It's not a cheap sport but some people make it more expensive than necessary by their equipment choices. Entry fees though are something we have no choice about. Then there is the cost of accomodation and travel. Guess that's why I'm happy to be living in an area where there are sprints, olys, 1/2's and as of next year an IM, all within 1-3 hrs of where I live.

who's putting this on? do you have a llink to the details?

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"I'm happy when life's good,
and when it's bad I cry.
I've got values but I don't know how or why."
- The Who

Who is making the money on these races? Bike races are way cheaper, and you have a chance of winning some of your money back. Any of you guys won much money in a triathlon? It seems to me the race directors must be taking a larger chunk of the pie. A 500 person 1/2IM at $200/person is $100,000 dollars. Yes they have costs, but sponsors should cover a lot of that. (see slowman's article "How to be a race director") Wouldn't it be nice to get a little cash prize every once and while? I don't understand why there is such a huge difference in cost between tri's and cycling.

go to www.trisportcanada.com or www.somersault.ca to access the races of which Cerveloguy speaks. They are great quality and affordably in the range that DC Pattie speaks of.

thanks! i've done a few of the trisport canada races, but somersault is new to me. appreciate the link!

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"I'm happy when life's good,
and when it's bad I cry.
I've got values but I don't know how or why."
- The Who

There will be an IM in Ottawa on Sept 3, 2005. Part of the Somersault series.

http://www.somersault.ca/

I'm one of the directors on the organizing committee for the Ironman event. I'll pass on news on this board as well as solicit feedback from your collective years of wisdom with respect to catering to Irondudes :-). To get an idea of how fast the course is, have a look at the 2004 half Ironman results here:

http://www.sportstats.ca/res2004/oht.htm

The guy who won the half this year, Charles Perrault, also won Tupper Lake. I went 4:30 with a broken spoke in my front wheel and brakes rubbing for 50K. This is a PB Ironman course if you can endure 12 loops on the bike. It will be great for spectators and athletes

You can race the Canadian Iron Distance event for $300 CDN which is less than Alcatraz :-)

Dev

The other day we where totalling up our yearly race fees.... in excess of $2500 just in entry fees!

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I was, now I will tri again!
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Any time is a good time.
God Bless you my friend.

HI Dev,

I am so excited about an Iron distance race coming to Ottawa!! 2005 wasn't going to be an Iron year but this location and the time of year now make it feasible. I am wondering though about where the bike is? With twelve loops are we in town (ugh)? I am assuming (but not knowing the Ottawa area that well) that we are not in the Gatineaus ? Is the run along the canal?

thanks,

alison

Hey Paul,

Not too sure how long you have been with Somersault, but just to let you know, multisport series have been putting on great races, and improving over the last 2-3 years that I have been racing. If you would like some detailed feeback, I'd be more than willing to provide.

The only Somersault race that I have done is the early bird Ottawa back in 2003. I liked the course, but the day was awful, rain, windy and about 12 degree C. I don't mind the rain, but the cold and wind was really taxing.

Next year will be my first 1/2 ironman. Someone told me tonight at my masters club that the Ottawa course is great, especially as a first, and having it on the labour day weekend would work perfectly for me. So I guess I will see you next year.

Mark

"if you can endure 12 loops on the bike."

That'll be the painful part of Ottawa. A 15 km loop with a try-a-tri, sprint, 1/2, and IM all going on at the same time. 12 loops of that course will not be fun. How do you spell "yawn".

I really like the bike course in the sprint events I've done because it's balls to the walls for two laps and fun blowing past many of the 1/2 IM folks pacing themselves. But at the same time it's dangerous because the two short events attract quite a range in cycling kills - everything from seasoned roadies/TT'ers doing their one sprint tri of the year for fun, beginner trigeeks on steep angle bikes, and try-a-tri types on their hybrids. I've had a couple of very near hits over the past couple of years. In fact my wife hit a less experienced rider at the entrance to T2 last year because the other rider stopped suddenly before she was supposed to when entering the transition zone. Also I've had to dodge pylons knocked over and dropped water bottles. Last year I even got stuck in a tight group "peleton" of about 10-12 riders obviously illegally drafting. I passed them but ran out of steam and they sucked me in again so I adopted the attitude if you can't beat "em, join 'em" for about 10 kms before they started to break up. The marshalling in Ottawa isn't the best but it's also a hard course to control I'm sure.

Mooney's Bay for the swim ain't Kona either but the run course should be really good.

It should still be a really good event but I'll still argue with you that Prince Edward County south of Belleville could be a better IM location in many ways.

I suspect Ottawa will be my first ever IM distance event in 2006. Was thinking LP, but Ottawa is so much closer and less expensive.

On this forum you are not allowed to ask that question. We are just supposed to assume that the RD slaves away sacrificing for his only joy, seeing athletes race.

I'm guessing that like every other business a few make good money, quite a few break even and a large chunk lose money due to poor location and/or poor business decisions.

When IMWI sells out in 13 hours, I don't think the message being sent is "your race fees are too much".

At this point, demand is greater than supply ... so, guess what happens to the price of the supply?

Their are races out their that fit your price-distance ranges.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --