Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas

Jinkies!  This is an expensive race

But I can't wait  

 

 

Edited by KeriKadi 2009-09-30 11:40 AM

Holy smokes, Keith Jordan does it again.  This will make for quite the April 70.3's with NOLA and Galveston. 
KEJ- any word on the back to back sprint/olympic and then doing the half-iron the next day and having any kind of special awards for the lowest times for all three? 

Not too surprising since it's a great well run race, and Longhorn was a non mdot the first year also.

It just means I'll sign up quicker for the texas two step this year


eta...Hey Brit.   when I looked at the register page, the texas two step option wasnt' there either so either they are in the process of updating the web site and haven't gotten there yet or there might not be that option (discount) this year for doing multiple races...

Edited by Gaarryy 2009-09-30 11:23 AM

Edited by jcbolton 2009-09-30 11:25 AM

 i dont' think the price will go up,, maybe I"m just being naive.   but i was planning on this race next year so I already checked out the prices of just the HIM or doing the sprint & half on sunday.  it seems like the same price though.  I thought it was around 225 for the HIM and 265 for both...

of course you do realize my ability to be wrong on many things... this included.

Edited by Gaarryy 2009-09-30 11:26 AM

I guess this makes it official.  http://ironman.com/

I'm pumped!   This was a great weekend last year

edit.  link updated to the release page.

Edited by fattyfatfat 2009-09-30 11:52 AM

I guess I'm the only one who didn't want it to go 70.3.

I'm fairly indifferent, but can understand why going 70.3 changes it.  For Longhorn it meant getting rid of the sprint/olympic that they had. I hope that doesn't happen to Lonestar as well.   The good thing is, from going to Longhorn last year, and Lonestar both last and this year, the quality/atmosphere seemed exactly the same.  The only difference in Longhorn was the M-dot logo. 

yea.. but you wear polka dots racing shirts... so we dont' expect much out of you, just pure blinding speed...

70.3 will also probably triple the amount of people. May not be a bad thing, but I'm a low key kind of race guy. If they keep the Olympic that will be on Saturday, I'll be a happy camper. Halfs are for weenies anyway.

Edited by smilford 2009-09-30 12:23 PM

This user's post has been ignored.

Don't be skeeeered!  Real men go longer ~ just ask the ladies!

That's why I'm doing Ironstar in 5-6 weeks.. just so I can be a real man. :-)

No, you're not.

why? 

Real men go faster for longer.

The race will be great!!!!!!
Actually, heading out the door to go to Galveston right now, to work on Lone Star stuff

Just signed up.  Looking forward to another one of Keiths races.

Sells out quicker, never a good thing imo. Unless your Keith Jordan.

More people, I don't like big crowded races. Previous were just about right. Good amount of people, so the competition was there but it also wasn't over crowded. Not sure what the limits are now, but I imagine there will be considerable more amount of people. Especially for the half, not sure the Oly and sprint will be too much different.

The half will now completely overshadow the oly/sprint. Where as before the Qtr and half stood pretty well together.

Nothing major, just things I don't care for and it has a lot to do with me really liking the Qtr/Oly race down there.

edit- if more people sign up/allowed, what do you think is going to happen on a flat 70.3 course? ;p

Edited by smilford 2009-10-01 12:30 PM

A new PR for me,, that's what !!!!!!!!!!!!!   

 

I'm in just signed up... I forgot how many annoying questions there are for active/Ironman events.. 

let the 2010 comeback begin

Edited by Gaarryy 2009-10-01 1:03 PM

I can't help but wonder about this. I don't pretend to know a lot about this, but I do know that Keith had to pay a fee to get this license. That means he saw value in adding the Ironman 70.3 name to a race that was already pretty well established in a great location.

So I'm trying to figure out what he gets from it. The races were well-attended this year. He had almost 600 for the 1/2 and almost 800 for the quarter. Of course, Longhorn 70.3 had over 1800 last year, so maybe that's the goal.

On the other hand...He's got very supportive administrators in a city that loves the tourism generated during their off season, a single-loop 1/2 IM course, a water venue that would easily support a much longer course, a transition area that could be double in size without blinking an eye, and a great location overall.

Galveston seems like a natural fit for the next North American IM race. As I said, the swim could be doubled easily. The bike can become two loops. The real challenge would be the run course, which is already a bit of a nightmare for the 1/2 distance. It would definitely need a new route. It would also fit for scheduling. As of now, there's only one spring IM race in NA and that's the new race in Utah in May.

I don't how WTC operates now, though. Used to be they licensed the NA races to NAS who ran them. That's no longer the case. But does WTC have it's own in-house staff of RDs and staff that organize and put on all of the NA races or do they contract out to other RDs?

Hmm....

Just back from Galveston, and meeting with Beach Patrol, Moody Gardens, etc....

Here's the skinny....the race isn't gonna change, folks.

We'd planned for a while to move the Quarter to Saturday, to have a true Olympic. It also eliminates the MANY complaints I had from Half Iron athletes who had to start really late on Sunday. I'm sure you're wondering why we just don't start the half Iron first...there are several logistical reasons, and uh, we do actually think about this stuff

I think a true Oly will be great.
What will change is the size of the 70.3. It'll still be limited to 1800 or so, and we had a meeting with the Beach Patrol yesterday to discuss swim waves, etc. Our waves will remain small, only 100 probably. Same as last year. They'll go off every 5 minutes. It's one of the ways we keep the drafting in check. Keep in mind there were 1700 or so athletes on the course last year on Sunday...did it seem crowded? There are ways to deal with this.

Do I think it's a good thing to have Ironman 70.3? Yes, I do. The city is very excited about it, and it opens more doors for support,etc. Those are CRITICAL to the future of the race. Moody Gardens is also fired up. BOTH VERY GOOD THINGS!!!!

I'm still really curious to think why it isn't a good thing. Will it sell out faster? I REALLY hope so. It makes things MUCH easier on us to order the correct # of shirts, hats, waterbottles, schwag, course supplies etc. You all probably don't understand how much notice it requires to line this stuff up. It's very difficult when the race sells out close to race date....

Will the race be worse? Nope, in fact we're already working on the improvements we're planning on implementing for 2010. This is a huge passion of mine, and we're incredibly proud of what we do....

I'm really curious about this too...