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Ironman Won't Be Returning To New York Next Year
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Sep 15, 2012
Modified Sep 15, 2012
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Sep 15, 2012
Modified Sep 15, 2012
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Bad news, fitness fiends: Ironman will not be returning to New York and Northern New Jersey next year. Yesterday, organizers announced that tricky finances and logistics would make it too difficult to stage the intense triathlon in an urban area again, and that they were looking for other locales for 2013's competition. So in other words: the Hudson River is just a little too shitty.
This year's Ironman, which was held on Aug. 11, cost $4 million and took about seven years to plan. The 140.6 mile race, which encompassed a 2.4 mile swim in the Hudson River, a 112 mile bike race on the Palisades Interstate Parkway and a 26.2 marathon that concluded in Riverside Park, cost participants $1,200 to enter, which seems like a rather steep price to pay for the privilege of brutalizing your body.
And the event had some problems, to put it mildly: a broken sewer pipe in Tarrytown sent "controlled sewage discharge" into the Hudson River just few days before the race, and a man died during the swimming portion. "New York City isn't right for everyone, and everyone isn't right for New York City," event organizer John Korff told NorthJersey.com. "It was overwhelming to Ironman."
Event organizers have yet to announce a new locale for next year's race, which is scheduled for July 14, and the shorter New York City Triathalon, which is also run by Korff, will continue to go on as planned. And while we're disappointed Ironman is fleeing for less urban waters, at least we won't feel as bad about our own decrepit bodies in the future.
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Rebecca Fishbein
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