This has been done in last few days and here was the reply....Melissa was probably laughing while pasting this standard reply days later........

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As of now, the course that is published is the course that is in place, but please be aware that this is subject to change. If this does change, we will post all course changes on our website at www.ironman.com/texas and an email to athletes will be sent out. We encourage you to routinely check the website for updates.

Also, we are already past the Withdraw/Transfer Deadline for IRONMAN Texas which was last Wednesday, March 30th.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any further questions or concerns.

Thank you and have a great day!
MELISSA MCPHERSON
Assistant,
Athlete Services
IRONMAN®
2701 N. Rocky Point Dr. | Suite 1250
Tampa, FL 33607
P: 303.444.4316 M-F 9am to 5pm ET

Let me preface this by saying I didn't sleep much last, I was up with a sick toddler. Also haven't worked out yet today, so I haven't been able to mentally work through how crazy this might sound.
So the WTC is probably in a panic mode. I'm sure the last thing they want to do is give a refund to the 2,500+ athletes. Actually, financially speaking, they might be unable to afford refunding us. They would be looking at close to 2 million dollars in just registration fees. Plus they would have to refund Active fees, not sure how that would work, plus they would be out whatever money has been spent on the race itself and the cost of finishers gear, shirts and medals.
So this is where my crazy thought comes into play. What if they never get a bike course approved? If there is no silence from the WTC would we, as athletes ever know? Sure we could speculate and assume but we would never know for sure. It would just turn into us vs them. So they could come to Texas knowing good and well they have no intention of ever having us ride our bikes. At that point they start praying for rain, which would be the best case for them. They could say "roads aren't safe, we will still swim and run though." If there is no rain this is where it would get tricky. They could get one of these small towns that doesn't like the race there anyway to create a situation that would be unsafe for us to ride through. Knock a tree down over the road, have a controlled fire, something they could say wouldn't be safe. And if they never were going to have a bike course they could throw a little money around to make something like that happen.
I know that's a crazy idea but I just wouldn't put anything past the WTC to keep our money.

That seems pretty far fetched. I don't think Dr. Evil (some will disagree) is making race decisions at WTC.

You're right. It is extremely far fetched. But it is so crazy that it could work.

I suggest you get some sleep and/or go for a run. You'll be thinking more rationally then.

Btw, if past practices are indicative of future actions, there's precedent to believe WTC will do the right thing. Just look at how they bent over backwards to treat athletes right when they had to cancel Tahoe and postpone Maryland. If they get in a bind re the bike course, I firmly believe they will do the right thing by their customer.

The shooter from the grassy knoll is still available for contract work. Just him him pick off the first couple of cyclists out of transition and the race ends up being a swim meet.

if you think WTC is paying for this you are wrong. WTC will sue the woodlands township and get their money back. WTC has done "nothing" wrong. The Woodlands township and RD and group are the ones that have not done their jobs, The woodlands I assume would be in violation of their agreement with WTC to have the IMTX here and The Woodlands would then have to pay for their mess up in not having a bike course

You are right. I didn't even think about the fault being with the Woodlands and not WTC.
Well here is to hoping we get an answer today.
It's been nice having this event basically in my backyard but I'm nervous it won't be around much longer.
I know you mentioned Austin, don't know if you were just throwing out a new location for the race or not. But what about Galveston. Someone at work mentioned that as a possible new location if it was needed.

I think everyone is looking at this all wrong. If they cancel the bike soon, I'm going in. I can get through the swim and then bang out a good marathon. If enough people transfer/DNS, Kona spots will be easier (if they keep them).

Plus it will be an easy step closer to my Legacy spot.

Looking at the map, it would seem like opening up the possibility of getting to the east side of I-45 would open up a whole bunch more course options. If the course could take Woodland pkwy, Lake Woodlands Drive, or Research forest to Gosling, and then Gosling up to 242, we could take 242 east and use 1314/Conroe Porter, Old Houston Rd, Gene Campbell Rd, 1485, etc. It might not be ideal, but as a "something is better than nothing" band-aid for one year, it would be better than dealing with all the issues the current Option 2 presents. Could make a route going all the way up towards Cold Spring and New Waverly. Probably less disruptive than the previous course had been. There would be several hours early in the morning (8-1030am) and afternoon (noon-4pm) when the I-45/242 intersection would be jacked up, but with the Texas U-turns employed under the overpass, I think this would be far less disruptive than stubbornly sticking to the west side of I-45. Granted, I don't know the quality of these roads, but I know a few regular drop-in rides that head out that way, so they can't be that bad.

In a nod to the Classic Morgan Freeman movie Lean on Me, sing along with me yall!

"Fair Eastside...."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIKVj18BgXs

In my opinion, an aquathon is worse than cancelling. Partially because the bike is my strength, but also because I have no interest in driving down from WI for an aquathon and if they go that route I'm assuming any transfer options would be gone since the event is still being held.

It's too bad this is the only early season option in North America because transferring to another race in July or August really screws up my entire season, as I'm sure it does for everyone else.

The rolldown is based on official starters, so I don't think transfers or people who just don't pick up their packet count towards the allocation. Plus, those at the top of the age group would probably see it as an easy way to punch their kona ticket, so they aren't leaving...the quality would still be there, just not the quantity.

The bottom line is, people sign up and train and dream about doing a full ironman...not an aquathon. They organizers need to get all their shit in one sock and announce a course. Grease some palms if they have to. This whole "you basically need to sign up for the race a year ahead of time and start training 6 months ahead of time, but those of us planning the race can work out some half-assed route in the nick of time, and if you don't like it we'll keep your money anyway" just doesn't cut it. It's one thing when there are act of God situations like Tahoe and Maryland...but this is just incompetence and politics. If they can manage to put on a race in essentially third world countries, then they should be able to navigate the intricacies of SE Texas politics in order to pull off a race that has 5 years of PROVEN contribution to the local economy (especially when the oil industry and it's input into the local economy is going to hell) in an area with a HUGE local tri community.

Cutting off I45 service roads in any of those areas would be a HUGE disruption. There was talk of utilizing the I45 service road for the Grand Parkway route and that is only possible because there's small section of the service road is pretty quiet and you can bypass the high traffic areas through a few back roads. I think that could work as I used to use that route to get to a customers office sometimes and there was never much traffic. I agree that there are options utilizing 242, but the only way to get across is using the Woodlands Parkway overpass and there doesn't seem to be a route to get up to 242 easily without using the service road (which again would cause a huge issue in that area. I feel more unsafe driving there than on the interstate itself a lot of the time).

Certainly would be an issue. But no more of an issue than the Option 2 route that goes under 249 and several train tracks. Like I said, the Uturns under the overpasses would be available during those times, so no loss in accessability. If the construction on 149 is the only real issue, just use 1097 and Johnson road over to 1486 and do some loops over there, or head out towards Anderson and 1774. If the MS150 training series rides can do their rides year after year after year all over the area, I really don't see what the problem is. Get creative. Grease a few palms, and git er dun. I find it ironic that an event who's motto is "anything is possible" is getting so close to a major event without a published course.

I find it ironic that an event who's motto is "anything is possible" is getting so close to a major event without a published course.

Just speaking in the general here. The amount of minor things that these large races, that use large amounts of public roads, have to deal with is mind-boggling. Things may SEEM straight forward, but they seldom are.

An example: A client of mine is one of the largest Gran Fondo events in Canada with over 3,000 riders run by one of the best Race Directors in North America. The event was informed 3 months out from the race that a change in the way paid-duty police officers were allocated, would mean they would have to do with 5 less police officers. This was a change at the Provincial Police level. It had nothing to do with the municipality or the event itself . . . except, the permits issued for the roads by the municipality are predicated on X-number of police. If you don't have that number of police - you will not get your permits ( there are also complicated insurance implications with all this as well - but that's another story). So they had to make some rather radical changes to the route of the race - working within the police allocation.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Exactly. If there is a race, and it is offering slots, I am coming regardless of format.

Apologies also for the hijack. Steve and I have been around IM Communities for 25 years, and where you get an IM, you get an overlap of. Cyclists and cars. Many locals who do not economically benefit in the outlying communities hate the inconvenience we cause to them. Those who economically benefit like hotels-restaurants-bike shops etc love us, and they have a battle with those who don't benefit. Meanwhile those of us visiting are in for a race or a few camps, so maybe 2 weekends in the community, but every weekend there are other groups. We can get large, unruly and momentarily take over parts of the road and the friction escalates from there.

Steve, I realize that you know I can handle a bike. A buddy and I did a top 30 all time Strava descent of Alpe d'Huez, so I can hold my line and can have nerves of steel on a bike. I was not defending myself or the guys I ride with, I was defending many that you just grouped broadly. Most triathletes and cyclists that I know are fairly law abiding, so at least here on a tri forum there is no need to group the majority with the bad apples. It's just really a scenario where you have an influx of riders and cars. It's just stats.

In Ottawa where I live we have more than 100k of roads closed every Sunday morning for cyclists. It's just the way it is and cars know to plan another route. On the balance they don't get pissed off at us like they do in Placid or Penticton on weekends (and it seems Woodlands too), when we suddenly fill up the roads. We're on the roads all the time every day and cars get used to it because we are part of the community...they can't kick us out because we live here and the bike advocacy groups, bike clubs, tri clubs, community leaders etc would be ripping it up at city hall. In IM communities though, the riders clogging the roads on bikes are largely not local. Plus an affluent community like Woodlands does not really need our money. But places like Placid, Tremblant etc which are resorts want our money.

I really hope for everyone registered that they put on a full bike course. I am fortunate that in all my Ironmans I got to race the full distance in all of them, including forest fire threats multiple times in Penticton and Tahoe, earthquake in Kona, crazy deluges in Placid and recently in Whistler. Many times WTC could have cancelled, but they always stepped up. This is the first year in the last 3 don't have the health to do Texas and would be really bummed out if I was registered. It's a ton of training and finance to put into a shortened event or a swim-run. My guess is WTC is being quiet because there is a good chance they can pull something with a full course off. If not they will put the gears in motion to vector people over to other non sold out events. It is really too bad all of WTC events are in the late summer or fall now. For many doing IM Texas is the best shot to do an IM and free up summer for families!

In my opinion, this race will happen. It may very well be a swim/run. Legacy hopefuls (& some KQ chasers) couldn't ask for a better scenario.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Very well put on all points!

This is what has me scratching my head. I did the Grand Fondo ride this past weekend over a lot of the same route. I know for a fact that thing cause at least as much disruption to the roads. There was a significant amount of participation (maybe not rivaling IMTX, but over 1,000 for sure), and I found the riders in that ride would be more disruptive than someone who has spent enough time on a bike to train for an event like an IM. These were the people who pull their bikes out of storage a month or two before the MS150 and ride these roads not knowing all the "rules of the road". Only thing that was different is that we did not always have the right of way. We were required to stop at a few intersections. There are rides like this almost every weekend and I doubt any of them are getting this kind of kick back to the point of no longer happening.

I had been hoping to maybe attempt the IMTX next year. I planning to do the Oil Man Texas 70.3 in Conroe at the end of this year and using that as a gauge to see if I have the time to add in the additional training for the IM. I know November is typically a little late to be signing up for IMTX, so maybe the only good thing to come out of this is registration will be down for next year and I still have a shot to sign up that late, haha.

I'm a legacy hopeful and I could ask for a better scenario - a full course. It's not worth spending the vacation time, effort, and (additional) money to travel to Houston for a 28.6 mile race.

IMTX 2016 sold out on Nov 5, 2015. Next year's registration will be affected by the date shift to 22 April 2017 and by the outcome of this year's bike course. If they pull off a temporary Band-Aid 112 miler, folks will still worry about the local political climate for 2017 and a potential repeat. And if the bike course is curtailed or cancelled entirely (and an aquathlon or no-race results) then registrations will not just be slower, they will plummet.

Also, WTC might react to the politics and not even offer IMTX 2017 registration at this year's race if they have an alternative in their pocket. I doubt they want to go through this again themselves next year. It took only a few months for WTC to find an alternative to IM Penticton when they moved to Whistler. So even if they do announce something for 2016, it will be very interesting to see if they open 2017 registrations next month.

This irritates me. At this point it is well known, at least to the people who are paying attention, that there is no approved bike course. A bunch of us have even listened to those county commission meetings and we know full well there is nothing approved here. Yet, the WTC straight-up lies when asked point blank? What is that all about?

Received same email

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Ironman Certified Coach

Currently accepting limited number of new athletes

Why did type (additional) money?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.