Toughest 140.6

I dunno... I think it's kind of like trying to decide if you'd rather be kicked in the groin with a combat boot or a steel-toed boot. Either way, it's still a kick to the jewels and there's a possibility you will be semi-conscious and in the fetal position shortly thereafter... 

Good question though. Don't they quote Dave Scott on the Silverman site as saying it's the hardest he's done?

How about "Your first?"

In triathlete magazine last month (maybe the Nov issue), they profiled an iron-distance race in Norway... It's the mac-daddy.  Highlights include:

- a 20 foot jump off a ferryboat in a fjord into ice-cold water for the swim.
- a bike course that crosses 5 mountain passes (best bike split was 5:50 and change)
- a run that's relatively flat for the first 16, then gains several thousand feet to a mountaintop finish over the last 10 miles (best run split was just short of 4 hours).

Winner did it over 10 hours.  Normal time limits do not apply.

wasnt that the one where the only person to finish it last year was bjorn andersson? I think they had to stop everybody else at mi 16 becuase of a blizzard that was moving in.

Edit:  Whoops, Johnny Kay beat me to it. 

As usual, Rick cannot follow the rules of the question.  Is anybody really surprised?

Great input, Rick!

Thanks!!!  Wait...phone...BRB.  Hello?  Yes?!  This is he....OK....mhmmmm.....yeah, he's here...as a matter of fact, he posted right before me.....Ok, glad to hear it...thanks!  Bye.

That was the folks from "get a life.com".  They're coming for you....

Oooh, and to make things a little more interesting...it's semi-supported.  One the one hand, the race does provide support....emergency medical, ferry for the swim, T1 and T2, finish line, timing, and first aid, along with nutrition and the like for the first 35K of the run.  So, per the OP, the race does provide some support...so it should count.

Now the complication...the OP said if you were required to have your own SAG wagon, it wouldn't count.  The competitors do need to provide a support vehicle for the ride (for safety only on the mountain passes only, the sag vehicle is prohibited from helping otherwise), and gear / a support crew (person) for the last 4.7KM of the run, or run it with another competitor - for the area where it goes off road.  So the race meets one of the OP's 'rules', but misses the other.

And this year's version (2006) featured maybe 150 finishers (guess, looking at the spreadsheet).  The finish line didn't appear to be moved.  And the finishers faced a 1-hour walk back down the mountain after finishing. http://www.nxtri.com/

Tyler Hamilton's RR

http://www.tylerhamilton.com/