I have seen it,

It is a race that I would do my pros/cons list:

PROS
I live in Madrid.. so it is confortable travel.
Valencia is a touristic destination, good weather, and good food. One TRUE(TM) Paella (or Arroz del Signoret, or Fideua...) after the race, or as pre-race carbo-load meal...
The course is nice, the swim in the Marina (calm water), the bike course is fast (I rode there in 2016 and 2018 in the old Valencia 113 with 39 and 37 kph average) but with some climb, but more similar to 600m than the 900), and the run course in a green park and through famous Ciutat de les Arts).
For European athletes it is not expensive

CONS
Hotels will be very expensive. They are already expensive for the Valencia Marathon, I expect that it will not be easy to find cheap accomodation
the date is risky, probabily the weather will be nice.. but is April, and it rains in April.

Just drew up the (almost certain) route: https://www.strava.com/.../3142724009272473986
Seems a bit long, but wait until they need to get approval from Guardia Civil, the route will change :)

Was the old Valencia 113 like this?

Old Valencia 113 was shorter:
- it started in Malvarrosa Beach where Swim /T1/T2 were (IM 70.3 Valencia will start in La Marina).
- it had not the "Betera" extra two ways segment

?
As soon as the race was announced I booked the NH Valencia which (I hope / believe) is right off the finish line, has parking too - 650€ for 5 nights doesn't seem so bad?

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Regards, Richard

That is cheap for Valencia, in Valencia Marathon prices are over 250e/night

The water will be chill this early in the season :)

Yes, but not so much in Valencia. Not so much after this summer where Mediterránean Sea was specially Hot, and not in La Marina where I guess it is much protected to cold currents.

It's a triathlon mate. The field size will be 1/10th of the marathon IF the 70.3 is a big success.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I always wondered about what happened to Superior Man. What you wrote is what I understood but more detailed.

It looks like the company that bought it still exists, but fields a much smaller slate of events now. I've often wondered if they had any plans to revive it.

It's the one triathlon in the area I miss most; feels like there's a hole there.

Hearing about Chisago closing from another post is sad.

Sometimes I feel like I could fill some of the triathlon holes with cycling, running, and swimming events, but it always seems like there's not quite as many open water swim events as cycling or running. There's some really nice ones but not many overall, so it's easy to run into scheduling conflicts and feel like most of the season isn't an option anymore.

This looks fantastic. :)

I've been doing Tri's since 2002 and have a bunch of full and halfs in the bag. But my favorite distance is still Olympic and Sprint. So much less training pressure. And you don't lose an entire day/weekend to the hobby. Yet the intensity is still there.

I just did a Sprint last weekend and the intensity was incredible, especially on the bike. All three of us were together (it was draft legal) and we were just hammering. I pulled away on the climbs and managed to come into T2 with a seven-minute lead, but I'm a slow runner. So I had to push my run to limits I've never done before. I pushed so hard I thought my heart was going to blow through my chest like the Alien in The Thing movie. I did take podium for my AG, but wow. For a 1:20 race, that was some major intensity. It was so much fun.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

This is my exact take also. I've had great experiences with MDOTS. Yes they are expensive but I can see the difference in production between it and a local race. And it's something I appreciate.

Could they do better? totally. But I don't get the "I HATE IRONMAN!!" sentiment that runs through this board.

Redman in Oklahoma City

For me, I love doing local Olympic Distance Triathlons! and will continue doing mostly local Olympic Triathlons.

I am somewhat nostalgic, when I first started doing triathlons in southern California in the late 80s early 90s, all we had were local events, and I loved doing them. I am thinking of trying to find a racecation destination and travelling from Washington to do either Saint Anthony's or finding a cool California beach triathlon. I would love to try one of the PTO 100k distance events. I was hoping to do Canada last year, before they canceled.
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Same for me George. Really love Olympic distance races. Last year I travelled from Pacific Northwest to the St. Anthony's Tri. Nice trip and nice race. Might I suggest extending it a week and adding the Key Largo Tri the following week, which is a low key race but super nice. I did both last year and it was a great trip for some warm weather and racing. Also, the day of the Key Largo Tri last year was the day of the Miami Formula One Grand Prix. Did the Key Largo Tri in the morning, and a couple of hours later watched the F1 race. Lavaman is also the same-ish time of year and I nice destination Olympic distance race. And for a cool California beach race, Malibu Tri is very cool - watching the pro Super League race after you race in the morning is very fun.

I've also got my eye on the PTO 100K distance events and I am eagerly awaiting the announcement of their races for next year. Was cool to be in Milwaukee this summer.

Redman closed a couple of years back unfortunately.

We are still going strong in Michigan with Michigan Titanium, but might be one of the last few non-IM fulls around. The biggest complaint we get from athletes is lack of a party atmosphere for the late night finishers so this year we invited everyone back from 10-12am and gave out a 50% discount code for next years event. We ended up with about 100 athletes and 300 people total hanging out at the beer tent along the finish line this year and it was awesome.

I agree! I'm fairly local to the courses and love their races. Best run group I know. I live about 25 mins away from the Smallwood race and also hit up colonial beach and others.

Didn't race this year due to a crash, but looking forward to next year.

I am also a huge fan of Kinetic Multisports. We are very lucky to have them in the mid atlantic region. The majority of my race $ go to them. (I am not affiliated with them except as a customer.)

The balance of my race dollars go to Xterra, MTB events, and various biking events. I have not done an IM event in years. I am thinking about the Louisville half though, as it is my hometown and I did the full 4 times.

I've been following this thread and thinking how lucky we are in the mid-Atlantic area. Between Kinetic, Rip-It, Delmo, and DQ (and probably some others I'm not thinking of) you could race just about every weekend. Maybe even twice on some weekends.

I know others have already chipped in, but +1 for Grand Rapids tri and Michigan TitaniI’m. GR is a faster course, MiTi is challenging for sure. Tris4Health knows how to put on a good race!

I enjoy the sprint distance more than anything and love small local cal races, but I’ve done enough 70.3s (including a rolldown slot at St. George WC) to know the pageantry and energy at a WTC race. MiTi and GR are in the middle on that front - well organized, good energy, fast at the pointy end, but not the full show of a WTC race. Worth checking out.

I did the sprint at their Ugly Dog and Dirty Mitten races - you have to be pretty hard to do that half distance at the Dirty Mitten! Makes me tired and sore just thinking about it.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Bummer Chisago 70.3 was canceled…..was a great race!

Just managed to get my entry into the 312. Also entered Challenge Wales on a sweet early bird deal which is one of the few races that has closed roads.

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

I think some of the people who like to complain have never volunteered or put on events. If they did, they would understand the scope of responsibility of challenge that comes with everything from small races to big ones. I support a wide spectrum of events with $$$ and time. Where the events have things broken, I reach out to race organizers with suggestions to improve, but just saying things, like "I am fed up...." is not constructive to improving races (in whatever category we want improvement).

Just a short time ago, we were clamouring for races and people were doing all kinds of virtual things and challenges like Everesting during pandemic lockdowns. How quickly everyone forgets and goes back to complaining with nothing constructive to help those who are putting their time in, IMPROVE.

Thanks for the shoutout Aaron! I am one of the owners of Tris4Health and we would love to have you at GR Tri next year Word_Salad! Happy to answer any questions.