Big O Half Ironman

This is only the second year for this Tri. I have not done it but am familiar with the area. The bike course is more rolling hills than steep hills. IM Kansas bike will be worse, I think IM Kansas bike is in the same area of the Midwest Mayhem Tri.

I personally would avoid the Big-O just because I really don't think highly of KLM. It is a hilly bike on mostly rough roads and this would be the second year, last year it was cancelled during the bike due to T-Storms, it also had a very low turnout  (roughly15 for the HIM). Yes it is wet suit legal and the water will be cold enough.

I think IM Kansas 70.3 would be a better bet (even in its 1st year), since it is a IM sanctioned event and I know many people have already registered, the water will probably be to warm for wet suits, but the visibility should be about 24"to 36" in June, unless it rains a lot prior to the race. They have not released the bike route yet but I have added a link to a ride that covers what will probably be the most of the route and it should give you an idea of the hills (not Colorado mountains but they still can wear you down). No idea about the run course except there will be some hills, but more flat than the bike.

I will be doing IM Kansas as a warm up for IM Wisconsin in September.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=29173&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=4153587

 Hope this helps,

Monty

Edited by montyzooma 2007-11-19 9:41 PM

I didn't get a chance to look at the map Monty posted... the work computer isn't cooperating, but I did Mayhem in the same are last year and while the hills are rolling and long, they are nothing compared to what you can train on in Colorado. I grew up in Denver so I'm quite familiar with what you can train on there. Don't get me wrong you can't ignore them but you will get the same thing and more in the Dever area. You will get the lower altitude to help a little too. I would expect IM Kansas to be a good race.

I heard a lot of bad things about Big O last year. Being in the spring they run the risk of fighting the weather a little more. I haven't been super impressed with KML either, did two races with them and in both cases there were some serious issues. Either lack of proper route marking or in one case, their timing mat stopped working, didn't record my time and it cost me 2nd place. They don't have a backup timing system.