What sanctioned Ironman event has the toughest course? All things considered…
Norseman Extreme http://www.nxtri.com/
Silverman looks like the toughest in North America.
What do you mean by “Sanctioned?”
If you mean USAT sanctioned - it’s definitely Silverman. www.silvermannv.com
If you mean world-wide - “Norseman” in Norwway I think that is more difficult.
As I understand it, the toughest of the M-Dot races is either Hawaii or IMLP.
Jason
I guess I meant M-Dot, but considering all races is interesting as well…
lanzarote, lake placid, hawaii…all very tough. difficulty in hawaii is more dependant on weather than the other two.
If you are looking at finishing times you have to throw Lanzerote in the mix. I think that only a couple of the top finishers actually make it sub 9 hours each year. I agree Silverman looks hard but its hard to compare since there were no pros in the general field.
I agree Silverman looks hard but its hard to compare since there were no pros in the general field. [[[
There were a few pros, and some of the best in the world in their respective events. Now if they could only manage a 8:17 for the relays, then it would be safe to assume that it is one tough SOB. Those relays would be going 7:30 or faster on any M-Dot course…
I don’t know the paticulars of the Norseman, but looking at races past and present, and a race that starts and finishes at the same altitude, the old Worlds toughest in Tahoe has to be considered. 3 mile swim in frigid late tahoe, 120 mile bike over 4 mountain passes(8000ft+), and a 27 mile run, mostly on trails, some where you have to pull yourself up by the roots of exposed trees. All that at a starting altitude of over 6000ft… That was a tough course…
Here’s an article I’ve keep because I think it’s a great description…(not sure of the source):
Bjorn Andersson wins world’s toughest triathlon
August 8, 2005
The 2005 edition of the Norseman Xtreme triathlon certainly lived up to its reputation as the hardest iron distance triathlon in the world. The race starts at sea level in the small town of Eidfjord in Norway and continues up and down through very steep terrain to finally finish at an altitude of 1883meters above sea level at Gaustatoppen.
The previous course record was set by former Mountain bike world cup winner Rune Höydahl last year in 11h 30min and this year was supposed to be a match up between him and me. This was in fact one of the reasons why I decided to do the race since there had been quite a lot of trash talk regarding my inabilities to compete with Rune in a triathlon like this. I took the bait and went to Norway because of this but also because I thought it was a cool race that stands out among most other triathlons.
Unfortunately I learned that Höydahl was out of the race with an injury a couple of days before the start. He was one of the best endurance athletes in Scandinavia for quite a while so it would have been inspiring to race him even though triathlon was never his major sport. Instead I had to try and beat his course record.
The swim takes place in a fjord and is a point to point course. Basically all the athletes get on a boat at 4am and they drive you out in the fjord and drop you off at 4.45am 3.8km from shore. The water was so cold this year that they had to search for warmer water in the fjord so we had to swim further out this time. This made the bike course 190km and 10km longer than it normally is. Most times I’d be overjoyed by a decision to lengthen the bike leg in a triathlon but it’s not great if you’re going for course records. And it was pretty damn cold in the water anyways.
I had a good swim and exited the water in just under 47min with a slight current. Then on to the bike which features 5 major climbs of 4 to 14km in length and with grades of 7-10%. The first part of the bike takes you up to a mountain plateau at 1300m above sea level where you ride for about 70km before dropping down a bit to start the rest of the climbs. It was 3 degrees C at the plateau and partly rainy so it felt more like a winter triathlon at times. My decision to do the race on my normal time trial bike, a Cervelo P3C with disc wheel, equipped with 58/42 chainrings and an 11-23 casette was met with a lot scepticism before the race. In retrospect it was a good one since the bike climbs great, especially with the Rotor cranks, and still allows me the benefit of a TT position on the flats. The Bike ride took me around 5h 25min and at the bike to run transition I was greeted with the warmest temperature of the day, 13 degrees.
The run was certainly no walk in the park either even though the first 25k is just rolling terrain with a small incline up to the start of the real climb. I went through this part in 1h 43min so I was running pretty well but the real run started after this with the climb up to 1880m. The first 11-12km is asphalt with an average grade of around 10%. It started raining almost immediately on the climb and temperatures dropped again. I ran well up the climb to the mountain checkpoint though I started to get really cold at this stage. At the checkpoint you get off the road and onto a small trail, if you can call it that, full of big rocks. It was impossible to run for the most part here with the wet slippery rocks and mud. The temperature was dropping to 0 degrees and it started to snow. My core temperature started to drop considerably and the last part was more survival than racing. I reached the top though in first place with a new record time of 10h 30min. The last part of the run which was 4.7km on the trail took over an hour to complete. I was the only one allowed up on this part since the weather got too bad.
This was a seriously tough race and I have never felt worse after finishing a race. I can still recommend the race though since it goes through a beautiful part of Norway and it’s bound to be an adventure for everyone competing.
Thanks to my support crew Pär Andersson and Ragnar Alne who helped me throughout the race.
The original Ironman France, designed by Mark Allen. Incredible slow times, and brutal course. As far as still existing courses, probaly Hawaii on a year in, year out basis.
A little early to tell because we don’t know course details but IMLouisville could well be LP-like in design and yet have Aug’s heat-humidity and even some wind. Still hard to imgine starting a August marathon in the middle of the afternoon in L’ville. The better answer to your question is the one you’re getting ready to do.
When i said no pros in the general field i meant non-relay. I agree the race looks hard by the fact that the fastest age group time was 11+ hours. But i have a few questions which i honestly do not know the answer to but i would be interested in knowing your opinion monty since if i remember correctly you were there.
Is Tyler as fast today as he was 3 years ago or faster than the better bikers in Triathlon?
What does a 4:33 mean on that course and would he have beaten Bjorn without the equipment malfunction?
How hard was the swim because the times for some of the worlds best arent all that impressive compared to the records for that distance. Same question on the run. I ask that because even if the run was hilly i would expect the worlds fastest marathoners to be faster than that.
All in all, i assume the course was a bear but were those pros really the right ones to beat the time (obv. not) or will next year be a better judge of how hard the course was?
My questions are sincere so please dont take them as me being leading.
By the way, i mean no disrespect to the pros who competed on that day i was only referring to the fact they didnt go sub 8 on that day.
how about IMWI or the Great Floridian, where do those rank?
I did Lanzagrotty the same year as Kona in 2004… Kona was windy, Lanza was calm so Kona was tougher.
Weather conditions aside Lanza bike course is tougher. But as we all know Kona’s more exposed swim, wind, heat and humidity give it it’s toughness factor. Would be a close call to compare a windy Lanza to a windy Kona. Maybe the exposure of the Kona run & the humidity would make it the winner.
Did Placid before and it’s baby sister to the 2 Volcanic Island ones.
Norseman is just out there.
Based on what I know I would put them like this:
- Lanzarote.
- France.
- Lake Placid.
- Wisconsin.
5 Hawaii.
That would be my top five hardest Ironmans. I’ve only done Hawaii on that list but I am entered in Wisconsin for '07 and I’ve done Canada (twice) and New Zealand as well as the IsoStar Nice Triathlon which uses much of the Ironman France course.
One day… Lanzarote. It has to be done.
I think it was 02 when Molina did GFT and dnf’d and called it the toughest IM distance in NA. When it gets hot and windy its a bear.
- Lanzarote.
- France.
- Lake Placid.
- Wisconsin.
5 Hawaii.
Wow, I’m surprised you did not put Canada in there. I thought the bike in Canada had roughly the same amount of climbing as Lake Placid.
Sanctioned by stupidity. Chet the Jet.
Chet completed the world’s longest Ironman–the Double Deca (20x Ironman) composed of a 48 mile swim, 2,240 mile bike, and 524 mile run completing the continuous race in 28 days and 6 hours.
How does the bike course on IM Japan compare against the listed tough IM courses? They bill this a mini Alps d’Huez TDF type leg. Can only compare it against my other IM in Korea, which I thought was a fair bit tougher. At Japan you do the 83km to 164km section three times.
The GFT was pretty tough - especially the first 8 miles of the run, but I dropped out because the event was so bad! wrong distances on swim and bike and they sent every one the wrong way on the run. Terrible event that day - the worst I’ve ever been in actually. I know the event has worked its bugs out since then…But it is a tough course.
Tougher are NorseMan, EmbrunMan and Lanzarote - in that order.
Kona is a tough one too, about 4th in my view of the WTC events that most people know about. But the heat in Malaysia for example is way worse. Japan most years too, so Kona is actually about 6th-7th toughest IM course in the WTC family???
I’d like to hav a crack at IM Western Australia. Looks like the fastest by far on a good day (like this year).
Cheers, Scott
What sanctioned Ironman event has the toughest course? All things considered…
I’ll take that to be WTC IM course and that must be the original IM France course in Gerardmer 2002, it got repeartedly sanitised until no-one wanted to come play! I am not alone in offering this choice as Wingnut also gave in the same accolade.