St Anthony's ?

Hasn't Florida had a rather unseasonably cold winter?  Perhaps that has to do with it.

If I didn't live 1500 miles away, I'm sure that I'd be all over it, though.

Actually, it's been the opposite; we had a mild winter.  Very little cold weather with temperatures well above normal most of the time. 

Mark 

Mark, I think it's less to do with the sport and more to do with the particular race in question. St. A's used to be the early-season go-to race, attracting solid pro fields, lots of northerners looking to get a first race in. Most of the folks I know in the midwest have done St. A's once or twice. 

But I think it's a race that lots of people do once or twice, then decide to do something else. At this point I don't know anyone from the tri clubs in Michigan that are going to St. A's - and our thoughts are more-or-less the same: 

- It's crowded. Swim waves will be going off for 4 or 5 hours. People are everywhere. 

- It's expensive. Not just the race, but the lodging, flights, and bike boxes (for those out of state). Like well into 4-figures expensive. That's spicy.   

- Lodging is tough. Some well-known race groups book, en masse, some of the closest hotels (vinoy). B&B's sell out the year before. Less likely to attract last minute entries if you're staying an hour away in Tampa and have to deal with the traffic. 

- Logistics are tough - bike check day before, limited parking, etc. 

- The swim can be a bear. Sandwiched in-between the pier and jetty, you won't get waves, but this really evil chop that's much harder to swim in than straight surf or waves. 

- The bike course has speedbumps, and there are a ton of people on residential streets. It's fairly chaotic. (at least it was in 2007, maybe they changed the route to miss the speedbumps?) 

- Chaos. it's a very well-known charity race, and combine the mass number of people on the course, the newness of some of the folks, the speedbumps on the golf course loop, and the likelihood of some decent chop on the swim, and it's someplace inbetween a little and a lot chaotic. Not a race to relax much.  

Bottom line for me: between the cost, hassle factor, and general chaos, it's just not that enjoyable. Rather do a smaller race where it's possible to enjoy it with 10 of your friends, not 10,000 of your 'teammates'. Think Rev 3 Knoxville or Memphis in May. 

BTW, should say: for a race that hosts that many people, St. A's is exceptionally well-run. Kudos to the RD for continuing to put on a top-notch event, given the size and venue/course.  

I didn't get a discount email.  

Hey, I registered 1.5 months ago, does this mean I get a rebate?

This is my first year doing St. Anthony's, wanted to do it because I haven't done a huge event before and I wanted to do an Oly as my first race this year.  I understand that there are waves going off for hours so be set to wait a while before your wave starts.  Hadn't heard about the speed bumps though.

We have had a pretty mild winter, but there are several early season races to chose from, maybe St. Anthony's has too much competition.

I won't need a wetsuit will I?

It was a $10 off discount code from Active.com:  "SATSAVE"

Mark

Here in Texas, the CB&I Triathlon went on sale on Jan 1.  In previous years, it took about 2 months to sell out. This year it sold out in 3 weeks.... so I don't think it is a sport-wide trend.