Calgary Ironman 70.3

Calgary is the home of a new Ironman 70.3 event!

This is half the distance of an Ironman:

1.2 mile swim (1900m)
56 mile bike (90 km)
13.1 mile run (21.1 km)

Add the distances up? 70.3 miles.

The swim should be very nice, it's in a small calm lake.

The bike will be interesting... the biggest challenge about the course will likely be the wind. This area has wind farms... the wind is always blowing as the air comes off the mountains and sweeps across the prairies.

But on the bright side, they've chosen a point-to-point bike route, so you start the bike at Ghost Lake near Cochrane but end at the Glemore Reservoir in Calgary. This will put the wind at your back for much of the ride. Might see some really fast times if it's blowing right.

There is also a pretty killer climb coming out of Cochrane, as you exit the valley. I don't know the rest of the bike route all that well, but the area is mostly rolling hills.

The run looks flat, but I'm not very familiar with the area.

My in-laws live near the start, so I was strongly considering doing this race, but it won't work out for 2009... maybe another year.