Ironman St. George, Utah new for 2010 but what about CO?

SEE: http://ironman.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/ford-ironman-st.-george-takes-place-may-1-2010

Ok, so WTC has added yet another Ironman. I think that brings the total to 576 world wide...alright so actually it is only 22, somehow it seems like there are more than that.

If you don't know Ironman has a questionable history in Utah. They hosted an "Ironman" for three years (I believe). As I remember, twice the swim got canceled, once there was a death in the water blamed on poor conditions, and the other time might have been only a half IM? I could recall or look it up if I really needed to, but this is a blog not a published periodical so, I'm opting for lazy. Plus, that's not my point. Utah had a shot at Ironman, they kind of dropped the ball and now they have another chance. Fine, no problem here.

However, why the hell doesn't Colorado have a WTC event? I.E. a chance for the state with the most licensed triathletes per capita, or the most dense triathlete population have an opportunity to qualify for either Kona or 70.3 Worlds? Why doesn't Colorado have a truly top notch big money triathlon?

Now, I fully realize that our team, Without Limits Racing owns one of CO's biggest races, the Harvest Moon Half IM. And we tried to get 70.3 status for the race, but were told WTC wasn't adding any more events at this point. Hmm? St. George? Ok, maybe they were referring to 70.3, that is actually probably the case.

Plus, if you were paying attention you could have seen the St. George thing coming. IM Arizona was originally in the spring and I believe WTC liked having a warm climate early season race in the US. But, as anyone who ever did the IM AZ race in the spring knows... IT SUCKED!!! It was windy, dusty, the course was eh, not that good not that bad, just dull. So, then IM AZ moved to the fall and left an open opportunity in the spring and boom St. George comes along. I would suspect this was in the plans for quite a while.

Anyway, back to my point, a major CO race. Here are the issues preventing a WTC event in CO (I assume):

- CO is at altitude so WTC is worried it will be a deterrent to participation.

• Yet, St. George lies at just over 3000ft. So, arguably it is at altitude as well (not bad, but not sea-level either).
  
• Also, CO races easily sell out to local triathletes who live at altitude so the issue might be null.
• Utah, NM, CO, AZ, and most of the west lies at an altitude of some sort, so, it would seem you have plenty of altitude dwelling population to draw from.
  

- WTC can't find anyone to run an IM or 70.3 in CO.

• Obviously Without Limits Productions already threw our hat in the ring so...
• The issue here is nearly everything sells out in CO. So, why would any self respecting race director want to give up any of their profit much less the rumored 30+% to WTC for licensing just to have a nationally recognized and worlds qualifying event? (by the very nature of the post I think you can guess why we would)
  

- Racing in CO is too hard.

• Seriously, aside from the altitude people seem to believe that hills are bad for triathlon. I strongly disagree. And then you have races like Lanzarote with hills, winds, bad roads, and a remote location. So, where does this complaint fit?

- There isn't a good date early or late enough that doesn't have a conflict.

• On the surface a good argument but then you consider that they managed to find a date for Kansas, Idaho, Rhode Island, and New Orleans 70.3's as well as some new IM's. Plus New Orleans is on the same weekend as Oceanside. Those factors pretty much nullify this complaint as well.
  

So, there ya go. Why the hell doesn't CO have a 70.3 or IM? I can't find any good reason other than the race director thing. Yet, that just brings us back to the fact that Without Limits will do it.

That said, come on WTC. Give CO and Without Limits a shot!