As some of you may recall, I just finished IMAZ last week. In the time since, I’ve had the opportunity to ponder the experience.
Now, I know Ironman likes it’s 140.6 and 70.3 branded races. I get that. But it seems to me that Tempe would be a really great place to offer the Ironman experience in a shorter format.
As it is now, they have both the bike and run courses set up for three laps each. With the layout of the swim course, it seems to me that it would be fairly easy to divide the swim course into thirds as well. This would give them the opportunity to offer 1/3 and 2/3 distance events. I think that might draw in more participants over the weekend than just the full distance event alone.
I said in the past that IMAZ was going to be a one-and-done thing for me, and I intend to keep that commitment. Having said that, I would consider making that drive again and doing the 1/3 distance event if it were offered.
I think it could be a good opportunity for people to get the experience of an Ironman and test themselves to see if they could do the full distance.
I get there is an argument about difficulty in running several distances at the same time, but I don’t think it’s anything that can’t be overcome relatively easily. Figure a staggered start for the shorter distances. And possibly restricting the number of entrants to the shorter distance just to make it a little more manageable. Say, 500 for both the 1/3 and 2/3. Maybe fewer.
We used to have at least 3 Olympic races, a half, and a full here in Tempe. Now we have one Olympic in the Spring and the full in November. There’s just no market for shorter races, unfortunately. And IMAZ is in jeopardy of being cancelled due to Light Rail construction. So I think the chances of trying multiple distance races for the event are zero.
Street car construction, however, that’s like a 1/4 mile. If that cancels IMAZ, then Tempe isn’t really a serious town. There’s no reason not to bring back the 70.3 now that where it would go is complete. ETA: I’m so glad I moved, since there was going to be a stop right in front of where I was living, I love the lightrail and all, but traffic sucked there as is.
@VegasJen as Bryan says, we used to have more races in Tempe Town Lake, although the max for me since moving here was 4. Lifetime left and no one took their fall slot. That was a really a fun race.
We’ll see if Ironman gets the 70.3 back up and running, the bike course kinda sucks IMO. But we have a Spring race called Cactus Man.
There used to be another promoter that did two races at Bartlett and two races at Lake Pleasant. As much as I would like 6 Olympic Distance weekends in PHX, I’m not sure we can support that as Arizona triathletes also have other commitments.
I’m kind of surprised by the responses so far. Not to discount anybody’s opinion, but it seems to me that the ideal thing would be to run these shorter distances on the same day, or at least the same weekend, as the full distance. I don’t think it would siphon off any 140.6 entries, but it might pick up some people interested in getting the experience and wanting to do a shorter course.
It presents a lot of unique logistical challenges for the race organization and I don’t think it would find many takers at the distances you are suggesting. There are examples of a full and half being contested on the same course, same day, but not in the US and they are rare. If Ironman thought they could make money doing that, they would. But they don’t.
The USAT multi sport weekend push would seem to suggest that IM would benefit from having a marathon or half marathon the same day. A bike-run could also be in the cards.
At the end of the day, my hunch is the IM model both benefits from and suffers from their race director model. So much of what they do depends on their RDs, and equally their RDs have a pretty good gig in place and the incentive structure to add more to their plate might not be in place in terms of the right compensation, etc.
The races I’ve seen pull off the multiple distances we’ll have either been different days (Malibu does a sprint and Olympic across the weekend, Wildflower has a whole variety of races) or much smaller races (Mightyman Montak does sprint through 70.3 on the same day). They all do seem to tap out at 70.3 (or shorter) which does seem to make the logistics easier (the overall time you have people on the course is a lot shorter). I imagine the mutli-day permitting, especially for a course big enough for a 140.6 adds a lot to the complexity.
Fair enough. I imagine most of you are far more involved in the sport as an organization than I am. I’m just an age group hack out here looking for finishes. I don’t know names or times beyond my own little sphere out here on the back end of the back half. It was really just a thought on my part. As I said in my OP, if a 1/3 distance was offered, I would consider that. But otherwise, I’m done with the long course stuff. I earned my Ironman title and that’s all I’m worried about.
Thanks for that. Actually, I don’t think that had any impact at all. Blowing out the knee had the biggest impact, followed very closely by the headwind coming down the Bee Line. Were it not for those two things, I would have had a much bigger cushion to spare. Probably still less than an hour, but cushion none-the-less.
In Kerrville Texas they have a “Triathlon Festival”. It’s a good example of a multi-day event with multiple events on each day.
On Saturday they have a “rookie” (can’t remember the distances) and a “Sprint” (700m, 12mi, 5k IIRC) that are run at the same time. Then on Sunday they have a “Quarter” (1000m 28mi, 6.55mi) and a half (standard distances). The swim is in a lake that’s narrow and long enough to have the 1,900m swim - they simply change which buoys you swim around for the shorter distances. The bike and run are one loop for Quarter and two for the Half. I’m not sure what they do for the shorter events in Saturday.
It’s a very well run weekend. I found it last year (doing the Quarter both last year and this year). I think this year was the 17th year. The city seems to be a good supporter of the event and they have a good group of volunteers.
what about same day half and full? It’s been done at many venues. I just did that format in Penticton (I did the half). It was a blast finishing the half and then cheering on the full IM athletes.
Not sure about the logistics of that in Tempe. The reason I like the idea of 1/3, 2/3, full in Tempe is they already have the bike and run broken into three laps. Sure, it’s an odd number. But it would be pretty easy to put those other distances on at the same time. At least easier than having a different route for a half on the same day.
I have been racing here for 30 years. We used to have all sorts of races in the Phoenix area: multiple Olympic distance races in Tempe Town Lake and also at Lake Pleasant and Bartlett Lake, off road tris at Papago Park and Saguaro Lake, many pool tris, a splash and dash series. Almost all are gone now. The splash and dash series had its last race a few weeks ago after almost 20 years. Triathlon is on its last legs in Phoenix.
I think there are several reasons. Metro Phoenix had about 2.5 million people in 1995 and there is now close to 5 million. Roads are more crowded and shutting them is tough. There are many apartments around Tempe Town Lake. When the lake was created there were none. The light rail system has created some issues around the lake. At Lake Pleasant there is too much traffic to go out to the highway and too many boaters to get lake access when it is warm. Same at Sahuaro Lake. There have been 5 of 6 different race organizers over the years and only one is left. Young people don’t seem interested in racing. Guys in their 50s and 60s do very well in the few races left here. Also, I was talking to roadie and he said there are almost no road races in Phoenix anymore. Fortunately mountain biking is still going strong with a good high school program and a strong race series.