2025 Ironman Canada Ottawa Race Report by Judy

The short version:

Great race, great venue, amazing volunteers, definitely put this race on your list. I had a great swim, a great bike and a great deal of back pain on the last half of the run.

The long version:

This was my 6th full distance race. When I did my last full Ironman at Mont Tremblant in 2016, I said that’s it no more full distance Ironman. I stuck with it, but then they brought an Ironman to my hometown, so I had to do it. Just once, and I really mean that.

Ottawa has a strong triathlon community. We have great places to train and some great triathletes and clubs in the city. As a community we were excited about this race and about the opportunity to show off our city to the Ironman community. We wanted it to be a great race that people would say great things about. So, I decided to volunteer too. Monique (the volunteer co-ordinator) made that possible by making me the team captain for the IRONKIDS RACE which was on Friday, so it did not really conflict with me racing.

Training for an Ironman is a bigger commitment than doing an Ironman, but it was actually fun this time. I had great group of athletes from RunK2J to train with. We ran in the heat, rode in the rain, swam in a thunderstorm and went on a road trip to Gananoque! Much more fun than training by myself!

Fast forward to race week.

The IRONKIDS run turned out to be a little more work than I had expected but I had a great group of volunteers and the kids had a great time. By 4:00pm on Friday it was done and I had time to concentrate on actually doing the Ironman. Working at the expo for two days also gave me lots of opportunities to buy more Ironman gear I do not need! We all know you can never have too many hoodies…

The race has two separate transition zones so pre-race bike and run gear check-in is a bit more complex because you have to go to two locations. It’s gets even more complicated when your husband is a swim start volunteer captain so everyone at T1 wants to chat with him! I ended up leaving him behind to make it to T2 in time to drop off my run gear bag.

The weather was not working with the race. It was going to be very hot (that is expected in August) with poor air quality from the forest fires and wind which is not normal this time of year.

Race morning there were shuttle buses from downtown where T2, the finish and the expo are, to the start and T1 at Britannia beach. If you wanted to drop special needs bags they had to be dropped off downtown where you took the shuttle on race morning.

I live closer to the beach than downtown and in all honesty although I always put stuff in a special needs bag I have never actually taken anything out of one! A couple of other RunK2J athletes were staying downtown so I dropped off my special needs, 1 tube and 2 CO2 cartridges for the bike and 12 salt tablets for the run. They dropped them for me race morning. As usual I did not open either bag on race day!

The start area at Britannia beach has very little parking so it was blocked off and a second set of shuttles from a nearby parking lot was provided. The only exception was the kayak and SUP volunteers. Travelling by bus with a kayak is awkward! Harold had to be there for 4:00 am as a volunteer so I went to the start with him. We were able to park in a friend’s driveway.

I arrived at T1 shortly after 4:00 am and the place was already humming. It was pretty dark so I was glad I brought a headlamp. Checked on my bike and concluded I had made the rookie mistake of thinking I could add some nutrition onto my bike. I love my Speed Concept but there is nowhere to put anything. The friendly volunteers let me put the extra stuff in my T1 bag. There was lots of room to hang out in T1 so I found some other RunK2Jers and hung out. The morning clothes drop was inside the T-zone which is unusual.

They closed the T-zone at 5:30 and I got into the swim start line up. The plan was to start the first swimmers at 6:00 am and have everyone in the water by 7:00 am. I lined up just behind the 1:11-1:20 sign and had the pleasurable company of Jon Hooper while we waited to start. Ottawa has a unique one loop swim course. My guess for a swim time was around 1:15 but I was mentally prepared for 1:30 for swim and T1. As I tell everyone I believe the swim is just a warm-up.

The national anthem was sung beautifully by a local young lady and then we were off. They started four swimmers at a time. I went into the water at about 6:07 am. The water was a bit choppy which is unusual at Brittania beach first thing in the morning. But it is what it is, and this is an Ironman!

The first half of the swim is up-river and there is a current. I did not really notice the current going up, but it did feel easier coming back. I was not using a Garmin so I have no splits. I got banged up quite a bit in the swim. I think it was the choppy water which made it harder for swimmers to see each other. We had a little surprize on the swim out when we hit the “island” a stretch of 10 or 15 metres where the water was very shallow in the middle of the river. Many people in front of me ran over it. I did breaststroke. It was pretty funny. People have suggested there should be an aid station there next year, but I expect the course will not go over it in 2026. The water level is almost a metre higher than it usually is this year. At normal water levels it really is a small island. I came out of the water in 1:12:20 1^st in my AG but I did not know that at the time.

The volunteers in the T1 zone were very helpful and I had a decent transition including a trip to the port-a-potty. Might be TMI but I have never been able to pee while I swim!

The bike course exit from the beach to the main road has a steep hill which I knew about so I had had the bike in the small ring in transition, and I kept it there on the way up the hill. At the top I switched to the big ring and did not use the small ring again until the nasty little hill going into the bike dismount!

The bike course has a few rollers but that’s all. No significant climbs. I have never actually raced on a course without bigger hills before. We did a lot of long flat rides to prepare for the race but the downside to a flat course is you don’t ever get to stop peddling and you have to spend a lot of time on your aero bars.

I may be biased because I live here but both the bike and the run course are very pretty. Along the river and the canal and right past the parlement buildings. The bike course was 2.8 loops. We all thought it would be congested but it was not. The aid stations were great and the course is spectator friendly so there were actually spectators on the bike course.  

The one complaint I have about the bike course is the condition of the road in some places. It was rough. I was riding on 23’s so I probably got bounced around more than people riding on bigger tires. In my younger days I could get close to 6 hours for the bike split. I was mentally prepared for a 6:30 split but hopeful it would be faster.

At some point on the final loop of the bike course, I believe it was on the stretch in Quebec, one on my tribars slipped down so it was significantly lower than the other one. I did not notice it slip, but I noticed it was very hard to get comfortable on the bars. I figured out what had happened and tried to pull it back up. It was and still is completely tight. It’s very odd because the bars were never loose. The bike is here in my house and even my husband can’t get the bar to move. We will have to use tools to put it back up. I can only assume I was on the bars and hit a big bump at the wrong time.

I knew the bars were uneven when I was riding but I did not realise how bad it was. I had 60 km left to ride and could not fix it without tools. Looking back, I should have ridden the last 60km without using my aero bars. I did use them less because it was uncomfortable, but less was not good enough. I finished the bike with a 6:08 split.

I has a bit off in T2 but I have done this before so I knew  would be OK once I got the rhythm going on the run. Again, the volunteers in transition were amazing. I wanted to run under 4:30. It was hot and the air quality was bad because of the forest fires so as soon as I started the run I planned to walk through all the aid stations to make sure I got water, gels and ice. I tried Mortal Hydration in training, and it does not agree with me so I switched to salt tablets, water and Morton gels for the last month of training and used that formula for race day.  Once I got going I was averaging just less than 6:00 minutes a km even walking the aid stations and was pretty comfortable. Headed to sub 4:15 and comfortably under my goal. The aid stations were great and well spaced the one exception was a bigger gap between the aid station at Confederation park and the aid station at Lansdowne. At the turn around for the second loop my husband told me I was in 2^nd place in my age group and 3^rd place was averaging 7:30 per km. I don’t generally look at my competion becasue I believe it’s all about what I can do on race day. In this case I knew that Sheila Kealey who had an outstanding race at the 70.3 in Mont Tremblant was racing and at a leavel I have not been at in over 10 years so I was very happy with 2^nd place.

After 21 km my back started to tighten up. It got worse and I started having trouble standing up straight. The more I ran the worse it got. I used a “run when you can and walk when you can’t” approach over the next 10km but by the 32-33 km mark I was so bent over I would almost fall over when I tried to run. I passed the RunK2J cheer station at Dows Lake and asked them to check what place I was in. I was told I was still in 2^nd but I figured there was no way it was going to last.

The last 8km of the run were excruciatingly painful. I was completely bent over and every step hurt. So many people asked if they could help, other racers, spectators I knew and did not know, medical people, volunteers and even the police patrolling the route. My son and daughter looked alarmed when they saw me and were even more alarmed when I stopped and laid down over the curb which I had to do regularly in the last 4 km to stretch out my back. They called my husband to warn him about what he would see when I crossed the line. A police motorcycle actually followed me from km 40-41 probably expecting me to collapse any minute. He gave me the thumbs up at 41 and rode away. The race video guys captured me progressing painfully down the road with about 5km  to go. I was so relieved when it was NOT in the final race footage! It was not my finest hour!

I want to thank everyone who offered help it was so kind of you, but there really was nothing anyone could do.

Just as an FYI when you are headed for the finish doubled over the crowd makes a lot of noise, but I definitely do not recommend it and I will not be buying the photos.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 12:31 and was offered a wheelchair which I took. They took me to the finish line triage tent. I told them lying down and stretching my back out helps. I stayed there for a while, my husband appeared and informed me I was still in 2^nd place which I did not believe at the time, but I now have the trophy to prove it. They did what they do and checked my pulse, asked me questions to make sure I was coherent and confirmed I was not overheated. I passed everyone’s tests and was passed off to massage where an amazing therapist whose name I can not recall spent a long time working on my back. I was upright and standing enough to hang around the finish until 10:00pm.

Lessons learned:

There was nothing that could have been done to prevent the bar from slipping. At the time I did not know how bad the angle was. I should have stayed off them once they slipped and if my core strength was better I think I would have managed better. Even without the issue with the tribars staying aero that much would have been hard on my back.

People are so kind and supportive.

This is a great race and you should do it. The volunteers were outstanding. The course is scenic and spectator friendly and Ottawa is a great city. The roads do need some love.

I said never again, and I meant it but a small part of me wants to go back and prove to myself I can do this better. It will not be next year but I will be there will there with bells on to volunteer.

Huge thank you to everyone at RunK2J for making it fun and as always to my husband Harold for his support!