Picking the right IM
Hey all,
I am having a major battle in my head about which IM to pick for next year. The selections are: IMCHOO or IMMaryland.
So why is there a major battle:
1) I live 2 hours away from IM Maryland. IMCHOO is 8 to 9 hours away.
2) IM MD is so close i can ride the course many times during the training season. So i have more than one race rehearsal on the course.
3) I hate the Maryland course. It is flat and HOT. So it tends to be a boring ride and windy. Also the run will melt your shoes.
4) Cost for travel and hotel stay at Maryland will be significantly less. Also i do not have to spend time and money for visiting the
Please see number 3... this is the main reason this is a battle. I have done Eagleman twice (pretty close to the same course) and hated it both times because it is flat and hot. But everything else is leading me to dealing with the heat and flatness. I could have an amazing bike because of the flat (Also i am not amazing biking hills because it is not that hilly here).
Please give me thoughts and feed back on making up my mind.
Comments
I think you are less conflicted than you realize. Do you really want to spend $$$$ on entry, training, and nutrition for ^^that^^?
Start with your goals … What is driving you to do an IM. Is it to get the fastest time possible? Provide a reason to continue fitness and body comp improvement? Participate in event with high friend count and support? Something else? Then use your goals to drive your decision. Once entry fee, equipment, coaching, etc is factored in, the difference in housing costs is a pretty small factor.
Unless your primary goal is to get the fastest time possible, then I read your thought process as favoring IM CHOO, which is an EN focus for next year. Being familiar with the course is not all it's cracked up to be - over the years and multiple races, I've seen minimal difference in my success or failure due to knowledge or lack thereof of the course.
@Jonathan, here are the factors I've considered in picking a race, probably in this order. This process usually narrows the list quite quickly for me (of course, that was before WTC sprinkled 38 of these things around the globe).
1) Time of year. Does it allow me to get a full, but not too full, build (i.e., does Rich endorse?)? Can I train for it outside when it's neither 12F nor 110F? Or will the dreadful training lead to a "Used Tri Bike" posting on eBay?
2) Location/$. AZ cost me less than a grand and 2 days off of work. NZ may end up being 10k and 2 weeks off of work.
3) Fun. This is really the first subjective one and, thus, probably most important to me. Teammates/friends there racing with me? Family nearby to support? Cool city? In short, will the thought of doing the race drive me to welcome the 4:30am alarm clock on Thursdays for 12 weeks? 10 of us traveling to IM Germany had me psyched for 6 months, and I loved the whole journey. IMMD will only drive you to believe you "wasted" 1/4 of a year, so I would eliminate it from your list immediately. If I were you.
4) Will it crush me? For my first, I wanted one as "easy" as they come (FL). For my 2nd, I stupidly chose Moo and, with my ill-fitting 2.75w/kg at the time and silly 53/39-11/23, it swallowed me whole, chewed me up, and spit me out in little pieces. We're not even allowed to use the "M" or "W" words in my household anymore.
5) I want to go sub-(12, 11, 10). Those courses are pretty easy to identify. FL, AZ, and MD in the U.S.
6) I want to podium/KQ. This is where the math gets difficult and my thoughts only scratch the surface. First, I want a tough course that will eliminate 90% of my competition for me (by forcing them to melt, freeze, make critical mistakes, throw up, shuffle and/or DNF). I have to eliminate courses that reward the cheaters (FL) or will allow some poor executioners to still race well (AZ). Second, I want a course that suits my strenghts and allows me to finish off the remaining 5-9% of my competition. Swim: no-wetsuit, rough-water, mass-start events for the strong, and wetsuit, with-current time trial events for the less strong. Bike: flats and wind for the diesel engines, climbs for the high w/kg, hot for the small, cold & rain for the big and strong, constant rolling for the ninjas, descents for the brave/stupid, technical for the handling masters, etc. Run: hot for the small, cold for the not-so-small, straight for rhythm runners, hills and turns for the high vDOT, etc. Finally, I need to find a race that's within a geographic/calendar cluster (within 4-6 weeks of a lot of other IMs in the general vicinity) in order to thin the talent pool, a race that doesn't lure talent with extra slots (Tremblant this year, TX next year), and a race that isn't as popular/large (i.e., Louisville, MD, Tahoe).
I'm leaning towards IMChoo becuase it isn't THAT far (and I have FF miles!) and lots of EN peeps (since my wife prob won't come). It isn't super hilly like Placid (which I did consider at one point... silly me!) but hopefully it won't kill me like the Quassy Half nearly did.
I would think the cost difference wouldn't be terrible if you get a flight early enough maybe?
Since I'm trying to get an EN spot for IMChoo, I should probably push you to IMMD....
I also agree with @Al above - knowledge of the course doesn't seem to be a huge benefit. I like to visualize some key points on the course so I can prepare for special needs, power on gps before run, etc. But you don't need to ride the whole course to do that.
Finally, I think the courses look fairly different. I don't know your body comp, but if you're a bigger athlete, Maryland sounds better suited in terms of the course terrain. Choo claims somewhere around 3400ft of climbing and looks like lots of rollers (as opposed to IMLP with 3900ft with 2 steep climbs around Whiteface).
With all that said, if you're not as concerned with finish time and more interested in the overall experience, pick the one where you'll have the most friends. But realize that they might be too wound up to enjoy the social side of the experience, which might ruin yours.
Jonathan....nothing to add from the excellent advice below. However, when I read your question, it seems to me that deep down you really do NOT want to do MD. I would have a much harder time making myself do some of the workouts that I just don't want to do without good motivation. My opinion, based on your question, is that you will be much happier doing Choo. Since it's an EN focus race, there will be a big group training for it, posting workouts, motivating each other, etc. This helped me a TON for IMTX.
I think you will be much happier doing Choo and if it's your A race next year, I'd go for it.
My $0.02 only.