Fred I will be at Whistler ....can we give the win to Canada in general :)

I did help at Ironman Mont-Tremblant but cannot take all the credit, this was a team work with our great Race Director Dominique Piche as well as the amazing crew from WTC. We had many RD on site from other WTC events at Mont-Tremblant this year.

Most of them are the same crew that will be at Whistler making sure you have the best customer experience. This was the first chance for me to step away from timing & results to help out more on the logistical side of the event. The new RD has been selected at Whistler and will be announced shortly. The team in place will have a lot of experience....this event will sell out shortly BTW...

Serious question, curious to understand your stance on this, and perhaps you have access to facts that I do not -

How specifically might they have articulated their position to you? I mean, it is not like they had access to the WTC email contact list so they could send out a statement to previous IMC athletes. Though a single exhaustive explanation is hard to come by, there have been many articles in local news sources over the last few weeks outlining Penticton's position in bits and pieces. Just one example:
http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/news/171246751.html

On the surface, given a sufficient number of athletes will commit (admittedly still a big question mark), it looks like a better deal for Penticton. What information have you been given that would suggest I should not trust the position as outlined in the local media? What do you know that the rest of us do not that leads you to conclude this is an act of politics rather than economics?


All fair questions…

I think they've done a much better job of getting a more detailed explanation out to people in the past few weeks but it was too late for me. I had already moved on. I suspect the timing of everything played a huge part. One thing that sticks out though... This all happened *very* quickly and I've rarely seen a quick decision made like this based on economics. Why couldn't this same article have come out just after the race if the decision was truly based on economics? There are many ways to inform athletes without getting an e-mail contact list.

Having said all that, like I stated above, I have some other inside information that says there was an "influencing factor" but that's all I'll say. If I said anything else then it would have the potential for others to look bad, blow out of proportion, etc, so I'm not willing to go there.

Anyway, at this point, I don't care. I've moved on...

AND .... Interestingly enough ... A quick search of the active registration reveals ... Zero participants from Penticton !!!
Not one Pentictoid is willing to cross over to the "dark side" to grab Kona Slot glory ??? Impressive ... Or the search engine was incorrect :-(

I believe that Tom Evans from Penticton said he would have to find another race outside of town to get a Kona slot.

Awesome! My AG... sigh... :-)

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http://www.frostyjunction.com/
https://twitter.com/FrostyJunction

I believe Tom said that he is racing 45-49 next year. If that is your age group, then on the plus side you get to race Tom Evans. On the down side you don't get to race Ken Glah and Pierre Lavoie who are moving up....depends on your perspective of whether you want fast guys in your age group or not. I find of like it when these guys set a really high bar, and the fact that guys are former pros and still live the sport enough to keep racing long after their fastest racing days.

I did not realise he is aging up. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind having former pro's in my AG. They can't stay pro forever. I just happen to witness Tom completely destroy the AG field at CDA this year. It is very humbling :)

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http://www.frostyjunction.com/
https://twitter.com/FrostyJunction

I thought he lived outside the city limits...

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Well, the OP may still win this one, but all the predictions of an instant sellout are now DEAD WRONG. I still don't believe it will be a sellout, especially if you set the bar at the same number they registered for this year's IM Canada.

For the first time ever I couldn't be more happy to be wrong. ;-) That would be awesome if it doesn't sell out. The less, the better.

I hear you loud and clear. A field of 1500-2000 tops is the sweet spot. That's enough people to create a lot of race mojo, but no so many that you have an inherent draft fest. Plus, races that don't sellout give people options if plans don't work out.

You would have been far better served as a customer if you'd signed up for Challenge Penticton instead. They have a far better refund policy.

I, for one, just simply do not understand the continued fascination with WTC's Ironman branded races for the vast majority of people. If you have a legitimate shot at a Kona slot, it makes sense but otherwise you're paying a premium for Mike Riley.

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The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A fake Albert Einstein "quote"

Agreed, but with 100 slots....I better have a shot...if not I'm done with the IM distance!

I live in NYC, but have a part time home in Whistler, absolutely love the place and everything about it.

I understand. Good luck on the race and chase.

I'll be doing my first full distance race in several years next year ... in Penticton. I signed up for it just because it was a Challenge race. I'm so over WTC it's not funny. But even I have to admit the Kona race is fun. Enjoy it.

EDIT: Anyone know if Challenge has drug testing? After all I'll be in KM's age group. ;)

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The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A fake Albert Einstein "quote"

If you look at the entrants city by city on active.com they are probably well past the 2000 mark. I wonder if Whistler has pushed for a larger field in that they have allot more hotel accommodation than Penticton.

If challenge is sanctioned via tribc it will for pros but likely not for AG. CCES can just show up at any sanctioned race and test.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I just went to the IMC registration page and clicked on the 'conform your registered' link and added city and province and note that Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Seattle and Toronto have ~350 total registrants. I assume if you spent enough time listing larger cities you could guess how many registrants there are currently (and compare to prior years).

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ItsAGoodLifeIfYouTriIt

I checked out Calgary and Edmonton, over 100 there. Considering Challenge is closer that's a bit. I suspect Whistler will have more from Asia than Penticton did while Challenge will draw more Euros in than before.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I guess anyone who said "immediately" lost. I suppose November is still a possibility, but the hype has already died down.

Meanwhile, in the non-Slowtwitch world: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/...13/muddy-road-races/

WTC is a WADA signatory and I would bet without actually checking, that Challenge is too.

I was commenting about challenge.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Challenge is not "yet".......it is in the works, but so far their races are held under the Local/National Tri Fed rules as sanctioned races.

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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>X
If you run long enough....something is bound to happen

Although the whistler course is similar in vert to the old IMC, I think the structure (bigger hill at the start) and like you say a few less people will help this be a cleaner race.

At least thats what I'm hoping, I wasn't really to keen on the whistler bid initially because I thought it would be an easier bike. Now that it's in the "moderate" category with some hills at the start to break things up I am hopeful of a "cleaner" race, signed up last week!!

They dont need to sign wada if they sanction with an NF, the code os automatic

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)