Anyone here done the Halfmax race in Missouri? What was your experience?
Can you describe the course for me? The website makes the bike and run look pretty hilly.
I’m thinking about using this race to qualify for 2008 worlds in Holland, and want to know a bit about it before entering.
Thanks!
I have to preface by apologizing. I haven’t had more than 3 hours sleep any night this week.
LOL at ‘pretty hilly’!
I know it and train there all the time. Mark puts on a great race and everything will be 1st class. You can train at the facility and they in the past have had training packages at the resort. The lake is clear and clean. The roads are usually in good shape, low traffic, I would call the bike rolling. I think easier than IM MOO. The run is HARD sorry I should have said **HARD. **Many short steep hills. It would really help to pre run the course.
Short and steep doesn’t even begin to describe the hills on the run. I have done the race twice and I bet many of the AG winners walk some of the longer, almost straight up, hills.
I haven’t done it at Innsbrook but am familliar with the terrain. The run is brutally hilly but the bike isn’t so bad. Train tons of hills and it will be easy-peasy.
Haven’t done the race, but I have spectated it and ridden the bike & run courses.
The race is based out of a gated resort community.
The lake is in a very clean, no-motors-allowed lake and is a single, CCW loop that starts & ends with ~0.5 mile straightaway.
The bike starts in the resort, then heads out onto country highways. Pretty low traffic. It’s fairly hilly (for this part of the country) but nothing drastic. Think rolling.
The run is an out-and-back that you do twice inside the resort. No traffic to speak of. It is hilly, though. Short & steep. There are short sections on grass and crushed stone, but mostly asphalt. Mostly shaded.
Steve
OK, I’m done being a dick today. Dennis nailed the description. Clear, clean lake. I actually think the bike is a fantastic ride. Little bit of an incline right out of T1. The run, in addition to being a pain in the ass, has many sections with heavy gravel and small pebbles covering the road. Lots of very steep up and downs. For this course I would second the recomendation to pre run it, and I would further recomend a heavier shoe with good support.
Bike course is challenging but fair, there is a section about 5 miles long that you do twice, that has some short steep hills other than that it’s a pretty fast bike course.
Run course is hard but I think this year a couple of the hills were taken out of the run to make it a little easier. It’s still going to be a challenging run though.
Mark Livesay puts on excellent races so if you go you won’t be disappointed in the experience. Make sure you get a room at the Innsbrook resort, otherwise you’ll have to stay out of town a little ways and drive in. The resort is right by the transition area, so if you have family with you they will have easy access to the room during the race.
Mark
I agree that the race is top notch in most regards and with the course descriptions, but the one thing no one has mentioned yet is that is is not likely to be a 1.2-56-13.1. It will probably be more like 1.1-53-12.8. I know that is close enough for most folks and all the competitors race the same course, but accurate course are kind of a pet peeve of mine.
This year it will be paired with the USAT club championships. The half will be Sat. and the 1/8 or “octo” will be on Sun.
It should be fun. I’m thinking about doing both races.
I think the 1/2 is on Sat. And Sunday they have a 1/4 max (oly. sort of) and a sprint distance (octo)
i did the race there in September, i thought the initial portion of the bike where you leave the resort had some hills and, as previously mentioned, you go over this part twice. the remainder of the bike course isn’t too bad. i thought i saw that completing two loops equated to a little over 3000 ft of climbing. the run is a beast with 1000 feet of climbing per loop and there really aren’t any flat sections. i thought the race was very well run and plan on racing again there next year.
Great race! Great RD. VERY TOUGH competition. Top AGers flying in from everywhere sorta supprised me (why I don’t know it is the US NATL CHAMPS).
Swim: clean lake, great lay out
Bike: challenging hills and turns but very fair and “something for everyone”
Run: SICK…hardest run course for a 1/2 IM I’ve done. Most will walk a great deal of the run. I ran a 1:54 and was suprised “I did so well”
I’ll be back.
I raced it this year and really enjoyed the venue and the course. I will be back next year if I can fit it into my schedule.
I don’t remember the water temp but it was probably mid-70’s. Sleeveless wetsuit recommended but I used a fullsuit and was fine. Swim was probably a bit short as I was ~1 minute faster than expected.
The bike is two laps. The first 4 miles and last 3 miles of has short steep hills. The middle 20 miles is gently rolling. There were 2 aid stations per lap. I would categorize the bike as moderately hard. It was a bit short. I think I had it at 54 miles.
The run is double out-and-back in the resort. The short steep hills were hard but I managed to run the whole thing. It is mostly shaded but there were a few sections out in the Sun.
Great post-race BBQ. Joe Friel was there and gave a great talk and Q&A.
Very professional RD, have not done this race but did the Full IM race when he had that and did a great job!!
“I think the 1/2 is on Sat. And Sunday they have a 1/4 max (oly. sort of) and a sprint distance (octo)”
Dennis, my bad, you are right.
Joe
“hardest run course for a 1/2 IM I’ve done”
Have you done the Auburn International Tri? Wondering how it compares to that.
I am planning to do HalfMax, just want to know what I am getting myself into.
G
Haven’t done it. Some of the posts here sound like they are from individuals affiliated with the race organizer.
I was considering doing it, having qualified for the 2nd straight year.
However, when I looked at the field of entrants that supposedly flies in from all over the country, I was disappointed. The number of 2006 entrants seems kind of low.
The entry fee is steep. $195 for a half? I know plenty of others that are well below $150. Sometimes I wonder if the extra $$ is going to pay the winners of the “team” competition.
At this point, I am not likely to do it.
Don’t know if this helped. Good luck in achieving your goal.
Flame away…
Right . No race director can be good. The good comments must come from people who work for him. It can’t be that he really cares and puts on a great race. 
Didn’t say he wasn’t a good RD. Just expressed some suspicions… All are innocent until proven guilty.