Wow! Didn't realize the field was so small. I grew up in Ocean City, about 100 miles from Cambridge, and now live in SoCal, but I was thinking of doing that for my first (and possibly last) full IM in 2006 since my family would be able to come down at midnight to see me cross the finish line! Ha, ha. Plus, the eastern shore is so flat, it might be a good way to go for a first-time IM. Hope the race is still there in '06!

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My business-eBodyboarding.com

I raced it last year and finished 2nd overall. Despite the bad weather at the start (fog, delayed the start), I had a great time. R.V. is puts on the best races I've ever done. Everything is done right with the athlete being the first priority. The R.V. and the columbia tri assoc have made the Eagleman 1/2 what it is not the WTC. They also do the classic Columbia tri every May. I've done all three races and could not give you a single complaint except crossing the Bay bridge to get to the race. The course is beautiful and everything is done to make the race great for the athletes.

I'm not doing the race this year because I moved back home to Chicago after being in school in DC for the last three years. If I were there, no question, I would do the race.

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Kev

I'd love to love it, but it keeps falling on weekends that don't fit with my teaching. It's about 11 hours away, and I need to leave early Friday, but both last year and this year there have been professional development days on the Friday, and I'd lose my head if I snuck off on one of those. For '06, however, I am planning to beg with my principal to have nothing special scheduled for the day before C-man. i've done E-man twice and love the area, and C-man is my tentative iron for '06.

I'm very sorry it has such a small field as of now. Is it too close to Blue Devil in terms of time and location, perhaps? As for that small field, however, I did The Canadian Iron last Saturday, and I loved when all 70 of us were alone on the course together on the run, after all the other races on that day had ended. I hung around at the finish line until the end, kind of amazed that I recognized virtually everybody who crossed the line. There's a lot to be said about the collegiality that develops in small irons!

(There is one thing NOT to love about ChesapeakeMan - the guy in the logo doing the butterfly, for god's sake! He might as well be moon-walking --- the butterfly just doesn't happen in triathlons, especially irons!!)

Besides all the reasons listed above - my feeling from talking to athletes that I work with is that after two other races on a lot of the same course in the same year, people are looking for something different. It is beautiful out there, but flat is flat.

The configuration of the course is another reason to try to love ChesapeakeMan. This is especially true for the swim, which is point-to-point; if I'm going to swim in my usuual sub-standard fashion for about 80 minutes, I'd much rather do it in a staright line with no repetition! As for the bike and run portions, the bike is essentially the same - two loops - as many other irons, but there's what looks to be about 20 miles befoe the loops that add some variety. The set-up of the run seems to favor mental relief, wherein one goes a long ways out Egypt Road and then to Key Wallace Drive for the first out-and-back, but then the second out-and-back only makes it halfway down Egypt before turning around and heading for the finish. Beautiful area, intriguing course -- should be well worth loving. (But that damn butterfly guy in the logo!)

I am really toying wth the idea of going to that race as I love Eagleman, Bob V is a class act and it is close by. Only problem is that it might hinder my Kona + IMF results, but hey, an IM so close, "What's another ice cream sundae?"

The popularity of the WTC ironman races vs. non-WTC 'ironman' races is an interesting conundrum. At what price point will the non-WTC events become attractive options for people? Or is it not about the entry fee?

Maybe it is a chicken and egg kind of thing where most people who want to do an IM only want to participate in a big (i.e., ~2000 competitors) event. How can the small events attract more participants if they don't have the buzz (and sheer volume of competitors) of the larger events?

Unfortunately, the economics probably don't make sense for Bob V. to continue with ChesapeakeMan (as a stand-alone event) if it only attracts 100 or so people.

Regards,

Matt

You know, I was just wondering the same thing the other day about the Blue Devil race 10/8/05. We were down there a couple of years ago with a relay team and there were about 300 or so registered participants. This year, we're headed back with another relay (something you can't do at a IMNA race), but the registered participants at this point, just a month away, are only 151.

It's been nice knowing you had the option of doing one of these races, especially if you are based in the Mid-Atlantic region, but you have to wonder if that "option" is going to exist for much longer if the registrations don't increase.

Stan

Having now done two irons - IMLP last year, The Canadian last week - I much prefer the non-M-dot route. Part of this is economics (i.e., high entry fees and minimal motel stays of 3-4 nights, required by the motels, for the M-dots), but part of it is just atmosphere - as I said above, knowing most of the other competitors by sight made the race feel much more tight-knit. The huge rush of the IMLP finish was awesome, as were all of the bells and whistles, but now that I've done that I don't feel the need to repeat the adventure. This is similar to the way I feel about the Boston Marathon - a phenomenal event to be sure, but I have no desire to go through the headaches again in order to experience the rush again (at least anytime soon).

Pineman Full and Ultramax Full each died after '04, and I sincerely hope that ChesapeakeMan, Blue Devil, and other independents don't follow them. But Blue Devil numbers have declined over the past few years, and there will undoubtedly come the point at which R.V. and B.S. decide to pull the plug unless their numbers increase. I am fixing on doing C-man in '06, but if my school schedule can't accommodate it then I will do Blue Devil instead -- if either is still around!