I’m in. I just finished registering for one of biggest, most exciting races this year, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup. No, I’m not competing with the pros, but they won’t be far off. Unfortunately I won’t be traveling to some exotic location to compete this year. Nope, this year’s ITU Cup is in Des Moines, Iowa. Hy-Vee has decided to sponsor what will be the biggest purse prize in ITU World Cup history. Des Moines will be joining less than 12 cities, a small handful worldwide that have hosted this race. The only other U.S. cities that have hosted are Honolulu, Hawaii, New York City, and St. Petersburg, Florida. All because of the $700,000 total purse prize. Not bad for just running a race for a few hours. However, these athletes will be coming from all over the world. And they won’t be your average Joe bringing their 10-speed commuter bike; these are going to be some rock hard, crazy triathletes ready to run over your face for the cash and the title. This year’s race will be on June 17.
The ITU races are all Olympic distance races (1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). This is my favorite distance…not too short, not too long.
This year I hope take it easy. Last year I did eight races and completely ran out of gas by the end of the season. Despite being completely zonked by the end of the year, I really enjoyed doing so many races and setting my goals high. This year I plan to take it easy. I have yet to run a marathon, so I hope to do that in the late spring early summer. I also would like to get closer to my goal of doing an Ironman Triathlon in 2008, so this year I will do my first Half-Ironman Triathlon which is 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. Overall, I’ll be doing maybe five races this year and just enjoying the challenge.
Click here for more news on this years ITU Cup.