IM US Championship added to the calendar
And now the "NY City" Ironman everyone has been waiting for. Except note that most of the course is actually in New Jersey and the title kinda says it all. Hints of what is to come.
http://ironmanuschampionship.com/
This one does not interest me at all.
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Big, big changes seem to be happening in the WTC universe. I, for one, am content to just sit back and observe for now, but it looks like RnP will need to their heads together to figure out how/what races we can support by physically attending. With 11 races now in North America + Kona + 3x tri-rallies, our dance cards are now quite full...
We're there.
Wanted to do Idaho that year too. Coeur d'Alene.
Not much time to recover and get going again.
Can I do well at both?
Haven't been on the Palisades Parkway in a while. Isn't it flat though?
Robin it is not really flat. Though it would have been much more interesting if it went up to West Point. Now that would have been a nice course.
It should be a PR swim with that current. And they are doing wave starts.
How many people make Kona? I thought 1500? The website says there will be 75 slots where you will compete with 2500 other people from around the world. Typo?
This will probably be a great race for folks in the NorthEast, especially those who want to just tick the box of "completed an Ironman" off their bucket list, and I guess if you are going for a Kona slot, more slots means more chances (but perhaps also means more people who are gunning for slots- so it turns out to be a wash). But for folks who are looking for a challenge, or a beautiful course, or family friendly, or reasonable lodging prices, I think they will go elsewhere.
Too bad, 'cause I grew up in NJ and have lots of family & friends there. It would have been nice to do a race in a place where they had a chance to come out to see me.
the Palisades has a decent amount of gain/decent. I tried mapping the route on mapmyride and getting an elevation readout, but the site is saying there was an error in calculating elevation. Perhaps they do not have highway data....
pros: swim will have river current, bike will be scenic.
cons: might be crazy hot and humid, bike will be hilly, swim water is semi-gross, and I bet the race entry fee will result in this being the most expensive Ironman by far
Why do I want to do this still??
Kona can handle just under 1800 people, so I assume the 2500 is the number of people they expect to do the new race n NY... unless they are going to announce the expansion of the pier in Kona soon.
BTW...2.4 mile point to point swim sounds like a logitisical pain in the ass on race morning. Somehow I have to pump my tires up at T1 but then get 2.4 miles to the swim start all before about 6:30 in the morning. I do like the idea swimming with the current though :-)
Nonetheless, it's all very exciting and I'm happy to have the options. With IMLP, IMMT, and IMNYC on the schedule in close order, people will have to choose and your odds of getting your race of choice just went up! BTW, racing in New York City will still be cheap compared to travelling overseas to an Ironman.
Pass on 2012 - probably volunteer/watch and think about 2013.
@Rich ; - Not to worry about supporting this one. Anyone considering this race in year1 should have their head examined!! It will be a clusterf#$% logistically. Although, I would like to roll my bike through the Waldorf Astoria lobby and get some funny looks from some old blue bloods sipping tea.
Word is:
Basically, as I sit back in my chair here in the cheap seats and watch where things are going, I think WTC's plans include:
Basically I see a day when the IM experience, whether you get that through a full or a half, is nearly as common as a marathon, or certainly something that you have access to every weekend or certainly several times per month.
And another thing...
I'm still waiting for the WTC announcement of a program that links all of the races together:
The ultimate goal is to capture the beginner triathlete with their first 5150 Experience (TM) and keep them in the brand for ~5-6yrs as they work themselves up through the HIM x 1-2, 1-2 x HIM per year while doing total of 1-3 x IM, chasing the Kona dream for 2-3yrs.
Totally agree, either that or a point system like they did with the pros will be coming at some point. This way it's not possible for people to just pay for 1 IM and be done or to race just one race to quailify for Kona. My guess it will be something like AGers have to race a minimum of X races a year and then they will award Kona/Vegas/5150 slots based on a ranking system of some sort with different races offering different numbers of points.
2.4-mile point-to-point swim in the Hudson River.
Dunno about that point thing. I think it would largely be (hidden) dollars based:
I'm sure they realize that, as someone said somewhere in this forum, about 90% of any IM field is not there to qualify, for anything. They just want to do an MDot race, whether their first or fifteenth, for whatever reason. The allure of Kona keeps them dreaming of a lottery slot but they are not racing for Kona. So Kona, or any championship race for that matter, is a practical non issue for them. But if WTC can drill down the MDot race experience and organization consistently across a suite of 5150/70.3/140.6 races and then figure out some kinda qualifying or other scheme, beyond simple branding, that keeps everyone's money in the family, so to speak...
While the swim in the Hudson will be quick, how on Earth do you get from T1 to the swim start... a 2.4mi bus ride before a 12-14 hour day seem foolish at best... and what about setting up the bike (or at least checking the 10,000 time that you've put air in the tires?!)... and then getting the bike back at the end... and a hot, humid, uninspiring run. I don't even want to consider the entry costs yet.
No thank you!
Mt Tremblant on the other hand looks like pure WIN. Like IM-CDA, but on the East Coast!!
The money is definitely in what you suggested as having a way to encourage or force people to do 5150/70.3 races in order to get into 140.6s.
Regarding slot allocation: remember all the AG slots created by eliminating 70+ pro slots with the new qualifying derby; and the slots created from defunct IMs, such as Malaysia and possibly others in the future, like China.
Regarding three separate activity centers: two thumbs down, for sure. NYC is psychotic ennough, trying to navigate all this on race weekend APART FROM THE RACE is too much for me to comprehend.
Regarding space on Kona's pier: how about the space on RnP's pier - not only attending the events, but also having to deal with all the investment bankers who will now be racing? Doctors and lawyers are bad enough, guys, wait till those greediacs get ahold of you!
I for one will be signing up... Bad logistics and all. I work in NY City and for what it's worth, every single person I know or am associated with at work was talking about this race today. It was a "Top Story" on Bloomberg today for nearly the entire day meaning that every single Wall Street Guy/Girl was looking at the story and passing it around to their friends... I managed to convince nearly 20 people who have never done an IM before (or any triathlon for that matter) to sign up for the race to raise money for my charity. (I'm sure many of them will listen to me and join EN to train). So I am predicting that this will be the fastest IM ever to sell out. Probably in less than 5 mins and all of the Foundation slots will also sell out on the first day. The OLY race in NY sold out in less than 7 minutes last year and crashed a bunch of servers so they had to go to a lottery system to get in this yr. There are just too many people in NY who are willing to do this sort of stuff... There are very few other venues in this sport that have 5x as many locals who want to do an event than there are slots available. Not to mention any "Non-New Yorkers" that are crazy enough to want to travel into this madness to do the event.
A couple of months ago I hired a new accountant that had worked at WTC so I've heard a lot about the inside of the operation and some of the personalities; and some of their internal business practices made me cringe. But they've apparently recognized their limitations and the limitations of Ben Fertic. There's been a regular house cleaning and the new CEO sounds quite promising. Again, it will be exciting to see how these developments unfold in practice...hopefully it will be good for the sport and all of us!
My point is this... I'm not looking for the perfectly setup/run IM event. I don't do the Full thing every year, more like every 2-3 years. So, if this one is a bust, I just won't go back. I see peeps complain about something with every race/venue/RD. I tend to just go do the thing and move on.
I do know that Sheri has been looking for a good Father's Day gift for me, and signups are just a couple of days before....sure hope these rumors of $800-$1000 signup fee are just to scare us.
I'd be happy sticking with my 2012 TTT plans, but I think Sheri might enjoy NYC a little bit more.
Yeah I haven't heard any rumors, but yesterday morning upon hearing about the race, I put the over/under with my buddy at $950. I fear it might be the over. Then again, I'm usually wrong when I bet on things
Definitely not going to be the cheapest! I like the over/under of $950.
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-08/n...entry.html