Why so little love for the 70.3 Championship?

I don't think BT is the place to look for much discussion about the pros racing.  Didn't hear much this past weekend about Stephan Vuckovic setting a new course record or Sergio Marques doing his best to run him down from behind or how Kraft won despite knee and back problems recently.

People here care a lot more about "watching" other BTers race.  IMs offer one of the few opportunities to do that on-line.  There's also the draw from those who are planning to sign up the next day.  So even though they aren't racing, they're excited.

But don't worry, we're excited to see how the BTers can do in Clearwater this year too! 

Hey - I for one, love following the pros! They make the sport interesting!

I'll weigh in.

First, No compelling reason to pay attention.  If you had athletes that created a focus on it, like a series where you exclusively 70.3, you'd get more interest stories, more personalities, and more event-specific focus.  Right now, most of the folks you mentioned race halfs in their 'spare time' to fulfill sponsorship commitments, additional prize money, but their focus is really on other distances (IM, LTF, or this year, qualifying for the Olympics).

Second, the industry doesn't really take it seriously. The AG'er finishing in 5:15 is nothing more than a long bike ride (in elapsed time) for the IM-crowd. Easy to pooh-pooh the accomplishment by the elite people in the sport, which absolutely carry weight.  Thus why I think a lot of folks, when they figure out they're good at long-course, that they 'graduate up' to IM. Everyone takes that seriously. 

Third, I personally lost a lot of interest when there was *NO* policing of the drafting last year. By every account, there was a peleton of folks everywhere you looked.  A little hard to overlook that big miss in a World Championship event. It's almost like the championship didn't take themselves seriously.

And lastly, it's a good destination, but it's not Kona. 

Hmmm.  Those are all interesting opinions.  I guess I'm not too surprised to hear them voiced even though I disagree with pretty much all of it (well, except for Kona being a better destination than Clearwater).

I agree completely.

When the qualifying races can't give away spots to the championship, it's going to be a hard sell to athletes/ spectators.

As long as Kona is on TV, people (including triathletes) will consider that to be the holy grail of triathlons, nothing shorter and nothing longer.

Also, I know many IM crowd who wish they could go sub 5 hrs on their training long ride day  

BTW, in my OP I was making reference for both, Pros and AGers. As an endurance geek I get all excited following people online when racing any event/distance, even those in marathons when you can get their splits online at different parts of the course.

Well there were tons of Bters doing IMFL and there are only a few of us doing Clearwater so you won't get the same amount of excitement and love around here. Johnny Kay is right, if 40 bters were doing East Cornfield Sprint and it was live online there would be a watching thread 30 pages long. This site loves to support its' own.

Though I believe Clearwater will have TDF type coverage this year just like Kona.

Here's a different take:

Partly I think it's because triathlon is so full of "championship" races that another one just doesn't really register. But that's secondary.

Primarily it's because the series is new and WTC hasn't  had much time to market it. This race is the triathlon equivalent of Grandparents Day. It's completely made up out of whole cloth and people are aware of it. Current triathletes have their preconceived notions of what the big races are and it's tough to convince them that another new one should be granted equivalence.

It's going to take a few years of new people coming into the sport who already see "Ironman 70.3" as an established series with a championship race before it has a chance of getting serious traction. It's also going to take some serious marketing.  A Dave Scott/Mark Allen type duel, a Julie Moss crawling across the finish line moment. Something that presents a visual and emotional hook.

Right now to most triathletes it's pretty much just another race but this is too soon to judge. Check back in 5-7 years and see how it's regarded.

As evidenced by the fees RD's are paying to become an official Ironman 70.3 race, WTC is off to a good start with the 70.3 series, but they still have a ways to go.  I don't doubt for a second that it's on track though.

Give it time. As the sport continues to grow it will get more hype.

Last year's 70.3 WC race was televised on NBC. We watched it at the BT beach house, right before an American Gladiators re-run marathon! :-]

I think triathlon in whole as like other endurance events struggle to market their product. It is just too long of a day whether 70.3 or 140.6 to intrigue the masses. NBC has found their niche with Kona but watch the coverage and about 20% of it is only on the pros with the rest being human interest stories.

Now if Kona only has 20% coverage of the pros what will Clearwater get when most of the general public, heck most BTers couldn't name you 5 pros doing Clearwater.

Somehow they need to figure out a way to market it. Look at Boston, it is the grand daddy of endurance events as far as prestige and years going and it is resided to the verses network and who the heck can even find that on their tvs.

I"m looking forward to it.  Probably because it's in my backyard and I get to go volunteer and watch and oogle.  

They changed the bike course this year after all the drafting complaints.  It also goes over the big-arse new Bayside Bridge.   

It gets lots of local coverage here.

Yeah, valid points all over the page here.   I have no idea who half of those people are, but I do know a couple by sight/name.  

Eagleman has been covered on ironmanlive for both 2006 and 2007.  The field there is always about the best in the country- it's a very fast course-just look at those times.  The interest in 70.3 will continue to grow (look at the new Boise and Rhode Island races) both with people just getting into the sport as well as veterans, some training for a future IM, others with no time to train for an IM. 

If anyone doesn't want to go to Clearwater, I'll take that slot   I may only get one opportunity to race a world championship, so I wouldn't let it go to waste. 

Marma – great response and you are correct in many of your points. I think it was the USAT responsibility to take upon creating a series/brand about the most up and coming distance in the sport, but WTC did it and I do think they are doing a great job. I think it would be nice if they could incorporate some ranking (points) system and that might increase the popularity.

Mike – I think the WTC is doing its job marketing the series, I guess as others mentioned it will take a bit of time to get established.

Shane – I also agree with you. As a reference Timberman had 100 slots last year and for 2008 is down to 50 slots.

Oceanannie – I think interest would also increase if other prime races such as Timberman, etc could get ironmanlive coverage.
 
I guess asked the question to found it if some of the apathy or indifference was due to the distance itself or more about the fact that the series is new and it is still in the developing process. As I said above I think the 70.3 series will become the most popular distance in the sport just for the fact that it is long enough to be a good challenge but short enough that people don’t have to make it their entire focus for training (like IM), you can race more often, there are some nice locations to travel, it can be more TV friendly and it is a bit more manageable for the average AGer. But we'll see in the next few years

Completely agree with you there. I think we had this debate a few weeks ago but why not make IM=IM and 70.3 equal 70.3

Look at running, 13.1 is probaly one the most popular distances out there these days. Short enough for those looking for a good challenge that could never dream of running a marathon but also for those who do marathons can race a half multiple times a year and recover.

But that being said, there is little to no coverage of halfs out there. Not that running gets much coverage anyway but when it does it is Boston, NY, Chicago or maybe Disney

The 70.3 series and Half distance as a whole has a very strong interest from a paticipation standpoint. There is no question that the fastest growing race distance is 70.3. Just look at the New England area race scene over the last 3 years. It went from basically T-man and M-man to a full schedule of HIM all season. I'll go out on a limb to predict that th 70.3 distance will be the distance of choice for seasoned triathletes in the future because it's long enough that it requires training but short enough not to blow a whole season/career/family on racing year after year.

From a spectator level the series will never compete with a full iron. Watching endurance sports on it's own is boring to everyone expect hardcore endurance geeks. To make it interesting you need drama and to have lots drama you need sacrifice and lots of blood, sweat and tears. There aren't many things in sports that requires more sacrifice over the course of one year in an age groupers life than that once in a lifetime ironman. Yes compting in halfs does have a lot of sacrifice for athletes and families as well.....but it certainly isn't on the same perceived level.

 BTW, Jorge are we meeting up down there? is anything organized?

Well put thread over!