazing. I think it was a very, very well supported race. One of the high points was that my husband didn't catch me until mile 45 on the bike, which is, you know, I think that's a record for me. But I always get out of the water first and he always catches me at some point. And I think this was a pretty good distance. I was happy with that.
Angela (1:00:51)
Yay!
Cheryl (1:01:01)
I'm happy that I felt great on the bike the whole time. I'm, I was, this was a training run for me. So I wasn't even sure I was gonna do the run. I was not, I'm not really fully trained for the run for a whole marathon. About five or six K in my Achilles started hurting and I for whatever reason didn't pack K tape anywhere. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna.
not push through this because if I hurt my Achilles now and can't train the rest of the way for Kona, that's not okay. So I slowed down, I walked a lot. I probably walked 90 % of the second half of the race of the run. But again, I'm a really social person. So just being able to talk to people, like, you know, saying hi to Elizabeth or my husband at somewhere right after the turnaround, some guy
Some young like, he must've been like 30, saw me walk in and he kinda like was like, hey, how's your day going? I'm like, it's, you know, mean, it is whatever, but I'm probably gonna walk. He's like, great, I'll walk with you. We walked the rest of the race together. I just chatted and he's like, I'm so happy I ran into you. You're keeping a good pace. I'm like, four miles an hour is a good pace? Great, okay. So yeah, it was...
I was trying not to do what I usually do and do the negative thing. I was doing the positive thing in that I'm gonna finish this race when I didn't know whether I was even gonna do this last leg. So yeah, so I felt really good. The second thing that was really amazing is my brother-in-law, my husband's brother and his family live in Kingston. So they drove over and we saw them on the bike course and on the run course a few times and it just made my day because
Angela (1:02:43)
Nice.
Cheryl (1:02:45)
Nobody ever comes to our races anymore. Our kids don't care. My parents are too old. Like it's just nobody, if I'm not racing with the team or I don't know anybody on the sidelines. So to have somebody cheering was like, just it like made my day. So yeah.
Angela (1:02:50)
Ha ha ha.
Jill Bartholomew (1:02:55)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (1:03:00)
Yeah. Agreed.
Jill Bartholomew (1:03:00)
Awesome.
And,
Elizabeth Wood (1:03:02)
So high point and low point, I'll start with the low point. So for me, the low point came around the end of the first loop of the run. Like I said, I was having issues with nausea and vomiting, trying to problem solve because I've never had an Iron Man go according to plan. So how do you problem solve? Get some coke, get some chips. But my
Jill Bartholomew (1:03:19)
Thank you.
Elizabeth Wood (1:03:23)
You know, the darkness happened so early for me in this race. And those thoughts of, well, I'm just going to quit. I'm just going to drop out when I get to the turnaround. you know what? I'm, and I'm not going to, I'm going to drop out of Kona too. you know, just like the darkness was, was so bad.
Jill Bartholomew (1:03:37)
but you got through it.
Elizabeth Wood (1:03:39)
Yeah. So then it was, well, you know, you have some other options. You don't have to quit. You know, you can, you you don't want to walk. You had really big goals for this race, but you you can walk and you can finish because, you know, I've raised like $7,000 in the couple of weeks leading up to the race. Well, you know, like, what are you, what are you going to say to those people who donated money? Well, I quit because it was hard. Well, of course it's fucking hard. It's Ironman. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
So, you know, those things and I want the medal and, you know, just, you know, like all those things, that bargaining that goes on. And so, yeah, exactly. So, that was a low point for me of just having my run. And I felt like I was very well-trained for the run. My legs felt great when I came out of T2. And so, it wasn't really my legs. It was, you know, the heat and, you know, whatever else. So, that was a low point that the run just did not.
Angela (1:04:15)
Alright.
Elizabeth Wood (1:04:34)
did not execute it the way that I expected to and the way that I wanted to. But my high point was crossing the finish line and conquering all of that adversity and making myself just keep moving forward because it would have been so easy to quit at that turnaround. My future stepdaughter was there and she was just like so encouraging. Like, know, I'm gonna be here. Just like do whatever you need to do. And so.
Angela (1:04:47)
⁓ huh.
Elizabeth Wood (1:04:59)
For me, what I'm trying to take away from it, I'm not quite there yet, but what I'm trying to take away from it is that through all of that adversity, I finished. So that was my high point.
Angela (1:05:08)
Yep.
Jill Bartholomew (1:05:10)
Awesome.
And you know what they say? It's an Iron Man. It's supposed to be hard. And we do hard stuff because it's hard.
Angela (1:05:16)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (1:05:18)
All right, so.
Cheryl (1:05:18)
I wish we had been a little
closer on the run, Elizabeth, because I think like when you're alone in that, it's so much worse. But when you have somebody else like lightening things up a little bit or just even just to, you know, I don't know. I had this kid, Daniel, and I were just like cracking jokes all the time, like, you know, but we're doing a 10 minute kilometer. Like it just was, it took away a lot of that real negativity. And I, I wish I had, I kept seeing you, but I
Angela (1:05:26)
Thank you.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (1:05:40)
in
Cheryl (1:05:47)
weren't close enough to like catch up for but if we could have walked in a little bit of a more of a group I think it would have been.
Elizabeth Wood (1:05:49)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (1:05:54)
So
that's one the I love about this sport is everyone on the course is supporting each other. And I've seen that so many times on different courses in different states and countries. And it's just so consistent. And that's one of the things I've come to love about triathlon in general. All right, so the big question, would you do it again?
Angela (1:05:54)
huh.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (1:06:00)
You're all in it together.
Cheryl (1:06:18)
Yes, absolutely. If I ever do an Iron Man again, this one would be on the list.
Angela (1:06:20)
would. I'm going to go back next year.
Elizabeth Wood (1:06:22)
I would.
Jill Bartholomew (1:06:26)
if you ever do an Araman again.
Angela (1:06:27)
I'm gonna go volunteer
next year. So I'm gonna head up to Ottawa, go volunteer, be part of the whole vibe. And then my son, actually my 10 year old son, 11 year old son, sorry, on the drive home, he said, mom, how old do have to be to do an Iron Man? I was like 18. And so he's like doing the math. He's like, okay, so you'll be like 57 when I'm old enough to do it. Do you think, he goes, I wanna do one. I was like, oh, that's that's amazing. I said like.
Elizabeth Wood (1:06:31)
⁓ fine.
⁓
⁓
Angela (1:06:56)
fantastic. He but do think you'd like to do it with me? And I was like, I could do that. So yeah, so maybe we'll be doing if
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:02)
Yeah. Yeah.
Angela (1:07:03)
it sticks around that long, which I hope it will. Maybe we'll do Ironman Ottawa together when he turns 18. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:06)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (1:07:10)
The funny
thing with us is my husband looks at Nieraman and says, no way in hell. My son is a runner and he's done like sprints and he does well with them. He's seen podium a few times, but he's like, yeah, no. And then there's my daughter who does not run, likes to bike, but isn't that strong on the bike.
likes to swim but is not very good at it yet and she's like can I do one?
Angela (1:07:43)
And the answer is yes, you can. Right?
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:44)
good example.
Jill Bartholomew (1:07:45)
The answer is, but of course,
Angela (1:07:46)
Yes, you can.
Jill Bartholomew (1:07:46)
but you got to work for it. All right. Any last words before we say goodbye?
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:49)
Yeah.
Angela (1:07:55)
think that this Ottawa course, I don't know, but I feel like maybe the guys and girls who are super fast might be the ones who are downing it. But I honestly feel like this would be a perfect beginner course. If you were just starting out, this would be a perfect first course to try out Ironman. Because...
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:55)
No.
Agreed.
Jill Bartholomew (1:08:03)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (1:08:15)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Angela (1:08:18)
Because
maybe you're probably biking a little bit slower, so you can avoid those potholes. I feel like it would be an amazing first time Ironman.
Elizabeth Wood (1:08:27)
I think it's, I think it, I don't know if people still look at Arizona as a first timer course, but I would say that this beats Arizona hands down as a course for first timers.
Jill Bartholomew (1:08:36)
think Arizona scares a lot of people because that swim is so cold.
Elizabeth Wood (1:08:41)
It's cold and like they find bodies in that lake. It's gross. Yeah. Yeah.
Angela (1:08:42)
It's gross, isn't ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (1:08:47)
Yeah, there's that. All right. Well, thank you ladies for joining me to talk about Ironman Ottawa. It's been great conversation. For listeners, I hope this was useful. Sounds to me like, know, Ironman and the race director and the crew and volunteers, pulled off a great first race and
can't wait to see it next year. And on that note, thank you very much for joining us. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast. It's available on every streamer out there and YouTube. And we'll see you again next week. All right. Thank you, everyone.
Jill Bartholomew (00:00)
Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Be Fierce and Try podcast. Today, I'm here with several guests who all raced at the recent Ironman Canada event in Ottawa. And we're going to chat about the course. So I'll leave it to Elizabeth, Angela, and Cheryl to introduce themselves.
I'm Jill Bartholomew, your host, and today we're going to walk through what we thought of the course, how we prepared for it, and kind of some final thoughts on, you know, would we do it again? So Elizabeth, why don't you start us off, tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll go over to Angela.
Elizabeth Wood (00:44)
Okay, thanks. Hi, Jill, Cheryl, Angela. Nice to see you guys again, not in Spandex. So I'm Elizabeth Wood. I've been a triathlete for about 15 years, and I've been associated with Ironman Foundation for the last seven of those. I'm currently on the board of directors for Ironman Foundation. One of the things that I do in terms of my involvement with the foundation is I'm very active in building and leading our
Angela (00:49)
you
Elizabeth Wood (01:08)
teams of women who go to the world championships and this year that's Kona. So I'm really thrilled that the three other women on the podcast today are all members of our 2025 Kona team. The Ironman Canada in Ottawa was my ninth full Ironman and I have done 10 70.3 races. So really excited to hear what Angela and Cheryl thought about it and share some of that information with your listeners, Jill.
Jill Bartholomew (01:31)
All right, thanks. Angela?
Angela (01:34)
I'm Angela Hubber. I'm from Burlington, Ontario. So this is kind of like Ottawa was a hometown race kind of for me because it was relatively close. I'm a mom of four boys. And this is my fourth Ironman, sorry, third Ironman, and probably I've done about 670.3. So
Jill Bartholomew (01:49)
I heard the Canada in there.
Cheryl (01:49)
Thank
Angela (01:52)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (01:54)
All right.
Cheryl (01:54)
Thank
Jill Bartholomew (01:55)
All right. Thanks, Angela. Cheryl?
Cheryl (01:58)
Hi, I'm Cheryl Bergeron. I live in New York City. Let's see, this is, Ironman Canada was my eighth full distance Ironman and I've done about 26, 27, 70.3s and I don't even know how many other little ones, but I've been a triathlete for about 15 years. I thought once the kids were older, it would get easier.
but it doesn't. I work part time so that I can train the other times. My husband and I do these together. He also raced, but I get to go to Kona without him this year, although he is gonna be sharpening, so that's fun.
Jill Bartholomew (02:38)
So you're both going to Konai, but only one of you gets to race.
Cheryl (02:40)
Both gonna do Kona, but only
one of us is crossing that finish line.
Angela (02:43)
you
Jill Bartholomew (02:44)
That'd be a little strange if he was raising in the women's race.
All right. Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you. Thank you all. So what I'm taking away from this is across the four of us, I think we've crossed around 30 full distance Ironman finish lines, which is.
All right, so before we talk about the race, as we were saying earlier, across the four of us, there's a lot of experience with Ironman branded races. So what did you do to prepare for this one?
This is where we will talk.
Elizabeth Wood (03:16)
go. Yeah,
Angela (03:17)
Hahaha
Elizabeth Wood (03:17)
I can go. So, so this race was not my a race Kona is my a race this year. And so really my training was was has been geared towards Kona. So typical doing some hill work doing obviously the endurance work, both for the bike and the run the swim, you know, just just building up the endurance the last few weeks before I went to before I went to Ottawa.
My coach had me do a couple of flat hundred mile rides and that was supposed to be very, very, know, very course specific. So I think that's really the only thing that I did that was kind of a nod to the course.
Jill Bartholomew (03:51)
And remind me, where are you from again that you can get at 100 miles?
Elizabeth Wood (03:55)
So, yeah,
so I live in, I know, right? So I live in West Michigan now, which is very flat. have, unlike you, Jill, I have a hard time finding hills. And so it was, other than finding the distance, finding something flat around here was pretty easy.
Angela (03:57)
yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (04:02)
Yes.
Cheryl (04:06)
Thank you.
Jill Bartholomew (04:10)
Yeah, here in Southeast Pennsylvania, in order to find flat, have to ride on rails to trails, kind of paved trails. Yeah, otherwise it's like 900 to 1200 every 10 miles kind of thing. All right. Cheryl, did you do anything different to prepare? You're going to Kona, so was this just a stop on the way?
Elizabeth Wood (04:17)
and then you're dodging all the pedestrians.
Angela (04:24)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (04:32)
Yeah, so
Much like Elizabeth, my A-race is Kona. But we go up to Lake Placid as often as we can to train there because in New York, there's very few opportunities to even ride outside, especially where I am on Staten Island. It's just not, ⁓ it's very dangerous. There's no long, I mean, I can go for like,
Jill Bartholomew (04:43)
Mm.
yeah.
Cheryl (05:00)
maybe 5K loops at one of the marinas, but it's really better to just get out of town. So we've been trying to go take our bikes with us wherever we go to try to get some good rides and then Lake Placid is one of our favorite destinations. So also the open water swim in Lake Placid is like, again, one of the only places we can go open water swim.
I have not been running very much. I've had a series of injuries over the past year. So my strategy for falls and Kona especially right now is just to swim a lot, strength train. I'm working with a mobility coach to keep everything flexible so that when it comes time to run, I'm not overtrained. So that was a little disastrous on this race.
But yeah, the other thing that I was doing is trying to work on my nutrition, which is something that I've kind of ignored up until now, but I know Kona is no joke. So you need to nail that. And so I've been really trying to every run that I do, try to do something very hot and see what I need to take in terms of salt and carbs to get through it.
Jill Bartholomew (06:09)
Mm-hmm.
And
what was the injury that you had that you're working around?
Angela (06:15)
Yeah.
Cheryl (06:18)
I had a stress fracture in my hip in 2019. And so it's always kind of, I don't know if it's just in my head that I feel like every time I feel a twinge in my hip, I'm like, it's broken again. And then more recently, my Achilles tendon has been really flaring up. I just running in me, I did the New York City marathon last year.
and really kind of did a really not fast, but a really good marathon. And I couldn't believe it, to be honest. I was like, oh, everything just worked. The day was good. It was not hard. My nutrition had got nailed. didn't go too fast and nothing hurt. It was just a really good race, which is.
Angela (06:54)
Okay.
Jill Bartholomew (06:58)
Isn't it awesome when
things just like fall together
Angela (07:00)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (07:00)
like that? Yeah. Well, so if it makes you feel any better, I had a femoral shaft fracture that was like 95 % through the shaft three years ago, two years ago, three years ago.
Cheryl (07:01)
And then sometimes things fall apart.
Angela (07:03)
Yeah. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (07:04)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (07:14)
And in the fall of last year, I was still having the every twinge must be a new fracture. I have countless MRIs and x-rays of that one because I kept going in and I'm like, can you just reassure me that it's not broken again? Yeah. Yeah, I totally got it. All right, and Angela.
Cheryl (07:31)
Yeah, yeah, I do it every fall.
Angela (07:34)
Yeah.
So same as the rest of you, Kona is my A-race. So I was going into Ottawa kind of thinking it'll be a good chance to test my nutrition. Nutrition is a big deal for me. I'm a kind of a longer, like my first two Ironman were like just over 15 hours. So I was like, okay, I'm out there a long time. I want to make sure my nutrition's on.
I was training the bike on like hills in Muskoka. So you don't really get a lot of flat stuff there, but ⁓ I kind of got a really nice rolling section where I was able to just kind of go out and back. so that actually really helped like to me, not without getting too much of the course, I didn't like, it was basically flat for me based on what I've trained on. So, you know, it was great. I loved the course.
Jill Bartholomew (08:05)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (08:24)
And then the other thing, like I said already, my nutrition was something that I, in my first two, I really didn't nail. So I was really trying to get that down and wanted to make sure that in the heat, I'd be able to do it. Cause I did know like watching the Canadian weather, it's been really, really hot. So I knew we'd probably have heat, even though a couple of weeks ahead, was going to be a really nice temperature. But then that changed come race day. So yeah, so.
Nutrition was a big thing for me and I thought I nailed it in training but I didn't. So it changed all on race day. So yeah that was one thing that I worked on but I'm back to the drawing board. Like last night this morning I'm all looking up how to tweak my nutrition now.
Jill Bartholomew (09:07)
Yeah,
if you listen to my recent episode about the big acid, I had kind of the same problem where I've been using kind of more or less the same nutrition plan for like the last two years. And then my coach and I were experimenting with a different nutrition plan that was more like fat adapted versus like carbates, the less carbs.
Angela (09:11)
I did, I listened to Lake Placid, yes. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (09:12)
you
Angela (09:20)
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (09:32)
and
had some other products in it to help promote the fat burning aspect. And yeah, I totally no. I was expecting a 530 plus or minus bike, and it was 618.
Angela (09:42)
Did it work? No. OK. I'm like, I'm looking for all new ideas. I've got two months.
Elizabeth Wood (09:56)
down.
Jill Bartholomew (09:56)
And
it wasn't because I wasn't physically prepared for a 530 bike. It was because my nutrition was so off that at one point, like my legs were so on fire that like what would normally be like an easy, you know, output, like take like 30 % off and it felt hard. So, and like,
Angela (10:14)
shadow.
Jill Bartholomew (10:20)
That that's when you get to that point where like your body no longer has any glucose to burn and it's now like devouring anything that can find, which is not good. all right. So I think it's awesome, for, folks here all going to Kona. we'll talk more about that later, I'm sure, but let's talk about the swim, how the swim go.
Angela (10:27)
huh.
than it can, yeah.
I had an amazing swim. It was choppy. It was choppy. Yeah, it was super choppy.
Elizabeth Wood (10:45)
Happy.
Jill Bartholomew (10:47)
I was going say on paper
it looks like it should be an awesome swim.
Elizabeth Wood (10:54)
Yeah.
Angela (10:54)
Yeah,
and it, I don't know if you guys know or you ladies notice this, but when like you're about to get into the swim, like you're looking out and you're like, the water looks great. And then like you swim in a few strokes and you're like, wait a second. No, it was really choppy. So, and then, I mean, let's talk about the, the walking section, right? The, the Island and halfway or whatever that you, you're swimming along and you look up and you see people. I didn't even know what these people were doing at first, cause it took me a little while to.
Jill Bartholomew (11:07)
Yeah, yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (11:20)
they were walking.
Angela (11:21)
Yeah, and I was like, what's happening over there? Like, did someone drown or something? why are all those people gathered there? And then a few more strokes and you look again, you look again, you're like, they're walking. I did not get up and walk because when I reached the island, there were some muscles, like clams and stuff like that or whatever. And I was like, I'm not standing up because I don't know what I'm going to hit with my feet. So kept swimming and digging weeds and stuff like that and just kept going. Had to pull some weeds off of my goggles and...
Elizabeth Wood (11:33)
and yeah.
Angela (11:49)
I have a feeling next year if they change it, they'll go around that section, but it wasn't bad.
Jill Bartholomew (11:49)
Well, I mean...
Yeah, I mean,
so what was it like an actual island or just like a sandbar kind of thing?
Angela (11:58)
So.
Elizabeth Wood (11:59)
out of heart.
Angela (12:00)
Yeah, so apparently, was like, the more I read, apparently this section, the water is pretty high right now. So normally the section would actually be out of the water. So you, they would have gone around it or something. But anyway, but yeah, you could, I don't know, you didn't see it because the water was so high, but yeah.
Cheryl (12:01)
Every
Jill Bartholomew (12:10)
⁓
you could stand up and dredge forward.
Elizabeth Wood (12:16)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (12:18)
So interestingly,
we stayed with some locals and he swims there a lot or like maybe a little bit, not right at Fretonia Beach, but a little like maybe like a kilometer south of there. And he said to me, was like, how are we gonna swim that? There's like this big shallow area where you're gonna have to like walk or whatever. And I was like, and I kind of dismissed the comment, like, well, they wouldn't put the course through a shallow area. But when we got to that, I was like, ⁓ that's what he's talking about. So I guess they just ignored it.
Angela (12:42)
Right. So you know, yeah.
Cheryl (12:46)
So when I got to it and I saw people standing, kind of was like, oh, it clicked. was like, but I also didn't stand because we had done Muscle Man and everybody that did the practice swim and tried to get out off the rocks sliced up their feet. So I was like, my feet are not touching anything down here if it's not perfectly soft sand. And it wasn't, so just kept swimming.
Angela (12:46)
Yeah, I was.
Jill Bartholomew (12:46)
and Edison.
Angela (12:50)
You knew.
Jill Bartholomew (13:05)
And those cuts take a long time to heal.
Angela (13:13)
Yeah. I am in this.
Jill Bartholomew (13:15)
So Elizabeth, did you walk
on the swim?
Elizabeth Wood (13:18)
I did not know I was so I typically swim
on the inside of the siding buoys. So I was a little further to the left. And I will say that in the in the practice swim a little bit, but definitely on race day, the water weeds. Yeah. But I knew they were going to be there because I had done some practice swimming actually over at the beach, which is a little to the to the right of where the the race starts. But yeah, I'm like Angela, I'm like, what are those people doing?
Jill Bartholomew (13:23)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (13:42)
but I was not gonna put my feet down and it was just deep enough that I could still get strokes. So yeah, yeah, thought this swim was good.
Jill Bartholomew (13:47)
Mm-hmm.
Yes, I was thinking
like running through water is maybe harder than swimming through it. Right?
Cheryl (13:53)
See.
Elizabeth Wood (13:57)
Exactly. That's the other thing too.
Angela (13:57)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (13:59)
Yeah.
Angela (13:59)
I'm guessing nobody was running. Like, I feel like they might have been like trudging a little bit or something, but no one was running, so.
Jill Bartholomew (14:04)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (14:04)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I didn't see any running. And I kept thinking, go ahead, Angela. Yeah.
Angela (14:07)
It wouldn't, I wouldn't have been running friendly. I was just say it wouldn't
Jill Bartholomew (14:07)
Yeah.
Angela (14:11)
have been running friendly, right? You'd have to be careful with your stepping.
Elizabeth Wood (14:15)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you go about 500 meters, 500 yards out, and then you make a left and both of those were choppy. And so I kept telling myself, well, on the way back, we're going to have a nice, you know, a nice assist. And I felt it maybe a few times, but not to the degree that I thought I would given how choppy it was, given how choppy it was going out. I did feel like maybe it was because Canadians are so nice, but this was probably the race where I had the least amount of
Jill Bartholomew (14:16)
Right.
Angela (14:30)
Not really.
Elizabeth Wood (14:41)
going around the turnbouys. You normally there's like flailing and people breast stroking and practically kicking you in the face. And I found that the turnbouys were not congested. Maybe people were just swimming wider. I don't know, but I thought the swim was great.
Angela (14:43)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (14:54)
See, I've had like mixed results on that. At Lake Placid, I actually didn't feel like the Trembrays were super congested. But when I was at Texas this year, it was very congested. It's not the words I want to use, but it's very congested.
Elizabeth Wood (15:11)
Yeah.
Angela (15:12)
I found the same. didn't get too jostled around in the swim, but I also swam wide, so trying to make sure I stay away from people.
Cheryl (15:12)
I feel like
Elizabeth Wood (15:18)
Yeah.
Yeah. Jill, I don't know if... go ahead, Cheryl.
Jill Bartholomew (15:21)
Okay.
Cheryl (15:22)
So.
I was just gonna say that I started farther back than I normally would, because my husband and I were doing this together. And since I was like, this is not my A race, I'm not gonna try to push my way up to the front. We just kind of hung back and he's a slower swimmer than I am. I definitely started back farther than I would have normally. And I got kicked in the face a lot, because I would come up onto people and...
Jill Bartholomew (15:34)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (15:47)
Yeah, slower.
Cheryl (15:49)
You can't,
it was so murky, you couldn't see the feet until they were like right there. So I was constantly trying to get around people and they would, you know, there would be contact. So I tried to swim a little wider. I felt the current was pulling me back towards the shore the whole time going out. So I was constantly correcting, running into people, people were going crooked. I was like, you know what, next time I'm just gonna start in the corral that I'm gonna start in. I can't.
Jill Bartholomew (16:02)
Thank
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (16:16)
Yeah.
Cheryl (16:16)
It
was too, I felt bad. I felt like I was the asshole swimming over people. I tried very, very hard not to swim over people, I was clearly not in the right place.
Jill Bartholomew (16:26)
I mean, especially
if you're starting like towards the back, if you're a faster swimmer, it's kind of hard not to, because some of, like some of those people you're swimming over are not going to finish the swim.
Elizabeth Wood (16:29)
Yeah, that's her. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (16:36)
I mean, we weren't
Elizabeth Wood (16:36)
Yeah.
Angela (16:37)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (16:37)
like
in the back back. were, we started in like the 130 or whatever that, whatever the one, I mean, it wasn't that slow because that's what my husband usually does. So I was, I was surprised, but like my swim was probably one of the slowest swims in an Ironman that I've done so far.
Jill Bartholomew (16:42)
Okay, that's not that far back. It's like in the middle.
Angela (16:43)
120 to 130.
Elizabeth Wood (16:44)
Yeah, that's not that slow.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (16:55)
Okay, okay.
Angela (16:56)
my
Elizabeth Wood (16:56)
So Jill, one thing that... Yeah, sorry. One thing that... Go ahead, Angela, because mine's a little more overarching than just specifically the swim.
Angela (16:57)
thought during the swim. Go ahead.
Okay, yeah, so my thought during the swim was there's gonna be a lot of people who aren't gonna finish the swim because like I'm not a fast swimmer, but I'm a strong swimmer. So I'm swimming and I'm like, you know, the water's hitting me in the face and you know, I can breathe both sides. So I just switched side. I'm breathing on depending where the waves are coming. And, but my thought was there's people who are not gonna be able to handle this. Like if they're used to swimming in nice calm water, they're gonna freak out. They're gonna just, so like.
Jill Bartholomew (17:20)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (17:31)
I was curious how many DNF to swim. I don't know that I ever got that information, but I feel like it would have been more than a regular nice calm swim.
Jill Bartholomew (17:39)
You know, uh, I saw a post on Facebook and I didn't fact check it, but it looked like there was over 20 % DNF on this race. Yeah. Like it looked, it looked high. Yeah. Yeah. As a usual, yeah. Typical Ironman is like 10, 13%. So it looked like it was a bit on the high side, but I, like I said, I
Angela (17:49)
Really? Yeah.
Cheryl (17:50)
Over how much, Joe?
Elizabeth Wood (17:51)
Hmm. 20%. That's high. Between the swim and the heat.
Angela (17:54)
Well, I... And the smoke.
Elizabeth Wood (17:58)
Mm, true.
Angela (18:02)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (18:05)
Yeah.
Angela (18:05)
It wasn't and it
wasn't due to the course. It would have been the other conditions that that people would have. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (18:09)
conditions, yeah,
Jill Bartholomew (18:10)
Yeah, I was going
Elizabeth Wood (18:11)
right.
Jill Bartholomew (18:11)
to ask about the smoke. saw the warnings that it might possibly affect the race. ⁓ It did. So where do you think it affected you the most? Like the run, maybe?
Angela (18:18)
her.
Elizabeth Wood (18:18)
It did,
for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (18:19)
It is. Yeah.
Angela (18:21)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (18:25)
I noticed it right away on the bike. ⁓ And for me, it was just like a headache all day on the bike. so I'm thinking, and that's not unusual for me, but usually it's like, know, I've tightened my MIPS liner too tight. so, you know, loosen off the helmet or, you know, the further I get into the bike, well, okay, maybe I'm a little bit behind on my electrolytes or on my water, but this was like in the first hour. And so I knew that it wasn't my nutrition and loosen my helmet.
Jill Bartholomew (18:29)
Okay.
Angela (18:32)
you
Elizabeth Wood (18:51)
And at one point I was so frustrated, I basically loosened the Mips liner completely. I'm like, well, that's not really very safe. So because if I crash, then it's not really gonna protect my head. it was just so frustrating to have that low grade headache all day long. And then I'm gonna be interested to hear Angela and Cheryl's experience on the run. Of course there's the heat. And I've never, I've I've never really never raced with wild house smoke, with poor air quality like that.
Angela (19:06)
you
Elizabeth Wood (19:18)
And I know some of the symptoms of it, but I experienced things on the run that I've never experienced before, even in Kona, and I've raced in Kona twice. So I'm really interested to hear what you guys experienced from the wildfire smoke, it definitely impacted.
Angela (19:28)
you
It's interesting because
Jill Bartholomew (19:31)
How about you?
Cheryl (19:31)
I mean, I felt it on
the swim for sure. I I felt it in my throat. I had two episodes of like coughing fits in the swim where it was like, breathe, cough, breathe, cough. You know, it's, my throat was irritated all day. It's much like your headache.
Angela (19:46)
Yeah, don't think, yeah, I don't think during the race, I thought that I was affected by it. Like definitely during the swim, when you're swimming and you can see the sun is red and it's hazy or like, like the smoke, clearly the smoke is here. But like, couldn't, didn't think I could feel it. I had a friend who actually didn't start the race because of the smoke, because she was already like coughing in the morning. So she didn't even start.
Jill Bartholomew (19:46)
How about you, Angela?
Elizabeth Wood (20:05)
Actually didn't.
Angela (20:10)
And it was probably a good decision in the end. Through the day I kept thinking, like, I don't think I'm noticing it. I don't think I'm noticing it. But the next morning I woke up with like a terrible headache and like my throat hurt. And I just, I was like, I did like, it's here. Like I can feel it. It has affected me. So perhaps that was part of what affected me on the run. But at the time I was attributing it to other things for sure. But yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (20:27)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (20:34)
Later on I was like, no, that was probably partly smoke.
Elizabeth Wood (20:37)
Yeah. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (20:38)
Yeah,
yeah, like I can't imagine it didn't affect you in some way.
Angela (20:42)
Yeah,
Elizabeth Wood (20:42)
Yeah, there's no way that it couldn't.
Angela (20:42)
no, would have for sure. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (20:45)
All right.
Elizabeth Wood (20:45)
Jill, one thing that I want to mention before we move on to the bike is about the setup of the course. So your listeners may or may not know that this was a split transition course. And so the T2 and the finish line are right in downtown Ottawa by Parliament. It's like a great atmosphere for the finish line. But you start about, I think it's like about 10 miles south of there at Britannia Beach.
So, you know, just adds, they did a great job managing it. I want to say that. I thought that the race director and all of the volunteers and staff did a great job managing it. But when you're racing Ironman, it just adds that extra level of complexity, right? To have to get your bike and your T1 bag to another location where there's literally no parking. And then on race morning, mandatory shuttles, because again, no parking. So like I got up at three.
Jill Bartholomew (21:15)
Thank you.
Angela (21:24)
Thanks
Jill Bartholomew (21:34)
Yeah,
I saw there's a lot of confusion in the lead up to the race around the shuttles. How did that end up working?
Angela (21:39)
Yes. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (21:41)
thought that on, at least
for me on race day, everything went very smoothly. I got up earlier than I ordinarily would have because I just wanted to allow for, you know, it's the first time they've done this. Maybe they're not gonna have enough buses. I actually got five and a half hours of sleep, which is so unusual for me. Normally I like get an hour and then I lie there and think, well, just like rest your legs. But yeah, I did sleep.
Jill Bartholomew (21:46)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (21:47)
.
Jill Bartholomew (21:50)
Wait, you sleep at night before a race? Can we talk about that for a second?
Yeah, the night
before a race, totally have the don't miss your alarm. Don't miss your alarm going through my the whole night. So like sleep is in like five minute intervals.
Angela (22:07)
Yeah, yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (22:10)
Yeah, two alarms. Yeah. Yeah, I
don't know. I don't know why I slept so well, I like, five and a half, but still it's five and a half. But anyway, I, on race morning for me, it went, everything went without a hitch. The shuttles were there. It took a half an hour, which was about what I expected that it would take. And so I was able to just be really calm through it because I had planned for it and had allowed plenty of time, but.
Again, some people, if it's a first race or you get really anxious about pre-race stuff, that split transition, as I mentioned, just adds that extra level of complexity. And you did not have access to your T2 bags on race morning. You did have access to your T1 bags, all of that. But again, I thought that the race crew handled it really well.
Angela (22:33)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (22:53)
See, I always assume that you're not going to have access to your transition bags on race morning. So like this year felt kind of weird at some of the races where like people were at, I saw it at both Texas and Lake Placid where people were like missing like whole parts of their kit.
Angela (22:53)
Yeah
Elizabeth Wood (22:58)
you
Angela (23:08)
putting stuff in.
Jill Bartholomew (23:12)
in their bag and putting it in race morning. And yeah, like in, Texas, there were people putting down empty bags and then the morning of the race going in and putting their stuff in it. And I'm like, what? No.
Elizabeth Wood (23:15)
Really?
Why would you do that?
Angela (23:25)
I thought it was just for nutrition. Like you can just add your nutrition. Like I thought you were supposed to have everything else. I it doesn't matter, but.
Elizabeth Wood (23:26)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're supposed to.
Jill Bartholomew (23:31)
I, yeah,
yeah, this year I forgot to put my inhaler in one of the bags. ⁓ you, no. Someone from foundation helped me get them in. Actually, I think it might've been Michaela.
Elizabeth Wood (23:39)
Mm-hmm.
Andrea probably.
Jill Bartholomew (23:48)
And yeah, Andrea wasn't at that race. And yeah, like even that, wasn't sure I was going to be able to get it in. And then I get there and like, everybody's hovering over the transition bags. like, it feels strange, but, so.
Elizabeth Wood (23:48)
yeah.
sticking around in their bags, yeah. Yeah.
Angela (24:02)
want go off what
Elizabeth said about the transitions and stuff. Felt like execution of like race morning and all that stuff was amazing by organizers, but they could have stemmed a lot of people's anxiety by having more information or like it was almost like it almost felt like they were doing some stuff on the fly or like they added shuttles on the fly for bike drop off and stuff like that.
Jill Bartholomew (24:05)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (24:26)
Yeah.
Angela (24:26)
Whereas if it had been planned ahead of time, if the athlete guide had been out sooner, a lot of people would have not spiraled and stressed so much about the two transitions. Like I think the execution of it was actually done quite well. And it wasn't as hard as it seemed like it was going to be, but it seemed like it was gonna be hard because there wasn't enough information. Now I do have to applaud, am I gonna get her name wrong? Like one of the co-race directors, I think her name is Aline.
Jill Bartholomew (24:34)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (24:35)
Thank
Angela (24:53)
She was amazing on the Facebook group of answering questions. Pauline, is it Pauline? Sorry, yeah. Yeah, of answering questions. So it was kind of nice to know that you had a race director looking at the Facebook page and answering questions. you got, yeah, so like you got information. so I sort of like, was like, it's a first time race. I'm gonna try not to freak about everything. And my view was just see how things go before you like,
Jill Bartholomew (24:53)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (24:53)
yeah. Pauline. It's Pauline. Yeah. Pauline Alix. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (25:06)
That's unusually engaged. Yeah.
Angela (25:20)
say bad stuff about the two transitions or how terrible it is. Like, cause it did end up going okay. It was just, you know, the way triathletes are right. Like we're all spiraling beforehand cause you don't know exactly how things are going to go and whatever. So it did turn out great. I thought they did a great job in the end, but more information upfront would have helped ease everybody's anxiety. I think so it was good. Like it turned out okay.
Jill Bartholomew (25:30)
Right here.
Cheryl (25:44)
I have to say that this was the first race that I've done that going to the athlete briefing was absolutely critical because there was a lot of information in the athlete guide and my favorite page in that guide was like all the different bags, where you drop off and when, like it was just a visual. Like this bag has to go here, right? And it wasn't like a lot of text. was just like.
Jill Bartholomew (26:04)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (26:08)
Here's what the bag looks like, here's where has to go and what time and what day. it was just, was the, that I was like, that's perfect. I took a picture of it. So I had it, you know, just in my things. But there was a lot of information in the athlete briefing that either didn't, they didn't know about when they printed the athlete guide or that just was, you couldn't really even visualize until you got there. So I said like, you know, like the three laps on the bike, like.
Angela (26:30)
Yes.
Jill Bartholomew (26:34)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (26:34)
All
the signs said was, laps finish. It's like, well, if you don't know you're doing three of those and passing that two more times, like that could really go south very quickly. So, and then they did talk about the shuttles and stuff like that. I've done races with split transitions and they didn't go up as well as this one. This was excellent. excellent. Waiting for the shuttle to get to the swim start, 10 minutes. I mean, in Ironman, California, that was like a 45 minute wait. People were getting to the swim.
Jill Bartholomew (26:43)
Yeah.
Yeah, was going to say, have we all done split transitions before?
Angela (26:52)
Good to know.
Elizabeth Wood (26:54)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl (27:03)
after the first athlete tour in the swim. Like it was a part of my French, like a shit show. So this was, I was like, wow, they really, they learned lessons. They did a great job. The second thing I would say about that with like expectations and things was that every volunteer on all the days leading up to the race, if I asked a question, everyone knew answers. The volunteers were the best I've ever.
Angela (27:07)
Wow, that's stressful.
Elizabeth Wood (27:07)
Thank
Jill Bartholomew (27:08)
Wow.
Angela (27:13)
So sorry.
Cheryl (27:29)
scene. I mean, know Lake Placid gets really amazing volunteers, but these guys were enthusiastic. They were smiling. They were triathletes. They had been briefed on a lot of different things that usually you ask a volunteer like, where am I going with this? And they're like, I really don't know. I'm just in T1 here. know, everybody knew everything. And if they didn't, they asked somebody. It was really, really well done with volunteers.
Angela (27:30)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (27:43)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (27:46)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (27:50)
So
the race director for this race is a very experienced race director. Do you think that that's because the race director kind of intentionally did that or because it was the first time they did the race, they maybe over-indexed into it a little bit or was everyone just super excited to be there?
Angela (28:10)
My understanding is that Ottawa
is a huge event town. They run lot of marathons, other triathlons, shorter distances. ⁓ And so someone had said, although it's the first Ironman, these volunteers, it's their first Ironman, it's not their first event. So they kind of know what they're doing in other aspects of too, and they know about triathlon.
Jill Bartholomew (28:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Right.
Angela (28:34)
I feel like the triathlon community in Ontario came out huge to volunteer. So I feel like you had a lot of people already knowing like it wasn't just some random off the random person off the street who just wanted to volunteer, who doesn't really know anything. I think you had a lot of knowledge in the volunteer base already. So I feel, and I feel like Ottawa does that really well. So I feel like the race directors probably did a great job. Like the head volunteers and stuff gave great information.
Jill Bartholomew (28:49)
Okay.
Angela (29:02)
But I feel like you also had a really experienced volunteer base with other races, even if it was their first Ironman. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. They were amazing. They were all great.
Jill Bartholomew (29:08)
Right. It's a lot of experience and engagement.
Cheryl (29:08)
and great.
Jill Bartholomew (29:16)
All right, so split transition. How about the bike? So you finish the swim, walk, swim, and now you're in transition. How'd the bike go?
Elizabeth Wood (29:23)
you
Angela (29:28)
I like there was a lot of negativity about this bike like that was one of the first things that people were negative about on the on Facebook page like this was terrible the road conditions were just awful and I again I feel like it's totally about your perspective because were there some sections that were bad exactly exactly and in the like in the information leading up which was basically the Facebook group
Elizabeth Wood (29:29)
you
Jill Bartholomew (29:34)
I stole that.
I always wonder what people are expecting.
Angela (29:51)
people did say there are sections that are bad, right? So like I went in thinking, okay, there's gonna be sections that are bad. There's gonna be some sections that are gonna be good. So when you see a good section, take advantage of it. And when you see a bad section, be careful. And when you're passing people, be careful, because you know they might have to avoid a pothole or something. just, yeah, sort of be careful. So like my biggest concern was not the road conditions, was the other athletes who were passing me too close, knowing what the road conditions were, right? Like I was like.
Elizabeth Wood (29:54)
.
Jill Bartholomew (30:06)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (30:07)
It's
real.
Angela (30:18)
That's why people would crash was because the athletes are not respecting the road conditions, not because they necessarily hit a pothole. Like you have to give people space so that they can like ride to the road conditions. Now, my perspective is fairly different than other people. I'm riding at like 20, between 27 and 34 kilometers an hour. Like on average, that's kind of where I'm sitting. And
Jill Bartholomew (30:22)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (30:43)
I'm not riding in aero with my head down also, because I know what the conditions are. like I'm riding. No, I know, but like I felt like there was people who were like, yeah, the road conditions were crap the whole way. And I'm like, well, if you were watching them, like, I don't know, I just felt people know they weren't right.
Jill Bartholomew (30:47)
Well, mean, nobody should be having their head down.
Elizabeth Wood (30:57)
Yeah, and they weren't. Yeah, they weren't.
Jill Bartholomew (30:59)
mean, anybody who
Cheryl (30:59)
Stay warm.
Jill Bartholomew (31:00)
thinks the road conditions is crap the whole way, they are invited to come out and ride with me through Amish country, Pennsylvania, to our state flower is a construction cone.
Angela (31:05)
Right.
Elizabeth Wood (31:08)
Yeah. ⁓
Angela (31:10)
Exactly, if you're running
country roads, yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (31:13)
Yeah.
Angela (31:16)
Like, so for me it was good. I liked the course.
Elizabeth Wood (31:16)
Yeah. Yeah. And I, yeah, I'm
so, so I agree with Angela. had pre-ridden a short section of the bike on Saturday before I turned my bike in. and from just texting with Angela, I knew there were going to be some sections where the road surfaces may be. There was like a sort of a construction area. So I knew that there were going to be some sections, but I felt like the, the, the proportion of, of bad road surface to good road surface.
Jill Bartholomew (31:35)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (31:44)
there was, to me, there was much more good road surface. The, the bad parts were like coming out of the swim. And then the first part of the turnaround, when you finished the loop, that was, that was rough. ⁓ and then the parts around the city, were, were, were choppy. There were actually, three, passing zones, two that were right there in the city. And then another one, which we can talk about later. I'm not even sure why it was there. It was like leading up to an aid station.
Jill Bartholomew (31:55)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (32:08)
Yeah,
Elizabeth Wood (32:09)
But then as you got
Angela (32:09)
that was weird.
Elizabeth Wood (32:10)
out, the course is almost like an right? You come out from the swim and then you go down south and then you come back up to the city and then you go out east. so there was a, the part going out east was the longest stretch. And once you got sort of away from town, I thought the road surface was great. I actually rode on the shoulder because it was smoother. But the roads were about what I expected. And I don't think they were any different from really any other Ironman, you know, every course that uses.
Angela (32:25)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (32:36)
you know, city, city or state or whatever roads, nothing is going to be smooth as silk.
Angela (32:37)
roads.
Jill Bartholomew (32:38)
Yeah.
Yeah, I if you're in the north, if you're like north of the Mason-Dixon line, the roads are not gonna be always awesome, right?
Angela (32:41)
Yeah. Yeah, you've got snow plows in the winter. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (32:44)
with the winters exactly, snow plow, salt, cold. Yeah.
Cheryl (32:46)
Right.
Elizabeth Wood (32:51)
Yeah. Yeah. Now I will
Angela (32:52)
Exactly. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (32:53)
say that writing
in Kona is going to seem really, really smooth compared to that course.
Angela (32:57)
Nice. ⁓
Cheryl (32:59)
I also wanted to
just commend Ottawa because wherever it was bad, the orange paint was spot on. They did an amazing job marking everything that would have been dangerous. mean, not like, where it was just kind of like little cracks or whatever the whole way down, but like if there was, it was like a part where it was like sort of buckling, they like painted that thing all the way down and potholes and they had, yeah, they were very, very well-marked sections. I'm like, that.
Elizabeth Wood (33:04)
Marked. Yeah, they did a great job.
Angela (33:07)
Bye.
Jill Bartholomew (33:12)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (33:15)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (33:21)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (33:26)
to me was ⁓ unusual.
Jill Bartholomew (33:27)
I love it when courses do
a really great job at that. Because you get a couple miles in and you notice like, hey, they did a good job at this. And you know you can push it a little bit because you can trust that if there's a hazard that it's going to be marked.
Elizabeth Wood (33:38)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Angela (33:40)
Yeah,
the other thing that I think helped, like if you're thinking, okay, these roads are really bad, the roads were, it was closed. It was all a closed course. So we had the entire road, right? So you had the entire road. So if there was a bad section, like I said, as long as...
Elizabeth Wood (33:41)
Yeah.
That's right, good point. That was so nice.
Jill Bartholomew (33:49)
that's nice.
Cheryl (33:50)
my gosh.
Jill Bartholomew (33:56)
⁓
so you had both directions on the road.
Angela (33:59)
Yes,
Elizabeth Wood (33:59)
Yes.
Angela (33:59)
yep, yep. And so you could avoid, right? Like you could avoid people. There was no traffic anywhere. So you had tons of space that if there was a pothole, if there was something, you could avoid it. You have to check your shoulder. You hope people are saying on your left or like, know, hope that, anyway. So there was lots of space if you did come across a really bad section to find another line. So, you know, and if everyone's keeping their space like they're supposed to,
Cheryl (34:00)
Yes,
Elizabeth Wood (34:00)
Yeah.
Cheryl (34:01)
completely closed.
Jill Bartholomew (34:04)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (34:16)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Angela (34:27)
then you can be, could have had a very successful ride. And I like the ride. I actually loved it. I loved the three sections out and it was easy for my brain to comprehend, okay, I'm 60K in, okay, now I go out this section, now this section, now this section, now I'm 120, okay, now like, like I, my brain loved that course as far as compartmentalizing.
Elizabeth Wood (34:32)
Yeah. I want... Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (34:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (34:40)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (34:49)
So did.
Cheryl (34:49)
I agree. Your part was good.
liked it.
Elizabeth Wood (34:51)
Yeah, I agree with that. Originally I thought, gosh, three loops, but the way that the loops were structured with those like three individual little legs, it was just really easy to kind of tick those off as they went. And the one thing I also want to add as a positive before the race, I thought, gosh, you know, the first loop may not be that bad, but I was concerned about the course being really crowded on loops two and three. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (35:03)
Okay.
Angela (35:13)
Hmm. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (35:14)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (35:14)
And I don't know about you guys, I never felt like it was crowded. Part of it might've
Angela (35:15)
It wasn't. Nope.
Elizabeth Wood (35:18)
been the pace, like my first loop was really good, my second and third were okay, not what I wanted. I think also what Angela mentioned was the fact that we had the whole road. We had both directions of the road. But I never once felt like I got stuck in traffic and I was worried about a drafting penalty or I got boxed in. So that was really a pleasant surprise.
Jill Bartholomew (35:26)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (35:36)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (35:38)
Yeah, I love getting stuck in traffic.
Cheryl (35:38)
I second that, I thought it was,
yeah. And I also agree with Angela. I loved the fact that it was, you could take like, this is the short section. That's a little bit longer. That's a little bit longer. And since I was racing with my husband, we saw each other all the time. Back and forth, or he passed me, I passed him, or whatever. At one point when he caught up to me after the swim, we were riding side by side and kind of like talking about the swim and the race official came over and was like, hey, break it up. And it was like.
Jill Bartholomew (35:46)
Okay.
Angela (35:52)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (35:52)
nice.
You
Cheryl (36:06)
We could
have definitely gotten an impeding penalty or whatever, but he was just like, there was no, but like he said, there was not a whole lot of traffic. So it wasn't even like, there was really nobody behind us trying to come through, but he was just like, kind of jokingly like, hey, break it up.
Angela (36:10)
Blocking, blocking penalty. ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (36:16)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (36:17)
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes.
Jill Bartholomew (36:23)
⁓
I mean you avoided a blue card.
Cheryl (36:25)
We did it for it.
Jill Bartholomew (36:25)
Um, yeah,
the, the, I've talked about it before on some courses where you only have like one lane that traffic and, know, every once in a while you see like a whole Peloton of usually guys just kind of floating by and blocking the whole thing.
Elizabeth Wood (36:39)
Mm-hmm. Yep. I didn't see that at all.
Angela (36:39)
huh. Yep.
Yeah, there were a couple groups,
Cheryl (36:46)
I did get passed by a couple
of the fast guys and girls going, you know, on their, I guess, second or third loop. But again, like the whole road, they were just, okay, fine. I'm like, all right.
Jill Bartholomew (36:51)
Yeah.
Nice. Okay. So all three of you enjoyed the bike course. So yeah, when I saw it, yeah.
Angela (37:01)
⁓ Yeah.
Cheryl (37:01)
Thumbs up the bike course.
Elizabeth Wood (37:03)
Yeah, and one other thing on the bike course
Angela I think you alluded to this earlier and I heard some grumbling like I thought it was supposed to be flat my gosh it was flat there were maybe a couple a couple of little inclines but most of them I didn't even need to get into my little ring for ⁓ and yeah so like it was 2,000 feet of climbing over 112 miles so it was a flat course and honestly those little rises were a nice break
Angela (37:11)
It was flat, yeah.
Cheryl (37:18)
Yeah, I don't think I got out of the big ring at all.
Angela (37:19)
Yep.
Yep. Big ring only.
Elizabeth Wood (37:28)
you know, from just like the flats all the time. from that perspective, I don't know. I don't know what California is, but this might be the flattest course on the North American circuit.
Angela (37:28)
They were, yeah.
Cheryl (37:28)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (37:36)
⁓ think, I yeah. Isn't Marilyn.
Cheryl (37:37)
California was pretty flat. I think it was a little flatter than that. unlike, I mean, like
California also flat gives you the wind. And I did find on this course, the second loop, was like, my gosh, the wind picked up, it shifted. Now I'm on the crosswind. had, there was one section, I think by that airfield where, you know, where that no passing zone was next to the airfield where I was like, I can't drink, I can't grab my bottle. I can't do anything because my bike was just going to get blown off the road. So.
Elizabeth Wood (37:45)
Mm-hmm. Yes, right. Mm-hmm. It's a...
Angela (37:56)
Yep. Yep.
Elizabeth Wood (37:58)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (38:05)
interesting.
Cheryl (38:05)
There
were a couple of wind issues and I never was quite sure which direction the wind was going. Was it helping me? Was it hindering me? One point I'm like, I'm flying. I looked down and I'm like, I'm going like 15 miles an hour. That's not okay. I'm pushing it and the wind was just coming right at me. But other times you're like, this is great. Did I slow down? And you look down and it's like, I must have a tailwind. So I never knew what to expect with the wind. I just took it when I could and pushed through when I couldn't, but there were a couple of
Elizabeth Wood (38:08)
Yeah, I forgot about that.
Angela (38:12)
you
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (38:27)
Yeah.
Cheryl (38:33)
crosswind sections, especially on that second lap where I was like, this is, that's a little, yes. Well, yes. And then that's what I kept thinking. I'm like, okay, I can, if I'm doing this and you know, I mean, my, my bike was the bike time was not great, but like my bike experience was really good. I mean, in, terms of like my
Elizabeth Wood (38:38)
Practice for Kona.
Jill Bartholomew (38:40)
So I think.
Okay.
Cheryl (38:58)
I don't have a power meter, but I'm sure I wasn't pushing too many watts because I felt great off the bike. And yeah, so that worked. So yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (38:59)
Your execution? Yeah.
Angela (39:03)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (39:06)
I don't know that I could survive without a power meter at this point. I'm so used to having it.
Angela (39:09)
Yeah
Cheryl (39:10)
Training run, I
Elizabeth Wood (39:10)
Same, I know.
Cheryl (39:12)
didn't wanna have any expectations. This was all about training and getting through and doing it, you know, and just nutrition. And I didn't wanna look at power at all. was like.
Jill Bartholomew (39:23)
I get that. I totally get that. So I think when we talk flat, I just looked up Ironman, Maryland, because I know in the Northeast, a lot of people go and do that because it's flat. 460 feet across the 112. So that's flat. That's flat, right? That's what, like 10, 15 feet per 10 miles? It's not that much, right?
Elizabeth Wood (39:34)
Yeah, right.
⁓ my god. Okay. Yeah, that's flat.
Angela (39:38)
that is pretty flat.
Elizabeth Wood (39:47)
It's crazy.
Jill Bartholomew (39:49)
Okay, so the bike, you know, was reasonably flat and I agree with you, like to me, you know, I've never done an Ironman with that little elevation, right? Even Texas has twice that on the bike. Okay, so you said it was split transition, so T2. What was T2 like?
Elizabeth Wood (40:09)
Well, first of all, bike handlers, yay. Yeah.
Angela (40:09)
Thank
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (40:12)
know, when I heard there's no bike catchers at Kona, I disappointed. I'm like, I love it when they have bike catchers. It makes life so much nicer.
Elizabeth Wood (40:16)
I know it's so nice. So much nicer. Yeah.
Angela (40:17)
I know.
Touchdown your transition, huge.
Elizabeth Wood (40:22)
Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So bike handlers, and you come out of T2 like right there on, it's like, think Mackenzie or McGregor, don't know what the road is, but there are so many spectators. And I, and I want to say for this race as a whole, even out at the farthest points on the bike, there were spectators, the farthest points on the run.
Angela (40:41)
Yes.
Jill Bartholomew (40:43)
Really?
Elizabeth Wood (40:43)
there were spectators.
Angela (40:43)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (40:44)
There were spectators on the run. The run course, you you come out, you get to a certain point and then you do two loops of that and then you come back and you finish. But there was this group of spectators. They were there all four times I went by and like everyone was cheering and encouraging and some was in French and some was in English. But I think this was probably of all the races I've done. So which is like 20 races, you know, total.
Jill Bartholomew (41:04)
very Canada.
Elizabeth Wood (41:06)
the best spectators and fan support, especially in some of those darker moments for me, you know, it allowed me to get out of my head and, you know, engage and think about, okay, you know, just keep moving one foot in front of the other.
Jill Bartholomew (41:18)
Okay.
Angela (41:18)
Yeah, was like
on the bike, was spectators everywhere. Like you probably didn't go, you know, a kilometer, you know, a couple of kilometers and there would be someone else. Like you were not alone anywhere on that course. Yeah. Even at the farthest points of, because there's bike trails along these roads too. So there people would bike out or they'd park along the road and they were everywhere. Yeah. Which was nice.
Elizabeth Wood (41:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, never.
Jill Bartholomew (41:28)
wow.
Mm-hmm.
I mean,
that's pretty awesome. Although if the course was closed to cars, I think they were probably trapped there. So they couldn't leave.
Angela (41:49)
No, because
so what it is is the way the course is, there are parkways and then the people just park, like you could park under, like my brother came and he parked under the overpass, like the parkway goes over the overpass. So he parked underneath, he could drive under there and then they just walk up the hill and they're there. Or there's the bike trails along the side. And so there was lots of cyclists who would stop and they would cheer and then yeah, there just seemed to be people everywhere on every part of the course.
Elizabeth Wood (41:50)
Not for the... yeah, maybe.
Jill Bartholomew (41:55)
Okay.
I see.
Yeah, I've been in... Yeah...
Yeah.
Yeah, that's how Texas is. There's a road that goes next to the highway and people just park there and hop the fence to spectate.
Elizabeth Wood (42:16)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (42:16)
Angry? It was great.
Elizabeth Wood (42:24)
Yeah. So you come out in a transition T2 and you've got all these spectators, you know, and the run course, to me, the run course was kind of like the bike course. It was advertised as being flat and generally it was flat, but you come out and you make a turn, right. You make a turn onto Rideau street, which is right by the Fairmont. And there's kind of a long gradual climb. I'm like, all right, just, you know, put it in a low gear and suck it up. Don't start walking now.
Angela (42:40)
Not completely. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (42:51)
And so you go up that street and then you kind of go around some, you know, down some hills and turns and whatever. And I remember seeing the directional arrows coming the other way. I was like, holy fuck, pardon my French. We're going to have to come up these hills at the finish. But I'm like, okay, don't worry about that now. Just think about that later. But then you get out and you're on a road that basically parallels, think, first I think it's the Rideau Canal and then is it the river, Angela?
Angela (43:04)
to come back this way.
Cheryl (43:06)
Go.
Elizabeth Wood (43:19)
But anyway, it's very flat. There are, like the bike, a few little rises, but there was never anything that I would really call a hill on the RunCore. So I felt like that was very much as advertised. What about you guys?
Jill Bartholomew (43:27)
So.
So I'm curious.
So I'm curious. the athlete guide does not list an elevation gain at all on the run. No, no, there's no elevation profile.
Elizabeth Wood (43:40)
didn't.
Cheryl (43:42)
I thought there was.
Angela (43:43)
Well, so somebody posted
somebody posted something recently where like last year it was listed as a flat run and now it's listed as a rolling run or something like that.
Jill Bartholomew (43:52)
I saw that too. It is listed as flat. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (43:53)
I thought it was flat in the athlete guide.
Cheryl (43:56)
it was flat in the athlete guide. I
have to say coming down that first ginormous hill, well the one and only ginormous hill at like the 1k mark was like, okay. And I saw it on the elevation guide. So I knew it was coming in, but it's just like, okay. So my quads are on fire from this bike because I've been, you know, arrow the whole time and now I'm going down this hill. So that was a little bit of a shuffle. And then I saw the third
Elizabeth Wood (43:59)
Yeah.
Angela (44:03)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (44:04)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Cheryl (44:22)
I think it was the second or third male coming in, going up the hill. And I'm like, right, we have to run up this hill. And then I'm thinking, are we turning around on top of the hill? Like, we have to do this like twice, but whatever. Once we got out, I'm kind of in the camp where I don't think this was a flat course. I mean, I think there were a lot of like gradual uphills that you didn't really see, but you could feel. And I
Elizabeth Wood (44:25)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (44:40)
and
Cheryl (44:45)
thought that there was a couple of rollers that were sort of like, hey, this wasn't up and over. I just, I didn't find it that flat. But again, it's no placid. It was not like a, like where the road.
Elizabeth Wood (44:55)
Yeah, right, right. Yeah. God,
Jill Bartholomew (44:57)
Yeah, as
well.
Elizabeth Wood (44:58)
River Road and that hill coming up to Main Street. Angela, what did you think? Did think it was flat?
Jill Bartholomew (45:00)
I
Angela (45:03)
And so,
well, so I walked a lot, like I walked a lot, my nutrition didn't pan out. So I ended up walking a lot. And it's not like, like I've done Montreux Blanc and then I've done the Skoka a lot. And those have hills, hills, like where you're like, you've to put your hands on your knees to walk up a hill, right? Like if you're walking, like the section, like when I was coming to the end, it definitely wasn't flat, but
I kind of felt like, and I don't feel like I'm actually that qualified to talk about because I walked so much, right? So, but there was nothing where I was like, God, I got to walk up this, like when I was walking up the hill, wasn't, I don't know. So I agree it's not a flat course and they've changed it now to say rolling like for 2026 for the run. But coming up the very last hill just behind parliament, just before like at 41 K or whatever,
Jill Bartholomew (45:38)
I mean, you were there.
Mm-hmm.
Angela (45:54)
it actually felt really good to come up that 10 % grade for like 20 seconds or whatever. Cause I was like, my gosh, my legs, like I'm stretching out my legs. So, which I laughed at myself. So like you're at 41 K and you just want to get the finish line, but you're like, this feels good to actually change the way my, muscles that I'm using. So yeah, it wasn't flat, but it also wasn't crazy. But again, like I said, I walked a lot, so I, I wasn't running. So I don't know how that feels.
Jill Bartholomew (46:03)
you
Elizabeth Wood (46:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
So I walked
a lot too. I know I saw Cheryl and mine was not my nutrition plan, at least I don't think it was, because I have struggled a lot with nutrition in my previous races and I've worked with a nutritionist and based on what I normally look for are things going off the rails with nutrition, I didn't have any of those symptoms. But I had and I saw so many people, uncontrollable vomiting.
Cheryl (46:21)
Thank
Angela (46:43)
you
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (46:47)
early in the run.
And I was able to push through it. But like, you know, I use water and then pick up Martin gels on course. Like, I couldn't even get a Martin gel down. was like, to even try to swallow it. And I know I saw a lot of people vomiting. Now, that can be that their electrolytes are out of whack, or they're dehydrated. But I know for me personally, that was not the case. So I don't know if it was smoke, or if it was just the heat or what it was. But
Cheryl (46:49)
Yes.
Yeah.
Angela (46:59)
Hmm.
Interesting.
Jill Bartholomew (47:08)
was going to
say I have some ideas.
Elizabeth Wood (47:14)
I was disappointed in my run because I walked so much of it, but I finished and you...
Angela (47:17)
Yeah, me too.
Jill Bartholomew (47:18)
in.
We should catch up later,
because I have some ideas on why that might be with the nothing else coming down. ⁓ Yeah, no, I've heard of the vomiting. I talked to someone who vomited every other mile on their Iron Man, and they still had like a 230 run. And I'm like, ⁓ yeah, yeah. I'm like, my god. And I'm like, was it a nutrition problem? They're like,
Elizabeth Wood (47:23)
Okay, all right, good. Okay, good, yeah.
Angela (47:36)
Earth.
I couldn't do that.
Elizabeth Wood (47:43)
Mm-mm. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (47:47)
No, my belly was just unsettled on that day. I guess it's better to go up and down, right?
Elizabeth Wood (47:50)
I think that's nutrition. I don't know. Yeah.
Yeah. And like there was, saw one post that was like, well, was it the water quality? And somebody else said, oh, well, my husband tested the water quality and it was fine. Cause I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think that it was from the water. just, I don't know. It was just, you know, one of those days.
Jill Bartholomew (48:05)
I mean, that would be really quick
if it was the water and the swim. That would be really fast.
Elizabeth Wood (48:09)
Exactly. Yeah, I didn't
think it was that, but yeah, I probably saw more people vomiting there than I have in Kona.
Cheryl (48:15)
I agree, when I was coming down that hill right after, so like in the first 5K, I was actually surprised how many people were walking already. And cause you know, you just usually don't see that so early in the race. So yeah, I agree. And I did hear a lot of people talking about unsettled stomach. I had a very unsettled stomach.
Jill Bartholomew (48:15)
interesting.
Elizabeth Wood (48:23)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (48:23)
Okay.
Cheryl (48:36)
that I was ignoring, but also was not able to choke down the gels that I was supposed to be choking down, nor drinking the tailwind that I brought with me, anything that I was supposed to be doing, did I do. So I don't know.
Elizabeth Wood (48:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (48:47)
Well, I mean,
it sounds like that probably didn't help.
Angela (48:50)
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Cheryl (48:50)
that watch
out.
Jill Bartholomew (48:52)
I said it sounds like that not following your nutrition plan probably didn't help the case.
Angela (48:56)
you
Cheryl (48:58)
Now it landed.
Elizabeth Wood (48:58)
Yeah, but when you
can't get it down or keep it down, yeah, like I resorted to Coke and potato chips and just trying to keep some stuff coming in along with water, but yeah, was just one of those days.
Jill Bartholomew (49:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Cheryl (49:02)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (49:08)
So was it Martin,
was it, sorry, was it the mortal on the course for the electrolytes or is it something else?
Elizabeth Wood (49:14)
I don't do mortal. I do
Cheryl (49:16)
I don't feel well.
Elizabeth Wood (49:17)
precision
capsules.
Angela (49:19)
I didn't touch the mortal either.
Jill Bartholomew (49:21)
But it was mortal that was on the course. Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (49:23)
Oh yeah, that's what they offered.
Angela (49:23)
yeah, that was the fuel.
Elizabeth Wood (49:25)
Yeah.
It was Martin 160s. I believe they had the Martin solids and then they had mortal, um, Yes. The one sixties, which was weird. I felt bad wasting them, but I'm like, I can't gag down a whole one 60. I'm not going to carry it with me.
Jill Bartholomew (49:31)
I was the 160s they had on the course.
Yeah.
Cheryl (49:37)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (49:39)
Yeah, I love the 160s on the bike.
Cheryl (49:39)
I know my husband said that too. He was surprised.
Jill Bartholomew (49:42)
I love the 160s on the bike, but when they have it on the run, I'm always like, what? These are huge for a run.
Elizabeth Wood (49:44)
Yeah.
Yeah,
I know. I guess lucky for the volunteers when they were surplus and they got to take them home.
Jill Bartholomew (49:51)
Yeah, I mean, those things are.
Cheryl (49:52)
I
overheard one of the medical people in one of the aid stations saying, there's a really big concern because nobody's taking the mortal. Nobody's taking the electrolytes. I'm like, yeah, no, we've all been talking about not taking the because it's gross. I think most people brought their own, yeah. Or we're doing just...
Elizabeth Wood (50:02)
Yes.
Angela (50:06)
Everybody brought their own.
Elizabeth Wood (50:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (50:08)
Yeah, every time I- Yeah, every time I-
Elizabeth Wood (50:11)
Or they didn't and
that's why they were vomiting.
Jill Bartholomew (50:14)
Yeah, every time I use the mortal I get headaches and feel very unsettled. Yeah.
Cheryl (50:14)
Yeah, it was hot.
Elizabeth Wood (50:17)
I think that's from the stevia.
Cheryl (50:20)
They took it out.
just saw it. Did you see that in the newsletter? There was a, I got an order from the feed and they had a big newsletter in it and Mortal took out an ad and it said, all right, you've roared, we listened, Stevie is out. And they're also doing, I don't know. Well, see.
Elizabeth Wood (50:22)
did they? No, what did they?
What are they using instead?
Jill Bartholomew (50:38)
sugar, hopefully.
Elizabeth Wood (50:38)
have to look it up and see what their sweetener is now.
Yeah, just pure sugar, nothing wrong with that.
Jill Bartholomew (50:43)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what we've been screaming for now a year and a half is like, some glucose in it, Instead of tricking the body into thinking that it's there.
Elizabeth Wood (50:49)
Yeah, right. Yeah. The finish line.
Yeah, I have to say the finish line. You know, again, yeah, at that point I was walking, had blisters on the balls of both feet. So yeah, was, it was, I've never had that before in a race. So, you know, I'm, you know, I'm still smiling, I'm power walking, but like the spectators, when you come around that corner on a whatever that is, McGregor or whatever. And it's just like,
Jill Bartholomew (51:01)
Oof.
Elizabeth Wood (51:16)
They were just amazing, so encouraging. And then the finish line itself, the athlete food, poutine and pasta and gelato, three or four flavors of gelato. Yeah. Yeah, it was good finish line. Good athlete food, tomato soup. And they had real beer, four different kinds of beer, not athletic, but they had real beer.
Angela (51:29)
And tomato soup, there was tomato soup. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (51:38)
See, I'm a fan of the athletic because that's what we drink at home. But every once in a while, you want the real stuff.
Elizabeth Wood (51:41)
Yeah, no, it's nothing against the athletic, but you know, in Yeah, yeah.
Cheryl (51:41)
Me too. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (51:47)
It did not sound good to me, but I'm like, ⁓ you can tell this isn't a North American. This isn't an American race because they've got beer instead of instead of athletic, but it was good.
Angela (51:48)
No, me neither.
Jill Bartholomew (51:53)
Yeah. I don't
know. My expectations for finish line food is generally pretty low.
Elizabeth Wood (52:00)
Yeah,
Angela (52:00)
Yeah,
Elizabeth Wood (52:01)
this was this was really good finish line food.
Angela (52:03)
had my family bring me a Fair Life, like high protein, just chocolate milk at the end and a cheese pizza. Like I was like, I just wanna know what I'm getting. I wanna know that it's gonna sit well so that I can review it. So I did get some poutine, had bite just to say that I did it.
Elizabeth Wood (52:20)
Yeah, I just had the fries. I didn't think I could stomach the gravy and the cheese curds, but the fries with the salt were delicious.
Angela (52:24)
Ha ha ha.
Jill Bartholomew (52:27)
I bet they were. Get some starch in ya and some salt and the so I'm curious. We've all done Ironman races. We've crossed many finish lines. What is your post race ritual at this point?
Cheryl (52:28)
I skipped the third, I was too nauseous.
depends on if I go to medical or don't go to medical.
Elizabeth Wood (52:46)
The
Jill Bartholomew (52:46)
All right, let's
assume that medical is not part of your post-race.
Cheryl (52:50)
Generally, it's hopefully meet up with my husband who usually races with me and a burger and a beer. Let's go find a pub and have a burger and a beer. And we talk about the race and generally I fall asleep before I can eat more than like two or three bites. But you know, that's, that's usually.
Jill Bartholomew (53:00)
There you go.
How about you, Angela?
Angela (53:12)
Yeah, it's funny. don't like, do I have a ritual? this, like I said, this year I said to my family, bring me this and bring me this. And I was really glad I was able to eat it. Cause after my previous two, I haven't really felt like eating. So I kind of finished and went, okay, like I'm feeling well enough to eat. And once I had like my fair life, was like, I actually feel really like, feel good now. And I, and my family was there. We chatted, we went to pick up my bike. We walked back to the hotel.
I usually take a shower and then an Epsom salt bath and then put my massage boots on and fall asleep with my massage boots on usually. And I'm like a later finisher too. So I always say to myself, okay, I just want to get myself sorted and then I'll go back to the finish line because it's not too long. But then I'm like, like I, I couldn't do it. I haven't been able to do it yet.
Elizabeth Wood (53:45)
You
Jill Bartholomew (53:47)
Yeah.
I, I'm the same way. always, I
always mean to go back to the finish line. It doesn't always happen. How about you Elizabeth, what's your kind of post race look like?
Angela (54:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know and I'm.
Elizabeth Wood (54:09)
So in my last handful of races, what I like to do is I'll go to the athlete food area and the salty fries and a Sprite. So a little glucose, a little salt, all this settles really well. And then, you know, get back to wherever we're staying. usually my fiance, Craig, it seems like
Most of the races we've traded off. So either he's racing or I'm racing in the full distance races. And so go back to wherever we're staying, take a shower. And then I like to then go out and get something to eat because each and by that point I am starving. So sometimes it's standing in front of the refrigerator, eating leftover pasta out of know, the Tupperware container, but I wish there were a burger and a beer. And that's what I really wanted on Sunday night. And I was staying in the Fairmont, which is right there.
Jill Bartholomew (54:32)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (54:54)
by the finish line and their restaurant, like they had the finish line camera going in the lobby. So, you know, they weren't oblivious to the fact that there was an Ironman, but their restaurant didn't stay open late. So I got there at 10.50. Sorry, the kitchen gloves closed at 10.45 and room service. Everything was pre-prepared and they had a BLT, which sounded so good to me. I'm like, so you're gonna bring me a BLT and the bacon's gonna be cold? Mm-hmm, no, that's okay. So I ended up having a salad.
Angela (55:01)
cool.
Jill Bartholomew (55:03)
Right. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (55:23)
I know, I know it's just wrong. I was so hungry at that point though, I was gonna eat anything.
Jill Bartholomew (55:24)
Ugh. This salad.
Yeah, you know, I was surprised we saw that Lake Placid to, you know, talk about a town that's used to this kind of stuff and still like the rest, most of the restaurants closed at like nine.
Cheryl (55:44)
But down at Bayward Market, like right past the finish line, the Bayward Market, right, the opposite direction from the Fairmont, it was hopping. It was this, the bars were out, was, yeah, that's where you needed to go. I'm sorry, I should have probably told you, because that's where my husband, oh yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (55:46)
Yeah.
Angela (55:49)
Yeah, buy word market.
Jill Bartholomew (55:52)
Okay.
Elizabeth Wood (55:56)
Really?
nice.
Jill Bartholomew (56:00)
That's what you'd expect.
Elizabeth Wood (56:02)
Yeah.
Okay, yeah, that's okay. Shoot, yeah, wish I had known we would have.
Angela (56:07)
Let's go.
Cheryl (56:12)
was, I mean, that was our plan because we parked over there at the garage and we were like, all right, that Irish pub, we're going there. And, you know, we did our pre-race dinner there. It was just, you know, just a great spot, night spot. And it was open very late. So.
Elizabeth Wood (56:17)
that's right, yeah.
Nice.
Angela (56:28)
Uh-huh.
Jill Bartholomew (56:29)
So
my soon to be husband, when we first started dating, he realized very quickly that after any endurance race, we somehow always managed to find ourselves in a steakhouse about an hour after crossing the finish line. And I'm like, yeah. And there's nothing like a good piece of beef after.
Angela (56:43)
You ⁓
Cheryl (56:43)
Yeah. Protein.
Elizabeth Wood (56:46)
Yum.
Yum, that
Angela (56:52)
We
gotta refuel. We gotta refuel.
Cheryl (56:52)
That's usually us after marathon.
Elizabeth Wood (56:52)
sounds good.
Cheryl (56:55)
We don't eat a whole lot of red meat, but after a full, like a standalone marathon, we always just hit the steakhouse. get in the good places. Need it.
Jill Bartholomew (56:55)
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (57:00)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Bartholomew (57:01)
Yes, it's the same for us. I don't
need a lot of red meat. They do, but after an endurance race, you better believe it.
Angela (57:09)
Hahaha!
Cheryl (57:09)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (57:10)
Hehehehehe
Cheryl (57:11)
All food stuff is off the Everything is fair game.
Jill Bartholomew (57:13)
Yeah, it's like I earned that man.
Angela (57:15)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (57:16)
All right. So we've been chatting for quite a while about the different aspects of the race. I'm curious, what was your highs and lows? So Angela, why don't you go first?
Angela (57:26)
my high I would say was getting out of the swim because the swim was so choppy and my goal going in though was just go in have an easy swim like it's not gonna make or break make or break you so so have a nice easy swim but kind of coming out of the swim I had a decent time for me so I was like yes like so I came out of swim with a really positive attitude and saw the people I wanted to see in transition and
had great volunteers helping me, got my stuff on, got on the bike, like felt pretty good. Besides the fact that I had my tires, I thought they were inflated properly and I got on and I was like, oh, they feel a little, like not soft, softer than they should have. And I was like, okay, well, what do you do here? Like, cause you know, it's going to be a bad course. Anyway, like all these things going through my head, but then, and then I had a great, like my bike, actually stayed quite positive the whole time besides having a few little issues, but.
Like I stayed really positive. So I went into the, the run with a super positive attitude and thinking, okay, I can do this. I've been working on my run a lot lately. I've been getting a lot stronger and I walked a lot my first two. So I was like, this one, I'm not going to walk a lot. Like, you know, it's going to be great. And I was like, I might even finish in the light. And I was so pumped. So that was like, I was on a complete high starting the run.
And then actually Elizabeth, was right when you passed me on the run around the backside of parliament there. ⁓ It was like all of a sudden, like I was feeling so amazing that I was going to have this great run. And it's like the world just went imploded on me. was like, it is so hot. I am so hot right now. like all of a sudden just like, I've probably never felt that kind of bonk before, but I was like, okay, I need to walk. And so, and I kind of started walking as a K.
Jill Bartholomew (58:46)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (58:52)
and
Mm.
Angela (59:13)
after you get off that hill, you're going to start running. And I did. And I was like, okay, you can do this. You can do this. But then it was just like, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but I went from like feeling so, so high to so low all at once. And then being like, okay, it's okay. You can get this back. You can get this back. And it just never came back. And I, yeah, it was, I had a really disappointing run because I had felt so good going in and I felt so great at the beginning of the run. And it's very quickly just nose dive. So.
Jill Bartholomew (59:18)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (59:42)
That was super disappointing. I crossed the finish line. My goal is to just never go to medical. So if I have to slow down, slow down, slow down so that I can cross the line standing and with a smile on my face, that's my goal. So I did that. So you know, I guess I was successful, but just disappointed in the run part after feeling so, so high. So it is what it is.
Jill Bartholomew (1:00:04)
Okay, Cheryl.
Cheryl (1:00:05)
I think that the volunteers, I just can't say enough about the enthusiasm, the helpfulness, cheeriness, the positive attitude, just everyone knew what they were doing and the amount of volunteers helping and just being incredibly excited to be there and excited for us. It made such a huge impact, I think, for the whole race from the bike, you know.
people in the tents, the people giving out water on the bike. The run aid stations were amazing. I think it was a very, very well supported race. One of the high points was that my husband didn't catch me until mile 45 on the bike, which is, you know, I think that's a record for me. But I always get out of the water first and he always catches me at some point. And I think this was a pretty good distance. I was happy with that.
Angela (1:00:51)
Yay!
Cheryl (1:01:01)
I'm happy that I felt great on the bike the whole time. I'm, I was, this was a training run for me. So I wasn't even sure I was gonna do the run. I was not, I'm not really fully trained for the run for a whole marathon. About five or six K in my Achilles started hurting and I for whatever reason didn't pack K tape anywhere. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna.
not push through this because if I hurt my Achilles now and can't train the rest of the way for Kona, that's not okay. So I slowed down, I walked a lot. I probably walked 90 % of the second half of the race of the run. But again, I'm a really social person. So just being able to talk to people, like, you know, saying hi to Elizabeth or my husband at somewhere right after the turnaround, some guy
Some young like, he must've been like 30, saw me walk in and he kinda like was like, hey, how's your day going? I'm like, it's, you know, mean, it is whatever, but I'm probably gonna walk. He's like, great, I'll walk with you. We walked the rest of the race together. I just chatted and he's like, I'm so happy I ran into you. You're keeping a good pace. I'm like, four miles an hour is a good pace? Great, okay. So yeah, it was...
I was trying not to do what I usually do and do the negative thing. I was doing the positive thing in that I'm gonna finish this race when I didn't know whether I was even gonna do this last leg. So yeah, so I felt really good. The second thing that was really amazing is my brother-in-law, my husband's brother and his family live in Kingston. So they drove over and we saw them on the bike course and on the run course a few times and it just made my day because
Angela (1:02:43)
Nice.
Cheryl (1:02:45)
Nobody ever comes to our races anymore. Our kids don't care. My parents are too old. Like it's just nobody, if I'm not racing with the team or I don't know anybody on the sidelines. So to have somebody cheering was like, just it like made my day. So yeah.
Angela (1:02:50)
Ha ha ha.
Jill Bartholomew (1:02:55)
Mm-hmm.
Angela (1:03:00)
Yeah. Agreed.
Jill Bartholomew (1:03:00)
Awesome.
And,
Elizabeth Wood (1:03:02)
So high point and low point, I'll start with the low point. So for me, the low point came around the end of the first loop of the run. Like I said, I was having issues with nausea and vomiting, trying to problem solve because I've never had an Iron Man go according to plan. So how do you problem solve? Get some coke, get some chips. But my
Jill Bartholomew (1:03:19)
Thank you.
Elizabeth Wood (1:03:23)
You know, the darkness happened so early for me in this race. And those thoughts of, well, I'm just going to quit. I'm just going to drop out when I get to the turnaround. you know what? I'm, and I'm not going to, I'm going to drop out of Kona too. you know, just like the darkness was, was so bad.
Jill Bartholomew (1:03:37)
but you got through it.
Elizabeth Wood (1:03:39)
Yeah. So then it was, well, you know, you have some other options. You don't have to quit. You know, you can, you you don't want to walk. You had really big goals for this race, but you you can walk and you can finish because, you know, I've raised like $7,000 in the couple of weeks leading up to the race. Well, you know, like, what are you, what are you going to say to those people who donated money? Well, I quit because it was hard. Well, of course it's fucking hard. It's Ironman. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
So, you know, those things and I want the medal and, you know, just, you know, like all those things, that bargaining that goes on. And so, yeah, exactly. So, that was a low point for me of just having my run. And I felt like I was very well-trained for the run. My legs felt great when I came out of T2. And so, it wasn't really my legs. It was, you know, the heat and, you know, whatever else. So, that was a low point that the run just did not.
Angela (1:04:15)
Alright.
Elizabeth Wood (1:04:34)
did not execute it the way that I expected to and the way that I wanted to. But my high point was crossing the finish line and conquering all of that adversity and making myself just keep moving forward because it would have been so easy to quit at that turnaround. My future stepdaughter was there and she was just like so encouraging. Like, know, I'm gonna be here. Just like do whatever you need to do. And so.
Angela (1:04:47)
⁓ huh.
Elizabeth Wood (1:04:59)
For me, what I'm trying to take away from it, I'm not quite there yet, but what I'm trying to take away from it is that through all of that adversity, I finished. So that was my high point.
Angela (1:05:08)
Yep.
Jill Bartholomew (1:05:10)
Awesome.
And you know what they say? It's an Iron Man. It's supposed to be hard. And we do hard stuff because it's hard.
Angela (1:05:16)
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (1:05:18)
All right, so.
Cheryl (1:05:18)
I wish we had been a little
closer on the run, Elizabeth, because I think like when you're alone in that, it's so much worse. But when you have somebody else like lightening things up a little bit or just even just to, you know, I don't know. I had this kid, Daniel, and I were just like cracking jokes all the time, like, you know, but we're doing a 10 minute kilometer. Like it just was, it took away a lot of that real negativity. And I, I wish I had, I kept seeing you, but I
Angela (1:05:26)
Thank you.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (1:05:40)
in
Cheryl (1:05:47)
weren't close enough to like catch up for but if we could have walked in a little bit of a more of a group I think it would have been.
Elizabeth Wood (1:05:49)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (1:05:54)
So
that's one the I love about this sport is everyone on the course is supporting each other. And I've seen that so many times on different courses in different states and countries. And it's just so consistent. And that's one of the things I've come to love about triathlon in general. All right, so the big question, would you do it again?
Angela (1:05:54)
huh.
Yeah.
Elizabeth Wood (1:06:00)
You're all in it together.
Cheryl (1:06:18)
Yes, absolutely. If I ever do an Iron Man again, this one would be on the list.
Angela (1:06:20)
would. I'm going to go back next year.
Elizabeth Wood (1:06:22)
I would.
Jill Bartholomew (1:06:26)
if you ever do an Araman again.
Angela (1:06:27)
I'm gonna go volunteer
next year. So I'm gonna head up to Ottawa, go volunteer, be part of the whole vibe. And then my son, actually my 10 year old son, 11 year old son, sorry, on the drive home, he said, mom, how old do have to be to do an Iron Man? I was like 18. And so he's like doing the math. He's like, okay, so you'll be like 57 when I'm old enough to do it. Do you think, he goes, I wanna do one. I was like, oh, that's that's amazing. I said like.
Elizabeth Wood (1:06:31)
⁓ fine.
⁓
⁓
Angela (1:06:56)
fantastic. He but do think you'd like to do it with me? And I was like, I could do that. So yeah, so maybe we'll be doing if
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:02)
Yeah. Yeah.
Angela (1:07:03)
it sticks around that long, which I hope it will. Maybe we'll do Ironman Ottawa together when he turns 18. ⁓
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:06)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jill Bartholomew (1:07:10)
The funny
thing with us is my husband looks at Nieraman and says, no way in hell. My son is a runner and he's done like sprints and he does well with them. He's seen podium a few times, but he's like, yeah, no. And then there's my daughter who does not run, likes to bike, but isn't that strong on the bike.
likes to swim but is not very good at it yet and she's like can I do one?
Angela (1:07:43)
And the answer is yes, you can. Right?
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:44)
good example.
Jill Bartholomew (1:07:45)
The answer is, but of course,
Angela (1:07:46)
Yes, you can.
Jill Bartholomew (1:07:46)
but you got to work for it. All right. Any last words before we say goodbye?
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:49)
Yeah.
Angela (1:07:55)
think that this Ottawa course, I don't know, but I feel like maybe the guys and girls who are super fast might be the ones who are downing it. But I honestly feel like this would be a perfect beginner course. If you were just starting out, this would be a perfect first course to try out Ironman. Because...
Elizabeth Wood (1:07:55)
No.
Agreed.
Jill Bartholomew (1:08:03)
Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth Wood (1:08:15)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Angela (1:08:18)
Because
maybe you're probably biking a little bit slower, so you can avoid those potholes. I feel like it would be an amazing first time Ironman.
Elizabeth Wood (1:08:27)
I think it's, I think it, I don't know if people still look at Arizona as a first timer course, but I would say that this beats Arizona hands down as a course for first timers.
Jill Bartholomew (1:08:36)
think Arizona scares a lot of people because that swim is so cold.
Elizabeth Wood (1:08:41)
It's cold and like they find bodies in that lake. It's gross. Yeah. Yeah.
Angela (1:08:42)
It's gross, isn't ⁓
Jill Bartholomew (1:08:47)
Yeah, there's that. All right. Well, thank you ladies for joining me to talk about Ironman Ottawa. It's been great conversation. For listeners, I hope this was useful. Sounds to me like, know, Ironman and the race director and the crew and volunteers, pulled off a great first race and
can't wait to see it next year. And on that note, thank you very much for joining us. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast. It's available on every streamer out there and YouTube. And we'll see you again next week. All right. Thank you, everyone.