WORTHINGTON**, OH**** - **Triathlon One O One organizers regretfully announce the immediate cancellation of the Triathlon One O One series, including The Woodlands, Texas event scheduled for November 11. The decision to cancel The Woodlands event comes as a result of the inability to secure permits for the race venue.
Triathlon One O One will be issuing full refunds to all the registered participants of The Woodlands event, as well as those athletes who have transfers from previous Triathlon One O One events. All refunds will be mailed over the course of the several weeks. There are currently no plans to continue the Triathlon One O One series in 2008.
Triathlon One O One would like to thank its sponsors, partners, communities and volunteers for their unbelievable support of the organization, its goals and its passion for the sport of triathlon.
“I want to personally thank all of those folks that supported Triathlon One O One and I sincerely apologize to the many triathletes who scheduled their season around our championship race in Texas. This is a very sad day for me, especially since we had great momentum going into The Woodlands event. The decision to cancel the series was a difficult one,” said Shannon Kurek, executive director, Triathlon One O One series.
“It is extremely unfortunate we will not be staging The Woodlands event despite all of our planning. The challenges confronting us for this venue were far too many to overcome at this late stage in the game,” said Doug Grout, national race director for the Triathlon One O One series. “The cancellation of the Triathlon One O One series is a sad day for me both personally and professionally, as it was truly exciting to be building this new distance and brand for the triathlon community.”
Inquiries regarding Triathlon One O One refunds, or any other related details should be directed to: info@trioneoone.com.
Let me start by saying that I know nothing about what goes into race planning. I have a couple of questions. Wouldn’t it make more sense to get a permit for the race before accepting registration money? What is the typical procedure here?
Seems like every time you turn around a 101 series event is being canceled. I didn’t like this distance from the start and I still don’t. The problems they continue to have only prove what so many of us knew and that is this series will not work. Hopefully ST will pulls its support (which I assume it has since the 101 forum is gone) and get behind something more worthwhile since there are alot of good series out there that need support.
The Woodlands has an extensive parks and pathways system, but let’s face it: you have to do races on the roads.
I’m led to believe that the organizers could have announced that Lance Armstrong was competing and still there would have been enough people in TW to complain that their Sunday drive from home to church to the restaraunt and back home again would be slowed down a bit.
I’m led to believe that the organizers could have announced that Lance Armstrong was competing and still there would have been enough people in TW to complain that their Sunday drive from home to church to the restaraunt and back home again would be slowed down a bit.<<
We have an office in Houston and someone there had similar thoughts.
Banana - I’ve been involved in hosting only ONE event which went very smoothly. In a nutshell, the process involved getting VERBAL "ok"s from the powers that be prior to the formal permits. Then we start getting registrations at the same time while completing and submitting the permits. As part of the permit process, a public announcement has to be made (usually a newspaper announcement). My guess is that things were going smoothly, but there may have been a public outcry against it, or there were certain demands made by the public officials as part of the permit process that the 101 folks could not or would not accommodate (like stopping a race at train tracks, doing part of the BIKE course off-road to avoid a church, or some other crazy thing. The public may not think it’s a big deal to ask for such things, but you and I both know they would basically be unacceptable in a race. I had no plans to do a 101 race for a while at least, but I am saddened by its demise. I thought it was a great idea.
Is it me, or does anyone else think that it’s odd that Tri 101 & the local RDs were able to pull off races in Bradenton with about 5 months notice & prep time & in Clear Lake with a little more than a month more than that?
The Series was announced on or around December 15, 2006. That has given them 8+ months to get The Woodlands secured, (as of today), and another 2 1/2 months to work out final details.
More than ample time to prep for Halifax, and then cancellation was blamed on the resignation of the local management team. I don’t ever recall hearing why they resigned. You would think that the 101 management team would have had a better overall game plan. Yes/No?
Maybe - but it’s easy to sit back and arm-chair quarterback the entire ordeal. I know how much work it was to put on ONE race with 100+ participants (and I wasn’t even the RD - just a guy on the committee helping out), so I can only imagine how much work it would be to put on an entire series of huge events with 500-1000 participants, huge venues, national sponsors, multiple cities hundreds of miles away - with separate race management teams, tons of prize money - PLUS maintaining your current slate of HFP races. Ironman didn’t start that way and it took years for the series to reach critical mass. We need to give these guys a break - maybe it could have been done differently, and many here have thrown out some great suggestions.
Let me start by saying that I know nothing about what goes into race planning. I have a couple of questions. Wouldn’t it make more sense to get a permit for the race before accepting registration money? What is the typical procedure here?
Go back and search in 2005 or so and read all the hand-wringing and bitching and moaning about the IM AZ bike course changes. Due to circumstances with the indian tribe over which some of the course was supposed to go (after supposedly having a “final” set course), they had to change it. This was after registration had been open and sold out for a very long time.
I haven’t read the bazillion posts on the demise of the 101 series, but I’m not surprised…someone mentioned the better idea would be to start with one race, make that great and then go from there.
But that an “oddball” distance didn’t gain real traction is no surprise.
Ever wonder why there’s not much in the way of races between the half marathon and marathon? Trail racing at 25k aside, there’s not a whole lot of cache in many people’s minds about doing a 30k or 20-miler…and I’m not making a comment on whether that’s good or bad, it just “is”.
Same thing carries over into tri IMO…you have the HIM and IM…and then 101, or “Almost-Three-Quarters-Ironman”…just doesn’t reach out and grab one, unfortunately.
I will echo the sentiments that it’s too bad, for whatever the real reasons are behind the cancellation.
What Cathy said! http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1454137#1454137
Some people really liked this distance, myself included.
101 is going under in part because many triathletes are stuck in their preconceived prejudices and the absurd lionization of the M-dot. Personally, I think it is both a shame and a display of ignorance that people didn’t realize the superiority of the 101 distance, both in the response of the athlete’s bodies and the ability for ALL participants (other than DNFs) to finish the distance while the sun was still shining. It was an extremely challenging race distance, but did not wreak the havoc of the longer IM distance.
It is sad that people get so hung up on doing Ironman® without realizing the damage that distance inflicts on the racer’s body. The greatest majority of that damage happens in the final 10K, when one has been pounding one’s feet on the ground for 20 miles. At the 101 distance, the run ends before it gets to that point, so the recovery from a 101 is only slightly longer than from a 70.3 race. While this is not such a big deal for pros who train 25+ hours a week, recreational triathletes racing 140.6/226 will usually find themselves consuming an entire racing season for that one race with a possible tune-up race or two 6-12 weeks prior and then struggling to do a race or two (and underperfroming) by the end of the season. After the 101 in early June, I was able to race again (not quite 100%) three weeks later.
First of all, it’s ridiculous that anyone was ever allowed to trademark the term ironman. Ironman is a race of 2.4/112/26.2 regardless of who the organizer is. “Marathon” is not and cannot be trademarked nor can 10K, 5K or any title one might choose to apply to a 2.4 mile swim event. Why does a corporation have the right to say that only THEIR 140.6 races are truly IM? If you race 140.6 and complete the distance, you have done the ironman, whether it be Kona, Tapau, Roth, Vineman or any of the other 226K events around the world. If you really want to show how tough you are, do Silverman or Norseman. Graham Fraser can kiss my butt (nothing personal Graham, I just find the “®” after ironman to be offensive).
Meanwhile, the 101 was the most entertaining race I’ve ever done, in part due to the excellent job done by the organizers, and also the incredible support of the community of Lakeport. I was really looking forward to The Woodlands and to Clearlake next year.
“Seems like every time you turn around a 101 series event is being canceled.”
Stuff happens when you try to do something new and unique. Sadly they tried to do it in communities that didn’t have experience staging triathlons and thus made the task doubly challenging.
“I didn’t like this distance from the start and I still don’t.”
Big deal. Some liked it some didn’t. Since you didn’t try the distance, how can you know for sure?
Let me start by saying that I know nothing about what goes into race planning. I have a couple of questions. Wouldn’t it make more sense to get a permit for the race before accepting registration money? What is the typical procedure here?
Chips Rockman Race Notes -
get permission to use park get permission to use roads get permission in writing! get permits and insurance announce race and open entry.
The only reason Rockman 2008 entry is not yet open is that I am waiting on one last permit. Once I have that permit - I will open registration. No way in heck I am going to risk a last minute gotcha. They are bound to happen (happened to me with parking this year)…but that IMO is an “oh by the way” (you cant park there anymore)…as opposed to “the Mayor said we could use the road…oh, whats that? It is a State road!”
Does anyone who signed up for the cancelled race know of another Midwest race in November? (Preferably half-IM)
Would have to be southern Midwest…or I could do a Rockman “IceMan Challange” at Olsen Lake…maybe we could call it the Idiot - a - Rod.
…someone mentioned the better idea would be to start with one race, make that great and then go from there.
Ooo! that was me.
I agree with you about the distance. I think there need to be a movement to getting the name “ironman” as the name of the distance so others can use it, rather than trademark name.
Woof - they enforce their trademark with all of the legal might that they are afforded (and rightly so). I sure would if I was NAS. God bless them for having such an awesome business and let there be no question they deserve all the monies that are afforded to their trademark.
I agree. They put on great races and people love the product. I’d defend my trademark too. I’ll even back the company by racing their events.
I just feel that the name “ironman” is the name of the event now, and theres an arguement to be ade that others should be able to name their 140.6 event “ironman”.
