Wow. My hats off to the IM finishers. By now it's clear that if you enter a HITS IM you are pretty mu ch on your own. Heck, you might as well do the entire distance at home and declare yourself the winner.
It makes me really sad to think of all the hard work and ambition that went into this, only to have it fall flat. Sure, they could have done a better job planning and organizing, but the HITS concept is still pretty awesome. Sadly, if HITS dies out, it'll just serve as a cautionary tale of what not to do for future race series, so we probably won't see anything like this for a long time. Granted it's a big and complicated endeavor, but now we have one less WTC alternative.
My kudos goes out to all the organizers and volunteers nonetheless. Sitting out there all day watching over cups of water for a handful of IM participants must be incredibly discouraging given all the effort expended for so little...
Wow, it's not even worthwhile for short course let alone long course. After 4 iterations now, you would think people would give up on the IM portion; but my hats off to those guys/gals who are doing essentially solo iron distance races. I had to laugh last night when someone (probably affiliated with the race) was reporting the winners time on SlowTwitch and another person acted as if he were really excited about it and asked the author to be sure an post the times of the 6 or 7 finishers to come! Like Anson noted, how do you even get volunteers to sit out there on day 2? I can guarantee you that if they try again in 2013, you will see a different format.
Lynne, of course they assured you there would be support on the course for the whole race...
In my opinion, there's a lot of documentation that these people keep making the same mistakes race after race and charging the same price as well run, established races. At some point mistakes become poor quality, period.
I would have an issue doing a HITS IM distance event. There's been about 15-20 people doing the events and it just sounds like a logistical (and lonely) nightmare. I'd have no issues doing the other distances they offer but the 140.6, not so much.
Before I considering paying $$$ for a full distance race with 15 people, I think I would just roll my own event. Do the swim on my own, ask a few buddies to draft off of me and talk smack for the last 70 miles of the bike, then get 4 guys to each run 6 miles with me. BBQ and a keg afterwards.
@Lynn - have you tried endurance sports travel www.endurancesportstravel.com?? you have to pay for hotel & such anyways, they may still have entries for IMAZ, a friend of mine did that route only a month before IMAZ in '10
@ Brenda--that's awesome. I noticed that I'll be bringing my own nutrition as they have a sponsorship from Hammer Nutrition--that stuff just sucks and tastes aweful. That's a pretty quick turn around for the IMMT boys--5 weeks. Are they going to aqua bike it?
Yes, we will bring our own nutrition. They will call it when they get there. You are an iron guy. Are you gonna do the aqua bike to?
No, I'm doing the full half. I'm hoping to crush it, like I planned on in Lake George last year......but I swear to god if I'm in a hotel and hear some lady say "We on vacation", you'll have to bail me out in time to make the start.
OK, after 9 months of abysmal turn-out on the full distance portion of the series, HITS finally got the message that the series is not delivering VALUE and cannot charge the same as WTC. I believe the new pricing structure, if it holds, will put some serious life into their program and offer an alternative to WTC, Rev 3 and other indies. Effective 14 Aug 2012, the following new pricing structure is in effect:
This new early bird registration pricing offers three different saving options before regularly priced registration takes effect one month prior to each event for the Sprint, Olympic, Half and Full distance races as follows:
• More than four months before event - 75% off • Four to three months before event - 50% off • Three to one month before event - 25% off • Month before event - Regular price
As a result of this new pricing structure, HITS is now offering athletes the opportunity to enjoy the most competitive rates for a Full distance race with advanced registration.
• More than four months before event - $150 • Four to three months before event - $300 • Three to one month before event - $450 • Month before race - $600 -------------------------------------------------------- So, assuming most folks register 4 months early, they need 4 times as many racers to get the same revenue. But they have only attracted about 20 in the iron distance race at each venue, and I'm guessing that at $150 they will easily top 100. Now it will get interesting!!
Lynne: Sponsors of the events usually get some slots. For example, ART gets 1 slot for Hawaii; many years ago hed was an ironman sponsor and got 5. I do not recall who my friend got it through, but if you contact the sponsors there may be something they can do.
There is a 15km climb in there. I agree, but it is hard to say whether or not it is harder than IMMT. We are doing the half. Maybe that could be an option for you.
I'd like to see HITS survive but I think they really screwed things up last year. They seemingly got better at the race organization and safety issues but the premium price tag was a joke as was the # of participants in their long course races. No way they made any money.
So this year they decide to swing in the total opposite direction and severely discount their rates. Which once again means they will probably not make any money. I know they're just trying to get "asses in the seats" so we shall see.
It's still an open question, but they appear to be hanging on when I thought they would have already folded. I'm wondering if the expansion into running only events is to get enough positive cash flow to help subsidize losses on the triathlon side of the house. Regardless, there are a good number of people willing to trade-off quality for low price and small numbers so maybe this year will turn the tide.
We'll expect a full review if you do one. Meanwhile I will sit on the sidelines and see if they can get even one venue with more than 300 finishers. So far, the highest total is the 2012 "championship" at Palm Springs with 57 finishers.
BTW, Ironman Los Cabos in March has not yet sold out.
New to this group and thread, but doing HITS Naples in April if I don't get sent off to a military school. For a military discounted price of $60 for the HIM, and a supposedly hilly course that might give me a bit of a ramp up to racing the hills of CDA, I'm looking forward to the experience. As for being lonely on the course - from my experiences as an ultra-runner, that's kind of the way I like it sometimes:o)
I did HITS Ocala, FL last year with several training partners and we all really enjoyed it. Small race feel, great course, no pressure ended up being a great race for me to focus on testing my training paces in a race. I found out the OS put me pretty damn good shape. I think we probably have 2x as many people localy going to the race this year just because of word of mouth. That and it was $75 for the HIM!
Comments
ch on your own. Heck, you might as well do the entire distance at home and declare yourself the winner.
It makes me really sad to think of all the hard work and ambition that went into this, only to have it fall flat. Sure, they could have done a better job planning and organizing, but the HITS concept is still pretty awesome. Sadly, if HITS dies out, it'll just serve as a cautionary tale of what not to do for future race series, so we probably won't see anything like this for a long time. Granted it's a big and complicated endeavor, but now we have one less WTC alternative.
My kudos goes out to all the organizers and volunteers nonetheless. Sitting out there all day watching over cups of water for a handful of IM participants must be incredibly discouraging given all the effort expended for so little...
The finisher numbers for the Ocala races:
Free race: 85
Sprint: 126
Olympic: 101
HIM: 80
IM: 17Looks like nicer weather isn't helping either.
Wow, it's not even worthwhile for short course let alone long course. After 4 iterations now, you would think people would give up on the IM portion; but my hats off to those guys/gals who are doing essentially solo iron distance races. I had to laugh last night when someone (probably affiliated with the race) was reporting the winners time on SlowTwitch and another person acted as if he were really excited about it and asked the author to be sure an post the times of the 6 or 7 finishers to come! Like Anson noted, how do you even get volunteers to sit out there on day 2? I can guarantee you that if they try again in 2013, you will see a different format.
Lynne, of course they assured you there would be support on the course for the whole race...
In my opinion, there's a lot of documentation that these people keep making the same mistakes race after race and charging the same price as well run, established races. At some point mistakes become poor quality, period.
http://www.beach2battleship.com/
Damn kids always get in the way, huh?
I would have an issue doing a HITS IM distance event. There's been about 15-20 people doing the events and it just sounds like a logistical (and lonely) nightmare. I'd have no issues doing the other distances they offer but the 140.6, not so much.
Is Sept 9th late enough for you...Sandusky OH...Reg still open..
Before I considering paying $$$ for a full distance race with 15 people, I think I would just roll my own event. Do the swim on my own, ask a few buddies to draft off of me and talk smack for the last 70 miles of the bike, then get 4 guys to each run 6 miles with me. BBQ and a keg afterwards.
@ Brenda--that's awesome. I noticed that I'll be bringing my own nutrition as they have a sponsorship from Hammer Nutrition--that stuff just sucks and tastes aweful. That's a pretty quick turn around for the IMMT boys--5 weeks. Are they going to aqua bike it?
No, I'm doing the full half. I'm hoping to crush it, like I planned on in Lake George last year......but I swear to god if I'm in a hotel and hear some lady say "We on vacation", you'll have to bail me out in time to make the start.
This new early bird registration pricing offers three different saving options before regularly priced registration takes effect one month prior to each event for the Sprint, Olympic, Half and Full distance races as follows:
• More than four months before event - 75% off
• Four to three months before event - 50% off
• Three to one month before event - 25% off
• Month before event - Regular price
As a result of this new pricing structure, HITS is now offering athletes the opportunity to enjoy the most competitive rates for a Full distance race with advanced registration.
• More than four months before event - $150
• Four to three months before event - $300
• Three to one month before event - $450
• Month before race - $600
--------------------------------------------------------
So, assuming most folks register 4 months early, they need 4 times as many racers to get the same revenue. But they have only attracted about 20 in the iron distance race at each venue, and I'm guessing that at $150 they will easily top 100. Now it will get interesting!!
So this year they decide to swing in the total opposite direction and severely discount their rates. Which once again means they will probably not make any money. I know they're just trying to get "asses in the seats" so we shall see.
We'll expect a full review if you do one. Meanwhile I will sit on the sidelines and see if they can get even one venue with more than 300 finishers. So far, the highest total is the 2012 "championship" at Palm Springs with 57 finishers.
BTW, Ironman Los Cabos in March has not yet sold out.
New to this group and thread, but doing HITS Naples in April if I don't get sent off to a military school. For a military discounted price of $60 for the HIM, and a supposedly hilly course that might give me a bit of a ramp up to racing the hills of CDA, I'm looking forward to the experience. As for being lonely on the course - from my experiences as an ultra-runner, that's kind of the way I like it sometimes:o)
The finisher numbers for the first race of 2013:
Free race: 75
Sprint: 225
Olympic: 209
HIM: 138
IM: 46
Looks like numbers improved some with the new pricing structure. There's still no way they're making money from the long course races.
Also, they've added this: http://www.hitsrunning.com/