Interesting. I wonder why. Seemed like it had very good turnouts the last few years. I also thought it was an awesome course. I'm definitely in favor of preserving the more remote races vs. urban ones. I bet the roads in St. Louis are awful.

I did Kansas this year and really enjoyed the course, but seeing as I live in St. Louis not having to travel for a race sounds pretty nice as well.

I was wondering when that part of the country would get some Ironman (or Challenge) love. I wonder what time of year...can pretty hot and muggy in the summer.

Swimming in Creve Couer Lake would be a lot better than Clinton Lake. It still gets a lot of wind and could be choppy waters but the shore is much easier to sight.

Seems like a logistical nightmare to me. Athletes would need to be shuttled from offsite parking (casino?). Where in the world would the bike go? I'm not saying IM wouldn't do something like this, but it doesn't make sense to me.

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Brian

Boooooo. This was a great race in a great venue. I loved camping out with hundreds of other athletes and running through the campgrounds with crowds cheering the whole way.

Quoted for truth. Don't f#ck this up, Ironman! >:-(

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Rock Chalk!

What's a guy gotta do to keep a streak alive? Did all 3 Branson 70.3 before it dried up. Have done all 7 Kansas 70.3 and it looks like it will go away. Got a Tahoe finisher's shirt from last year, so that's a streak of 1.

Great! Less travel for me! I like the venue. A flat run of two laps on the rec trail, BOOM. There is parking and or grass for Transition on the East side tight to the bluff or the west side at the Soccer complex. There is even a bar at the Mallard Lake Creve Couer Lakehouse for spectators. I'd hang out for six hours if yo served me a beer.

Question about tha anticip[ated bike route. Towards Weldon Sptings on Hwy 94? Don't you have to cross the Page Ave bridge no matter what? Do you see them taking the bike up the bluff to Marine Ave?

As to the question "Why change from KS-70.3"? I would guess they are chasing sponsorship. It could, also, be a regional location thing too. KS used to draw from Colorado. Now with Boulder, why not move to get to more of a Mid-South and Mid-West population?

I am in a similar situation for travel as well. I think they could find plenty of parking, may just require them to mow some fields, but they could work around having to shuttle people in from a casino parking lot.

I definitely would expect some miles down on the flats near the park, but there are plenty of opportunities to make the course pretty hilly given the surrounding areas.

Maybe Silverback will pick it up?

KS 70.3 participation...

For IM standards, not great #'s and definitely not trending the right way...

2014 All Athletes (1,204 Athletes)
2013 All Athletes (1,282 Athletes)
2012 All Athletes (1,471 Athletes)
2011 All Athletes (1,476 Athletes)

Me thinks there's more upside in St Louis..

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"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz

That is a shame...beautiful place to race. I enjoyed it in 2013.

OH, this would be nice. I need a 70.3 next year before IMWI. I used to run at CC Lake a couple times a week. Would make for a nice, shaded run and I would suspect a very flat bike route.

No music (or The Carpenters Greatest Hits, at best) and the pros picking up their awards at a table while everyone is packing their cars is probably not what Ironman is looking for. ;-)

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Rock Chalk!

I got hte impression that turnouts had been dropping. I think there were only 1300 starters last year. Compare that to I think 2000 at Steelhead and probably even more at Racine, which I think sold out.

Plus even with low turnout, I felt like there were serious logistic and parking issues.

That being said, it was a big breakout race for me, I liked the course, it was very honest, and the multiple turn arounds on the run made for great racing.


But St. Louis shaves 2 hours from the drive for me and we have family in that area.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

I have raced Kansas 70.3 for 6 years in a row. I hope it stays and STL is just an additional race.

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John Snyder @URNotAsCoolAsMe

Kansas in the spring and St. Louis in the fall would be an awesome combo (or vice-a-versa)

Any word on Kansas 70.3 yet?

I know it's supposed to be June 6th or 13th.

I'm planning on doing it next year, but hoping it's the 6th over the 13th (if it happens).

From a local shop, I heard this is "definitely happening." No idea on the date, but they also confirmed the swim would be in Creve Coeur lake.

Back in the early 90s (I think), there was a Bud Light series race (I think) where the swim was in Creve Coeur lake. If I remember correctly, it was staged at the old Riverport Amphitheatre, which is only about a mile or so away. Plenty of parking there.

I would guess the bike would go over into St. Charles county around the New Town area. Plenty of less-traveled roads over there. Wherever it goes, it would likely be a pretty darn flat race.

I heard that this year's Kansas race had too many men in speedos on the podium, so they are considering an alternate race site to discourage that non-sense

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mark

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Rock Chalk!

I'll just add a few brief opinions. Before last year when I moved I did about 95% of my run/bike training in the park mentioned, Creve Couer Park. First, I think this seems off because I have never seen anybody swim in the lake and I think there are signs that say no swimming. I think because it is dirty or unsafe but maybe that is not true. If anybody else knows the area well they could chime in but in a brief thought I would assume you would do a small loop of some sort on river valley drive, hog hollow, creve couer mill, and marine taking page across the bridge (blocking one or two lanes as it is a massive bridge with little traffic on a weekend morning and then going either east to st. charles and a loop in the new town area or going west and doing a river bottom loop but I think the new town idea is better. More thinking about this would lead me to take the express east from creve couer lake (river earth expressway and ride in the flats to the east, I don't ride there but i'm sure you could. If the lake is clean, the bike gets sorted out, I can only think off one or two minor issues getting north to st charles flat area or finding areas, the run would be fabulous, great path. I would say two 5.5 mile loops around both the big and small lake plus a little extra that the course would be mostly flat river bottoms, with slight wind but not much in the mornings with a great run (half shade) and only 5 minutes from my house.

Other than that, there is Innsbrook that I have raced at many times and is a great location and looks like they are adding a 70.3 this year too...so not sure what to expect.