it was just a tough time of year, the last 2 years the race took place on the sun...

Aw that is so disappointing. I did Syracuse this year and thought it was an excellent, well organized race. It was very hot, but it's a crap shoot with weather in the Northeast. I loved the swim and the challenging yet beautiful bike course. And the run course was hard but fair. The volunteers were amazing being in that hot sun all day. I am sad about this race going away. It was a good one and will be missed! And it was the perfect training race for Lake Placid and other late summer Ironmans.

As a finance/cost accountant person I wonder how many participants it takes to break even and be profitable for WTC. Each race has different overhead and variable costs (depending on the location/country), but I'd love to know more about this. (i'm a geek)

Does anyone know of other races that WTC might be setting up in the Northeast for the future? Any rumors of new races? :-)[/quote]

I think the obvious choice and the "perfect training race" for Lake Placid would be Lake Placid 70.3 in this June spot in 2019.

I know when this was discussed in another Syracuse 703 thread and the weather in Lake Placid is always a concern, but I would rather do the 70.3 in Lake Placid in mid-June, then in early September as it is now scheduled.

That calculus is impacted by whether or not the race is wholly owned and operated by WTC, or whether they've entered into a licensing agreement with a race production company (see, e.g., Atlantic City 70.3 and DelMoSports, or Maine 70.3 with d/b/a Rev3).

The consensus is around 1500 registrants.

As shown by the declining numbers...can anybody take a wild guess as to where those participants went? Hint: it's another WTC event cannibalizing participation...

Exactly. Plus it cuts into the already insanely busy training camp / rental season. The September date just extends stuff out.

Tremblant 70.3 serves both the LP and Tremblant full warm up criteria. Rev3 Quassy/Tupper Lake already exist if you want to stay further south. I just don't see the additional market need to move to June.

First-year FOMO for last year. I think this year you're seeing a little softness in the late season with Maine/Atlantic City/Lake Placid pulling from the same region.

And I think you're seeing WTC taking a much more measured approach with regard to either renewing contracts or placing races on dates with the interest of killing some other event.

Or, you know, you could race Rev3 Quassy. Or Tupper Lake. Or White Mountains (if they move back to June).

There's plenty of pre-IMLP options out there.

I also didn't know that a licensed event was now considered "outsourcing," considering that licensing is what brought us to the boom period in the first place.

I would argue that Eagleman provides a surprisingly similar experience to IMLP - because you basically don't get to stop pedaling for so much of the course. There's very little rest/recovery outside of the Keene descent, which you do more pedaling on than you might think. People talk about the hills, but what they really mean is "I never get a break."

Bummer. I did it last year. Great early season tune-up for IMLP. A real reality check on the fitness.

I didn’t do it this season for a simple reason—it fell again on Father’s Day. Triathlon gives me enough opportunity to be an absentee parent. I don’t need to highlight that by skipping town on that day.

Timberman, Princeton, and now this. Replaced by a couple outsourced races (AC and Maine) and by an event on the busiest triathlon weekend of the year LP 70.3. IM really could use a pre IMLP race in the Northeast now.

The Musselman half in Geneva is a fantastic race and would be a great ‘replacement’ for Syracuse.

The Musselman 70.3 is a couple weeks before Syracuse 70.3. I always thought those two races were a bit much for upstate NY and way too close together from a scheduling standpoint.

I raced both and really like both. Syracuse was great, right close to my parent’s house. Musselman has more character, more of a tri festival weekend and great local support. And love the music along the run course.

So, at the end of the day, prob a good decision by WTC, but nothing really lost because the Musselman can be the pre-LP race for the region.

Here's a suggestion. Want a pre IMLP tune up? Race the American Zofingen duathlon. What it lacks in shiny IM glitz and kona seeking podium chasers it makes up for with solid elevation gain at half the price of any branded 70.3 race. The middle distance race has more gain than the full at LP.

Quassy is also a solid race if you simply must swim for your tune up.

Bummer. I did it last year. Great early season tune-up for IMLP. A real reality check on the fitness.

I didn’t do it this season for a simple reason—it fell again on Father’s Day. Triathlon gives me enough opportunity to be an absentee parent. I don’t need to highlight that by skipping town on that day.

Timberman, Princeton, and now this. Replaced by a couple outsourced races (AC and Maine) and by an event on the busiest triathlon weekend of the year LP 70.3. IM really could use a pre IMLP race in the Northeast now.

Do AmZof, then Tupper Lake, then IMLP.
There’s your ideal lead-up to LP.

AmZof as part of your build, and to get your hills on.
Tupper is a nice final big race-specific session 4 weeks out from LP.
You can even do one more big weekend around/before July 4th, then it’s taper time.

I don’t think you can draw it up much better than that.

No need at all for an overpriced, overhyped M.Dot event -
You’ll get your fill of that and then some at LP.