Anyone signed up for Rockford 70.3? Heard in Madison from an IM employee that its already 70% sold out. Is there a big endurance community in Rockford is this pent up demands from Madison, MKE, Chicago, other midwest folks? Thoughts on the course? Not excited to swim in Rock River, but I’ve heard its much cleaner that it used to be. What should we expect the vide to be like in Rockford?
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I’m guessing lots of Chicago people, and maybe a few down from Madison. I just signed up for a relay, don’t feel like doing the whole thing in likely hot weather. But the run will be fun!
Welcome aboard…I’d be interested in this if I lived closer.
Rockford is essentially replacing Steelhead, which was about the same distance from Chicago. Plenty of triathletes in the area so I’m not surprised it’s doing well. I was excited until I learned it’s a river swim. I know that’s an attraction for a lot of triathletes, and if it brings more people to the sport then I’m fine with it. But I’m working too hard on my swim to do a race that allows everyone to swim fast.
I’m in. There’s an active community in Rockford, but the insider info is it’s mostly Chicago area and a bit of Wisconsin folks. 70% is the number I was given a couple of weeks ago.
I’m actually co-hosting a social event next Wednesday the 18th at the Embassy Suites rooftop in downtown Rockford. It’s the local kickoff party to celebrate IM 70.3 Rockford. Yeah, there was a smaller one in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, but this one is at the race host hotel and overlooks the transition area and swim exit. You can see the whole swim along with a lot of the run course.
There’s going to be some pretty cool giveaways and it’s a nice chance to meet some other tri-minded people if you’re interested. If you send me a private message through here, I can give you more details and get you on the RSVP list. It’s open invite, but we have to limit the total attendees since space and our budget are not unlimited. Appetizers and first drink are on us.
Editing to add that we’re also hosting a bike course preview ride on Saturday, October 12th. Rockford 70.3 Preview Ride
Police escorts front and rear the entire way. Aid station in the middle of the route to fill bottles. Sag support (Your bike gets put on the rack and you get a ride to the finish if it’s not a quick fix). It’s going to be a slower, social ride because we can’t string out a group across a couple of miles and expect two cop cars to keep us safe. A lot of those roads are in good shape, but county highways with drivers not used to cyclists sharing that space. Thus, the police escorts (and road closures on race day). Having two police units for several hours and some basic liability insurance isn’t cheap, so we have to charge a little bit to break even.
That’s freaking awesome. Needs to be done at every race where feasible.
IM is always looking for more events to front load the race so they can get more tourism nights from their customers. This would totally do it 3 days out. Just make it one loop of a multiple loop course or one long section of one of the single loop courses.
They could even… Gasp, charge a small fee to register for the pre race ride.
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Hopefully it goes well and people sign up. We’re not really affiliated with IM other than being a ‘club’ in their system. Just a half dozen friends who weren’t going to be the ones complaining about people not putting on events in our area.
Anyhow, it feels kind of necessary in this instance. It’s a totally new thing and some of the roads are busy enough that people don’t bike on them. We’re so spoiled to have the Madison IM course so close and so accessible. There’s cyclists all over that course every weekend basically as soon as spring hits. There’s basically zero barrier to entry to ride their courses. I don’t know that Rockford could get to that level, but I do believe it’s a pretty decent venue opportunity and we have to start somewhere. I do have some draft routes that parallel the busiest parts of the 70.3 course and utilize the less busy parts if anybody wants them.
Speaking of the ‘more tourism nights’ that 3 night minimum stay at the host hotel might be worth it for families. The hotel is quite nice and there’s not any real reason to leave the area. If you don’t mind occasionally walking an entire city block or two (A lot of Rockfordians can’t handle that), you won’t pay for parking all weekend. There’s a really cool city market (more social, music, food trucks, art - different than a farmers market) about two blocks from the hotel on Friday night. Several really good restaurants within walking distance. Some of the best coffee I have ever had relocated to the ground floor of the host hotel. There’s an amazing children’s museum/activity center called ‘Discovery Center’ less than a mile down the road. They also have a huge outdoor play area. A beautiful arboretum is a mile or two the other way. The Japanese Garden is not even 100 yards off of the run course and one of our biggest tourist attractions. Spectating the run and swim should be fairly easy.
I’ll leave out specific names, but most of the Midwest 70.3s for the last decade or so weren’t the most friendly for bringing family to. The actual venue is kind of away from everything or you’re in a bigger city paying city prices for everything. It’s been dead for nearly a decade, but I will never forget going to an event hosted at an amusement park and it was closed the day of the race. I’m still mad about that.
I promise you can make a nice, safe weekend out of the area around the 70.3 Rockford race venue.
If the Rockford RD isn’t using THIS or some variation thereof to start the race, instead of “Eye Of The Tiger” or whatever is fashionable these days, they need to re-examine their playlist and overall musical decisions
Of course, being Rockford, Cheap Trick is ALWAYS in play
