Kitz wts is a mountain climb on the bike and run.

---

___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I was three years old in '92 :-P

Now. The real question is which one of you old timers is the one that sonic boomed me at mile 10 of the run last Saturday?

I raced it in 1992. Some serious memories of that epic race. First, the crash of the woman on the bike leg in front of me. She lost a fanny pack in her front spokes and went end over end. I stayed with her till help arrived. She was rushed to the hospital and had surgery - spleen I think. I had two flats on the downhill at 50 mph - scary stuff! Then, going over the last pass our group hit the sleet showers - being near naked we were all required to remain in the tent until our temperature reached an acceptable level. Looking at my transition time, I had nearly the longest time in the transition tent at 29:15. I was dying to get out of there! On the epic run - all I remember was the chocolate chunk cookies on top of one of the mountain water stations. I took one, ran 30 yards and turned around and went back for more. In the end I placed third in my age group and the 1st and 2nd place finishers passed on the slot for Kona and I accepted. I went on to race in Kona. What an epic event and year! It was truly the Worlds Toughest Triathlon!

OMG David Turner! That dude won GFT the first year too. I remember him coming back by me on the only place on the course where we doubled back and he was just flying.

Didn't have innerwebbing to keep track of people back then do you happen to know if he is still racing? Damn that guy was a stud beast!

Prior to WTT there was another race I did in the mid 80's called Estes Alpine Classic, that laid claim to the Toughest triathlon as well.
In Estes Park Colorado, it started out with a 27 mile mountain run up to 11,000', followed by 72 hilly miles on the Peak to Peak
then a 2 mile swim in a crowded 25 SCY municipal pool. Did this race in 84 & 1985. They only had this race a few years...a fellow
by the name of Harry Kent (mountain goat), and Tom Charles (former top 5 in Kona) won it.

Memories include guys stuffing baked potatoes from the pre race meal into a bag for the bike turnaround, rain, thunder and lightning
on the ride, and severe leg cramps in the pool to the point where I couldn't push off the wall.

Anyone else remember this race?

Here's video from the 1991 World's Toughest. My friend Larry's parents video'd it.
He got 4th in his age group and I did the same in mine. I missed qualifying for Kona by 1 spot; dude passed me in I think mile 13 of the run.

https://drive.google.com/...WWNNczNSZ2VVbFE/view

Oh man thanks for posting the video. I have a VHS video from 92 or 93, I should try upload it as well.

---

"Grab a Brew Don't Cost nothing"

I got one of these to convert VHS to digital.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029U2YSA
Then you can upload the vid to YouTube.
Unfortunately, this vid was too large so I uploaded it to Google Docs

Hey thanks for posting that. I really enjoyed watching it!

Dev

Kind of freaky looking back, isn't it?
I still can't believe how epic that was.

I am assuming you have done Ironman Kona. If so, which would you say was more difficult?
I'd venture to say that even if you give Ironman the nod for longer swim and bike, the WT run puts it in a class by itself. If the winner is going ~10 pace you know it is brutal.

2.5 year late response, but Steffen Brocks was pointing to this thread....here is my order of hardest to easiest

1. World's' Toughest Tahoe 1993 2 mile swim, 100 mile bike 18.6 mile run
2. IM Tahoe 2015
3. IM Hawaii (did it 2006, 2010, 2013)

To put it in perspective my 1993 run split was 3:44. In the same year in the spring I ran a 2:48 open marathon. The old WTT bike course just shelled me. I did not even break 6 hours for 100m miles and I wobbled into transition barely unable to keep my bike up. IM Tahoe, I did 5:39 off something insanely low like 166W. It felt easy compared to the 1993 course.

Thanks for your response.
That means that since I did World's Toughest -- and have never done a "real" Ironman -- I don't really need to :-)

Well, I came across my '85 WTT bib. That was the year Molina did the Tri solo and Lemond, Tito and forget who swam that relay team. Thought I would post for historical reasons.

'85 was a bit longer than the later years. The race started at Richardson for 2.5 M swim, bike 130M South over 89 Luther, East to 395, south to Hwy 89, up over Monitor Pass and back over Luther to Stateline. The run, 30M, followed the East side of Tahoe along Hwy 50 to Spooner, backtracked South on the jeep trails to Kingsberry Grade and back down to Stateline. Google maps says the mileage is about right, but who knows.

Water temps ran at 56F due to early Labor Day snow fall. Hot tub dip was a must after that swim. Wet suit rules were evolving and it was allowed/not allowed and then forget how it landed. The ride was part wet, part dry but mostly cold. Many folks dropped due the wind chill after being wet at altitude and deep freezing after tucking the long descents. Aid stations were very far an few between.

The run was a bit nutz since there were no aids on the trail portion. I ended helping a lady who was lost, confused and cold to get off the gravel and onto the paved road at Kingsberry Grade. I left here with aid workers and sprinted to the finish as best I could but missed the cutoff @ 14 hrs I think. This was my 3rd Tri and may have help qualified me for WS 100 the next year. I was young and d-numb!

Wow, that '85 edition - just insane. It is just amazing that people actually completed it. And congrats to you!

I remember that 85 race, but I recall the distances a bit different than you posted here. I seem to remember that it was a 3 mile swim, 120 mile bike, and a 27 mile run. They wanted to be just a bit longer than a regular ironman, thus the worlds toughest moniker. But of course they did not need the distance, the course itself was the worlds toughest no matter what the distance they put on it.

Perhaps Molina will see this and chime in, since he actually did and won it!!!

So who won the Molina vs Lemond's relay team race in 85? Who had the faster bike split?

Molina did it individually, while Lemond was on a pretty fast relay, so of course the relay won. But as I recall, Molina was not too far off all those individual splits by himself, which surprised no one back then who knew him and his legendary training regime...And Scott got the 10 grand all to himself too!!

This year I am considering attempting the second edition of Formosa Xtreme Triathlon.

Distance is ironman distance.

Ocean swim.
Bike is 90% climbing, following the same route as Taiwan KOM (80km, 3700m ascent, 3275m peak elevation) which has been ranked in top 10 most difficult climbs by Bicycling Magazine. The additional distance is made up on a different climb.
Run is completed at an elevation over 3000m and includes 27% gradients in places. Part of it semi-offload.

Race is completely self-supported with a car. Also required to have a partner runner for the last portion of the run.
66% of people DNF'd the first year.
Race is held end of November, meaning you may start in warm conditions and end in the cold. Last year was 30C at the bottom of the hill and the race finish was below 0C.

I'm not sure if this is the toughest triathlon in the world, but it is certainly a tough one!

Sounds like a really tough race Darren, good luck and have fun!!

Very similar to the old worlds toughest, except the swim there was at 6500ft in a very cold lake, then the ride is either up or down going over 9000ft passes, and the run was virtually all on trails, with 30+% grades that you literally pulled on tree roots to get up. One year it snowed during the swim and all the passes were pretty cold, but they did have a couple hot tubs at the swim and bike transition to lets folks thaw out before going onto the next event. I wish Molina would get on here and give us a little remembrance of that race, 3mile/120mile/27 mile as I recall, all between 6k to 9k ft. elevation....