The New IMAZ 70.3

Coach Rich

Yesterday WTC announced a new race, Ironman Arizona 70.3. The race is (I think) 10/18/15 on the old Soma Half Ironman bike course and IMAZ run course. No doubt WTC will bill this race as a great "tune up" for IMAZ. 

It's not and here's why:

• See the bike course here on Strava and note the race will be doing 3x 18mi loops of this. That's at least 4x u-turns each lap, lots of turns, with probably 2000-2500 athletes (vs about 1-1.2k that Soma saw) all sharing the course at the same time. 
• This bike course is VERY different from the IMAZ bike course. Specifically, the key terrain feature of the IMAZ course is 9mi out, 9mi back on the Beeline highway, x 3, with increasing winds throughout the day. This create some very important IMAZ-specific considerations for bike position, knowing how to ride and pace yourself in windy conditions, etc. None of this will be a feature of the 70.3 course and instead I expect you'll largely be dodging and working your way through, around thousands of other riders vs riding your bike. 

If you've got the time, $$, and interest in previewing and learning how to race IMAZ, training camp on the course scheduled for the same weekend would be a MUCH better option for you. That said, I may now have to move the date of this camp forward a couple weeks to deconflict it with the race and football schedule (yeehaw) but you get the idea.

Basically, I know that a lot of people in the tri space will be jumping on the bandwagon and registering for this race without really thinking it through. I know it will be an ineffective race preparation tool for a IMAZ athletes and very likely will be a shit show for athletes who just want to race a half on it's own merits. I suggest you step back and consider seeing how '15 goes first. That is, let others be the beta testers. 

david ware

I concur with Coach R. I have done Soma several times and trhere is no correlation to IMAZ. I think Betsy KAntor will agree as well; she has it done it several times as well. I am interested in a camp though...

Chris Kuebert

That course looks more like a Crit Race than a Tri.  Lot's of crashes I suspect at the U turns later on in the race.

Betsy Kantor

I said this in the dashboard and will say it again-I did the bike only last year in a relay team and the course just sucked-way too many turns, a few of them so tight I took my foot out of the clip. As for crashes, the increased numbers in an official IM 70.3 will make it crowded and crash worthy I'm sure. And it's still brutally hot in October with no shade on the run. Too many locals do it as race rehearsal for IM but I agree with Coach R-not a good strategy.

Paul Hough

I run into an amazing number of people who think a 70.3 a month out from an IM is a good warm-up...including some coaches. No matter how much the course sucks, or how stupid it is to prepare for IMAZ with this race, WTC has a winner on its hands. They are going to pack it every year with newbies who think they are doing the right thing.

Betsy Kantor

You are right Paul, a lot of local coaches push this as a 'confidence builder' for IMAZ

GMAN 19030

I might do this race... certainly not as any prep for IMAZ as a) I am not doing IMAZ, and b) I've done IMAZ... but because I am doing a couple of late season 70.3's and this one works perfectly into the schedule.

The bike course certainly gives me pause though.