Huntsville hosted the Subaru Ironman 70.3 Muskoka on Sunday, July 8, 2018 in the heart of downtown.<\/p>\n
With another sold-out registration this year, the town was booming over the weekend with 1,600 athletes from all over the world along with their families and friends as spectators.<\/p>\n
The Ironman course had the athletes swim a 1.2-mile loop in Fairy Lake and along the Muskoka River, then cycle a 56-mile bike course down Brunel Road, through Baysville and almost to Dorset and back, followed by a 13.1-mile run through and around the outskirts of downtown Huntsville, before finishing back at the Canada Summit Centre (CSC) for a total distance of 70.3 miles (113 kilometres).<\/p>\n
For such a large event, the behind-the-scenes planning is one of the most important links to making everything happen smoothly and safely. That includes race director, Nick Stoehr and his race crew, volunteers, sponsors and medical\/safety personnel.<\/p>\n
Rich Trenholm, a local sports medicine physician and one of the co-founders of TriMuskoka, recruits and organizes a team of medical personnel from both the local area and out of town to tend to athletes throughout the race.<\/p>\n
There were medical staff roaming around the start line talking to people to make sure they were okay. \u201cWhen people get anxious and stressed, combined with a mass start of people, inexperience, and tight wet suits, they can actually get a medical condition specific to swimming in open water,\u201d said Trenholm.<\/p>\n
Athletes were instructed to stop and take off their swim cap and wave it around in the air if they were in need of assistance. Medical staff were on the swim course with lifeguards in boats, on paddle boards and in kayaks to watch and support swimmers and, as a precaution, there were four dock locations with a physician and nurse on standby for emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\t\t