Irish looking for help: Can You Help Me Pick An Olympic Triathalon in USA?

Also, trifind.com works well for finding races, but most of them aren't posted out there yet (maybe December).

Little shorter then an Oly but fun race.  There's plenty of others but if you're looking for unique and fun way to start a race. 

http://delmosports.com/escape-the-cape-new-jersey-triathlon-voted-the-1/

I said the same to some friends yesterday trying to get everyone to sign up now.  They pointed out they have gotten in via the "lottery" the last few years.  I looked up last year and it didn't sell out until February or May.  But that could've been him jacking up the price to early bird $200 for a sprint.    I had to look it up because they said I was a sucker for believing the hype.    

Just to make sure it's semantics and not unfamiliarity with the geography, Chicago is about 850 & 1,000 miles straight west of NYC & Boston. Hardly on the east coast. So curious just how big the potential area is. Honest question as there have been people who don't realize how far apart some areas are.

I'd look for a race that lines up well with your ability to train.  What will be your training weather if you do an early season (May-June) tri?  What will your training weather be if you do a mid-season (July-August) tri?  Then what will it be if you do a late season (Sept-Oct) tri? 

What might be unfortunate would sign up for a mid-season tri, train in relatively cool Dublin and then come to the US where you're racing in 95F (35C) temps.  Equally unfortunate would be to train in a relatively flat area and pick a race with brutal hills. 

Do you have a wetsuit?  Later season races may have water temps warm enough to swim without a wetsuit. 

Big cities show up on the map and are easier to fly into/out of, but the race opportunities may be quite limited because closing roads impacts so many people.  The race experience may also be not what you expect (someone mentioned the Chicago triathlon, with almost 10,000 participants.  You may sit around almost all day WAITING for your race to start) . 

I'm all for combining destination vacation with triathlon.  I did IMCdA and we used it to visit Glacier, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, etc.  I did Vineman and we used it to visit San Francisco, Sonoma Valley, and Yosimite.  You can hit major metro areas (NYC, Boston) even if you do an "out of the way" race.  Are you shipping your bike or renting one when you get here?  (it's an option, especially on a shorter race).  If you ship, what are you doing with your bike while you're doing tourist things in NYC? 

Good luck!