17. What does everyone else know about IMTX that I don’t?

Pro:  IMTX doesn’t have a lot of steep climbs. According to the Mapmyride.com the course doesn’t have any rated climbs, IMCDA had 6 rated climbs.*

*For any climb to be rated (receive a climb score/category) it must be at least 500 meters in length with an average grade of 3% or more.
All climb scores are based on distance, grade/elevation change, and maximum elevation. The combination of these factors drives all final climb categories and there is no subjective analysis used in the final scoring of any climb score. All other climbs that do not meet the criteria for HC to Cat 5 are simply too small to rate and can usually be crossed easily by bicycle, running, or walking. The original concepts for the MapMyFitness categorization of all climbs came from the categorized climb ratings given by the UCI for races like the Tour de France and other professional cycling events. Our methodology is unique in several ways to allow for categorizations to be relevant for all sports and we added an additional difficulty with category 5 climbs.

(Dude could you talk any louder, I’m sitting at the airport writing this and the guy sitting one chair away from is one of those loud talkers.  Honestly I could be half down the terminal and I could hear him.  I am now putting in my ear buds but don’t have them plugged into anything.  I think he gets the point.)  Now hes talking about politics and although I agree with his politics I am thinking of voting the other way.

Pro:  IMTX is the beginning of the year and this way I don’t have the training hanging over me the whole summer.

Pro:  The run course is also flat and three loops so the crowd support will be strong (which is good and bad)d

Pro:  I found a hotel that I could use points at to keep the cost down

Pro:  I have never been to Houston before and I will see new things

Pro:  I can say that I participated in a heat fest and came out an Ironman, the harder the better

Con:  Heat, Heat, Heat.  I have read other blogger pages and a lot of runners started the marathon when it was 90+ degrees.

Con:  The bike course is one loop, meaning that even if I wanted to check out the course the day before its going to take me at least 2 hours to see the course.  Would much rather have two loops.

Con:  The swim only allows one trial swim, because its not a lake that is open to the public (apparently the lake is more to look at than use.)

Con:  The swim is supposed to be tight the whole way

Con:  The race as a whole compared to others to considerably slower, don’t know why

 Con:  Its going to be another 18 hour drive their, (well get a rental this time)

My point to all this is that IMMadison filled up in two days!  IMCDA filled up in a month, IMflorida filled up in a week.  IMTX has yet to fill up and its been almost 5 months.  However IMSt.George has been open two weeks longer than IMTX and still hasn’t filled.  But look at the bike course at IMSTG and it’s a monster, I can understand why it hasn’t filled up.

So why are people staying away from IMTX.  I think its one word HEAT.  The average high for the year during the IM is 85 and the average low is 65.  I can’t think of another reason why people don’t want to do it.  The swim is at least interesting (swimming through a channel).  The bike has a lot of rollers but should be fast.  And the run is right through downtown.  I think I read the whole run is only 1.5 miles away from the start the whole way.  ( I haven’t done the math, but I am sure that is possible.)