America (Muncie) Multi Sport

This is great news! I love the Muncie Multi Sport events and was wanting to do another half, but avoid all the unnecessary complications of the WTC/Ironman events. I've marked my calendar. . .

ToughMan Indiana 1/2 on 6.1.13 in Richmond is open at www.americamultisport.com

Haven't raced in that area, but the bike course profile has less than 500' gain for the 28 mi loop.  Sounds flat to me.

You have to do a significant hill twice on the bike and twice on the run. It is a tough one. Half of the bike and half of the run is a steady uphill.

I went and checked out the course last Friday and it looks pretty tough. There are very few flat sections on the bike course. This isn't a course where you will be able to carry your momentum from a downhill to coast over the uphill. There doesn't seem to be any advantage there. Also, the big hill is, if I'm talking about the same one as the previous poster, is actually a great big dip. You climb a little coming out of the reservior and then once at the top you head down a huge downhill to an equally huge uphill. This is really going to be a challenge as opposed to the usual flat Indiana tris that I have done. I'm looking forward to it and put my training plan into action today. I've been working out but just without a plan, now it's time to suffer so that I can make it through this one.  Good luck to everyone in this race, I think we're going to need it. 

I could be wrong, but all packet race bags will be "virtual" and bibs, shirts, etc, I BELIEVE are race day pick ups.  99% sure on this. 

Good luck getting a reply. I sent them a Facebook message and an email about raceday nutrition and I haven't heard back. All I wanted to know is what they are going to have available at the aid stations on the bike and run, but haven't heard a thing back. It's really making me nervous as this is my first half and want to make sure I have a good plan in place.

I want to give a quick report on this race as it was very nicely done!

First, the "Toughman" moniker was well-deserved. It was not an easy race, though I know there are harder ones. As someone else noted, most of the hills were long instead of rolling. We also had a heck of a headwind on the way back on the second loop.

Second, we were EXTREMELY lucky with the weather. The forecast looked so bad that many of us thought the race would be cancelled. But the storms that brought such havoc to OK on Friday night and then to the East Coast on Sunday were mostly non-existent. We had rain during swim warmup and then again during a small portion of the bike, but the run was actually mostly sunny (by which time we WISHED there were clouds).

Finally, a big hats off to the organizers. I was a bit worried about this being an inaugural event, but the organizers obviously know what they are doing. I had a hard time finding faults. I would do this race again in a heartbeat.

I would agree with almost everything you said. I did have an issue with the lack of aid stations on the bike. I thought they were supposed to be every 9 miles but there was only one that we hit four times. It kind of messed up my bike nutrition strategy, but not a big deal overall. I also think the medal at the end was way too generic and not the one they had listed on their web site. Also, not nearly enough bathrooms on the run. I was so happy that I wasn't having intestinal issues on the run because I would have had to quit the race. They also didn't have any ice or chocolate milk at the end.
That's the bad, there was a lot of good. The volunteers were excellent and were great at cheering us on. The transition area was setup with bike racks and our positions were assigned. It was great not having to move bikes around to get some room to set up your transition space. The course was excellent. There was a lot of thought put into this course design. The roads were great and well chosen. It was tough and that's exactly what I signed up for.