Try this for punishment. Go for a 3.8km swim, then ride 180km, then put the runners on to tackle a full marathon.

And you guys thought the six foot track was hard.

I'll be in Foster this weekend to cheer on some close friends and hopefully to be inspired to do the same next year. Cant wait!

Saintly,

Some of us here have done the odd ironman race. And on harder courses than flat Forster....

But have fun up there though, I just love watching races like that. Good luck to everyone this weekend. Good luck with your training for next year too!

Pasty

Saintly,

There is a whole world of tough events out there.

Check out www.ultraoz.com for starters.

Cheers,

Dave

Saintly,

After that, you could have a go at a race where you start before dawn, run into dusk, and are still going at sunrise the next day....

Entry forms for Glasshouse have just gone out, folks. Who's up for 2003?

Cheers....

Mr G, any race where you have a few beers as part of your mid-race plan has got be an experience to go for.

Count me in.

tim

Saintly,

I guess the point is, training and completing an Ironman triathlon is a huge achievement, but there are events waaaaaaay beyond Ironman; such as 15km swim/400km bike/100km run of , also 150miles of Moroccan sand in Marathon de Sable, and of course Mister_G's attempt at the upcoming Western States 100 mile.

Pasty

In case you were wondering...

Macca (aka Chris Maccormack) smoked home to win at Forster again, with Lisa Bentley the first woman (Go Canada!). With both of them apparently going sub-3 hours for the marathon after the swim-bike warmup.

Pasty

Pastyboy,
Where are the results posted? Sub 3 for the ladies--now thats shifting!

cheers :)

The results are on
Ironmanlive.

Macca's splits were swim/bike/run (h:mm:ss) 0:46:48/4:38:18/2:51:39 with 8:19:15 total.

Lisa Bentley 0:53:39/5:23:42/2:58:43 with 9:19:15 total.

Lisa's run split is very fast, whereas Maccas bike blew everyone away (again) averaging over 38km/h. There seems to be a change over the years here. Peter Reid once ran a 2:35 marathon to win an Ironman, and now it seems that all the top males are running around 2:50 to win. The women's field has been dominated by the runners coming through the field (Lori Bowden, Lisa Bentley etc), and this year was no exception.

Pasty

Booked a weeks holiday in Forster, thought we would get a flat near or over looking the main beach as little treat to ourselves so that we could enjoy the view whilst the kids slept during the day.

After making the booking we realised that the Ironman Tri was to be run on the 6/4/2003.

We left on the 5/4/2003 however the training activity of the participants certainly made it an inspiring place to run for the week.

Ultra running,cycling, tris, paddling and swimming encourage some amazing feats however I personally that the most amazing feats of endurance occur in the will dplace of the world in mountaineering, climbing and cross country travel.

I think what rogaining, Ironmans, 24 hour adventure races etc etc allow ordinary people to do is to have a 24 hour adventure or there abouts. Ordinary people doing extra ordinary things.

This is not to diminsh the elite end of the Ironman field as their performances are extrordinary.

Did Greg Welch really run a 2 hour 30 minute marathon when he won the Hawaii Ironman?

Cheers Alan

I think you'll find Welch ran about a 2.48 when he won Hawaii. There was a link on XTri detailing the fastest marathon splits ever recorded in Ironman, but I can't find it now. I know Peter Reid, Luc Van Lierde and Peter Kropko have all gone under 2.40.

I think the fastest run at Hawaii is still Mark Allen's 2.40 from 1989, with Dave Scott (2.41, same race) and Van Lierde (2.42, 1996) not far behind.

Cheers......

And I can't find it either on xtri, though it was there a while back. I know Reid ran 2:35 though.

Flat Feet, you are correct that mountaineering is a very pure form of endurance sport. Personally my hardest days ever were on big mountains battling fatigue, thirst, cold, altitude and the will to go on.

Pastyboy

May cop some flak for this, but have to ask the question.
Are tri's (in particular Forster) measuring their runs with the same accuracy and to the same std as marathons are required. In earlier days they weren't and the argument given was that since all tri's are different, and you cannot compare time on different courses-'it doesn't matter'. But it does if we are going to salute those who run the marathon leg (great feat anyway) under a certain time. My observations of the pace ran at Forster (not this yr), and running on parts of the route, lead me to believe that this particular course may be short. I know what 3hr pace is and have done it many times. But I stand to be corrected if this is wrong. Any ideas where one can get verification??

I've never done an Ironman, but in the past I've done a lot of others Tri's and I'm amazed at how fast I cycle and run in the race - I am a pretty good judge of my own speed and somehow something doesn't quite stack up. I'm not taking anything away from the ironmen and women because even if there is a bit of nipping and tucking going on it's still a bloody long way.

Never done the race but spend a week a year up at Forster and run the 21.1km course (they do 2 laps) and my times are right on where I would expect them to be. Seems to be measured correctly just from my experience

I would be very very surprised indeed if the measurements werent exactly spot on. Ironman is globally reknowned as an extreme challenge and to have that image tarnished by innacurately measured courses seems highly unlikely.

Would also venture to say that the cat would already be out of the bag if it was in fact 'out'.

Kudos to all competitors who not only put themselves through this day of hell, but put in all the long hard yards just to be invited to start. Hats off!

Recently competed in the NSW Olympic Distance Triathalon Championships in Port Stephens, which was billed as being set on a "true and accurate Olympic Distance course". While I've never done a 40km time trial at an average speed of more than 36.5kph before, I somehow managed to cover the "40km" bike ride in under an hour on that day, with a 1500m swim thrown in as a warm up, so I would suggest there would be a pretty big question mark over the distances up at Port Stephens. It would not surprise me if other triathalons had question marks just as big over some of their distances.

Having said that, Forster is another kettle of fish completely, being a qualifer for Hawaii and all, and I would be very surprised if distances were inaccurate in such a prestigious race.

Congrats to all this year's competitors!

to all the competitors this year. Congratulations well done and I wish I could find time to train.

I'm interested to find out how the panthers tri club boys performed at forster and also in canberra this coming weekend!!
I'm a member of the club but am living in St louis USA.....as i have recently married!!
If anyone is interested i ran and completed my first marathon 6/4/03....time was on schedule for 4-00hrs marathon at 19miles!! Then i was tripped at a drink station, fell, twisted my knee and was unable to run any further!! So i hobbled to the finish....eventually recording a 5-18!!
It was very cold, constant rain, some hail and snow!! So i am dissapointed with my time..but very happy i beat the elements and myself to finish!! The memory will last forever, the pain is already forgotten!!
I'm on crutches and have been told i need surgery to reconstruct my knee!!
Cheers to all my Panther mates and former training partners!!
David Johns panthers tri club member no. 421

Part of the license to hold the Ironman in Forster requires an accurate course, so it is pretty damn close. Unfortunately that tri, and the 2000 Olympic tri's, are about the only accurately measured tri's around. The worst case was in WA a few years ago when the 10k was run in world record time... it was a tad over 8k. Offers have been made to Triathlon Australia to measure courses accurately, but rarely have the offers been entertained until too late to do anything. Oh well, just don't count on an accurate swim/cycle/run course at any triathlon - it makes better television and gets better coverage if world record times are posted on a regular basis!

Jonzee,

Just had to say "well done" on completing your first marathon in such trying circumstances. Don't worry about the time mate. Hats off to you. You finished and you won. Hope you recover quickly.

You had to leave the country because you got married? Did you take your wife with you? I'm up for 19 years of wedded bliss next week and emmigration has crossed my mind at times too!

Cheers,
Phil.

hi all
i've been doing triathlons for 19yrs.i have done well over 100 triathlons.i find it is very,very rare that a course is accurately measured.the series you see on tv(accenture series) is a lot less than what they say.if
these athletes can run,swim & cycle as fast
as you see them on tv they would be representing their countries at the
olympic games in swimming,running & cycling.
as well as triathlon.it's just ridiculous &
embarrassing for the sport that they try & get away with it.it should be so easy to accurately measure a course.why is it rarely done?& why is it that in triathlons you rarely get a finishing certificate?you pay big money to do a tri & get no cerificate & in a lot of cases now no race results.yet when you do a fun run you
pay about $10 & always get a cerificate &
race results.& in some races like the look series you don't even get a trophy for comming a place in your age group yet they advertise trophies for comming a place in your age group.i'm still waiting for my trophy from last year.

Having done half the distance up at Forster a couple of times, not to mention the organisation of this race (which is second to none) I'd be very suprised if the race distances we incorrect.

I had to check Benny's location and I am not suprised by his comments. It seems NSW Triathlon have lots of problems, not only in their measurement of race distances.

I would say that out of the 40 or so Triathlons I've done in Victoria maybe 20% have been incorrectly measured, but most often in the bike section which is more difficult to control as turnaround points have to be located at convenient positions.

I have done a couple were the run leg was most clearly incorrect, but most seem pretty good.

The Perth world champs a few years ago were a major screw up, with distances on the run leg out by kms,which was especially significant as it acted as an olympic qualifier race.

Incidentally, I wouldn't exactly call Forster flat. There are no mountains to climb but there are plenty of hills on the run and a few on the bike.

Saintly if you feel like training 14-20 hours a weeks, and doing a minimum of 9 sessions (min) a week then do it, just keep in mind that unless your very lucky and win a lottery spot your going to have to qualify to race OZIM. If your under 45 this will involve you finishing a Half IM in well under 5 hours, so you'd better be ready to swim sub 32 min for 1900m, ride 90.1km a 35 km/hr and then run a sub 1:40 half marathon, which is not all that easy after a hard 90km on a bike.

Evil,

No offence, but I feel Forster is flat for the bike. Run, fair enough it isn't that flat. Compare IMOz bike leg to IM Canada or Lanzarote. I'm not sure what you compare it to - maybe NZ? or your experience in Melbourne like Beach Rd (which is pretty darn flat)? I just find all the Melbourne short course tris are a time trail on the bike. Sadly though there are other things to combat in Forster like the road surface and/or the wind. I guess it's what you are used to...

I should also point out that the Perth World Championships had the women's 10km run leg course incorrect; the men's was corrected in time - but still very embarassing.

Swim legs are notoriously inaccurate because a) they are hard to measure and b) the pack swims off in the wrong direction or to the wrong buoy, like the pro field at St Kilda Accenture last year. Kinda funny to watch from the beach though.

I'd be very surprised if the IMOz run course was inaccurate.

And (difficulties in) qualification for Forster is yet again another thread all on it's own. It gets worse if both you and your partner want to qualify in the same year.

Pastyboy

Pastyboy,

I guess hills are all relative. I'd never call the hills up at Forster tough, but there are certainly a few undulations in the middle of the bike, although nothing serious. The toughest part about Forster is the last 20kms into town, usually against a head wind and up a very slight slope. Everwhere else is straightforward.

Frankly give me hills any day over the flat. I love the ride up to through Warrandyte, Kangaroo Grounds and beyond for just that reason. Also one of the reasons I want to tackle Canberra HIM this year is that the hills for the bike leg are supposed to be pretty tough.

I certainly agree with your comments about Beach Rd, flat and boring and there are far few tris held on decent interesting courses in Victoria.

Incidentally there is word about that maybe Frankston Long Course will be reintroduced next season (fingers crossed).

PS. Sorry to all the pure runners out there. The IMOZ chat room is down for a couple of weeks so us triathletes have to go somewhere.

Evil,

Yeah, I agree. The last 20km is always a grind.

Hadn't heard about Frankston yet. Thanks for the tip. I'd also choose Canberra (clean water, hilly ride) over Shepp (soupy water, flat ride) anyday. I've also heard that Ballarat won't be back next year...

Pastyboy

sorry guys cant believe you can sit here and over analyse such a race. maybe you should try and sit back and think of all the men and women who sacrifice so much and the training and effort that goes into completing such an event, at the finish line or days after surely you could'nt say geeez i wonder if that was accuratley measured??? come on just a little bit more respect and to my mate who is a 5 time forster finisher and now just completed port mac, i would'nt dare sit there and question the distance of the race. maybe find something better to talk about. Those that have completed it i envy you and hope one day to finish this amazing event. And then and only then shall i comment on the race its self.

RESPECT

Leigh... it was three years ago...

Leigh, I can't comprehend why you find this old thread so offensive and disrespectful.

For the record, I have no doubts that the Forster marathon course was accurate.