Hi!
We did HP Norseman Xtreme Triathlon, the worlds roughest ironman-distance for the first time July 19 this year. You will find the reason why we claim this at www.nxtri.com . The race ends at the most beatiful mountain in Norway at 1,850 meters and the late competitors enters the mountain during the night. We want to get as many competitors at possible to the top before the night. We therefore consider to start the race at 4pm, 1 hour before sun rise. Would it be considered to be ok? Is any other races in the world started in the dark? Please give your advice!
Congratulations on pulling off your race. However, you may need to rethink your claim to the “world’s roughest ironman distance”. The Mountain Extreme Triathlon (www.mxtri.com) was staged this past July 12th, and was truly brutal. There were 152 starters, and only 68 finishers! There was a 24 hour cutoff, and the top finisher came in at 15:01:39, and the fastest bike split (and this was by a pro) was 9:00:02. Many took over 14 hours to complete just the bike course (which included more than 9000 feet of climbing), and many took up to 8 hours to complete the run. The last finisher came in at 23:41:52.
There was a “Mini” (Half Iron distance) contested at the same time, and two of the finishers in that event took over 20 hours to finish…FOR A HALF!!!
One competitor deserves special mention. John Tucker, of Park City, UT (originally of South Africa), finished in 8th place overall with at time of 17:09:08, just 12 days after going 11:10 at Ironman Coeur d’Alene!
BTW, in response to your specific question. This event started at 6am, which was just before sunrise, so technically “in the dark”. Also, maybe you can keep your claim to “world’s roughest” if you modifiy it to “on road”, as the Mountain Extreme was Off-Road" the competitors rode mountian bikes, and ran on trails.