Offroad triathlon interest?

We are considering this for one of our races next year.  It would have to be in the fall, since we have not started even talking about it yet with the Army or USAT.  We have been quite concerned that there will not be enough of an interest in Iowa to draw a decent crowd. 

We like:

That nobody else is doing one.

That the need for traffic control can be reduced to a minimum, since all of the running and riding will be on the trails. 

Our concerns:

We will need lots of volunteers and EMT staffing.

Nobody among us has raced in, let alone organized an Xterra race.

The transition area might be a burden.  If you are familiar with Sugarbottom, the beach is at the bottom of the road that comes down the hill.  It is a slight upgrade to the entrance to the trails.  The parking area is not large.  There is a grassy area in front of the beach and there is a frisbee golf across the road from the picnic area and adjacent to the trails.  We will not be able tto incorporate the disc golf course, at all.  I don't think it is insurmountable, but it is an issue (unlike Trihawks, which is at West Overlook and has a ton of space for transition and a ton of space for parking).

We need a major sponsor.  I can contact the National Kidney Foundation and see what they think, but I think we will actually need a coporate sponsor for this.  Anyone have ideas as to who would find appeal in being a title sponsor for a MTB/Xterra event in the Eastern Iowa area?

John - I've emailed you offline to discuss this idea further. But for the sake of the others on this list, doing an offroad tri could be accomplished. Would it be a lot of work? Yes. But would it be a blast? Yes.

The first year of any event is always the hardest, but I think there are enough connections out there (aka ICORR/Army/etc) that it'd be doable.

Mark