RunTri.com Weekly Visitor Maps

We're proud to serve a consistently growing audience of triathletes from around the world. In the week ending 6/10/12, RunTri.com served 20,000 visitors from 3,000 cities in more than 100 countries. Red dots represent cities with visitors to our site. Scroll around using google tools upper left of the map; click on red dots to see city's name.




Google Trends: Most Searched US Ironman Triathlons

The US is home to several of the best Ironman triathlons in the world, including the Ironman World Championship, held every October in Kona Hawaii. After Kona, four of the most popular triathlons -- Arizona, Lake Placid, Florida and Wisconsin -- are in extremely high demand.

It's not uncommon for each of these four races to sell out nearly 3,000 entries in a matter of minutes. Such high demand for entry also translates into significant google search traffic, particularly around race weekend.

Which of these races has led search trends since 2004? We ran the numbers, and here are the results:

  • Kona: We were surprised to see such low rankings through 2008, but the trend heading into 2012 is positive; with Lance Armstrong almost certain to compete this year, Kona will undoubtedly top these rankings next year
  • Wisconsin: An excellent race, has dominated the rankings in most years
  • Lake Placid: a strong second to Wisconsin, and top race in 2011
  • Arizona: the newest race, started in 2005 and switched from April to November, which impacted rankings
  • Florida: lowest of the five, but notice the spike on the far right; that's actually for Ironman Florida 70.3, which featured Lance Armstrong; that spike foreshadows the significant impact Lance will have raising awareness for triathlon in 2012


Ironman Eagleman 70.3: Dead Heat? WTC and USA Triathlon CEOs Compete; Who Won?

The CEOs of top triathlon organizations -- WTC and USA Triathlon -- squared off at this year's Ironman Eagleman 70.3 triathlon, which ranks among the tougher 70.3 events in the world.

While WTC and USA Triathlon have not always been on friendly terms, Andrew Messick (WTC CEO) and Rob Urbach (USA Triathlon CEO) seemed to put aside any differences, sharing the last 6 miles together to finish with an identical time of 5:41:10 (For those keeping track, that's close to two hours slower than Lance Armstrong's recent race results)

Up until the time they met on the run course, however, each competed to deliver the best splits possible. So, how did Messick and Urbach compare during the rest of the race?
  • Swim: Urbach's the better swimmer, about 20% faster than Messick, covering 1.2 miles in a 30:27 swim split
  • Bike: Advantage Messick, riding 56 miles at 20.77mph, passing Urbach (19.63 mph) mid-course, and entering T2 with a 4 minute advantage
  • Run: Urbach battled back with a much better run over the first 6.6 miles, gaining 4 minutes to pull even with Messick
  • Finish: In the spirit of cooperation and good sportsmanship that are hallmarks of competitive triathlon, both Messick and Urbach ran the last 6 or so miles together, finishing with identical 5:41:10 times
  • Who won? Technically, using chip time, Messick finished 722nd overall, Urbach 723rd. But that may not be the actual result
  • Why? Just a day earlier, in what was determined to be a dead heat --two males tied for the victory at Ironman Boise -- Messick noted in a tweet that chip time does not determine a race winner; it's whoever's torso crosses the line first that gets the victory.

So, between Messick and Urbach, whose torso crossed the line at Eagleman first? We'll need to look at the photo finish. Until then, here's a comparison of Messick's and Urbach's performance at Ironman Eagleman 70.3. For more, see:




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