If they offered "Priority Swim Start Placement", maybe a pontoon boat about halfway through the course, I'd be all over it.  Also, the personal Johnny-on-the-spot is tempting.

I'll spend my $50 on better gear. The only thing intriging to me is the transition placement but if that is the deciding factor in my race I could have done something faster to make up the difference.

I am not doing the race but I will be there volunteering

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A TERRIBLE IDEA!!!! well it sounds good but the transition area set up.... If I am trying to compete in a race I don't want to have my bike further away because I didn't want to pay $50 extra. This sport is expensive enough. I have never heard of any other races where people pay for a better spot in transition.

Either just let it be a free for all (which sucks cause you get there so much earlier then you have to) or do it like most races and do it by number.... the people that want to be in the first wave and are competing get the close spots.

Drew,
I can tell you that no advantage will be given to anybody paying for the "experience". In triathlons all transition areas should be designed to be "flow-thru" transitions.

For example: A true "flow-thru" transition should put swim in/run out on the North end of transition. Bike Out/Bike in would thus be on the exact opposite on the South end of transition with an alley down the middle...thus giving no advantage to one athlete over another. Athletes should always be moving forward in their transitions.

I don't know exactly what is in store for some of the things offered in the "Triathlete Experience" because it is not my creation...but I can say that no athlete will be at advantage over another because they paid an extra $50.

However, if you pay $2000 for the latest greatest carbon whatchamagig...I can tell you that you will gain approsimately 38.3 seconds over 40K!!!

I hope I cleared some of this up.

The Kansas City Triathlon is made up of a board of great people that truly care about the sport of Triathlon in Kansas City. Trust me they didn't form the board and the race because they were needing more things to do in their lives...they are doing it because they love the sport and see that it needs help in KC. The local market has suffered long enough. Triathlon is blowing up in every other large city in America...except for Kansas City. The numbers remain stagnant at the events. Between this race and the other quality races in the area (SMP-Heritage-WIN-Ultramax) it rounds out a nice local schedule.

This is also the motivation behind Mark Livesay and I in partnering up on the new Ultramax Kansas 50. Things are looking bright for triathlon in the heartland. IMKS numbers are up over 75% over this time last year and will shortly sell out.

Sorry so long...you caught me after a long day ... :-)

I have a signed up for KC triathlon, Ironman KS and will do all other local events including Ultramax 50. Looking forward to all of them.

Ryan, its always good to hear someone realize how important the orientation of the Tranistion area is. KLM never seemed to figure that out and good spots in transition could cut anywhere from 5-15 seconds off each transition. Looking forward to some good races this year!

Lisa,
I think they changed the verbage from "priority" to reserved...meaning that it will open for everyone except it will have a few reserved racks. No tactical advantage...just a convenience thing.

You can sleep in till 5:00 am vs. waking up at 3:00 am to get a good T spot and that is priceless!

FYI: Early Bird Registration ends this Saturday. If you are planning on signing up for this race and want to save a few bucks...better do it by Saturday.