With St. Anthony’s nine days away (and typically this weekend most years), what does the new 5150 designation mean to you for this race or any of the others in the series? Any more prestigious? Not worth the extra cost? Not something you’ve even considered?
its the name of a crappy VanHalen album
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5150 (Involuntary psychiatric hold)
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Pretty kick-ass amp head though.
For me it’s still a Van Halen album.
They can’t call it Olympic distance due to the IOC/ITU, so they had to come up with some branding gimmick. It’s only going to mean anything if there is some guaranteed level of quality/organization that is attached to the series. Right now there’s not much to pay a premium for.
http://www.vanhalenstore.com/shop/graphics/00000001/CD07B.jpg
Not much, yet. It had better be a hell of a goodie bag for the entry fee I paid for the DC Tri. I’ve raced extremely well-organized races for a whole lot less (Door County, Capitol View).
Good question. I wonder if it is a good thing that the Ironman took over several existing and well accepted races to “rebrand” them.
I also question the move in general, since so far Ironman always stood for a tough/long race. But an Olympic distance race doesn’t necessary fall into this category.
On the other hand, they might be able to make the triathlon sport as a whole more popular.
I guess time will tell!
And interesting question would be if is harder to get into those races since they are now a 5150 race? Also how much did the race-fee go up?
The elevation of Boulder, CO?
5150 means EXPENSIVE!
For me it means regret. I never should have sold that amp.
I guess now it’s also a really, really bad name for a triathlon distance.
It is actually more like 5300-5400 depending on what part of town you are in. Ever hear of the 5430 Tri? It is now called the Boulder 70.3 race.
Tow truck and an accident
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I believe Boulder is 200-300 ft higher than that.
So far, it means “Pay more for a race”. They don’t have one in So-Cal (yet) but if they do, I can only imagine that the price (which is already expensive around here) will only increase.
Definately increased entry fees, I don’t like the rising prices, those RD’s are making a killing! But I think for 5150 part of why every price is increasing is for that huge hy-vee purse, and the amateur awards, something like 120,000 at hy-vee. I haven’t heard much of prizes from Boulder Peak, or Provo or any Rocky Mtn races but I can assume they will be pretty plush as well. I kinda like the design though because qualifying for hy-vee is more competitive than any USAT national event, at least for elite-amateurs and pros.
That you’re about 130 feet short of a mile. I hope you adjusted your split time appropriately.
blasphemy!
it means “we want more of your money”.
It means you no longer have to go 70.3 or 140.6 miles to get a cool tattoo!!!
Not much, yet. It had better be a hell of a goodie bag for the entry fee I paid for the DC Tri. I’ve raced extremely well-organized races for a whole lot less (Door County, Capitol View).
I’ve done a couple of WTC races (ok, I’ve done the same one several times). I found the swag completely disappointing. It’s doubtful that they’ll stuff more in your bag just because you paid more.
One of the pros behind the Iron-branded races is the lack of availability of other races at those distances (this is improving). With the abundance of local races offering the same distance, 5150 pretty much equates to nonsensical gibberish.
I’m in total agreement that race entry fees have gotten very expensive. But St. Anthony’s has been expensive (at least for the last number of years that I have been doing it). I don’t think 5150 has had anything to do with that. Big race, prize purse, big name pros, take your pick, probably have more to do with the price.