Why would they ever pic a location right in the middle of tornado alley in peak season!!!???











jk

I did catch the jk, but I lived in tornado alley for 20 years and never saw one nor had one pass near. Kinda disappointed.

To kill Redman full......

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Good way to poach some Strava KOMs if you've got the tornado at your back

The distance between T-1 and T-2 at IM 70.3 Branson was 7 miles. We transported Morning Bags and T-1 Bags to the finish line for athletes. The bike course was fantastic - on a four lane highway completely closed to traffic! Race was very tough and the athletes numbers kept going down each year. I still see athletes with IM 70.3 Branson finisher shirts at our events. I make sure to talk to them about their experience how they did at the race. Gordan Haller, the Original IRONMAN Champion did IM 70.3 Branson! Z

I live in Arkansas and have been to Tulsa a ton and I have done the Redman Full before

I will not do Tulsa next year. The T1-T2 distance seems a bit far, weather in May in Ok and, AR for that matter, is TOTALLY unpredictable….that's one reason Redman is in Sep. I don't want to be a "Beta Tester" for a logistically complicated race.

All that said if you live close to Tulsa that is always a good reason to go race there. Tulsa is not a destination race by any stretch no matter how you may spin it. Its it a cool town......Yes, is it a place to vacation.....Nope.

Good info Tom! Look forward to the race and hope to see you there.

Will there be an opportunity to swim in Keystone Lake prior to race day?

The distance between T1 and T2 has me saying nope but the biggest reason is that the weather can swing wildly that time of year. May is a wet month, it can be a little chilly or....and most likely.....hot and humid. Nothing like training in a cold wet spring to race on the fist hot day.

Just got the email from Ironman MD, that I can defer to Tulsa, I'm thinking that will be the way to go. Hoping to compete for a KQ spot; it should be tougher field at Tulsa compared to MD, but hey Kona aint easy. Might have 1 more shot for '21 after that.

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That will never sustain, Tulsa is a shithole and that is the end of that.

Tulsa is a shithole that would be an utter waste of money to race. I will just leave at that. No way in hell I would drop $1k for a race fee to race there. I have seen here two transition race comparisons with Tahoe, Cairns.....thats an insult to Tahoe.

Please explain why Tulsa is a shithole. I’ve lived, worked, gone to school, partied, and raced in Tulsa, and love that town. I’m signed up for IM Tulsa, and wouldn’t miss it for anything.

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Athlinks / Strava

The separate T1 and T2 - - Ironman has experience with that and my experience has been they handled it very well. I raced 2 IM St. George Ironman's and IM Boulder with split transitions. Granted Tulsa's will be further apart than those 2 races, However, at IMST and IM Boulder, they brought all your gear down to T2 so after the race it was all there--just like they plan to do at Tulsa.

The weather sounds unpredictable, but a big predictable for this race is Tom Ziebart directing it. Tom has a lot of years with Ironman very effectively directing many of their races. When I saw he was directing this one, I have a lot of confidence in him that they will be able to pull off a very good race experience.

Yeah, I’d call many cities that but not Tulsa. To each their own.

do we know how many kona slots will be allocated to tulsa? i'm signed up, with a bud, and we'd both like to know. thanks!

1. Unpredictable weather, It can be cold/wet/windy or hot/wet/windy that time of year. Mainly hot/wet/windy. Good new is if you're one of the 5% in the world that likes hot/wet/windy you're in luck. If you're really lucky you might get to race a tornado too that time of year.

2. Transition areas 24 miles apart

3. Tulsa is an nice town but not a destination for a racecation if that is important.

4. See #1

5. See #1

6. See #1

This is a perfect case where just a little negative press can totally blow the big picture. I've lived in Tulsa, and in this area, for over 40 years (currently 1.5 hours north of Tulsa). It's beautiful. Yes, storms blow through. Of course there are windy days. And sometimes you get tornadoes. But 98% of the time it's very nice that time of the year. The chances that it might hit 80º for a high in the afternoon are pretty good, and the chances there might be some wind are pretty good. But the chances of unseasonably hot, excessively high winds, tornadoes, or severe thunders storms, are not any higher than anywhere else in the country. The chances we get a beautiful day, for a great race, are just as good as anywhere else.

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Athlinks / Strava

Not a big deal. Heck, I've done a 70.3 where this was the case. One of my favorite races. I did it 4 times.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

yep, and I am not happy about that because Redman is a Saturday race and IM Tulsa is on Sunday. I don’t do Sunday races for religious reasons. Tulsa is my home town. I know lots of people are doing this race. The weather would have perfect on race day in 2020. Yes Tulsa Tough Bike race is big and the town gets behind it. I loved the Tulsa running community when I was there (work moved me to Texas for 5 years and to a small town 2 hours south of Tulsa for 5 years so it has been a decade since I lived there). I have my favorite places in Tulsa. Most of them are the trails I used to run in highschool, and scenic areas along the Arkansas River. I don’t do those time of things on race weekends though. I go to the race expo and pre-race meeting when I get into town the get something to eat and turn in early for the night. After the race I get something to eat again and like to socialize with other who raced then head home. So I don’t see much of any city that race in. I am not doing IM Tulsa so I don’t get excited about it being close, but I do have some team members from out of state that were supposed to do the race this year and I offered to meet them on Saturday. If we had I few hours I would show them what my friends and I call the 7 wonders of Tulsa which a some of the coolest things to see in town. Half of them are on the Oral Roberts University Campus. My favorite is the Center of the Universe down town.

well, ironman just did just announce that it has been selected to host the North American Championships and gets 75 kona slots...

"The 2021 Certified Piedmontese IRONMAN North American Championship Tulsa will offer 75 qualifying slots to the 2021 IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i. "

Interesting to see the pro field for this event with the $150,000 prize purse and 2 MPRO and 2 WPRO and 2 unassigned Kona slots allocated with IM Texas just one month prior with $100,000 prize purse and one slot each. So far those are the only two North American races posted hosting a pro field, but it is early on still.

And, it has now officially SOLD OUT!!

i figured it'd sell out on the news and the extra kq slots...

does anyone know the # of participants to im tulsa?

Just reading all the comments starting back in 2019. Different world then...

But I'm excited about the race! The extra KQ slots are nice, that'll roll down to at least 2nd place in my geezer group (65-69). I used to live in Lincoln, NE, so I know that kind of rolling terrain for the bike course, It's definitely going to be challenging. And it will also be a fair course, a good measure of your bike training rather than skill at not getting caught drafting.

So bring it on- new course, fair course, quality competition from strong AG competitors- what's not to like about a race and competition that'll kick your butt? Sounds like it's going to be a worthy endeavor...

What's the inside scoop about places to stay? Downtown or out of town?

I stay in Tulsa quite frequently for work. If you are staying downtown, I’ve had good luck with the Fairfield. The Courtyard is a bit of a pain with an odd layout.