Thanks Nick, I had not seen this. In the U.S. there is not much recognition of the Challenge Family name. Hoping that might change with this partnership and an expansion of races on U.S. soil.
on the other hand, it looks like the tristar family (the 1-100-10 races) has gone tits up. it’s a shame - i was hoping to race monaco this year.
-mike
Think Belinda Granger has also aligned herself with Challenge being the spokesperson for Challenge Phuket. She almost always does Roth and will be showing up in Taiwan i believe
But seriously, as long as WTC has the KPR systems, majority would just do WTC races to get into Kona. Granger has already indicated that she will not compete in Kona again and Macca just has to finish one IM to validate
on the other hand, it looks like the tristar family (the 1-100-10 races) has gone tits up. it’s a shame - i was hoping to race monaco this year.
-mike
That is a shame…I’m not sure of the structure of the Tristar races but the triathlon pubic are a funny bunch and seem to favour the established distances…There seems to be so much growth in the sport in Europe and I’m amazed that there are enough triathletes to go fill all the races. —
Sounds like a very unbalanced triathlon to me, 100 to 1 ratio of the bike to swim and 10 to 1 of bike to run??? I guess you can call anything a “triathlon” if you want, but what’s next??? Would a 100 meter swim/1000 km bike/1 km run really be a “triathlon” also??? It seems that we are heading in the direction of maximizing the bike and minimizing the swim and run.
This news has been all over the various race websites,Facebook and other tri sites but I am surprised to see nothing about it here (maybe I’m blind)…With Macca joining Challenge followed by a few big name sponsors in Europe and now Mark Allen aligning himself with The Challenge Family it seems that all is going crazy for the ever expanding race series…
www.firstoffthebike.com/news-and-features/challenge-teams-up-with-mark-allen/
On a Challenge related note…
The countdown to Challenge Taiwan has begun and I have to say that I have never seen a race director so enthusiastically pimping everything to do with his race as Challenge Taiwan’s Kent Wong.The guy is a machine
Dear Ultra-tri-guy,
Thank you for the complement. We will do our best of the inaugural Challenge-Taiwan.
I will try to post some photo of the race course for your interest.
I have one more in North Asia and one more in South Asia races (Both half), so should be more fun next year!
Best regards
Kent
This news has been all over the various race websites,Facebook and other tri sites
Some places that it hasn’t been are the Mark Allen Online web page, the MAO Facebook page, Mark Allen or Luis Vargas’ Facebook pages, or the Mark Allen Online e-newsletter that I get. Of course, sure as I type these they will start posting the news in their various social media outlets. I don’t follow Twitter so maybe they’ve posted it there. Don’t know.
yeah, of course it’s unbalanced. it just seems like it’d be really interesting to try it out. i’d much rather have all sorts of choices and a bunch of wacky off-distance events than have a calendar full of homogenous olys and 70.3s and IMs.
heck, i’m doing a race this summer that’s a draft-legal 5-60-15.
ETA: i really like the idea of long-course races with shorter runs; you can still have a long day but don’t have nearly the recovery-time penalty.
-mike
This news has been all over the various race websites,Facebook and other tri sites
Some places that it hasn’t been are the Mark Allen Online web page, the MAO Facebook page, Mark Allen or Luis Vargas’ Facebook pages, or the Mark Allen Online e-newsletter that I get. Of course, sure as I type these they will start posting the news in their various social media outlets. I don’t follow Twitter so maybe they’ve posted it there. Don’t know.
I guess you need to look a little closer
www.markallenonline.com/challenge
www.triathlete-europe.competitor.com//2013/04/23/challenge-family-team-up-with-mark-allen
I like the idea of more races offering a “shorter run option”. I like the Abu Dhabi shorter event distance, which is in the range of 2K swim 100k bike 10k run. Much quicker recovery from those days.
yup!
i’m planning a 2014 ironman, and want to get some racing on my legs. but i’m not sure that i’m up to (or need) the pounding associated with a long run off the bike right now, so something like the tristar or abu dhabi is perfect for me. i want a chance to try something new, test out my kit, plan my pacing and nutrition, etc., without having to build my whole calendar around it.
plus, i’m 33 and i’ve been racing tri since i was 15. i just feel like something different!
-mike
I wonderful if there are any clever race directors in the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley who might offer us folks up an option. How about swim a mile, bike sixty, and run ten???
yeah, of course it’s unbalanced. it just seems like it’d be really interesting to try it out. i’d much rather have all sorts of choices and a bunch of wacky off-distance events than have a calendar full of homogenous olys and 70.3s and IMs.
heck, i’m doing a race this summer that’s a draft-legal 5-60-15.
ETA: i really like the idea of long-course races with shorter runs; you can still have a long day but don’t have nearly the recovery-time penalty.
-mike
Is that a 5K swim/60K bike/15K run??? Where???
So MAO themselves bury this on their website and don’t have it on the home page and you’re wondering why it’s not covered more here?
So MAO themselves bury this on their website and don’t have it on the home page and you’re wondering why it’s not covered more here?
I don’t know what your deal is with arguing the point with me,maybe it is just a chance to have a dig at me,I don’t know…I would think that somewhere,on what is supposed to be the biggest triathlon website/forum in the world it would have been mentioned considering it has been picked up almost everywhere else…
Feel free to keep arguing the point though