Trying to get a good group of answers to see what people think are the best triathlon’s that they’ve ever done no matter what distance. I am going to try to do whatever triathlon comes out as the best. I have several questions for each triathlon that you nominate:
Location:
Avg Temp:
Distance:
Difficulty:
Best part of race:
Date:
Who puts it on:
David J
ASU SUN DEVILS
For fun
River City Triathlon Shreveport LA
Weather Hot as Hell
Distance Short Sprint
Great post party, cheap entry and the best goodie bag in the sport.
Xterra Maui
Off road,
Pretty hot
Monkey like climbing (Don’t use the single speed)
Great location
Ironman Hawaii for what it is,
For oganization. All the UltraMax races.
Now for fun and thats why I do them.
Dutchman Tri in Pella Iowa. Great town to eat pastries and drink import beer.
Back a Child Tri in Forsyth (Branson) Missouri. Great Beautiful place to hold a triathlon. You swim down a Creek into one of the lakes. YES down creek.
Tri Jesus (YMCA) sponsored. These people Have fun . The city has a Blues festival the night before. Quincy Illinois
Woodriver Triathlon Woodriver Ill. 2 mile loops. You do 6 on the bike for a 12 mile bike. 2 on the run for a 4 mile run. Fans are along the course cheering and you can see everyone coming by.
I like the small tri’s for the atmosphere. I also like to go to other states for their State Games and do the triathlons. Georiga, Iowa, Missouri
Ironman New Zealand
temps are all over the place–cool in the mornings; strong sun later; rain; all four seasons during the day
Difficulty–it’s an Ironman. They are all hard. Though this one would be down on the “less hard” spectrum. Wind is what would make the bike hard.
Best part of race–You are in New Zealand!! Awesome country, fabulous people. Excellent post-awards banquet party.
Always the first Saturday in March.
clm, participant or spectator at IM NZ 2001, 2002, 2003 and heading back in 2005
Maumee Bay Triathlon, near Toledo, Ohio.
I’ve done at least 200+ triathlons. This one is the best.
It is what the sport is all about.
2nd place goes to Laguna Phuket in Thailand.
3rd goes to Ironman Canada.
4th goes to Ironman Hawaii.
5th goes to RBTT/Fatum Triathlonfest in Curacao.
Maumee Bay??? Maumee Bay? I’ve done it three times and it never struck me as a great tri. It’s ok, but I didn’t think it is anything special.
It looks like it is international distance this year.
What a great way to end the season. Late September on the beach. Ocean swim complete with barking sea lions (last year, one of them frolicked amid the swimmers and a few of the swimmers were freaked out) biking PCH, running along the cliffs overlooking the ocean…
2nd best is San Jose International. It’s just a race, but the pro event is set up way cool. The pros do a bike TT complete with starthaus before the public races. After we race, the pros do a staggered start swim-run-swim-run. Great spectator friendly format and a chance to see the best (Macca, Michellie, Karen Smyers, Lees, Bennet, Walton and more) up close and personal.
World’s Toughest Half
Location: Auburn, CA (Sierra foothills)
Avg Temp: 65-70 or so
Distance: 1/2 IM
Difficulty: Hardest I’ve seen. Slowest average times I’ve seen. Sort of a “2/3s” Ironman.
Best part of race: Difficulty. Run course completely off-road.
Date: April 04; late May 05
Who puts it on: Bradventures
Tom
This is good to hear. I live in Va. and my good friend lives in Iowa-- we were looking at a race halfway between and this is the one we selected. Can you tell me about the course (flat, hills, running surface etc.)
thanks
Chainring, The coarse is dead flat. It is on the banks of lake Erie and can be windy. The swim is in a man made pond just of the lake Erie beach. They increased the distances to Inter. distance, so there will be coarse changes. HFP Racing puts on the event. hfpracing.com
Thanks Jack
Was there anything in particular you didn’t like about this race— or was it just an average race, and therefore you wouldn’t put it at the top of your list.
Nantucket Ironteams relay, put on by Nantucket Nectars.
.25 mile run, .9 mile surf paddle, 3.5 mile beach run with 20lb pack, .5 mile swim+.75 mile beach run, 19 mile bike, 6.5 mile run. It is designed for relay teams but they allow individuals. You need a support crew to get your gear to each transition since the race covers most of the Island. Super hard, super fun event. Finishes at a bar and there is cold beer and live music waiting for everyone after they cross the line. I havent been back there in a few years but as far as I know no individual has ever won the race outright. The last year I raced it Another guy and myself were 1-2 off the bike but were run down by some Boston University 10k track guy running the final leg of a relay.
http://www.nantucketnectars.com/home.php?PHPSESSID=b70cd5b8c355bf831122d32a83c158d3
Average - It is at a very nice state park (resort and golf coarse), plenty of parking, large transition area, wet suit swim, Bike coarse is flat and open (not closed but not much traffic), run is flat and open (a little hot). You will see drafting on the bike.