I’m pretty fired up for this as I’ve pretty much given up on running but would love to go back. I’m having a discussion with a friend and am surprised she seems to be offended by the idea of the relay. She seems to feel it diminishes the accomplishments of the people doing it solo. I argue that it’s not a zero sum game. Someone finishing in a relay has nothing to do with someone finishing it on their own. The only potential problem I could see is the fresh cyclist could influence the race a bit at the pointy end, but I don’t think she’s talking about that. Regardless, I’m excited and hope they do it again next year.

I agree, I think IM would be great to open things up for relays.

I do not want to offend anyone on this forum, but I participate in long course IM events as a SOLO competitor. I do this to in conjunction with all the others who train hard and push their PERSONAL abilities. I for one will be extremely pissed off if WTC opens this race up to relays after I signed up to compete solo and to enjoy the experience with those that have a mutual purpose. Fine, you want to have a relay? Announce it up front at the inception of registration to allow folks to make an informed decision on whether or not they want to participate.

Good to know about the relay. I guess I can offer up my services to a team that needs a swimmer. I'm swimming 100K per month for the last few years straight (that's my average, not my max month), so I guess I could join a relay....I bet after all this crazy swimming I could swim a ton faster, but I doubt I am more than 5 min faster compared to when I used to race!

Is this supposed to be in pink?

I also think this will open up interest in the sport as a lot of runners would love to be part of an IM team.

I kind of get what you are saying. I have done a ton of races with relays, and it can be kind of demoralizing when you are struggling at mile 18 and some relay dude blows by like he is dancing on clouds....but I have tried to think about that person as the next athlete who will do triathlon and join our club. I've done 31 Ironmans so I kind of get both sides of this. At the end of the day, it is more important for WTC to have a feeder funnel to create new athletes to join the sport while enhancing revenue today. Aside from a few bruised egos of individual athletes feeling demoralized by relay guys flying by (and yes, my ego has been bruised, when heavy old dudes running at 3;28 marathon pace, smoke my skinny triathlete butt as I was on the 4 hour death march), there really is no down side provided there is space on the course and in transition.

....and in full disclosure I have a self interest. Having spent 30+ years racing in triathlon and not having raced since IM Tahoe 2018, maybe this offers me a chance to be part of the race day. I have volunteered, and done press etc, but honestly it is not particularly motivating for me to do that as much much as I am excited for other athletes getting to their goals. I feel more excited being part of the competition and then volunteering. I know its a bit selfish, but I can't help my personal neural network wiring. This stuff is hardcoded in my brain.

Dev

Just have them wear a bib number that start with an "R". Then you can ignore them out on the course. In theory they should all be way ahead of you at the end of the swim if they recruit a decent swimmer

I think there were some races in Europe that were Challenge but taken over by Ironman that left the relay option in at least for the first year.
Copenhagen comes to mind?

Not surprised by the enormous fragile ego's that can't handle getting passed by a relay competitor. I might do the relay just because they're so butthurt.