awesome, we've been to quebec city twice in the last two years (for our wedding) so I'd love to head back. It's such a beautiful area

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

That is one hell of a swim course........

https://www.capquebec.com/en/courses/

Having just done Challenge Almere, it's so good to see them expanding to this continent. I found it very true that they truly cater to the athlete. My experience was amazing and I'm excited to give my money to Challenge for future events.

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Kiwami Racing Team

The course is a little wacky, but Quebec City is awesome and I like the mid-July date.
I'm tempted to come out of triathlon retirement to use this an excuse to visit Quebec next summer.

That swim course makes the 'M' swim at Florida 70.3 look like a piece of cake. Pretty interested in this, having raced Tremblant 4x. My wife and I visited Quebec City in the summer of 2022 - will ask her if she wants to visit again!

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

Fourteen turns, including five U-turns, in 1900 meters?!? That's nuts!

I turn every 25m meters in training.

I'll bet there aren't 100 other people trying to turn at the same time........

Direct link: https://www.capquebec.com/..._P113_courses_en.pdf
Wonder if the PTO will be considering this event to blister a tour race onto.

Quebec is a great city & it's good to see Challenge races coming to North America but it's also the same day as 70.3 Oregon & Lake Placid. 70.3 Maine is the following weekend. Musselman is the weekend before. Would have liked to have seen some better spacing.

That's the most ridiculous swim course I've ever seen. Beyond the ridiculousness of the course layout it's all swimming in a marina. Not just the bay of the marina but swimming within the boat docks and boat slips. I've done marina swims before and the smell and taste of boat fuel can be bad. That's in the open bay. This is swimming in the dock area. I assume the boats won't be there (???) but the shit fuel filled water will be.

Google Map satellite view:
https://www.google.com/...11b7gqfmjd?entry=ttu

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

That pinch point at the far end is NARROW! Like, maybe 2 pool lanes wide? This seems like an odd swim choice for a lot of different reasons. Seems like it'll just be like swimming in a 50m pool, without walls, with diesel water, and a couple hundred of your best friends.

Water quality is monitored. There is a swimming area within the basin.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/...port-quebec-baignade

I will have too many choices next June-July-Aug-Sep....Tremblant 70.3 third week of June, Muskoka 70.3 first week of July, Challenge Quebec 113 third week of July, then Kingston tri first week of Aug, Brockville Olympic third week of Aug, and Esprit Half IM in Montreal first week of Sep.

Looks like racing every second weekend all summer ! I won't need to train, just race every couple of weekend and bike to work and jog to pool daily at lunch! Gotta like it when all the race directors plan out your entire summer!

Kidding aside (not sure if I can do that entire line up without totally imploding), but this race looks fun given all my trips to Quebec City for partying. Other than that, I have only been to Quebec City for XC ski races and for swim meets, so a tri would be a first. If I am reading the course map correctly, the 4 loop bike is around 400m vertical and the run is two loops total 170m vertical (that's not flat either). I like the multi loop bike. Should be good for spectators. I personally am not worried about water quality (should be fine) and I kind of like the out and backs through the marina. Minimally it won't be crazy wavy.

Also for those who want some extra racing you can do the sprint on Sat and half IM on Sunday. Or Olympic on Sat and half on Sunday.

That's pretty neat.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Also of note Dominique Piche who is the founder and race director for IM Tremblant, IM70.3 Tremblant and the 2014 IM 70.3 World Championships IS the race director:





https://triathlonmagazine.ca/news/its-a-hit-and-there-hasnt-been-a-race-yet-will-challenge-cap-quebec-live-up-to-the-hype/?fbclid=IwAR2J3Jz-lkHeivRasGxRfo2BPxnJ2mFl-SLjA4O4jmbRpb8EwWY3kglPNxo_aem_Aco_LihZ2lTOcrLjPqARm5H9qUvIdoHFjYgywjKj2Nk1sY8swqUVJGM0X5LpsiXm8eA

Looks exciting. The local tri clubs were trash talking each other in the chat already, so it'll be fun to watch anyway.

Oh, book your hotels now if you are planning to go. They'll be very expensive and near impossible to find soon. Quebec didn't need this race to fill its hotels that weekend.

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Should have just thrown them in the St Lawrence and let the Tide Gods decide who makes it to T1...

I see there is a nice package for $394 that you can do the Olympic on Sat and half on Sunday or Sprint Sat + Half on Sunday !!! I heard they already sold 1000 entries yesterday.

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That is awesome...I love Quebec City,they used to have a Double Iron across the river in Levis back in the early 2000's and having Chateau Frontenac and the Old City lit up at night in the background was just amazing. A lot of my old friends from those days in Quebec have been posting about the new race all day.

My concern looking at the swim course was congestion around the buoys and dealing with it 14 times. But not sure how large the field size will be. Probably not 2-3K starters like an Ironman branded race. Although I could be wrong if people are excited about this. I haven't been to Quebec City in over 20 years. I could be persuaded to do a race-cation up there in the near future. I remember it was a really beautiful city. A long drive from Vermont and think it took around 10 hours but made some stops along the ways.

ETA: just used googlemaps and it's less than a 4 hr drive from my house in the Northeast Kingdom of VT. So very feasible. Not sure what we were doing over 20 years ago to take 10 hrs. We did live a couple hours south but still.......

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Yes if you avoid Montreal and go direct from Vermont you should be fast to get to Quebec City. From what I understand the turns are way wider than what it looks like on the map. Keep in mind each out and back is like 150m. That is six 25m pools of distance or 1.5 times a track straightaway to give some visual context. With a wave or rolling start we should be fine as I suspect the turns won't be "point turns" and will be square/rounded.

Yeah GPS routes me through Sherbrooke. If I lived in the Burlington area I might have to go through Montreal first.

I'll be interested in how the swim goes. It will probably be fine. My first thought looking at the map was "wow, that will be tough". But will be paying attention to 2024. Maybe 2025 for me. I am leaning towards a 70.3 in Maine at the end of July.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I was initially very excited to see that a race option in Quebec City. Then I looked at the swim course - no thanks. The only way this could work without becoming a huge fluster cluck would be a rolling start with the fastest swimmers heading out first. AG waves will be a real mess, especially for stronger swimmers in the later waves.

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Rolling starts these days are mostly based of projected times of individuals not age groups so if they do it that way it "shouldn't" be much of an issue . Unless of course you get the idiots who think it helps then somehow to start with people waaaaay faster than they are.

Agreed, rolling start by speed. I think we can talk to Dominque Piche and crew and influence this easily. They did the overall rolling start by speed/projected time at 70.3 Tremblant so I could imagine they would do the same. I am 90% in. Just need to figure out next summer family vacation schedules

Very hard pass...

Seeing as how I went off course during the bike of my last race, I will probably end up in the St. Lawrence with that swim.

That swim course is honestly hilarious. Almost looks fun just for the novelty of how completely stupid and ridiculous it is.

Current Registrations
235 for the Half
81 for the Oly
34 for the Sprint

5 doing a combination of oly/half or sprint/half

Accommodations booked but need to see how training continues from injury to actually register.

Why don't you come up and check out the ridiculousness? It can't be more ridiculous than all those Ironman downriver swims that sell out !!! Note that this is a public swimming sport with a "built for purpose pool"

Here is an image of the public "pool" in the port that is used daily for swimming (lane swim area and general splash around area)



Seriously folks, how many of you have put on a race and work within the constraints of a city, body of water, road closures, times etc etc. How about we let year one play out and see how it goes. Many triathlons and swim races have been run in ports in the province of Quebec, so they actually know how to run these things (including the ITU WCS in Montreal). It's just easy for us to throw stones from the internet.

Also of note Dominique Piche who is the founder and race director for IM Tremblant, IM70.3 Tremblant and the 2014 IM 70.3 World Championships IS the race director.


Perhaps the BEST news about this new event is this news!

Dom Piche was the brains and the brawn behind those first number of years at IMMT, when there were folks calling it the BEST run IM race in the world save perhaps the IMWC in Kona!

But the landscape . . well . . for everything is VERY different now than 10+ years ago!

The good news as we come to the end of 2023, is that entries and participation for all Endurance Sports Races/Events - be it triathlon, running, cycling has bounced back to at least 2019 levels and some races/events have recorded record entries this year! So things are TRENDING in the right direction!

It's an in exact science, with a whole bunch of unknown variables, but races/events like this typically need 1500 - 2000 entries as a minimum to make them economically viable and, you really should have a 3 - 4 year plan to GET TO that point down the road because you really will not have been able to maximize all you do until then!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I don't know much about the St. Lawrence except seeing it when crossing over it on large bridges getting to Montreal. I suspect that swimming in the St. Lawrence is not feasible? And is that due to large boat vessels, water quality, currents, logistics, all of the above??

I never imagined I'd swim in the Connecticut River (where there are raw sewage overflows during heavy rainfall regularly) but I did swim it for the first 70.3 in Springfield, MA this past June. It was a great swim. I loved it!!! (felt clean and passed water tests on race day).

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Yikes. I saw in this thread to book accomodations early so I got a refundable airbnb 2km to the race start.
I guess I'll have to decide sooner than later if it gets close to filling.

I wouldn't mind doing a 50k run or a gravel event the next weekend somewhere in the Ottawa to Quebec City corridor. Anyone with suggestions?

I wish the English translated CC would have worked for the mayor's speech. It was really inspiring. For everyone else, jump to 44 minutes.

Constraints or not doesn't mean that the solution is a fun one. That swim course blows, period, and it killed my interest for that race, even though it's next door for me and the registration price is awesome. I have no idea how such a thing actually made it beyond the brainstorming phase of a project.

Having organized road ultras in Montreal, I know about working within constraints from the city. Had to think outside the box for solutions because of road work a few years, but the solution was always about making it nice for the runners, not making it the simplest or the most cost-effective. No one in his right mind can think this is a fun swim.

And the ITU swim course in Montreal had a LOT of issues, I wouldn't bring that one up.

Well I'm now in for this one. I was torn between doing either this or Musselman as my mid-summer race and both my wife and my training/racing buddy preferred Quebec City to small town in upstate NY. So now we're combining it with a family trip in the area. The kids are excited to spend a few days at Val Cartier on the waterslides.

I know the swim sucks, but at least it will be a good excuse to practice sighting! Plus there will be good views for spectators and things for the kids to do.

THIS. Dom is a great guy and amazing event producer. IM cut lots of good people during covid and lost lots of good people the last few years. Some of us are still in the industry and Dom will put on a great race

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-Dre
RD at Clash Endurance

I'm super excited that Piche is RD for this event. Just signed up for the 113 (half distance).

I'm coming back from an entire year off due to a cardiac issue (ultimately solved with surgery last month)...can't wait to get back at it!

Where do you get the registration #s data?

The reg data was available on the Race Roster registration page for the event. It has since been removed.

What issues has this event had? I don't think they have missed a swim since 2016?

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Well, on the bright side, sighting shouldn't be a problem. :)

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

People complain too much.
The course will actually be easier to follow than a lot of simple lake courses where you can barely see the next buoy.
Sure it will bunch up in the corners, but HTFU...