I thought the RD that did the HyVee and the Des Moines Triathlon (PEM out of Louisiana I believe) did a fantastic job, would love to see them do the half there.

Who gives an eff! If you attack the course any race is hard to include sprints and 5k’s.

Hah, until I saw this, I totally forgot that without St.G 70.3 that there was no NA champs. Can't imagine des moines will provide much of a challenging course.

I also imagine that the roll-downs for NZ will be historical there since not a lot of NA-based athletes will be in the mood to go, this is a bit later in the qualifying season, and even with NA Champs status, it likely won't attract much talent outside of the Chicago, Minneapolis, KC areas. n=1, Even though I'm not a podium factor, it certainly doesn't feature on my list of destinations and NA champ status doesn't affect that at all.

Uh...New Zealand? There's a reason people didn't want to go to RSA, it's hella dangerous. New Zealand is amazing.

Someone whose strength is running might give an eff. A tougher run course would be to their benefit.

Then skip Des Moines and you can stop trying to find reasons to whine. The rest of us will enjoy an inaugural championship race with a great atmosphere.

Since the course hasn’t been determined, don’t you think the bitching about the venue is a little preemptive?