Ironman Japan 2015

I am looking forward to your race report and your experiences. This is one of my dream goal races.

thanks! will definitely post a race report. this will be my first international IM. Excited to see Hokkaido and explore Japan afterwards.

anyone can recommend a good bike trainer program to use? i am getting a wahoo kickr and want to prepare for the many hills on the course.

Just left Hokkaido after race. The following below is sorta a rant but just want to vent what I went through.

What a bunch of conflicting emotions. Hope any future Bters thinking of doing this race can read thru my experience before deciding to do IM Japan.

Let me start with the good about iron man Japan. It was in this lovely venue near lake toya in Hokkaido. My friend and I doing the race rented a car from chitouse airport near Sapporo and drove there. I can see why they chose the location. It's breathtaking beautiful in the country side.

I don't speak any Japanese and neither does my friend but we managed. Also the people around Hokkaido were the nicest and friendliest ironman spectators. I would go back to lake toya to just see the scenery and stay at one of their traditional spa hotels.

So the obvious negatives.

First 2 weeks before the race day the organizers announce that they have made a race course change. The 2014 ironman Japan had around 6600 feet of climbing in Biking. They change it to 7700 feet this year. They include a mountain in the middle of course with Rolling hills.

The biking portion made it one of the hardest ironman I have ever done. The huge mountain thrown in middle had 10 kilometer of climbing- with grade 8 climbing for portions.

For any relay interested people the organizers did not give any info about important stuff prior to the race. For example because of the changed course the transition points were far apart from each other. My friend doing the running portion had to leave on a bus to meet me at the checkpoint 8 hours before I was to even arrive that. Organizers did not provide any separate info about this. I had to keep emailing to get info about relay race teams.

The general pickup of gear was extremely disorganized. They lost my wetsuit and swimming stuff. The finish line, start line, and staging area were not close to each other. Thank god I had a car to drive back and forth to search for my stuff. I am used to an ironman run smoothly where everything was planned out and properly executed. They had all our gear in bags but scattered at all three sites and no one knew where anything was.

Most ironman they have bike shops and vendors with clothing and triathlon related stuff there. Ironman Japan had maybe three tents- mobile carrier, swim gear, power bar. The ironman clothing shop had two t shirts for the IM 70.3 but not full. I was looking to pick up a new bike computer because mine was broken during the travels there. The pre race days was pretty disappointing. Im used to the town getting really into the race and I could feel the race was an after thought. They had mechanics on bike check in but they had only very basic stuff like spare tubes and water bottles.

So back to race day. The swimming in lake toya was a pleasure and they handled the race start perfectly with wave start. The water was 65-70 and perfectly clear. Not choppy at all. I had a decent swim because I hug the inner line and finished without any problems.

Then I start the biking. At first I thought there was going to be food along course provided and brought some gu and cliff bars but the course had only one food station with Japanese gu . There was also only one station with gatorade drink.

The biking has to be one of the toughest courses. It's going through some of the most scenic parts of Hokkaido but it has too many hills. That mountain in the middle kept going and going. I did swim at 1:30 and was at mile 86 of bike course when I got cut off. I had 26 miles left to go with 115 minutes till bike cutoff. I didn't know this but ironman Japan has cut offs at every check point. I missed their arbitrary cutoff at mile 84 by only 10 minutes.

This was first time I have been dq and I had finish most of the climbing and had only 26 freaking miles left. I pleaded to let me finish but they would not.

I wasn't the only one as there were close to 100 at that check point cut off and more before that check point were cutoff at earlier checkpoints. They wouldn't let me continue to find my friend who was waiting at relay checkpoint. I asked them to let her know I got dq and they said they had no capabilities. All of the race staff had walkie talkies. I don't know if they were too lazy to notify my friend who waited hours that I didn't finish.

I understand the need to set realistic cut offs for the race but I was going to finish the bike portion under their final bike cutoff and my friend was going to do the running with fresh legs. I had finished most of the grueling climbing of the 7700 feet. The last 26 miles was mostly flat. My friend would've had 6 hours to finish marathon. We would have made the final 17 hours.


My final take from this ordeal is that i feel more that disappointed. A little angry at how this race unfolded. They changed the bike course last minute so people who have signed up wouldn't be able to cancel in time. Also their arbitrary cutoff times were ridiculous.


I hope my story is a cautionary tale to anyone interested in ironman Japan. Don't do it. There are plenty of better organized events that have more easily accessible venues. I learned a valuable lesson.

Sorry you had such a difficult experience. Most of my triathlon racing has been overseas, including one IM branded event (Vietnam 70.3) and I have to say that in most cases, there have been some challenges related to organization, cultural differences, or maybe just something getting lost in translation. Even with the IM event, there were issues with inadequate water and ice at some of the aid stations (in conditions of extreme heat/humidity), last-minute changes to the bike course, no porta-potties on the bike and run courses, and different length transitions for men and women. In some cases, I know these were due to issues with local regulations, police, etc., in others perhaps inexperience (it was a first-time race). The bike support available at the expo was ridiculous--I think just one or two mechanics with wait lists several hours long, and almost no basic supplies like spare tubes, CO2 canisters, etc. The latter was a real mess as people can't fly into the country with the canisters and they are extremely hard to find locally, probably not sold in Danang outside the expo at all.

In other races have dealt with vastly unequal awards for men and women (i.e. men had master's division and women didn't!), inappropriate drinks (Red Bull on an Oly tri course), no drinks besides water for a half-marathon, races started several minutes before the announced time, placing not done with chip times, little traffic control, and bag pickup disintegrating into hours of near-violent chaos, etc. etc. Not sure how much was cultural, how much inexperience or simply sloppy organization. My response (since I don't get the choice to race much outside the region) is mainly to be as self-sufficient as possible with nutrition and hydration because Lord knows what they are (or aren't) going to be offering on the course! Also (if it's a run) try not to check anything or hand it over to friends before the start. I realize this is difficult for full IM, though, but it pays to be as self-sufficient as possible in any case.

Thanks Hot Runner.

I was expecting that the ironman wouldve been run more smoothly. Japanese are fanatical about organization and it's their third year doing it in Hokkaido.

I definitely agree with you about being as independent as possible doing a foreign race. Go in with low expectations and plan for the worse. But Ironman Japan was more than poor planning. I definitely wont be recommending this race at all.

I think even if it is year three, if possible it would be really helpful to share your experience with the race director or someone at Ironman. Many of these events (such as Vietnam 70.3) are basically contracted out to local organisers who may do things differently than races put on directly by IM Corp. and they need to hear feedback from foreign as well as local athletes. It may not help you, but might improve things for others in years to come. I was fortunate in that I personally met the Vietnam race director (actually prior to the race as I ran into him while training, and after the event) and was able to give some feedback; in other cases I have tried to do so (non-confrontationally) when possible. If they want their event to prosper, then the organisers have a vested interest in getting feedback from not only local but also foreign competitors.

thats a good idea emailing the race director. I want to give myself some time to cool down and will then email them.

I looked through the race results- at least 300-400 people of the 1600 racers were disqualified during the bike portion. Man- a person did a 1:11 swim and then a 8:50 biking and got dq then.

Wow--that's terrible that 25% were DQ--that seems a really high rate. They probably need to re-assess the cutoffs with the new bike course, and obviously communicate them much more clearly to the athletes.

Edited by Hot Runner 2015-08-25 4:24 AM

Seems like a really high DQ rate and that sounds like a Brutal bike course. Sorry about your DQ