IM California opened this morning, just clicked on the email and the $825 reg fee beat my sense of epicness into submission. Would pay that if I was competitive, was planning to walk/jog the run, too much dinero for bragging rights and one and done.
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Yikes! Would expect to pay that much after conversion to CDN, not starting out that high in USD.
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Thats a lot of money. I think it get even pricier as time goes by.
So that the less expensive it will ever be!
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Are all IM events priced about the same? A friend did the one-and-done in Arizona.
As far as I know. All of them are VERY expensive. There are some that are not IM branded that could be slightly less expensive, but its not IM. So YMMV in quality, plus you can’t get the IM tattoo!
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Yeah that is the going rate for all the IM races now - got to pay to play
You could always do your own self-supported race - for example I live near the CDA course and have done self supported 70.3 and Oly distances as part of the training for the full distance race. We used to have a family van and I remove/folded the seats into the floor to be my transition. Bike was stored inside with the wheels on, cooler with spare bottles and water, had recovery food ready for afterwards. I was able to do everything right from a parking lot near the normal swim start.
only downside is the crowd support/convenience of aid stations/closed course isn’t the same apples to apples experience
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Going to let the price sink in for a bit, I was expecting maybe half that and totally understand paying for the experience and what it takes for IM to put on an event.
If you think about it…
Boston marathon is like 250 or so…
most big marathons are in the low 100s now days…
yet you are paying for 3 big events… I know is a lot of money… but I would be more worried about finishing it… there is a time limit to finish the events… I think its 17 hrs… I know you are very good cyclist and swimmer… but running off 2 other events is a different beast!
Thats what I was thinking. Some big cycling events are in the $200-300 range, so multiply by 3 and there you go! A friend that is slow at all 3 events, tried pulling it up but clearly recall she finished IM AZ in just under 17 hours at 11:57pm. Not that I think it would take me that long on an even flatter course even with 6 hours of “yogging” (somewhat conservatively & roughly budgeting 1.5 swim, 6.5 bike, and 7.5 yogging = 15.5 hours).
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This will be 6 longer hours of your life!!
Just slowly cooking in the afternoon sun, after being on the bike for 6.5 hours!
Just thinking about the pain full distance athletes goes to (well some any ways) cause me pain!
I have very little interest in completing an IM… maybe like you…one and done… but uff… painful stuff
Au contraire 
I think it will be great to stretch out after that time on the bike! Using a good part of the IM CA course, I’ve done 90 self-supported miles of zone2 in just over 5 hours on my Trek Domane endurance geo bike without aero bars or bothering to get into an aero position.
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Username change?
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You got this!
I think the bike time you put down is pretty conservative for your skill level, you would be easily 30 min faster. The IM CA bike course is pretty flat and fast (what I remember everyone talking about before it got canceled this year) and you could walk a marathon in 7.5 hours (IE that is roughly 17:10 min miles). That is pretty average walking pace, I walked 13.1 miles at STG in May (calf injury) this year at 15 min miles and that course is freaking hilly.
If you jog it, plod along, run walk, or some other combination you will easily be less than that. After you have done one, you will realize with proper training “finishing” isn’t that hard under normal conditions (excluding unusual wind, rain, heat, cold, or cyclone bomb). The challenge of IM is pushing yourself right up to that red line, going as fast as you can without exploding.
A good training plan with consistent training for 28-30 weeks, and a conservative race day will have you so ready for a great experience! I love the training and the worst training day is way harder than the race.
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Absolutely…zero doubt in my mind WW would finish and finish strong.
Something to consider re: the price - it is only gonna go up from here. So if you wanna “check the box”, it will only be more expensive in the future.
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Ya, I live here and routinely ride parts of the IM CA bike course. My run is non-existent, but I walk pretty fast here is my best along a creek trail from 2015 before I got into cycling (and part of the reason I got into cycling):
Did a short jog/run between mile 3 and 4, had to ‘run’ at the end to finish before 3 hours:
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AH!
You should be perfectly fine for a long stroll!
Just bring sunblock!
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I think there was a slowtwitch thread a while back on “race walking” the IM run leg, and you can put down some decent times doing that- in a lot of cases it’s better than running it too hard and then blowing up halfway through, and towards the end you usually see a fair few people who have slowed almost to walking pace anyway.
Some of the non-branded IM distance races can be a lot of fun too- not quite the same show, but there’s a lot less logistical stuff involved which can be nice.
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The other thing holding me back - I’m kinda freaked out by the start location of the swim. I grew up in MI near Dow Corp HQ, and we had ‘interesting’ better living thru chemistry stuff happening in the 60s and 70s to our rivers. Back to Sacramento, that part of the river is near an EPA cleanup site, and a lot of homeless encampments. My wife’s office is near there, and I 
about a water quality test(s) done near that area. If those reports are true (LA LA LA don’t tell me), canceling the event last month during the 24 hour rain deluge was the smartest thing they could have done.
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As I’m new to TR, I’m so looking forward to the 2022 thread.
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