Off-season training for a triathlon can get quite boring especially when there are no events scheduled for months for us to participate in besides triathlons in the Southern Hemisphere. If you enjoy the multisport concept then here is a winter triathlon option to look at.

A winter triathlon involves running, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing - all performed on snow. The running is usually contested on hard-packed snow courses (usually packed ski trails) with distances ranging from 5-9 km. The mountain bike leg is held on packed ski trails for a distance of 10-15 km. Competitors ride standard racing mountain bikes, often equipped with wide tires and low tire pressure. The final leg of a winter triathlon is cross-country skiing. Courses are usually 8-12 km in length, and are contested on groomed Nordic ski trails. Classic or freestyle techniques are both allowed, though most serious competitors use the freestyle technique as it is faster.

Triathlon: USAT Winter Triathlon National Championship
When: Saturday, February 9, 2008 @ 8:00 AM
Where: Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center, Bend, OR, USA
Website: www.usatriathlon.org
Course: 8km Trail Run / 15km Mountain Bike / 10km Cross Country Ski

Registration is currently open for the USAT Winter Triathlon National Championship race at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Oregon. The event is open to anyone, regardless of age or ability level nd you don’t need to qualify for February’s championship race, which will feature an age group race and an elite race. The top finishers in both divisions will qualify and have a chance to compete at the ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships on February 22, 2008 in Freudenstadt, Germany.

Registration fees for individuals are $67 prior to February 1, and $77 after. Fees for three-person teams are $61 per person. Seniors over 65 and students under 18 only pay $50.

For more information, visit www.oregonsports.org or the USA Triathlon web site at www.usatriathlon.org.

The 19th annual Port of Tauranga Half Ironman took place on Sunday in Tauranga, New Zealand. The favorite on the men's side would probably have been last year’s champion and overall 8 time champion Cameron Brown and on the women's side probably Joanna Lawn the defending champion for the last two years. But today wasn't their day for a repeat as both defending champions finished in 2nd place today.

Kieran Doe, the 26 year old from Auckland held off Cameron Brown, the eight time champion, to win the race by less than two minutes and claim the title for the first time. It was a grueling battle on the women's side as well as Kate Bevilaqua from Australia defeated defending champion Joanna Lawn by only 10 seconds for the women’s title.
 
2008 Port of Tauranga Half Ironman Results:

Vancouver, B.C. (January 7, 2008) - The International Triathlon Union (ITU) released today amendments to the previously announced 2008 BG Triathlon World Cup calendar. Long-time organisers of the World Cup in Cancun, Mexico and the Mexican Triathlon Federation have agreed to host a World Cup on October 12th in the Chiapas region in southern Mexico with 50% more prize money offered, US$150,000.

At the same time, due to insufficient resources, the London BG Triathlon World Cup, scheduled for September 14th in Great Britain, and the Eilat BG Triathlon World Cup, scheduled for October 12th in Israel, have been removed from the 2008 BG Triathlon World Cup calendar.

“The team in Mexico has been working very hard to make this event happen and the timing is excellent,” commented ITU Director, BG Triathlon World Cup Series, Sheila O’Kelly. “We are happy to have Chiapas come on board with their generous prize money offer to the athletes. It is important that we voice these changes early so the athletes, coaches and federations have adequate time to make any adjustments to their planning for the year.”

This time it wasn't an Ironman event that brought the Active.com registration servers to their knees, it was an ordinary, gaining in popularity Olympic distance triathlon in Burley, ID, specifically the Burley Lions Spudman Triathlon.

The race normally opens for registration at 12:01 AM on January 1st and fills up several hours later, I guess once people wake up after eventful or un-eventful festivities. Well, it seem that race organizers decided to try something different based on some advice from their online registration partner, Active.com.

Quote from Spudman Triathlon Blog:

Over the last few years the race had developed a tradition of opening the registration at 12:01 A.M. (just after midnight) on January 1st. At the request/suggestion of our online registration partner, (active.com) we have decided to postpone the registration to a date and time when the active.com offices are fully staffed and available for phone support. blog entry link

It seems that the triathlon has become popular as last's year race sold out with some 1,600 registrants by noon after opening up after midnight. Race organizers decided on Monday, January 7, 2008 @ 12:00 noon (MST) as the new date and time online registration would open for the 2008 Burley Lions Club Spudman Triathlon.

Depending on whose figure you use, registration only lasted several minutes, possibly less than 15 minutes for a total of 1,800 participants. It was a Speedfest, only those who had a fast connection and could make a connection to the Active.com servers, who could type fast enough and key in that CC # and press Submit the fastest were able to register. Which left many people were very unfortunate, and mad about not being able to register for this year’s race. (see Speedman news link further ahead) Who’s to blame for the frustrations people experienced or will experience for not being able to race, should they have left things alone or should Active.com been more prepared?

A news flash on the Fast Forward Race Management website gives some details about the new Iron distance and International distance triathlons in Plymouth, MA at the new Plymouth Rock Triathlon Festival.

A press conference was supposed to take place on January 4th with details about this new event but plans fell through as loose ends are still being taken care of.

Here is what they are stating so far:
The event will be called The Plymouth Rock Triathlon Festival. It's scheduled to take place on August 31st, 2008 in Plymouth, MA. The event will feature an Iron distance triathlon and an International distance triathlon with staggered starting times. The Iron distance race will start at 7:00 AM and the International distance race starts at 10:00 AM.

Each race is limited to 500 participants. Registration will open on February 1st, 2008 via Active.com and both races will be USAT sanctioned.

The race website www.plymouthrocktriathlon.com will also go live on February 1st, 2008.

If you skip the ads in the triathlon related magazines you miss a lot.

On page 133 of the February 2008 issue of Triathlete Magazine there is ad for the Ironman 70.3 Series, is shows the 2008 Event Schedule. If you had looked at it closely you would have noticed the quite addition of the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 race on October 5th, 2008. It seems that the issue arrived before the press release or announcement was scheduled. It sounds like that will occur tomorrow.

The Longhorn Triathlon Festival, usually took place in Austin in October with a Half iron, an Olympic distance and Sprint distance race. Basically what's happening is that the Longhorn Triathlon Festival will be no more. In its place will be two new triathlon events. The first one being the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 triathlon race in October. The other one would incorporate the Sprint and Olympic distance triathlon from the Longhorn Triathlon Festival into a new event called the Hi-Fi Tri. This event would take place a few weeks later at Moody Gardens, in Galveston, Texas.

Stayed tuned for additional information that should become available tomorrow.

As expected, Austin, TX will get an Ironman 70.3 series race in 2008. The event will take place on October 5, 2008 so it will offer qualifying slots for the 2009 Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater, Florida and not the 2008 race.

The race will replace the Longhorn Triathlon Festival which usually took place at the same time in previous years. The race will be put on by Endorfun Sports who also produces the popular Timberman 70.3 triathlon in New Hampshire.

Triathlon: Longhorn Ironman 70.3 Austin
When: Sunday, October 5, 2008
Where: Walter E. Long Park, Austin, Texas, USA
Divisions: Professional, Age Group, Relay, AquaBike
Website: www.ironmanlonghorn.com

Course description:
The 1.2 mile swim will be a freshwater swim in Decker Lake with wave starts, approximately 120 participants per wave. The 56 mile bike course will be a scenic 1 loop course through rolling Texas farmland. The 13.1 mile run will be 2 loops around Walter E. Long Park, along the shores of Decker Lake and through the Travis County Expo Center grounds, with roughly 2 miles on knee-friendly grass roads.

The new but yet to be tested Island Triathlon Series has had a tough time getting to the starting line. The Island Triathlon Series features a new triathlon distance which they are calling The Island Eighty, it consist of a 1 mile Swim, 66 mile Bike and 13 mile Run. In November of 2007 they added a new shorter distance triathlon to the race appropriately called The Island Forty which features a 1 mile Swim, 33.5 mile Bike and a 5.5 mile Run.

The new and unique triathlon event was originally set to take place on December 1st, 2007 on the Providenciales Island of the Turks & Caicos. Then in October of 2007, two months before the race is scheduled to take place the date for the inaugural race is moved to Saturday, March 29, 2008. Now comes word that the race has been postponed until March of 2009.

Here is an excerpt from an email being sent to participants:

As a result of some operational challenges, we have made the difficult
decision to postpone the inaugural Island Triathlon SeriesT until March of
2009.

It is our vision to create a unique property that redefines the sport of
triathlon. Given the complexities of the event from a logistical
perspective, the substantial financial resources required, and our
reputation for excellence as a 4 time international award-winning event
producer, we require more time to put our best foot forward.

They had assembled some big time professionals to come race in the Caribbean at their race, such as 2007 Ironman World Champ Chris McCormack and Lisa Bentley, Nina Kraft, Chris Legh, Chris Lieto, Kim Loeffler and Marino Vanhoenacker as well as celebrity triathlete Andy Baldwin.

A new Half Iron distance triathlon is scheduled to take place this August on the island of Guernsey, which is part of the Channel Islands in the English Channel, northwest of France. This year the Guernsey Triathlon Club is upgrading its annual Olympic distance triathlon with a new Half Iron distance race called the Granite Man Triathlon in August. Besides the new half iron distance event there will also be a Sprint distance triathlon taking place at the same time. This will be the club’s flagship event of 2008.

Triathlon: Granite Man Triathlon
When: Sunday, August 31, 2008 @ 7:30 AM
Where: Pembroke Bay, Guernsey, Channel Islands, Europe
Divisions: Age Group, Relay
Website: www.gsytriclub.org.gg

The event will take place on the north end of the island of Guernsey at Pembroke Bay. It will feature a 1,900 meter swim in the English Channel waters of Pembroke Bay. After that athletes will head out on a two loop 90km bike course that will traverse along the west side of the island down to the airport which is on the other end before turning back. The 21km run is four loops which follows the coastal paths around the north end of the island and are mainly flat.

The 2008 Ironman 70.3 Series season kicked-off today in East London with the inaugural running of the Ironman 70.3 South Africa triathlon race. This was the first of nine new races added to the 2008 schedule. On a perfect day, some 900 triathletes took on the challenge today with a 1.9km Swim, 90km Bike and 21.1km Run.

South Africa's own Raynard Tissink who a month ago took second place at Ironman Western Australia was the pre-race favorite on the men’s side, but it wasn't going to be easy with the likes of Frederik van Lierde and Carl Strom also of South Africa. On the women's side, Desiree Ficker stood out as the pre-race favorite.

Fraser Cartmell of Scotland was the first to exit the water in with a blazing time of 18:33, Tissink was ninth out of the water just a minute down. Lucie Zelenkova of the Czech Republic led the women out of the water with a time of 20:28, almost four minutes ahead of Ficker who was tenth. But that didn't matter as both Tissink and Ficker gained control on the bike and lead out on the run. Ficker built up a commanding lead on the bike and continued on the run to win the race, 12 minutes ahead of second place finisher Heidi Jesberger of Germany. It was a tougher battler for the South Africa native Tissink all the way the way to the finish line as he held off Frederik van Lierde of Belgium to win by just over a minute at the inaugural race.
 
2008 Ironman 70.3 South Africa Results:

Registration opened on January 2, 2008 for the new Beach2Battleship triathlon event scheduled to take place in the Wilmington, NC region on November 1, 2008. Even with no past history it didn't take long for both the Iron Distance and Half events to reach their capacity of 500 participants each. Many factors played a part in this event selling out so fast, the area where the race is set to take place, the reasonable race entry fees and the quality of events put on by Set Up Events.

If you didn't act fast enough for this exciting new event there are still two options available to get in to this race. Set Up Events currently has a wait list for both events for people interested in waiting to see if something opens up as well as Charity Slots for both events.

Charity Slots:
- 30 "Charity Slots" will be sold for each event. All the net proceeds from these charity slots will benefit the Wilmington Family YMCA's "We Build People Campaign".
- Charity slots will guarantee the purchaser a confirmed spot in the event.
- Charity slots will be offered for online purchase on Monday, January 14, 2008 for the Half iron distance event here: Beach2Battleship Half Online Charity Slot Registration
- Charity slots will be offered for online purchase on Monday, January 21, 2008 for the Iron Distance event here: Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Online Charity Slot Registration

The Bergen Cykleklubb is organizing a new Iron Distance triathlon in Norway. The inaugural Ironman BV3 - Bergen Voss Triathlon is set to take place on June 7th 2008.

Triathlon: Ironman BV3 - Bergen Voss Triathlon
When: Saturday, June 7, 2008 @ 6:00 AM
Where: Nordåsvannet, Bergen, Norway, Europe
Divisions: Age Group
Website: www.bergenck.no

The triathlon will be a point-to-point race from Bergen to Voss with the 3,800me Swim taking place in Nordåsvannet just south of Bergen and then a 180km Bike course from Bergen to Voss and then a 42.2km Run around the city of Voss. The club has the bike and run courses mapped out. Expect to see great scenery on the ride to Voss as the course cuts through mountain ranges and follows the edge of many bodies of water along the way.

TriFREAK, a leading producer of triathlons in the Northwest, has announced the debut of three new triathlon events in Northern California for 2008; the DiabloMan Triathlon in March, the Golden Bear Triathlon in May and the Golden Gate Triathlon in June.

Triathlon: DiabloMan Triathlon
When: Sunday, March 16, 2008 @ 7:30 AM
Where: Athenian School, Danville, CA, USA
Divisions: Age Group, Relay
Website: www.trifreak.com/diabloman.htm

If you are looking for a unique event to jump-start your season while it's still cold out in March then this might be the race to look at. The DiabloMan Triathlon will feature a unique and challenging Sprint distance triathlon. It will consist of a 450 yard pool Swim at the Athenian School, then a challenging to say the least 9.25 mile Bike up Mount Diablo followed by a 2.25 mile run straight up to the top of Mount Diablo. Over 3,300 feet of climbing on the bike and run to the finish line at the top of Mount Diablo. The race will be limited to 300 participants.

Triathlon: GoldenBear Triathlon
When: Saturday, May 10, 2008 @ 8:00 AM
Where: Lake Anza, Berkeley, CA, USA
Divisions: Age Group, Relay
Website: www.trifreak.com/golden_bear.htm

A new triathlon race lands back in Berkeley, CA. The GoldenBear Triathlon will feature an Olympic distance race consisting of a 1km Swim, 38km Bike and a 10km Run. After much negotiation and an agreement to stage the second transition area out of the park, the folks of Tiden Park have graciously agreed to a triathlon at Lake Anza. The venue is gorgeous and will include a bike stage along Bear Creek Road.

Triathlon: Golden Gate Triathlon
When: Sunday, June 1, 2008 @ 8:00 AM
Where: Crissy Field, San Francisco, CA, USA
Divisions: Age Group, Relay
Website: www.trifreak.com/golden_gate.htm

The Golden Gate Triathlon will feature both Sprint (.5 mile Swim, 12.4 mile Bike, 3.1 mile Run) and Olympic (.9 mile Swim, 24.8 mile Bike, 6.2 mile Run) distance races. The course will consist of a beautiful point-to-point swim along Crissy Field, an epic 6.2 mile loop through-out the Presidio (4x for Olympic and 2x for Sprint) and an out-and-back run across the Golden Gate Bridge (sprint distance participants will turn-around at the bridge).

Colorado Springs, CO (January 29, 2008) - A total of 22 U.S. athletes are currently eligible to compete in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Triathlon scheduled for April 19 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The initial list is based on the 2007 end of the year International Triathlon Union Olympic rankings. USA Triathlon requires athletes be ranked in the top 125 in the world the week before the Olympic trials in order to compete. The list could change as athletes continue to compete and earn ITU ranking points at international events prior to the Olympic Trials.

Here is the preliminary list of eligible U.S. athletes:

Vancouver, Canada (January 28, 2008) - The International Triathlon Union announced five new Continental Cups to its 2008 season; two in Africa, two in Europe and one in Asia. All will be draft-legal Olympic distance races consisting of a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer bike, and 10-kilometer run. ITU Triathlon Continental Cups are highly important for athletes to earn ITU points to gain entry into the BG Triathlon World Cup series.

New Events in Africa
Bloemfontein, South Africa will host an ITU Triathlon African Cup on February 23. For African triathletes, the race will be an important prelude to the ATU African Triathlon Championships in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia on March 8-9.
Click here for more information on the Bloemfontein ITU Triathlon African Cup

Mauritius will also stage an ITU Triathlon African Cup on May 11. Last year it hosted the successful ATU African Triathlon Championships at Le Coco Beach and the country continues to support the growth of triathlon. Mauritius has hosted ITU-sanctioned African Cups since 2005.
Click here for more information on the Mauritius ITU Triathlon African Cup

Click here for all ITU events in Africa

First time event in Seoul
Seoul has been awarded an ITU Triathlon Asian Cup for May 25; marking the first time an ITU sanctioned international triathlon will take place in the South Korean capital. The event will take place in the middle of the city, an area known as “Yeoui-do”, the financial center of Korea. Participants will swim two laps in the Han river, cycle six laps around the skyscrapers such as LG Twin Tower and the Korea Stock Exchange, and run four laps on the riverside park.

The Korean Triathlon Federation has set the prize money at $50,000 USD for the inaugural event, which will prepare the city for its bid for the 2012 ITU Triathlon World Championships. For elite athletes, the federation is planning to provide three nights accommodations and meals. Airfare assistance will also be provided for elite athletes, though the amount will be dependent on the athletes’ world rankings.

The mayor of Seoul, Se-Hoon Oh, has promised the city’s support in efforts to make it one of the world’s best events. His support for the race will extend beyond the office as he plans to compete as well. Seoul’s impressive sports resume includes the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Click here for more information on the Seoul ITU Triathlon Asian Cup

Click here for all ITU Triathlon Asian Cups

The Plymouth Rock Triathlon Festival website is up and running now. This new triathlon event in Massachusetts will feature both an Iron Distance triathlon and an International Distance triathlon race on August 31, 2008. The events are set to start in Plymouth Harbor where the Pilgrims landed in the year 1620 and finish in unforgettable fashion at the historic Plymouth Waterfront running past The Mayflower II and finishing at Plymouth Rock. The registration for this inaugural event is set to open on Friday, February 1st at 12:00 AM EST.

Triathlon: IronDistanceTriathlon at Plymouth Rock
When: Sunday August 31, 2008 @ 7:00 AM
Where: Stephens Field, Plymouth, MA, USA
Divisions: Elite, Age Group, Relays
Website: www.plymouthrocktriathlon.com/IDT.htm

The course will consist of a 2.4 mile Swim, 112 mile Bike, 26.2 mile Run.

Triathlon: Mayflower International Triathlon at Plymouth Rock
When: Sunday August 31, 2008 @ 10:00 AM
Where: Stephens Field, Plymouth, MA, USA
Divisions: Age Group, Relays
Website: www.plymouthrocktriathlon.com/Mayflower.htm

The course will consist of a 1 mile Swim, 30 mile Bike, 6 mile Run.