"WE are an Ironman"--thoughts about IM relays

Personally I would be annoyed by relay participants in an IM.  Part of the appeal for me is knowing tha everybody else out on the course is suffering through the same exact distance I am.

I did an IM as a relay. It was a lot of fun!

The main issue we had was meeting up to do the exchange. The swim part was easy. But knowing where our biker was out on the course was really hard. We tried to meet him on the course to cheer him on and missed him by about 30 min. Then based on his time at the only checkpoint out there, we figured he'd be finishing an hour before he did.

The run was a bit better as it was a three loop course so I sat out there until our runner went out on the 3rd loop and then just ran back to the start. She still took longer than I thought to get back but not an hour longer.

If I ever do it again, I think I'd come up with a plan ahead of time to figure out where our teammates were so we'd not spend hours waiting for them to show up at the transition point and worrying about something happening to them when they didn't show up when we expected.

I did a IM relay as biker back in 2008. We had a blast. When they allow relays there are often quite a few. We didn't any issues with those who were doing it solo. They had all the relays racked together so we waited for our swimmer at our bike spot and that is where the runner met the biker as well. It was a first time independent race with about 120 registered with only about 80 racing with maybe 10 of those being relays.

Bike was 4 loop course and one of our relay members rented a house on the bike course so everyone hung out there.

Runner was either 3 or 4 out and backs so we found a place to park and cheered our runner on as well as other athletes.  When our runner passed us on the last out we drove over to the finish and figured where we could see him about 1/2 mile from the finish and make it to the finish.

I'd love to do another IM relay. My husband and I have talked about doing one in the future so I'd swim and bike and he'd run.

Do it!

Thanks for all the advice/perspectives. I can totally understand if people get annoyed about relays as they sometimes get me demoralized or confused in Olys. I can't see/think that well when in extreme effort and sometimes I don't realize they're a relay until I see the finish results. I guess it kind of bothers me that while I'm out there doing a marathon, I'd be running alongside others who are, presumably, suffering much, much more than I will. It makes it worse than I'm a fairly good distance runner and normally run through tri fields like a knife through butter anyway (also because my bike really sucks relative to my run) and it's a really unfair advantage to be starting semi-fresh.  It would be neat though to not only get to do the IM swim and run a marathon (I haven't in several years), but also get a first hand look at an Ironman day (I don't have the chance to, otherwise.) This race conflicts with another event, so at this point I'm keeping my options open and seeing what my buddy wants to do.  Also an off chance I might do the HIM there solo instead, or with my buddy as a relay. We'll probably decide by late May.

It would not bother me in the least bit.  I would love to incorporate a IM relay into my training with my wife.  It would cut down on my training and she could get an IDEA what the race is like. 

On the FAQ part of Ironman Wales Registration, the question is asked "Do you allow relay teams." The answer was NO, Ironman wales will not have a relay entry."

This may only be the case for some official IM events. Don't see why though. Are you looking at official IM or just IM distance events?

Yes, this is interesting. I didn't even realize that WTC IM and 70.3 events don't offer relays. Out of curiosity I checked the one half that I have done, and non-WTC event, and yes they have a relay option.

And to the OP, I have absolutely no problem with relay teams--even at IM distance. It's an entirely different event within the event, so why would anyone care? I say go for it! And yes, I've done an IM.