Been to Mt. Tremblet when they had the Poutine. Poutine sucks IMO. Give me onion rings or fries with white vinegar any day!

Poutine sucks IMO. Give me onion rings or fries with white vinegar any day!
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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

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Fine by me!

(Not pink)

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Probably the best reason to choose Tulsa is that you will get in without stressing about whether or not it is going to sell out in a week. And if you like heat, that could be a big plus...

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I agree.My sister lives in Montreal and I've been to Quebec many times for events and ridden through from the east coast.I never liked poutine.That said the Jeffers Fries van in Penticton is a must visit place for me to eat in town during any of my many visits.Thier fries are just awesome and malt vinegar for me.

Redman in OKC

I lived in Tulsa and I currently live in Louisville. I did IMLou before I moved to Tulsa, but now I’m back in Louisville.

Here are my observations and comparisons:

Culturally and socially, Tulsa is getting its act together in terms of being place to visit and do interesting stuff. There are some pockets of places with good bars and restaurants, but nowhere near the quality and quantity of Louisville. Cherry Street, Downtown, the area around the Drillers’ Stadium, Guthrie Green, The Center of the Universe, Cain’s Ballroom, etc, are getting better and are honestly perfectly fine. The Tulsa Museums are actually world-class. If you’re comparing to Louisville for culture, dining, pubs, cocktails, etc, Louisville is a better bet for the family or young couples.

Rt 66 is the centerpiece of the city. Huge pride in that road, which is marked by road signs everywhere. There’s a great sculpture where Rt 66 starts across the Arkansas River (or crick or gulch or trickle, depending on the year). It is said that the true western USA starts at that exact point: the country opens up and spans westward just as 66 crosses the river.

As for the race: Keystone Lake is going to be much warmer than the Ohio River, and will have no currents. The bike course is much more rolling than you’d imagine: there are some really great rollers on the course, some longer than the rollers in Louisville. The run through downtown will be great.

Tulsa does have a very proud endurance sports scene. Most famous is Tulsa Tough, which is a weekend of bike racing the includes pro and amateur crits, a popular century ride, and the famous “Crybaby Hill.” The annual Rt 66 Marathon is a big deal, as is the 15k Tulsa Run. There’s even a great OWS race, Tallchief, that is one of the best in the USA (and a race I won 5 times!).

If you do drive to Tulsa, be prepared for HUGE expanses between cities. Coming from the east, there is almost nothing between Joplin and Tulsa, a stretch of almost 100 miles. There’s a tollbooth and a service plaza halfway. Coming from the west and north Texas, you’ll find that distance between OKC and Tulsa even longer with even fewer services. I can hardly think of more remote city pairings than OKC and Tulsa, right there in the middle of this vast continent with nothing else remotely nearby. KC, StL, DFW, Little Rock are all at least a 4 hour drive, and only StL can be reached directly by interstate highway.

Since I do have connections in Tulsa, I’m very happy for the community for getting this race. I think they’ll do a fine job!

Tulsa is a fantastic city and one that heavily supports the athletic community. The cycling and running communities there are absolutely insane. Check Tulsa Tough and the Route 66 marathon. These are 2 of the best athletic events in the country.

As Rob Bell stated in an earlier post, The Gathering Place is a HUGE park and will be a blast to run through. I bet the crowds there will be nothing short of crazy and awesome. However, a finish downtown means hills....lots of them. Now if only IM can work a loop or 20 of cry baby hill in the race! The bike course will be challenging, but hey, it is Ironman...it is supposed to hurt.

I lived in Tulsa for 31 years. I plan on this race being my first full length Ironman. With Riverside, Blue Dome district, Cherry Street and the Gathering Place the run course will be a lot of fun. Weather this time of year is tricky. Could be 80's sunny and wonderful, 100+ and insanely humid (think hell on earth) or pouring down rain and chilly. Crowd support should be awesome, Tulsa doesn't have pro sports or major college sports so when things come to Tulsa people tend to get really excited. It is a very very easy city to get around, traffic is not bad and the city is laid out on a grid so most streets run north south east west.

We are looking forward to putting on another great IRONMAN event in Tulsa!


T1 is located Keystone lake and is approximately 24 miles away.


Bike course has rolling features similar to Wisconsin


T2 is located on the OSU-Tulsa campus. Athlete Registration and Expo will be located adjacent to this location.


T2 will also be the home of Bike Check in! Rack your bike at T2 along with your Swim to bike bag


Free of charge, we will take your T1 equipment to Keystone Lake, rack your bike and place your swim to bike gear in the appropriate location


Also, during bike check in at T2, bring your bike to run bag and you can place it in the appropriate location.


T2 on race morning will serve as shuttle bus pick up and special needs drop off


Run Course- will feature a two loop style course located on the River Park Trail System. The majority of the course is flat, and there is some nice shaded areas on the trail.


Guthrie Green will be the home of our finish line, welcome ceremony and awards/slot allocation ceremony

The Voice of Ironman - Mike Reilly will be there!

Hope to see you at the race. Z

That's me. I love the heat like 110+ heat. Bring it on!!

@laughable. What do you mean by: WTC fees to bring the family to Oklahoma?

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Tri is my Tribe! "Sometimes you need to slow down in order to go fast."

Tulsa is a great city. I could see doing this race once. My experience with Tulsa cycling races (Tulsa Tough being the most recent) is that the local racing event dna definitely tends toward a running culture. In some ways, that's good. In others, not so much. And the quality of volunteers (even at Tulsa Tough) is a little spotty. Most go above and beyond -- some of the best volunteers I've ever seen. And extremely friendly. Others seem to go missing at the worst possible times . . . every single year. After a couple years of the same issues and the same venues, I opted out of Tulsa Tough this year, even though I traveled to Tulsa the very next day.

Is Tulsa a "destination race?" Probably not, unless you have some other connection to Tulsa. But if you live north of the Red River in the middle of the continent? Perfect. You won't find a friendlier venue or an area in which it's harder to get lost. In late May, it might be hot, but I wouldn't guarantee it.

Wow, that sucks. Count me out. I can't stand races with different T1 and T2, especially that far away. And a first year race? Expect serious travel issues on race morning.

Agree, there is nothing for them to see and if they are planning to see me finish, that is way too long of a day.

Sure but then I go to races with 2 transitions and see hundreds of people cheering and telling you good luck on your most important day. I've never not seen people show up to watch the swim of events, lol.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Thank you - the logistics info is so helpful. Checking everything in at T2 is very convenient. Am I correctly deducing that we cannot check our bikes at T1 and rack ourselves, even if we choose to head out to T1 to check out the swim area?
And just to ask the obvious, all gear will arrive at the finish, à la IM Boulder?

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http://www.extramilenutrition.com

I am mostly with you, but he did say that you don't have to check your bike into T1, which would typically be the worst part of the whole ordeal.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Yes! You may go out to T-1 and check you bike in and look at the swim venue! We will be bringing all of your T-1 gear bags back to T-2 while you are out cycling 112 miles (Bike Gear bag and Morning Bag) so you do not have to go back out to T-1 after the race!

Z

It doesn't seem that bad. Santa Rosa is a split transition and it's easy. I paid tri bike transport 40 bucks to take my bike to T1. Well worth it.

My morning of routine didn't change whatsoever. From skimming the prior posts it looks like transportation of the bikes is free.

While I have no intention of flying across the country for a race the transition situation goes into the neutral category for me.

A local race called Redman, it is a full and half. It is one of the last remaning, if not the only remaining, independantly opened halves in the U.S.

that shouldn't be in pink.....I'm sorry, your families do not want to sit around a race site for 9-15 hours "watching" you race. Its pure torture for them.

The IM Branson 70.3 (MO) had separate T1 and T2 locations, I don't remember miles between each but it wasn't 24 miles, maybe have been 3-5 miles but they bussed spectators from T1 to T2 while people were on their bikes. They moved all your gear from T2 to the finish area too. I don't remember any issues being brought up. That was a great race too. I think numbers dropped so IM pulled out. Guess 5,000+ feet of climbing over 56 miles was too much for the masses.

Definitely not the last independently owned half in the US. Set Up events puts on 3 halves in the North Carolina Triathlon Series every year.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Plenty of independents at the 70.3 distance. Not so many at 140.6. Redman has strong USAT and even ITU experience.
If you sign up for IMF, WTC will give you early access to IM Tulsa entry. Woo Hoo...
I'm still waiting to see the IMSG and IMC courses. No more registrations for me without a course. WTC does not even have a date for Galveston?
PS: If I'm going to Oklahoma it will be to support Redman.