New Dublin Event - Ironman or Challenge?

NewWheels

As most seemed to be doing the business in Athlone over the weekend you may not have seen the article in yesterday's Sunday Times about the Lord Mayor of Dublin (Oisin Quinn) looking to bring a new triathlon event to Dublin for the August Bank Holiday weekend 2014. Talks are supposed to have already started with Ironman and Challenge organisations.

Swim would be Dublin bay, cycle into Wicklow mountains and marathon on the city centre streets. WOuld be great opportunity for the city and for the sport.

With the way Ironman Galway has disappeared should the preference be for the Challenge Family?

Either way great idea and I hope it happens

tunney

NewWheels wrote: »

As most seemed to be doing the business in Athlone over the weekend you may not have seen the article in yesterday's Sunday Times about the Lord Mayor of Dublin (Oisin Quinn) looking to bring a new triathlon event to Dublin for the August Bank Holiday weekend 2014. Talks are supposed to have already started with Ironman and Challenge organisations.

Swim would be Dublin bay, cycle into Wicklow mountains and marathon on the city centre streets. WOuld be great opportunity for the city and for the sport.

With the way Ironman Galway has disappeared should the preference be for the Challenge Family?

Either way great idea and I hope it happens

Two chances of this happening.

IM (or Challenge): What about local support? Will Dublin get behind it and be happy with 17 hours of closed roads?

Lord Mayor: Oh.............

NewWheels

Well the roads are closed this August Bank Holiday for the new Rock & Roll Marathon!!

The article was well presented as an opportunity for businesses to make revenue. It was reported that the local German towns made between €8/9m from their events. (IM Frankfurt & Challenge Roth)

tunney

NewWheels wrote: »

Well the roads are closed this August Bank Holiday for the new Rock & Roll Marathon!!

The article was well presented as an opportunity for businesses to make revenue. It was reported that the local German towns made between €8/9m from their events. (IM Frankfurt & Challenge Roth)

Yes huge money to local economy. But Irish people don't work like that do that? "what about ME???"

ThisRegard

tunney wrote: »

But Irish people don't work like that do that? "what about ME???"

Some Irish people, same as some English, American, Spanish, whatever.

Don't be waving that big brush around, you may take an eye out.

RayCun

NewWheels wrote: »

Well the roads are closed this August Bank Holiday for the new Rock & Roll Marathon!!

The article was well presented as an opportunity for businesses to make revenue. It was reported that the local German towns made between €8/9m from their events. (IM Frankfurt & Challenge Roth)

Roads are closed on the bank holiday, so low city centre traffic, and for only 3.5 hours in the morning. Frankfurt and Roth aren't tourist destinations, so the races are bringing in people. Same if you had an IM in Longford or Carlow. But how many extra people will a triathlon bring to Dublin in August?

couerdelion

RayCun wrote: »

Roads are closed on the bank holiday, so low city centre traffic, and for only 3.5 hours in the morning. Frankfurt and Roth aren't tourist destinations, so the races are bringing in people. Same if you had an IM in Longford or Carlow. But how many extra people will a triathlon bring to Dublin in August?

I'd reckon there would be a good few Irish Americans who would love to do an Ironman in Ireland if they decide to go out of the states. Plus UK athletes looking for something different from IMUK. A full ironman is a lot more of an event than any 1/2 IM and would sell a lot better plus Dublin an awful lot easier for foreigners to get to than Galway/Carlow/Longford.

kingQuez

I recon an IM in dublin would be pretty grim.. even on the august bank holiday.

RayCun

couerdelion wrote: »

I'd reckon there would be a good few Irish Americans who would love to do an Ironman in Ireland if they decide to go out of the states. Plus UK athletes looking for something different from IMUK. A full ironman is a lot more of an event than any 1/2 IM and would sell a lot better plus Dublin an awful lot easier for foreigners to get to than Galway/Carlow/Longford.

Yes, but on August bank holiday weekend they'd be crowding out other tourists, it isn't new revenue.
Road closures in Dublin city centre would be a nightmare - for Dublin marathon you can open O'Connell street again maybe an hour after the start. For an iron-distance race the roads would have to be closed later in the day because it's after the swim/bike, and for much longer, between the elites starting their run and the tailenders finishing theirs.

bryangiggsy

RayCun wrote: »

Roads are closed on the bank holiday, so low city centre traffic, and for only 3.5 hours in the morning. Frankfurt and Roth aren't tourist destinations, so the races are bringing in people. Same if you had an IM in Longford or Carlow. But how many extra people will a triathlon bring to Dublin in August?

47 people have signed up for Shadowman Iron distance outside Athlone.

IM in Dublin..zero appeal for me

Shedite27

In fairness, there's very few major city Ironmans around the world, even the ones that do call themselves "Big City" Ironmans (eg Challenge Barcelona) are really held 45-60 minutes commute outside the city from what I can see.

More likely it'd be billed as "Ironman/Challenge Dublin" but held in Navan/Naas/Bray etc.

elvis jones

If an event does come i can see it being a half distance race to see how it goes and then it can be upgraded. I agree with Tunney re roads being closed the Irish hate it and we need better public transport to make it happen if only to get athletes to the start line.

pgibbo

elvis jones wrote: »

If an event does come i can see it being a half distance race to see how it goes and then it can be upgraded. I agree with Tunney re roads being closed the Irish hate it and we need better public transport to make it happen if only to get athletes to the start line.

I think we know how a half distance will go. Just look at Galway 70.3 :pac:

Can is open, time for tea....

elvis jones

pgibbo wrote: »

I think we know how a half distance will go. Just look at Galway 70.3 :pac:

Can is open, time for tea....

Location and organisation is a lot to do with that.

pgibbo

elvis jones wrote: »

Location and organisation is a lot to do with that.

Not sure I'd agree there.

Most people found the organisation was quite good in Galway.

The location will have damn all of an influence unless you mean Ireland as a location. Not that many overseas athletes travelled to Galway and I don't think Dublin would be much better. Why pay a premium for a race like that in Ireland when there's a very good chance that the weather will be muck. Most would and do go to Europe and race in better weather and on better roads.

elvis jones

pgibbo wrote: »

Not sure I'd agree there.

Most people found the organisation was quite good in Galway.

The location will have damn all of an influence unless you mean Ireland as a location. Not that many overseas athletes travelled to Galway and I don't think Dublin would be much better. Why pay a premium for a race like that in Ireland when there's a very good chance that the weather will be muck. Most would and do go to Europe and race in better weather and on better roads.

100% right there !

By location i mean

1. Unlike Dublin no real public transport to get people to Salthill
2. Parking wasn't great for those coming to see the race

catweazle

Galway and Ireland in general is a tough place for sports tourism. The uproar in Galway when people realized they couldnt drive to mass was crazy - no understanding of the positive tourism and economic benefits. The city council probably didn't help either, they should have been let finish in Eyre square rather than packing it all out in Salthill like a bad smell

I often said that you would have some chance in Kerry - a town like Killarney is well used to having major events and might have less grumbles about the inconveniences it causes as the town is heavily dependent on tourism.

There is not too many places in this country that would tempt me to go long perhaps The Hardman race has some iconic scenery, the lake swim, the ring of Kerry and a marathon through the National park and in a location which gives an above average chance of decent weather, coupled with large amounts of accommodation. Book it for an All-Ireland football final weekend and their is a good chance a lot of the locals will be off up in Croke Park anyways. Certainly not as easy to get to as Dublin but thanks to the good old local politics we have Shannon, Cork and Kerry Airport and when you see the epic journeys people do to get to inacesssible places like Roth and IM Austria.

The only issue here for me is the low numbers, I have done two marathons in my time, Connemara and Dublin and I wouldn't be rushing back to Connemara too quickly. For something that I may only ever do once I would like all the razzmatazz going, no doubt rip off republic would click into action as well and gouge every penny they can.

I wouldn't use the Shadowman as a barometer of interest in an Iron distance race in Ireland. You would want to be a Triathlon geek to have even heard about that race so poor was the marketing around it, I am surprised they even got 47

nerraw1111

catweazle wrote: »

For something that I may only ever do once I would like all the razzmatazz going, no doubt rip off republic would click into action as well and gouge every penny they can.

Not sure if there would be any money left to gouge if Ironman are involved.

RunMD

would love to see a Tri-Star Event

pgibbo

RunMD wrote: »

would love to see a Tri-Star Event

+1

I'd love to try a race at that distance

Oryx

pgibbo wrote: »

+1

I'd love to try a race at that distance

What distances are they? I cant access their site for some reason.

pgibbo

Oryx wrote: »

What distances are they? I cant access their site for some reason.

1k swim, 100k bike, 10k run IIRC

http://www.bryanmccrystal.com/2012/04/pre-mallorca-111/

elvis jones

pgibbo wrote: »

1k swim, 100k bike, 10k run IIRC

http://www.bryanmccrystal.com/2012/04/pre-mallorca-111/

Sorry but there's no challenge there really.

Izoard

pgibbo wrote: »

1k swim, 100k bike, 10k run IIRC

http://www.bryanmccrystal.com/2012/04/pre-mallorca-111/

They also have a 222K (2k, 200K, 20K) distance IIRC...

pgibbo

elvis jones wrote: »

Sorry but there's no challenge there really.

I didn't say it was a challenge, just that I'd like to do the distance. :pac:

Running a fast 10k off a 100k bike wouldn't be the easiest thing in the world either. I guess it's all relative to how hard you push yourself.

Same can be said for an IM. I know people that do them off less than 10 hours training a week and cruise around quite easily in 13 hours.

griffin100

elvis jones wrote: »

Sorry but there's no challenge there really.

Not if you're happy to plod around the course there's not, but that applies to IM as well. Pushing it hard for the duration is certainly a challenge.

elvis jones

pgibbo wrote: »

I didn't say it was a challenge, just that I'd like to do the distance. :pac:

Running a fast 10k off a 100k bike wouldn't be the easiest thing in the world either. I guess it's all relative to how hard you push yourself.

Same can be said for an IM. I know people that do them off less than 10 hours training a week and cruise around quite easily in 13 hours.

Perhaps but the 1st set of distances above did nothing for me at all. The 2nd set would interest me, personally.

griffin100

elvis jones wrote: »

Perhaps but the 1st set of distances above did nothing for me at all. The 2nd set would interest me, personally.

I wouldn't disagree with that.

mloc123

elvis jones wrote: »

Sorry but there's no challenge there really.

Perhaps the challenge is in training to be fast and not just complete?

Oryx

mloc123 wrote: »

Perhaps the challenge is in training to be fast and not just complete?

I would just prefer proportions that aren't as bike centred. Horses for courses.

RacoonQueen

Oryx wrote: »

I would just prefer proportions that aren't as bike centred. Horses for courses.

I hear ya 5k swim 40k bike 30-42k run :cool: