Kind of close to IMMT on both a calendar and a map.

---

Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Muskoka 70.3 in early summer sounds nice, provided they are not planning on putting it around the end of June which would conflict with Tremblant 70.3 and Syracuse. Early June (could be cold water) or mid July would be better. Having the IM August 30 would make for a hard sellout given that it conflicts with IMMT. Pushing IM Muskoka to July would conflict with IMLP. Maybe it would make more sense to have IM Muskoka in June. BTW, that would be one friggin hard IM - much harder than Tremblant or Placid. Having said that I would probably give it a go since I love the Muskoka 70.3 race, even though I always suck at it.

Been waiting for years for this to happen. A complete no brainer as far as I am concerned. That being said, a double loop course wouldn't be ideal. That course is challenging.

---

NCCP certified Comp coach

Has not the explanation always been that a Muskoka 70.3 or Full in July and August would never happen due to the objections of all those fat rich dudes sitting up there in their lakeside palaces??
Whats the source of the rumour? Firsthand or passed down a long line within the spandex set :)?




.

seems more than a rumor. did a quick search and I found this proposal:
http://prezi.com/yvnlnekhz_ch/copy-of-ironman-muskoka/

Wow, I really hope this happens - I love the 70.3, and the race is practically in my backyard. A date of Aug. 30 (based on the slideshow linked to in the post above mine) would be a really great time of year too, I think, with being able to train through a full Ontario muggy summer. Fingers are crossed!!

The Muskoka chase was always early June. The water one year was 60 F but normally it was around 67 or so.

---

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

That's just a bid. It's no secret that they've been trying to get an Ironman race for at least 2 years now.

---

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Memories of the Muskoka Chase brings a tear to my eye. I loved that race, and totally forgot that it was in early June. I remember wearing a neoprene cap and finding the water fine.

I did the sprint in 60 F water wearing only a john. It sucked.

I loved that race too. Used to actually get big name pros to show up. Simon Whitfield, Craig Alexander, Lisa Bentley, Sam Mcglone...

---

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

The bike is already long 94km per loop that would be 188km for the full distance... Would be really suprise that the bike course would stay like this... It's quite a challenging course, this would probably make one of the hardest Ironman bike course in North America. Not many men PRO would go sub 5h.

seems to me as triathlon gets more and more regionalized in its foot print by more races the more and more races will get 2400 registered and 2400 racing give or take a few hundred....the traditional 10% drop off that used to occur will be filled by the new race transfer program. So having IMMT, IMLP and IMMSK all within a month of each other would mean possibilities to transfer amongst the races for those travelling up that way. A theory anyway...but reality is the corridor from the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario through Ottawa and up to Montreal is the largest concentration of races/racers/sponsors...huge market. Much bigger than my new home here in the west between Whistler and the Okanagan!

Second, the idea of having 70.3 races 4 to 6 weeks before 140.6 races makes a tonne of sense. Whistler just got their 70.3 with purchase of Victoria in terms of proximity. IMMT has theirs obviously. Wisconsin same. Makes a lot of sense to do package sales etc...both on registration and sponsorship.

I do really miss the Muskoka chase race/distance. That course and race was awesome. Just perfect. That race is a casuality of regionalization/growth of races. They tried to go 5i50 on same date as Toronto Tri Festival and just lost momentum. Shame really, both changing it to 5i50 distance and the race going by waste side.

I wish Muskoka luck. It is an amazing gem of a location.

---

@rhyspencer

The proposal made in 2012 was a modified two loop of the current course, but not exactly the current course. It would be the toughest IM in North America including Tahoe. As a point of ref, in 2012, I was top 50 overall with a time around 5:10. If I recall there were only 25 under 5 hours for the half IM. If they just doubled it, aside from a few pros, there would be zero age group sub 10's.

I have not followed up on Muskoka for some time. I provided the team there with some inputs to the 2012 bid package when Penticton went to Challenge. At the time, WTC said their priority was to put an IM back in BC while building in mid Atlantic. Now they have both (Whistler, Maryland, Chatanooga)...so perhaps WTC is ready to expand in the Windsor - Quebec City market. As Rhys said, this is one of the biggest triathlon markets, likely on earth even though Canada is a small country by population. In this area, we have a massive ecosystem of clubs, local events and multi sport athletes to build off for future IM entrants. We have around 10M people in the region, but unlike the 10M around NYC, our 10 million actually have access to real riding and great multi sport facilities....US cities generally don't have the same positive environment that we have in Canada for cycling and for endurance sport in general. You need to go way outside some of those US cities to have what most of our cities have right in town.

If they dont bring you all the way back to transition and just stay on S. Portage 2 loops would only be ~170k so with a small add on you would be at the 180

How about confirmed by Lisa Bentley?

Annoucement might be coming this week. Maybe Friday. Still unclear on the bike course

I am looking forward to if/when the annoucement comes. Looking at the Tremblant 70.3 stats there are 1600 Quebec athletes and 600 Ontario athletes and 600 from US and rest of world. I strongly feel that between the Quebec market and the Southern Ontario market which are two of the biggest triathlon markets in the world in terms of concentration of triathletes, we can support an Ironman in each province, topping up from US and internationals. An Ironman in Muskoka, just like an Ironman in Woodlands Texas will bring an entire group of athletes to IM racing who currently only do sprints. Tremblant is still a long long way from southern Ontario...far enough that people don't want to drive the 8-12 hours. Muskoka flips the switch for them.

Having said that, this won't really be a newbie friendly course. the half IM time at Muskoka have been very similar to St. Croix (see Craig Alexander's times at both). Not to send you off to another website, but when the bid team was working on a proposal 2 years ago, I wrote this on xtri to give people visibility on what was going on: http://www.xtri.com/...temId.511714680.html. Not sure how much of the discussion has changed, as I have not really been engaged for a while (life gets too busy).

So....we gonna have another Ironman announced tomorrow?

I hope we do, I just hope its not Aug 30th. That will be a hard sell to the family. I think the 1/2 is usually the first weekend in Sept., if that is the date for the full then I think I could work that into the schedule.

bump...anything?

haven't heard anything. the announcement was pending all the legal details wrapped up.

that said, i've talked to about 20 friends and no one is interested in doing this race. everyone is saying the bike course would be too deadly. I can't imagine WTC would make it a two loops of the existing bike course. There wouldn't be a second year

I talked to my sports doctor today and he knew about it. I rode with a guy from Morning Glory bike club 2 weeks ago and he knew about it, so word is out

While I am not in your group of 20, add me as the 21st guy who would do 2 loops of the existing half IM. No free tows to T2. There is always IM Brasil for those that want the free ride to T2 :-). But if I recall correctly it was going to be a modified version 2 loop course that is not quite as hard. End of June date would be awesome. It gets complicated with IM Tremblant in the 3rd week of Aug and IM Whistler at the end of July and both Tremblant and Muskoka wanting to have the 70.3 + 140.6 double offering.

Odd Rich Trenholm from TriMuskoka has been very quiet. i've seen him post here promoting Muskoka

Perhaps for the "one and done" crowd there would be little interest. I gotta say that the allure of perhaps 'one of the hardest' courses is very high in my books for that reason alone. Add to that allure that this is a beautiful vacation area for family (and for me easy to get to - no plane fare) it is an obvious destination spot for the 40+ crowd.

It will be interesting to see, if the race is announced, and it is a brutal course, how long it takes to sell out (not that that alone should be the definition of success ) considering the close proximity of such a large triathlon community.

If it's hard enough it becomes a badge of honour, and isn't that why we all have the tattoos?