Race – Shubie Dooby Triathlon – Sep 14
Date: Sunday Sep 14, 2008
Location: Shubie Park, Dartmouth, NS
Distances : Sprint / Olympic
Registration : http://www.atlanticchip.ca/events/details.php?show=282
Race director Mark Campbell writes …
Just a note to let everyone know that the Shubie Dobbie Triathlon is indeed a go!
I will be your host this year holding both sprint and olympic distance races and have already had some road work patching of the modified course done and more to come.
Proceeds from the event will go towards the fund-raising efforts of the cycle for life cancer ride from Halifax to Austin Texas. [ www.tonygriffinfoundation.com ]
Hope to see you all there.
RACE PREVIEW in ‘responses’
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Reprinted with permission from the 2008 TNS Turnaround
http://www.trins.ca
Where: Shubie Park, Dartmouth
When: Sunday Sept 14, 2008
Distance: Olympic, Sprint
The 1st Shubie Doobie Triathlon is the next, and last, triathlon in the TNS 2008 season, and possibly the last chance you’ll get to wear your wetsuit all year.
There’s been a September triathlon in Shubie Park for at least ten years, probably longer, and it’s always been a popular event, never attracting fewer than eighty in recent years. The last couple of editions have seen two-hundred odd take to the lake, making it one of the largest events in Nova Scotia if not the Maritimes.
Shubie is under new management this year, hence the name, with local hard man Mark ‘The Mule’ Campbell (past TNS president, past provincial champion and ‘fresh’ from his 17th Ironman) taking over the reins to RD his second event this year.
The proceeds from the event will go to the Tony Griffin Foundation and the Cycle For Life cancer fund-raising ride, which we understand Mark is intimately involved in.
Race kit pick-up will be at the Fairbanks Centre on Locks Road in Dartmouth on Saturday Sept 13th from 4 – 6pm and you will also be able to register in person then too if you haven’t been to Atlantic Chip.
Race morning kit pick up and chip pick-up will be next to transition area at the campground.
The swim takes place in Lake Charles with all competitors using the same 750m loop. It’s done once by the Sprints and a short beach run separates the two loops required for the Olympics.
Once the swim is completed there’s a 300 m run to transition, most of it uphill. It’s not as long or steep as Corner Brook, but it is stony, you may wish to leave sneakers or flip-flops on the beach.
Transition is in the unpaved car-park opposite the Shubie Park campground. It can get crowded; please rack with consideration. This may not be the event to lay everything out, including two pairs of running shoes (we saw that once).
Compared to some events (Port Hood for example) there’s a reasonably lengthy run to the mount line where the unpaved car-park meets Jaybee Drive.
Mount here.
You can get your feet in your shoes as you freewheel down the hill but make sure you’re all clipped in and strapped up at the bottom as you have a slight climb to the junction with Waverly Road.
Take a left turn here and head out as before. At the intersection with the highway overpass you’ll turn right as you did for Investors Group, head over the overpass and turn right onto Montaque Mines Road.
After a nice little downhill it’s all up, up, up to a left-hander onto Lake Loon Road, where the IG turn used to be.
No stopping this time as you’ll go straight though. There’s some respite from the climbing as you”ll get some free speed from here to the turn, but then you do a 180 and come back the way you came.
Now you have to convert all that kinetic energy back into potential energy and it’s gonna hurt.
After riding this course last weekend the TA was ready to call it almost as tough as old Guysborough or Port Hood after we did the Sprint’s one loop; never mind the Olympic’s two.
Much of the bike course has been freshly paved over the last few years, including the climb up to the LLR turn, which we understand Mark just got done especially for this event; stand up and take a bow Councillor Andrew Younger (District 6: East Dartmouth and the Lakes).
So it’s nice and smooth with virtually no pot-holes or trenches, apart from a couple of exposed man-hole covers outside Mark house (again).
Whatever Cllr. Younger’s crew hadn’t got done by our recce last weekend has been marked up in preparation for paving. Hopefully this means TD Linda McCLeod (fresh from the ‘advanced whistle blowing’ course, so don’t say we didn’t warn you!) won’t have to spend 90 minutes on Sunday morning spray-painting the pavement!
After racking in T2 head out on the run. The run course changes from year to year and this year is on the crusher-dust Lake Charles Trail; a favourite of ours.
It’s smooth but there are washed out bits so you might want bring your trail shoes anyway. In ’05 Mark Campbell chased Tyrone Clark down on the run, solely aided by Tyrone’s fluorescent green jersey which was highly visible through the trees; if you’re anticipating a close race with a nemesis you may want to consider camouflage!
Whatever the outcome, we reckon a hard-man out of the Mark Campbell mould is going to take this one, just on the basis of those relentless power-climbs in the middle of the course, but we’re frequently wrong so don’t blame us if a whippet-thin climber takes it
instead. We can’t really discuss the field so we’ll put some names out there and try and stoke the pot.
Chris MacKenzie, B’town longcourse winner and record holder, usually makes the trip up to Shubie, often racing four or five times in as many weeks, so look out for him Matthias probably has some unfinished business with Chris after Yarmouth; will the grudge match continue here? All the IMC guys will be rested; perhaps Jason Murphy can try for that elusive win?
The bike course could suit a wiry guy like G’wood RD Denis Choquette, but how does that trick Orbea climb we wonder? Then of course there the seasons other winners, guys like Antar Fuentes- Ortega and Chris Algar, guys who make the TA thank the stars we’re not racing this year.
On the ladies side, Suzanne Ferrier has been stepping up the racing volume recently, but new Provincial champ Heather Doucette has had a great set of results this season; perhaps she will come out and complete the set?
We can never discount Rhonda Cook coming up with the strong Yarmouth contingent. Brigitte L’Heureux has had a great season, progressing nicely from our duathlon queen to an all-round multisport queen, taking her first Olympic in Guysborough two weeks ago.
Of course, this doesn’t take into account our own flying Junior Elite Emily Wood for the Sprint; untouchable in the first part of the season, she could be looking for a final race before school kicks in too hard.
CAVEAT: this article is not intended to replace the race briefing. All athletes are encouraged to attend the race briefing to get up-to-date information on the course, as well as any changes, the rules that are in effect and any ‘ground rules’ specific for the event.