Those are the Halfmax Championships qualifying events. If you race at any of those events and qualify, you get a spot at the Halfmax race in September.

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Steve Perkins

Use the menu bar on the left side. Schedule, course, register, etc. The main body of the page is links to the other races. The site is pretty poorly laid out and difficult to follow but Ultramax puts on first rate events.

There is general entry to the halfmax race so you don't need to qualify to race this race.

Yes, that is true. But I believe that if you qualify, you're guaranteed a spot. Not so with general entry unless it doesn't fill. Besides, the OP asked what the web page meant. It's the list of qualifying events, as is stated in the page's title "2006 Qualifying Events."

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Steve Perkins

I don't see the problem. You can qualify at the listed qualifiers (bunch of good races all over the country) or you can qualify based on time at any long course event in the last year or you can take one of the 300 general entry slots available this year.

"It's no wonder WTC is doing so well, when this is their competition."

I'm assuming you mean like when WTC/IMNA changes the number of Kona qualifying slots at the 70.3 races long after most people had registered.

This is an amateur event, but did you check out the prize list???!!!! I'm not aware of any WTC/IMNA race that offers that kind of cash for the amateurs.

Should be a great race. Same RD that put on USAT Age Group Nationals earlier this month and that was a great race too.

I'd be there in a second, but the race date just doesn't work for me.

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Justin in Austin, get it? :)

Cool races:
- Redman
- Desoto American Triple T

It IS a great race. I did it in 2004 and 2005 when it was in June (or was it July?). Nice swim venue where motor boats are not allowed, so no gasoline in the water. Bike course (2 loops) is challenging with 5 miles or so of hills and the rest flat and fast. Run course is a bear... fairly hilly, but well-shaded. Great race. Mark Livesay does a fantastic job.

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Steve Perkins

I can't speak for the quality of the races, nor for the RD, as I haven't done the events.

My only point was that if a person came to the web site without any prior knowlege of these events, I doubt they could make sense of what they were looking at. There are a whole bunch of undefined terms (what's a halfmax, what's an ultramax? what's a long course event?) My guess is that they are IM and HIM races, but I can't find any one spot on the site that sorts all of this out.

For all its faults, at least if you go to a WTC site, you have a simple, easy to understand system. Common brand, common distance, etc. If USAT wants this series to be a viable alternative they're going to have to do a lot better.

You are correct. It's confusing....the website is terrible. It shouldn't be that hard. IMO, the general "problem" with Ultramax events is that they want to make a big self-promoted events rather than a damn good triathlon. Anyhoo...there's some history there.

With that said, the 1/2 Champs is a great course for a "championship" event...too bad its on the same day as Chequemegon Fat Tire and the Best of the US.

There are 214 people who disagree with you and are doing the event. My question is, is this really a "USAT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP" because the title is USA Triathlon Half Max National Champs. Could I put a race on here called the USA Triathlon Zonie Triathlon National Champs? Since you would be the national champion of the "Zonie" race?

I hope it does well because we need to support USAT. But if anyone is a marketing major, maybe they can give them a hand?

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...but it's a dry heat...

[reply]I hope it does well because we need to support USAT.[/reply]

I couldn't agree more. While I can't fault WTC for running a smart business, they really need more competition, and I would love to see USAT provide a well-marketed alternative. WTC moved into the 70.3 category because there was a huge void there. IF USAT wants to hold off the 70.3 series before it becomes the juggernaut that M-dot IM races are, it needs to act quickly and get the word out about this series.

Hindsight is 20/20, but if USAT had moved on this sooner, they could have kept WTC in their full IM box, and established USAT as the default provider of HIM and Oly races. My fear is that it's already too late and that the 70.3 series will dominate and the USAT championships will be seen as second-tier.

I agree. I just got the USAT email and it had info on the race. It was totally confusing to me, (and they add to the confusion when they start talking about the Age Group Nationals as well). I think the thing that makes everything confusing is the co-branding between USAT and Halfmax. If USAT wants to host a "long course" championship, it should be just that, the USAT Long Course Age Group Championships.

The email stated: "The Halfmax National Championship has been designated as the USAT Long Course National Championship for the next three years!"

So there is a Halfmax Champion and a USAT National Champion--huh??

I understand that USAT is not in the race directing business (which WTC/IM is) so the result is that they cannot brand their own race ??

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Suffering on the the bike is always more fun than suffering on the run.

This race is sanctioned by USA Triathlon as the 2006 long course national championship race and qualifier for worlds...http://www.usatriathlon.org/Events/Champs_national_list.htm

And another irony... I think one reason they don't use the term "half Ironman" is because of trademark issues. They could've come up with 70.3 and been golden--and people probably wouldv'e have understood the distance. But now that's (assumably) trademarked, and they are using Halfmax. But 4 years from now, if it goes to a new RD, they will have to come with a new name!

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Suffering on the the bike is always more fun than suffering on the run.

Interesting also that there isn't a California race and as Dan said "In fact, California’s members alone number more than the members in most of the 8 voting regions in which all 50 States are contained."

Not very well thought out.

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Craig
No pacing, just racing.

This might help...

UltraMax (the org that holds the races) has historically had a race called HalfMax. It's a half-iron distance race.

Last year, UltraMax worked with a bunch of other RD's around the country to create a non-WTC and non-USAT half-iron distance championship race. The qualifiers for this race, the US Half Iron Championships, were the other half-iron races. i.e. Mooseman or CATS

This year USA Triathlon picked UltraMax to RD the Long Course Championships. Probably in an effort to preserve any brand equity they and the other RD's developed in the "US Half Iron Championships" they chose to keep the name.

I think if you did an UltraMax race you'd see that they put most of their limited resources into putting on great, challenging, safe, and well supported events. Saying these smaller RD's should be more like WTC is like saying Asics should be more like Nike.

Why should we support USAT?

I joined for the insurance, but I find that over half the events I have entered this year are not USAT insured.

Beyond insurance what does USAT provide?

• Website is pathetic -- very poor race calendar, no personal online results ala marathonguide.com, poor navigation, etc.
• Newsletter/magazine is a waste of paper -- Chicago has 2 sports magazines that are free and cover-to-cover readable
• Rankings are meaningless.
• Regions are poorly divided. Wisconsin and Illinois are in different regions. People in Chicagoland do as many Wisconsin tris as Illinois tris.
• Allow poor race directors to continue. See the multiple threads on Lake Geneva Extreme Sports.

USAT needs to be scrapped and restarted by the independent RDs.

That would provide opportunities for:

• National sponships
• Insurance discounts
• Supply discounts
• National marketing
• A real national championship at each distance that rotates between venues

That is the only way to fight WTC.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

I am glad that I am not the only person who see's USAT as a completely useless and progress-stifleing organization.

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Also, the RD consolidated his mid-summer race (HalfMax) and the U.S. Half Championship into one event. Last year HalfMax was held in June at Innsbrook and the U.S. Halfs in Sept. in Kansas City.......so this race is kinda a marriage between the two with some extra blessing from USAT....now whether the USAT blessing is good or bad remains to be seen but the race is sure to be a challenging, well run event that will be worthy calling itself a "championship" if of nothing else than the series of mostly halfs that have cross-promoted with Ultramax.

Paul

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Actually I didn't say (or even think) anything like: "Saying these smaller RD's should be more like WTC is like saying Asics should be more like Nike."

But your explanation continues to highlight my issues with their communication style--it's confusing and is NOT building a brand that is recognizable, understandable and therefore very marketable. They tried to "preserve brand equity" by re-naming the event? Is it the "USAT Long Course Championship"? Is the "US Half Iron Championships"? or is the "HalfMax Championships"?

I'm sure it's a great race, just as an end-user (triathlete) and someone who works in marketing/branding (graphic designer) it's too confusing. It doesn't have to be the SAME brand identity as WTC (in fact it SHOULD differientiate itself); but it needs to have a unified brand identity.

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Suffering on the the bike is always more fun than suffering on the run.

I am not USAT, but if I were, and MY goal was to build some BRAND EQUITY within our "championships" I might put my chips behind a well established half ironman distance triathlon and call that our "Championship". Otherwise, even in the years to come, the term "CHAMPIONSHIP" is going to mean absolutely nothing if only 200 people show up from Arkansas to do the event. I have never done a halfmax, so I have no comment about how great they are. In fact, since ST posters are pretty critical, and there has only been good things to say about this event company, I have to believe they are pretty amazing. But it still doesn't answer why it's called the "USA TRIATHLON HALF MAX NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS HALF IRON DISTANCE 70.3 DISTANCE NON M-DOT TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS" and why after all these years, it only has 200 people doing it.

AND I COMPLETELY DISAGREE THAT USAT IS WASTE. I will agree that it's definitely not a think tank for marketing wizards, and they do make some bad decisions, but we need to support them no matter what. We can disagree with their policies, but we should vote if we don't like what's going on.

There surely has to be a Half Iron distance event in California or Florida that would be willing to call itself the championship race? And I'm sure they have a better website.

I've thought for a while now that consolidating the US pro and AG national championships would be a good move to increase the "credibility" of the national championship races. If USAT or the race organizers offered a good prize purse the pros would come out and I think a number of AGers would follow having the chance to watch/race with the pros. In addition, if USAT put on long course and short course championships all of the national championship racing could be consolidated down to 2 weekends.

I do think that the gran prix series races (found on the Ultramax website) used as qualifiers is a step in the right direction for a getting a quality field and "validating" the national championships.

As far as naming US Long Course National Championships seems the most simple and the best.

My apologies. My comment about Asics/Nike was intended as response to comments made before your post.

And while I am correcting myself, I am mistaken about them keeping the name "US Half Iron Championships" from last year. Using HalfMax in the name of the race is probably a better example of leveraging equity, at least in this region, since they have had a race by this name before.