I’m planning to do the “Over the Mountain” olympic distance race on May 31st. I’ve been wanting to do this event for two years, but it never seems to fit into my schedule. This year I’m forcing it to fit! It sounds like a really neat venue with a point to point course and two transition areas. You swim 1.5k across a lake to the the first transition area. Then you bike 45k over a mountain and end up at another transition spot. Then you run 10k to the finish.
I wanted to compare the difficulty of the bike course to the Duke 1/2 race, and to my current long bike route (which is hilly). So, I used Photoshop to stretch the elevation maps to the same scale for comparison.
Here are the maps. The first map shows Duke Vs OTM. The second adds my current route to the mix. The blue shaded area is Duke 1/2. The purple line is Over the Mountain. The green area is my current bike route.
Over the Mountain definitely has a couple of steeper climbs than the Duke course. Overall, it doesn’t look a whole lot worse than Duke…of course, Duke is a tough bike course! It doesn’t look too bad compared to my normal riding conditions – maybe a bit tougher, but nothing that scares me. It will surely be a challenge to make a top bike split of 1:28.
Just added: the yellow areas are Borland Hill. So, OTM is like doing Borland 3x!
(click a maps to enlarge)
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Thanks for your kind words about my blog. What a coincidence - I ran into
a friend today at the pool. He also did Nelson Bay and
was talking about how tough the swim was due to the choppiness. And, yes,
you do have to just get through the swim when it's like that. Good job!
I've never done Kerr Lake so I can't say what the swim is going to be like.
However, Setup Events generally tells you on their website if the swim tends
to be choppy. I'm guessing that it's a nice calm swim like most inland
lakes are.
If it does turn out to be a tough swim due to weather or whatever, just keep
in mind that you are allowed to hang onto the lifeguard boats to take a
rest. Sometimes it helps just knowing that! (You just can't get into
the boat or else your race is over.) Good luck!
Carol- thanks for all your inspiring blogs. I have enjoyed reading them as I have done my first 3 sprints and I am doing the kerr lake olympic event on June 1. Anyway, this past weekend I did the Nelson Bay sprint and swimming in the bay was crazy compared to the pool and I am getting a bit nervous about doing the oly-the distance does not bother me but I could never get in sync and it became a matter of just getting thru it. It seemed as is every time I needed a breath I would suck in water to go with it.
Any advice. I do not want to bail on the oly but I and a little worried!!
Thanks
Rebecca