If you’re thinking about signing up for IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant 140.6 – this guide has all the tips and info you need to prepare!
Lodging: We stayed at Sommet des Neiges. It is in a great location at the top of the village and a 1.25 mile-ish (2k) walk from the swim start. The room included full kitchen, washer/dryer, and fireplace. This hotel was fantastic and include a workout room with treadmills, a pool, sauna, and hot tub.
Of Note:
- The gondola is right out the back entrance to the hotel and will take you straight down packet pick up. We drove from the airport on Thursday.
- Once in Mont-Tremblant, there were road closures leading into the village and you were only able to drive into the village if you were staying at a resort within the village. There was overflow parking around and outside of the village for those staying offsite. If staying offsite, you were able to bus into the village or park in one of the overflow lots and walk to packet pick up/Ironman village.
- You were not supposed to keep you bike in the room, but on the balcony.
- Breakfast was not available at this hotel.
Packet Pick Up:
Packet pick up was located right next to the finish line. I arrived on Thursday around 4 pm and was able to make it through packet pick up in about 10 minutes.
Practice Swim: The swim start/warm up area is located at the tennis club (parking here is private and only for the guests of the private beach and tennis club. There is a parking lot right across the road that is a short walk from the swim start. Next to the tennis club/private beach is a building that is their Ironman Training Center. If you are an athlete, you can swim for free (just show your wrist band); however, if you are not racing there is a $5 charge to swim.
Of Note:
- There are no bathrooms in the training center.
- There is a swim warm up course marked off as well.
- There is also a coffee boat (about 600 yards from the start of the swim warm up). They have free coffee for the athletes; however, there was no one on the boat Friday morning this year (2018).
Bike Check In: You are not able to keep anything on your bike except water bottles once you check in the day before the race.
Random Tips:
- Try to eat a little earlier than usual for lunch and dinner on Saturday. There were exponentially more people in the village the day before the race, and the waits for the restaurants were significantly longer compared to Thursday and Friday.
- There is also an IGA located about 10k from the village where you can pick up any food/Gatorade you might need.
- There is a small market in the village if you just need to pick up some odds and ends. Selection is limited though.
Race Morning Transition: If you are staying at one of the hotels near the top of the village, the gondola opened at 0430 the morning of the race so you can ride that down to transition. It was also open until 0030 Monday morning, so you could ride it back up to your hotel post-race! There were also two stations set up at opposite ends of transition where you could air up your tires.
Swim:
Give yourself about 15 minutes to walk from transition to the swim start.
Of Note: There were pairs of porta potties placed along the walk to the swim start. They had relatively short lines compared to the ones located in transition or at the swim start.
Pre-Swim: The beach is not big and with all the athletes and spectators, space becomes limited very quickly.
Of Note:
- The beach house/tennis club had bathrooms available. Even with all the athletes and spectators already on the beach, there was a very short line for the bathrooms at the beach house. For the men, the urinals were open, and I was able to walk right in with no wait.
- The military also did a fly over 2 times before the start of the swim. This was just a cool little touch that made the race experience all the better!
Swim Start: The swim start was a self-seeded rolling start. There were 6 corrals for athletes to filter into. We entered the water on a green light. The waves were split up by 5-minute intervals and marked off by flags (see picture). At each flag, there was a small opening in the fencing for athletes to walk into their corral. Once in this area, you could also get in the water for a warm up.
T1: You exit the swim and have about a 0.3 mi run to the transition tent. There were wetsuit strippers just after you exited the water as well. Of Note: There were not volunteers applying sunscreen when exiting T1 this year (2018).
Bike:
The bike course is a 2-loop course but broken up into a few different segments so to speak. If you look at my strava, you can kind of see what I am talking about. It is hard to compare bike courses; however, of the Ironman’s I have done I would rank from hardest to easiest: Mont Tremblant > Louisville (done in 2012, bike course is different now) > Chattanooga > Madison. Click here to compare my Chattanooga strava data.
- There is a 10k section from T1 to the highway (this is the Montee Ryan section) – This section contains one no passing zone. There were signs indicating everyone to ride single file down one of the hills.
- There is an out and back section on highway 117 (about 15 ish mi or 24k).
- After the turn around on highway 117, you will travel past the exit to Montee Ryan to Saint-Jovite and do a short loop before getting back on Montee Ryan to head back toward the village.
- Once off the highway, you travel back the same 10k section toward the village.
- From the village, there is an out and back section (Duplissis section) that is about 16k ish beforeyou start your second loop – This section contains the other no passing zone. This zone is located after you turn around to head back into the village. This is also the section that contains some of the toughest climbing. You will want to save your legs for the second time through here. (According to my Garmin, the grades in this section ranged from 4% to 14%)
Of Note:
- There are two no passing zones on the bike course. If you are caught passing in one of these zones, it will result in an instant disqualification.
- There were also officials riding on the bike course (NOT on motocycles but rather bicycles) giving out drafting penalties.
Random Thoughts on the Bike Course: Of the courses I have completed, Mont-Tremblant has been the toughest for me. It had by far the most climbing and I dreaded the long climb on highway 117 and the Duplissis section on the second loop. You will want to save your legs for the second loop. Otherwise, you might be walking up some of these hills. (Disclaimer – I am from the Midwest and am lucky to get 1500 feet of elevation gain on a 100 mile ride)
T2: At the bike dismount line, a volunteer will take your bike and then you have about a 0.1 mi run to the changing tent. Of Note: There were no volunteers applying sunscreen once you exited T2 this year (2018).
Run:
I would also break the run course up into about 3 sections. It is hard to compare run courses; however, of the Ironman’s I have done I would rank from hardest to easiest: Chattanooga > Mont Tremblant > Madison > Louisville. Click here to compare my Chattanooga strava data.
- The first section is running from T2 out to a small village where you hop on a running/bike path. This first section is about 5k and the hilliest section of the run course.
- The second section is the out and back on the running/bike path. This section is about 10k. If you are on this path after the sun goes down, there were several sections where it was completely dark, and visibility was tough. There are several spots on the path with flood lights; however, there were still dark patches. There did seem to be a slight grade from the turn around back to the small village.
- The final section is a small loop you make through the village of Mont-Tremblant. This is where you start your second loop or head to the finish line.
Of Note: Your family members can record a 5 sec video in the Ironman village. At the 20k timing mat, your race chip will trigger the video to play on a big screen for you as you run by. You will see that video two times on the race course!
Post-Race: This is by far one of the coolest finish lines (see picture)! You run through a large section of the village on your way to the finish line, and there are spectators lining the entire portion cheering you on to the finish line. The post-race food included pasta, cookies, and poutine! You were also able to have your picture taken with your medal and the Ironman backdrop in the food tent.
My Nutrition:
Bike: 1.5 bottles of skratch, 2 packets of skratch chews, 2-3 licks of base salt, 3-4 gus, 2 packages of cheese and peanut butter crackers, 2-3 handfulls of cheez-its (at special needs), 1 bottle (24 oz) of blue Gatorade
Run: On course nutrition: I had coke and pretzels every 2 to 3 aid stations on the run course. First loop of run course: 1 small bottle (8 oz) of blue Gatorade, 3 gus, 2 licks of base salt Second loop of run course: 2-3 oz of blue Gatorade, 1 gu, 1 lick of base salt, 1 piece of gum.
Other thoughts on run course nutrition: I refilled my handheld water bottle at every aid station. In between aid stations I would use my handheld to rinse my mouth out before taking another drink of water. At about 15 miles in, I had a piece of peppermint gum. This was a refreshing change of pace for my mouth and helped replace the residue of Gu and coke.
How I Trained: I wrote my own training plan for this Ironman. The general format of the plan was having a short interval, long interval, and temp/TT for the swim, bike, and run. I also utilized workouts from Power Speed Endurance. My work schedule only allows me to get in all of my swim/bike/run workouts every other week. On my work weeks, my workouts consisted of two Tabata style (short and long) bike workouts and a hill run workout ranging from 2.5 to 5 miles. You can download my full training plan here.