Two races that are usually on my schedule are now “70.3” races. I hope they don’t allow more participants into Boulder being a two loop fairly flat course. As for Lonestar, best post race beer fest of any race. Lots of very cold Michelob. Hopefully they will maintain their appeal and be even better.
Mooseman too.
My only question is, how much faster will it sell out now?
Where’d you see the news regarding Lonestar? I was just on the site and didnt see anything…
It’s on the Ironman website…announced yesterday. So happy For Keith Jordan!!!
I wonder if this will change the run coarse at Lonestar. I hate the short course with lots of turns and you have to do like 6 loops to get to 13.1 miles. I would like to see the run be more like the bike, (out and back).
FWIW, I like the run course compared to the previous year, good for spectators and good for pacing… awesome race no matter what though.
I totally agree with it being great for spectators. That is definitly a motivator. I just think the run gets a little crowded towards the end. Either way Endorfun puts on what I think are the best triathlons I have ever done. You get your monies worth at any of their races.
Galveston seems to be a good town to put on a full iron race. With the bike course being an out and back next year, it would be easy to make it two loops. I get the feeling that Keith is up to something…
Galveston seems to be a good town to put on a full iron race. With the bike course being an out and back next year, it would be easy to make it two loops. I get the feeling that Keith is up to something…
IM Galveston would equal IM Florida in terms of which has the greatest city, Galveston or Panama Beach. Now that’s a toss up! However, Keith puts on a great race and this is why we have come from Colorado the past two years to get some early racing in. Cheap flights and fairly cheap hotels and a quality race. Last year the race was the same weekend as New Orleans 70.3. Haven’t checked the schedule for 2010 but they seem to canabalize a few in the mid-south.
I have always maintained that Texas needs a Full IM. I feel the same way about Keith, I think if anyone has the vision to put one on it would be him. Galveston would be a great place to do it, but being from Austin I would love to also see Longhorn turned into a Full. The venue would have to change slightly, because I think there are more challenging courses in the area, but Austin has the local support to pull it off.
Galveston seems to be a good town to put on a full iron race. With the bike course being an out and back next year, it would be easy to make it two loops. I get the feeling that Keith is up to something…
Actually the race course is better suited than that for a full IM where now its an out and back for 56 there is no reason why you could not go down the same road for another 28 miles and make it one long out and back (single loop bike). The bigger challenge would be the run and where to put that. But now that Galveston is built back from the hurricanes you could logically head out to the other part of the Island away from the Bike loop and make for a nice out and back or 2 loop course on the ocean road.
Assuming you held it during non peak times at galveston, the city has the infrastructure waiting for a big event so no reason not to have a long course race here. Now in the event of a Category 5 hurricane, there is a good chance that the swim will be cancelled.
But in any event, it is still the best HIM, that I’ve done. Keith runs a great race.
Heh…that was exactly the reason I posted asking how WTC puts on the races now. Do they have in-house RDs or do they contract out? If so, I think the same thing.
The bayou could easily handle a 2.4 mile swim. Either a two loop bike course or taking a single loop further down the coast would both work. The run would definitely have to change, since an 8-loop IM course would be insane, but it could probably be done if the city is willing. The transition area could more than handle an IM field. Finish area would need to be switched around a bit, as well, because of the crowds.
Keith definitely has the support of the city leaders. It’s an off season time for the local businesses. They’ve got plenty of hotels and rental houses to handle the crowds. There’s also only one other spring IM left in NA, so it definitely would fit into the calendar. Overall, Galveston would be a great venue and Moody Gardens specifically is a good place to stage a race.
Two races that are usually on my schedule are now “70.3” races. I hope they don’t allow more participants into Boulder being a two loop fairly flat course. As for Lonestar, best post race beer fest of any race. Lots of very cold Michelob. Hopefully they will maintain their appeal and be even better.
One thing for sure you’ll probably have to pay 50 bucks or more than you used to just because its called 70.3(I think somewhere in some dictionary 70.3 is defined as “reason to price gouge”
Sure hope they stay away from gulf coast tri.
Galveston seems to be a good town to put on a full iron race. With the bike course being an out and back next year, it would be easy to make it two loops. I get the feeling that Keith is up to something…
Actually the race course is better suited than that for a full IM where now its an out and back for 56 there is no reason why you could not go down the same road for another 28 miles and make it one long out and back (single loop bike). The bigger challenge would be the run and where to put that. But now that Galveston is built back from the hurricanes you could logically head out to the other part of the Island away from the Bike loop and make for a nice out and back or 2 loop course on the ocean road.
Assuming you held it during non peak times at galveston, the city has the infrastructure waiting for a big event so no reason not to have a long course race here. Now in the event of a Category 5 hurricane, there is a good chance that the swim will be cancelled.
But in any event, it is still the best HIM, that I’ve done. Keith runs a great race.
You would actually have to double back at some point…it is 36 miles from Moody Gardens to Surfside, so that would be 72 miles out-and-back. I’m not sure what happens past those 36 miles, but if you look on a map, 3005 does not really go much further. I guess we could turn north in Surfside, go over the big bridge, and go north the extra 20 miles to get to 56 before heading back.
I have wondered/hoped about Galveston turning into a full for a while now but Keith swears up and down every time that his wife would divorce him if he considered it.
I have always maintained that Texas needs a Full IM. I feel the same way about Keith, I think if anyone has the vision to put one on it would be him. Galveston would be a great place to do it, but being from Austin I would love to also see Longhorn turned into a Full. The venue would have to change slightly, because I think there are more challenging courses in the area, but Austin has the local support to pull it off.
I agree about Texas needing an IM and even though I’m from Houston, I’d love the idea of a full in Austin…but not the longhorn course. I’d take lonestar over longhorn any day to make it a full. Longhorn is in the middle of nowhere, at least Lonestar is actually in galveston.
If they could ever figure out how to pull a full off using the captex/austin tri trasition area, swimming in town lake, biking out west, or anywhere, then maybe running 2 loops of the 1/2 marathon course, that would be absolutely awesome…but I also know there is about a .0000001% chance of that ever happening because of the logistics needed to do it.
It would be nearly impossible to get that many people through a swim and transition in Town Lake. I think a better start would be to swim at Lake Travis (Pace Bend Park) then have the bike meander around out west before coming into town. T2 could be at Zilker Park and the run could be downtown or something. The run could even be some of the same route as the Austin Marathon.
I’d take that too…and cry the entire time about the hills on the bike (being from Houston), but I’d deal with it…would be awesome to have an IM finish on Congress…but I have a feeling I’ll have to just dream about that one a bit longer.
Thought though…town lake in austin is longer and not much narrower than tempe town lake and so far that has been the tamest swim I’ve done (well, compared to CDA…I guess I don’t have lots to compare to).
I’m ALWAYS up to something:)
Just got back from Galveston. The city is fired up to host Lone Star again for 2010!