Ranking the US Ironman Races
Had an interesting discussion with a good buddy on which US Ironman races are the hardest. Thought I would throw it out to the Endurance Nation. Here's the deal...there are currently 10 IMs in the US (apologies to my Candanian brothers) but here we are not including Kona as that is a different animal altogether and we also are leaving NYC out since it hasn't ever taken place yet. That leaves us 8 races to rank.
So now its your turn, in your post simply rank them 1-8 (note the races you personally have done with an *) and then below feel free to share rationale for your rankings. Obviously, from year to year the weather changes but just think of what a "normal" day for that location at that time of year is.
I'll get things started:
- ST. George
- Lake Placid
- Wisconsin*
- Louisville
- Texas
- Coeur d'Alene*
- Arizona*
- Florida
What ya think???
Comments
So Im doing the Hardest....SG.....and the 2nd easiest....AZ. I predicting my time will be 1 hr less overall on AZ than SG...we'll see. I've done IMLOU and IMFL....I agree FL is by far the easiest. (Even though no IM is "easy")
1. IMSG
2. IMTX (of course only 1 year of data)
3. IMWI
4. IMLou
5. IMCdA
6. IMLP
7. IMAZ
8. IMFL
Utah much easier this year with the flat run.
I agree with Michael: I've done IMs in 7 different venues, and they were all equally hard!
I've done IMTX, IMLOU and IMAZ. All of this is so weather dependent that its tough to rank them in a meaningful way. The year I did IMAZ we had 40 mph winds and a hail storm on the bike. The years I did IMTX and IMLOU it only hit about 90 degrees and was actually mild. ANy givn year you could see a 100 degee day at IMLOU or IMTX and te result being carnage. Any IM in extreme weather could impact people 1-2 hours+ (or even DNF) which would be a far bigger impact than a hillier run or bike or wetsuit/non wetsuit swim.
I like that thought. All equally hard....
140.6 mile car ride is kind of a pain...
I did LP last year and doing FL this year. I can tell you that although I may not be worried about climbing up the hills TWICE in LP, I am worried about the endless FLAT terrain while 112 miles tick by ever so slowly...I'm telling myself that FL could be faster but not easier.
140.6 in extreme heat or cold would certainly add a unique "suck" factor. Add in hills and it just gets ramped up even more. IMSG seems to be the clear #1 winner. Not to mention the very cold swim that can't be ignored.
LOL, great perspective! I don't have any thoughts on the topic, but am still laughing about that one!
1. IMSG
2. IMWI
3. IMLP
4. IMLou
5. IMCdA
6. IMTX
7. IMAZ
8. IMFL
Outside the US
Seriously, I'd guess that IMCA would be up there similar to IMLP, in that it's a bike course where you tend to do one thing for a while, then start doing another thing, and some of those things are pretty decent hills. As I learned from Rich, IMWI is tough because you're never doing one thing for any length of time. You're always reacting to changes in the terrain, and there are thousands of decisions to make about shifting, easing up, powering over, etc. Thousands of decisions to make translate into thousands of opportunities to do the wrong thing for your competition.
IMMT is hard to predict, but I would guess it's in a similar position.
I agree with Mike. I've done IM Canada twice, and IM CDA numerous times, along with IM Wisconsin. I much prefer settling into the long steady climbs of Canada (Richter, Yellow Lake) over the constant up and down of 100-300 foot vertical hills of CDA or Wisc. Also, the one loop swim, bike, and run of Canada really stretches the field out nicely (although the run does get a bit lonely at miles 15-20). Finally, the bike at Penticton ends with a nice long downhill into town, giving you a chance to recover a bit before running.