The only thing I'm tired off is getting up super early, and then endless lines at 5 AM. Line to park. To get into transition. To body mark. To fill water bottle. To port-a-john. To swim start. At 5 AM.

Can we pleeeease have races start at 9 AM?

For me it’s the cost. I do three races a year. All IM 70.3’s. At around $300 a piece plus travel and the cost of the sport in general it’s a lot. Wife isn’t buying the racecation bs anymore. I’ll be racing 3 and booking a real vacation which I owe her this year. After that I may have to back down to 1 race a year.

The early start sucks bad. I’m usually up at 4am which really is ridiculous. This sport can make you an old man/woman quick. Going to bed at 8pm to get 8 hours of sleep.

I am all for this. Another reason I loved Wildflower. I think the pros started at 8am which is late for us!!!

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my wife and i both did captri tx a couple of weekends back. all of our gear bags and bags for a 3 night stay in austin was nine freaking bags. we laughed... it was just ridiculous. we could have probably packed a little lighter, but its all the stuff we needed to make the long weekend what we wanted.

doing that multiple times a year will get old super fast.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Somewhat, yes. I much prefer a more relaxed indie race these days. London, UK, had a great midweek duathlon series going, which was great: rock up with $10, your bike and trainers, sign on, drop your gear off on the grass and race at the b of bang. No chip, no numbers no racks, no awards. It was great.

Nowadays in NZ I'm getting back into similarly low cost, low hassle racing. I'm enjoying the joy of the moment.

That said, I've got three MDot full distances lined up in the next year to get me over the legacy, eventually tick Kona off, then retire from WTC races.

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

3X IM in a year! That's a lot! the wait list is 3 years now, but they have relaxed the rules, no longer mandatory to do an IM while waiting for your name to be picked!

Yeah, I go through stages. I'm like a binge long course racer. This'll be the third time I've done three, each separated by 2-3 months.

This time I'm going to do three WTC rather than split myself between Challenge, indie and WTC. It'll be nice to tuck that goal away.

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

 
Agree with OP on these mega races / mdot- once a year for me on that max

Huge fan of <500 person race where everything happens on the same day - packet / bike drop off / race - ideally on a Saturday so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend - understand it’s usually max Olympic distance but maybe OP it’s a different take on a training day.

Yep. Got a sprint du this Sunday, prob lucky if we get more than 50 people. It should be good.

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

I've been doing some kind of racing (rowing, then tris/road races/runs) for a similar timeframe to you. I have pretty limited appetite these days for big A races with a lot of logistics involved, I haven't done one of those in a couple of years. I find the right rhythm for me is a race/event every 6-8 weeks, mostly fairly local affairs that I can drive to in under an hour. That's enough that I've always got something to motivate me, without getting fed up of them.

I also haven't done tris in a couple of years, precisely for the whole packing and unpacking thing - I've mainly been doing running or biking events, with a few duathlons. Am getting back into tris next year as I've recently moved to a location where swim training is easier and more fun than it's ever been before for me, plus there's a few local tris I want to tick off while I'm here. Remains to be seen whether that's a 1 season return or a more permanent shift, I suspect I'll end up doing ~8 events a year split fairly evenly between running, cycling and tris.

Definitely the logistics are the big turn off, but I still have a few boxes to tick, so will keep plugging away.

Packing bike, getting bike to and from airport is a pain to start with.

Re. the early races - I'm a crap sleeper in my own bed, so put me in a (usually cheap) hotel room with a 4am alarm and I end up racing on 3-4 hours sleep. My one full IM was done on 4 hours tops. Madness.

Then nothing worse than packing your bike after the race!

Expenses of course are an issue too - always a flight involved, sometimes with the Mrs (slightly more expensive hotel room) and everything adds up.

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My race site: https://racesandplaces.wixsite.com/racesandplaces

Absolutely not. I enjoy training, but I love racing! The anticipation, the energy, the packing, the set up...I’m doing 5 this summer (sprint, two Olympics, Sprint Nationals, short duathlon) and wish I were racing more.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Guess it depends where you live as well - I've always lived in or near cities so have generally had races I can drive to, often on the day of the race. Think in 25 years and ~200-300 events of various kinds over that time I've only flown to a race maybe half a dozen times. If every race involved flying I doubt I'd do more than a couple per year, certainly not more than that involving taking a bike!

Not tired of racing, but tired of IM brand racing. And I agree all the pre-race, post-race "stuff" that has to happen takes away from just going out there and enjoying a swim, a ride or a run.

I'll take a grass-roots, non-traditional distance race that lasts >5 hours every single time over an IM brand race. Don't get me wrong, the IM branded races are first rate (I've done my fair share). It's a nice catered affair. It's the combination of cost and massive fields that are a detractor for me.

I don't mind early starts...it's the best time of day. Kind of refreshing to hit cool/cold water at 7:00am (or earlier depending on the race).

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Tad

It took awhile, but I finally discovered that its not the destination that's important, but rather the journey.

"A race seems to spoil a good training weekend."

That's pretty much the same point I arrived at about five years ago. Haven't raced since and haven't regretted it a bit. Probably "train" as much as ever, but I like the freedom to do what I feel like doing on the day I do it rather than adhering to any sort of schedule. Plus, as a middle of the pack age grouper, I never really felt like I was racing, so I kind of concluded it didn't make much sense to pay a boatload of fees for stuff I'd be happy to do anyway.

I got into tris in the '80s because running races were getting too simple and boring. The complexity was an attraction. 35 years later I'm with you that tris have become a bit too complex. However, I did my first tri of the season yesterday and was loving it once I pulled out of the garage at 5 a.m. I'm planning on doing five more sprint tris this year, including nationals. I think it is possible to keep tris pretty simple if you are willing to minimize the need for specialized equipment that makes you more competitive. How hard is it to load up the road bike, a helmet, cycling shoes, goggles and a pair of running shoes? It is still too hard on my ego at this point to give up the tri bike and the wetsuit. :)

One event I'm really looking forward to this summer is doing one of the Lake Takanassee 5K series races on the Jersey shore. $7 entry fee. The series has been happening on Monday evenings during the summer since the mid '60s. They do four laps around a small lake on the edge of the ocean. I'll be there on vacation visiting the in-laws and the idea of a low-key weekly series like this is really appealing to me at this point.

Did an off-road tri in my town yesterday with a 10 a.m. start. 8-mile drive to the start. That is heaven compared to the alarm going off at 4-ish in the morning for 7 a.m. start.

fill your water bottles ahead of time. I prefer early starts to keep out of the heat of the day for races HIM and shorter. I guess I've been lucky in races in that I've rarely had much of a line to park. body marking has always taken about 2 seconds. port-a-john. well early or later start won't change the lines much there.

Costs are the biggest reason why I've raced a lot less in general. I looked back at my 2012-2013 schedule (the year after graduating college) and I had 17 running races that year ranging from local 5k's to 2 marathons. That's pretty much one every 3 weeks (realistically more like every 2 weeks, since there aren't a lot of races going on December-March). Last year, I did 6 races. 1 marathon, 1 half marathon, 1 Olympic Tri, 1 10k and 2 5k's. I got comped entry to the half marathon and one of the 5k's due to being friends with the RD, otherwise I wouldn't have done them.

Back in 2012, I remember 5k's being around $20-25 to sign up for, 10k's being $30-35 and Half marathons being $60-70. Hell, our local sprint Tri was between $40-50 and didn't require a USAT membership.


Now, most 5k's are $35-40, 10k's being $50-60, Halfs being $80-100 and I haven't seen a sprint tri around here for under $85 and all require a USAT membership. Also with Ironman buying out a number of 70.3's and the Competitor Group buying out a number of running races, prices continue to go up and up.

Races are no longer catering to those who enjoy competition, but rather to those who want an "experience'. It's the reason why I chose to go with a Triathlon series this summer -- for $310, I get to race a Sprint in June, an Olympic in July and a 70.3 in September... vs the $300 for Ironman 70.3 Boulder by itself, with a worse bike course.

Great point about WTC selling an experience rather than a competition. Most WTC events look like a circus on steroids. By the time you get through all the hype, marketing and sales you remember you’re there for a race.

It’s like they’re catering almost exclusively to one and dones. At my last race the AWA registration line had 5 people and the regular line had none. My wife directed me to the regular registration and I told her I might have to go through AWA. Maybe not but I wasn’t sure. The whole AWA thing is supposed to be rewards for people that race more. How’s that working out right?

A race seems to spoil a good training weekend
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In my world, a race IS a pretty good training weekend. There's nothing better to prepare yourself for a good hard effort than a good hard effort. Racing is what changes a workout into training.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Except when it doesn't.

In 2016, my last year of racing, the lead in (last week or so) didn't get me excited, I wasn't anxious at the start and I couldn't wait for the race to end. I knew I was done. The thrill was gone. I don't miss it.

You sound normal and healthy. Just make sure your training is fun and have other goals(PB's in training, KOM's, etc) and the less you race the more you enjoy it when you do. Personally, I am taking a year off from IM after a big year last year and am loving it. Enthusiasm to race will likely come back next year but if not, who cares?

I look at the value. The 70.3 (non Ironman Branded) Boulder I'm doing by itself was $160 to register vs I think $280 for IM Boulder 70.3. Exact same swim course, exact same run course and the bike course is actually better due to not having an out and back section with a U turn like the Ironman one (the course is 75% the same otherwise).

What is the Ironman brand giving me that the non-Ironman brand isn't? I look at the results last year and there were 330 finishers, so while significantly smaller than IM brand, it's not a hole in the wall race and probably a better race for a non FOP athlete than trying to navigate 2000+ other athletes. All I can see is more swag, more target marketing and more people to have to deal with race day, along with a lighter wallet.

Also, coming from a running background, I find the Kona qualifying criteria beyond stupid. Unlike qualifying for Boston or even the USATF Olympic Trials which have set times to hit, Kona is all about place in specific races. Go to a race and less people show up? You're in! More people show up and you're 5th, even though your 5th place time would have been 2nd every year in the last 5 years, too bad, so sad. Oh wait, you can't stick around for the roll down due to other commitments (flights) or don't have the cash to pay that very second? NEXT! The best setup I could come up with is find the average time for 3rd place in the race over the last say 3-5 years for each age group. Hit that time, and you're in, no matter if you're 1st or 10th in that age group. You could even expand it to accommodate for weather conditions: Top 3 (like now) + anyone who is faster than the average 3rd place time over the last 3-5 years. That way if the weather is bad (or swim cancelled), you still get 3 qualifiers, but if it's good you could have well over 3 qualifiers.

Even better yet -- the BS "Pro Card" thing. Where you can have age group athletes sponsored by various companies/shops and are continuing to win (sometimes outright) Ironman branded races and not be forced to get a "Pro Card", meaning that even though these athletes are in every way, shape and form an elite athlete, they decided to not register as one, your age groupers are now competing with these people for those coveted places. In running, there's no "pro card" deal. If your times or places qualify you to be elite, you're an elite. People seek out being elite because of the comped race entries, private warmup areas and bathrooms, and you'd rarely see anyone turn down an elite entry vs a standard entry because there's no motivation to turn it down.

I recognize I'm "new" to the sport, but the whole setup seems so.... consumer unfriendly.