Nutmegman in CT is no walk in the park. But its on hiatus this year...shh..I think the word got out people suffer on this HIM..

cheers
S.

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// qui audet adipiscitur

I was thinking Hawaii...duh...but what about Arizona, Lake Placid and Louisville, maybe Florida...but halfs im clueless.

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Disco
South Bend, IN

Habitual Line Stepper..

I've heard Savageman is a really tough Half
The Little Smokies is really hard half too, especially after doing 2 olympics on saturday

jaretj

Just a few that I know are really tough..

halfs - Wildflower, Auburn, Silverman, savageman
full - Silverman, IM Canada, IM Lake Placid...and I hear on good authority that IM St George is going to surprise a lot of people with how tough it is.

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__________________
JP

my twitter feed

"worlds toughest half" has to be up pretty high on that list.

also:

-wildflower
-silverman
-IM Lanzarotte
-Norseman
-American Zofingen (not a HIM or IM, but still)

Just did a very tough "almost a half" down in Louisiana. If you like small, old school races, check out the Holy Toledo Tri. http://www.holytoledotri.com/

The "run" course was just ridiculous....

G

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It's a little like wrestling a gorilla.........you don't stop when you're tired.........you stop when the gorilla is tired.

Muskoka 70.3 is the toughest half I have ever done and I've done 13 halfs (7 different courses). Hilly bike and hilly run.

outside the US i hear 70.3UK is one of the hardest

I predict St. George will rise to the top of the list in No. America, given the run which is certifiably brutal.

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Lar Dog

Depends on how you define hard.

Hills on the bike and run - Rev3 in CT,

Heat & humidity and no wet suit - Florida

Both are spring races.

I'm surprised nobody has brought Providence 70.3 into the thread. That race kicked my ass. The swim was in the Atlantic with swells pushing 8 feet. The bike was the hardest I've done. My split in Orlando was 2:12 and 2 months later in Providence my split was 2:33. The run is through providence and sends you up college hill not once but twice.

Not in America, but the Rotorua 1/2 IM in New Zealand has to count as pretty hard. Lotsa hills on the bike, rough roads, generally pretty windy, and the run is off road about 1/2 the time and the on road stuff has some significant hills.

I'm 30-40 minutes slower at Rotorua than I was doing the Taupo 1/2 Ironman, at similar fitness levels.

May or may not be the hardest in the world, but the RD puts a sign on the steepest part of the last hill on the bike that reads "Prepare to meet Jesus!" He is a riot, but certainly not a liar. hehehe

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Savageman and I predict St. George

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Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.

+1, done both. Doing TTT this year and Savageman too, again. Although this year they changed the Savage man Oly race to Saturday instead of the same day as the half and I think I'm stupid enough to sign up for and do both. Will be like doing two TTT's this year, one in the spring and one in the fall. With IMLP in between.

Oh, and in case I've completely lost my mind my friends are all doing Rev3 the weekend before Savageman and are trying to talk me into doing the half. So if I cave it will be Half, Oly, Half in 7 days with the last race being the Savageman half. Don't know why, but it sounds fun....

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Man I hope Orlando 70.3 isn't one of the hardest lol. I realize no wetsuit, but didn't figure on to heavy humidity/heat for May; Austin was hot enough!! We'll see!! I'm not one to seek the hardest stuff yet . . . i just wanna get my times comfortably under 5:00! before Florida IM (my first . . . goal 11:00 eek!)

FL 70.3 was 94 and 100% humidity when I did it in 2008. The run was brutal, people were puking and cramping like crazy. It has been cool down there this year though so far...

I thought it would be easy. The swim was long and/or the lack of the wet suit slowed me more than I expected. The bike was a blast - by far the easiest I've done. The run was beyond painful in the heat and humidity and lack of a breeze. I was 15 minutes FASTER (total time) at Toughman which is full of hills on both the bike and run. But I'm from the North, so I'll assume the heat is a bigger issue for me than most. Good luck..

I did a gpx files from almost all the ironman 70.3 circuit... you can see it there... http://trimes.org/gpxparcours-ironman/

and from google earth the hardest is Muskoka for sure... around 1200m

UK is 1000m, Germany is 1200m

Nobody mentioning the Embrunman?

We have a small race in TN called Atomic man 1/2 (Near Knoxville, TN)...The bike is constant big rollers...the run is hilly...its in late Sept, so the temps can get pretty warm as the sun rises.

The Beast of the East is a good one.

http://www.thebeastoftheeast.net/

Two I am doing this year are fairly brutal.

Rev 3 Quassy is all hills for bike and run. Not sure if there are any real flat spots.

Timberman in NH has a ton of 3% to 9% grade hills, average grade is 2%, and total elevation is 6505. Almost 11 miles of climbing

I'm sorry, did you just say that Arizona and Florida are some of the toughest IM races?

I was asking if they are...I would say yes but I have never done them

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Disco
South Bend, IN

Habitual Line Stepper..