Boulder 70.3 or Muncie ?

I've only done Muncie but if I was planning on making a vacation I would chose Boulder no questions.

For a vacation/desination, I'd say Boulder wins hands down. Fun town, great hiking right there, easy access to even better hiking/mountains  nearby, some spectacular bike rides to sample from.

As for the 70.3, I haven't done Muncie, but I did Boulder as my first this past summer. The swim is a rather nice reservoir swim, likely to be (barely) wetsuit legal. The bike course has some elevation change, but nothing too challenging. With the combination of the altitude and the roads it's a fairly fast bike course. The run is the killer in this race, although it's far from obvious from the route map. It's mostly on dirt roads and paths (all in fairly good condition), and it's mostly quite flat. But it's very exposed, and it can get super hot and dry out there, especially if you're in a later wave or are not super-fast. Check out race reports from that event, and you'll see that almost everybody comments on how they wilted in the heat (myself included). But it's a beautiful setting, great organization, and I'm very glad that I did it. 

I LOVE BOULDER I moved from Chicago to boulder for a year.  That being said, I would not go there from IL altitude and do a 70.3 unless I had done quite a few and I have at least run some 5 and 10k's at altitude.  I remember doing the Boulder Boulder after just moving there and I thought I was going to die.  I heard this bike was mostly on the flats with some fothills. the foothills there make riding by starved rock look like a warm-up.

 There are lots of great late 70.3's in the midwest.  I'm doing the rev3 Wisconsin Dells this year. Rev 3 Ohio isn't too far away (5 hr drive w/ kids) in mid September  I loved that race.  I did Pigman In Iowa (late August) a while ago and I heard they really steped it up.  I wish Ironhorse was still around but that's been gone a while because of lawsuits due to the water.  Muncie was around long before IRONMAN came along and they have a great folowing in the community.

Good Luck

Toss-up on just the races themselves, different reasons for each, but with the vacation it's Boulder. No question.

Collin described Boulder. Muncie is likely to be very hot. Central Indiana in July, and it starts later at 8 or so (vs 7 for most all others). Don't think last year was wetsuit legal. Bike might be about as flat and fast as you can find in a half (closed roads too). Run sounds like it has some hills, but reports vary.

thanks all,

i choice muncie

looks like ill be battling the indiana heat in mid july

just need to find some bikers in chicago to ride with

I disagree.