Toughest to easiest Ironman Courses

Triathlon Forum
1

It’s taper time! I thought that I’d throw out my list of the toughest to the easiest Ironman courses. Yeah yeah yeah, the heat and wind and snow and sleet, on-course nutrition, lack of sponges, can all make a course harder/easier on any given day. But in general, historical trends starts appearing and from them this is the list that I came up with:

IM Lanzarote
IM Hawaii
IM France
IM UK
IM Malaysia
IM Asia/Korea
IM Lake Placid
IM Japan
IM Switzerland
IM South Africa
IM New Zealand
IM Canada
IM Wisconsin
IM Louisville
IM Austria
IM Coeur d’Alene
IM Western Australia
IM Germany
IM Arizona
IM Brazil
IM Florida

2

You’ve got Western Australia twice (both of which are in the wrong place)…and you’re missing New Zealand.

3

IMWA is easier than he has it even in the second spot for sure. The times down there are just insanely fast.

4

You’ve got Western Australia twice (both of which are in the wrong place)…and you’re missing New Zealand.

5

You also don’t have Ironman Australia at Port Macquarie. A great race but difficult due to the number of hills!

6

Are you sure that Ironman Germany is one of the easiest? I am asking because I am entered in the race year, not because I know otherwise.

Hugh Blake

7

We will see how easy IMAZ is this weekend with the winds whipping at 50MPH and it being 96 degrees out. :slight_smile:

8

IM Germany’s bike course has about 3k worth of elevation gain if I’m not mistaken. That’s on smooth roads, with tons of fans/crowd support. It really seems to be the ideal mix of flats and undulations, and the run course is fun with tons of fans and is considered to be a fast course. Of course, on any given day, it might suck with a billion degrees humidity, no wetsuit on the swim, etc. But in general, it is a very fair course! Have fun with the crowds there!

9

Silverman
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10

Doesn’t IMMoo usually have a pro winner that barely breaks 9 hours??? I’d say that would be a pretty damn hard course based on that …

11

Doesn’t IMMoo usually have a pro winner that barely breaks 9 hours??? I’d say that would be a pretty damn hard course based on that …
That might be more a reflection of the quality of the pro field that the toughness of the course.

12

Ouch … I’d hate to be one of the pros that won that race and have to read that one … :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

13

Still missing IM Oz which consistently has slower pro times than NZ due to the hills on the bike and the run (and possibly the depth of the pro field - except the women this year), so should prob slot in above it somewhere.

14

Kind of funny that two of the arguably hardest Iron races in the world aren’t Ironman branded races. Norseman and Silverman

15

I wouldn’t put Hawaii number two. Some years the weather conditions can make it brutal, but that can be said for a few others as well.

16

I’m curious, just how many of these courses you feel so comfortable rating you have actually race?

17

Interesting effort, but other than Lanzarote and Florida as hardest/easiest it looks way off to me.

18

You missed Ironman Australia

IM South Africa

I suggest it go here…

IM New Zealand

19

I have only raced 4 IM’s.

  • Malaysia ( twice )… 2007 / 2008.
  • Western Australia …2004 ( Inaugural ).
  • Kona…2005

2005 was a good year in Kona with little wind.

I would rate both years in Malaysia ,as substantially harder than Kona …IN 2005.

I would not rank Hawaii as a difficult course whatsoever, unless of course it is windy. Utmost respect to any FINISHERS during windy years.

Western Australia in 2004 was a 3 loop bike and pretty fast with some decent headwinds coming into town.

My 2 cents.

20

from the ones I have done:

GFT (hot, hilly, humid, windy)
Kona (at least in 2003, silly hot and humid and windy)
IMLP (hills in bad places)
IMMOO (never ending rollers, and I did it on a year that wasn’t hot or freezing)
IM Lou (hot, and humid and I bet there, at that time of year it will always be)
IMC (a few good climbs)
IMAZ (wind)
IMFL (flat, fast, and go motivation to go fast so I could get out of the south before I got killed)
IM Cali (RIP, cool temps, flat run)
Cheesyman (cool temps, flat all the way, and a swim that is point to point with a current, the only problem is that the water bottles are not sport nibbles so you loose time unscrewing them, of and when pro purse is TBA that means they will announce that the purse is a paperback copy of Chesapeake, which while a fine book, isn’t exactly cash)
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