MBaier wrote:
dangle wrote:
Strangely enough, I have the rights to "Illinois Triathlon Championship." I don't know if anybody had filed for it prior to 2018. We tried to start a race last year in Rockford after obtaining that name and ran into some problems that resulted in us postponing it until this year. We had a "Rockford Triathlon" for years that paid good money and was even on the collegiate circuit for a bit. The Illinois DNR became impossible to work with and that ended that since there wasn't another body of water in the area we could swim in until recently.
Abe's Olympic is run by a really great group. I have heard fantastic things about Litchfield and would have done it by now if it weren't for IMWI and/or cyclocross season starting that same weekend.
You think you will have better luck this year setting it up? Any plans on a date or other logistics?
We're still trying to figure that out this month and meeting again shortly. I honestly think that calling it the "Illinois Triathlon Championship" last year scared people off. Local people kept referring to it as the 'Rockford Triathlon' or 'Screw City Triathlon' instead of its real name anyways. I also reached out to handful of people on here I knew were from the area since we were offering $2000 in total cash for the men's and women's podiums. I think we would still do that even if it wasn't a championship race. The other group trying to use that same name just added an 's' to championship anyways, so it's not like we really set ourselves apart with the name.
Our only swim option in Rockford is the super awesome (and super clean) wakeboard park on the southwest end. There's a little bit of city to navigate by the venue, but then it dumps out onto fairly flat and very fast country roads. They were also going to run free wakeboard (tow lines) demos for participants and their families. I'm really hoping we get everything in place for that this year.
I also approached a group west of here about helping host a gravel tri. There's a private community with a swimming lake that has a ~30 mile mostly gravel route right around it with about 2500 ft of elevation. We go out there a few times a year just to ride. A gravel duathlon or possibly just bike run would be so much easier logistically and give options besides June/July/August. That might be a 2020 (or never) kind of thing. I'm already RD for 3-4 spring cyclocross races and then helping with our time triathlon and duathlon all before Memorial Day.