Agreed it's getting stupidly expensive.

I can race my bike for an entire season nearly every weekend (including CX) for the price of one IM. I love triathlon, but barring a few of the fun local events, i won't be doing many of them next year.

Why do folks continually compare tri races to cycling races? For a cycle race, you need a road. Tri races you need a road, somewhere to swim, somewhere to run and then all the added insurance that goes along with that. To compare the two sports is ludicrous.
As others have pointed out in the past, go to an insurance company and as soon as you say you are running a swim, watch your insurance premiums jump.

Alcatraz is $400 this year. It's gonna pain me to pay this, I raced my first half in 2004 (5 flat) in a 180 dollar cannondale and basketball shorts.

You can still find some great races with reasonable entry fees - one good example is the $300 entry for TWO IM 70.3 races - The K-Swiss IM 70.3 Kansas and the K-Swiss IM 70.3 Branson. $150.00 per race! Go to www.ironmankansas.com or www.ironmanbranson.com to sign up. This offer is good until Oct. 31st! Z

I'm not sure where you get that I hate America because I think it's wrong to just jack up prices. I'm not saying make no profit. I'm saying have some sense of morals and ethics. The lack of them is what put the economy in the situation it is today. Home Depot paid their old CEO in excess of $200 million just to leave! AIG, Enron, Madoff, etc. The list goes on and on. Greed is not good. A desire to succeed is. America was never about being successful at the expense of others, although, it certainly isn't a case of sweatshops, etc. here. If you want un-American, look at American companies who go overseas just to avoid taxes, but still do almost all their business entirely w/ Americans. I love America, and I love the fact that it is a place where people can become successful through hard work, but should that be limited to financial success, or can it be athletically too? Shouldn't I have the chance to work hard for the chance to be successful at a triathlon? As for comments about paying cops and what not...it still doesn't explain the additional need in for $210,000 in 2 years. I know the PD, FD, and EMS salaries have not risen by 40% in the last 2 years. By the way, since when are ethics and morals and responsibility un-American values. Don't we teach our kids to be moral? to be ethical? to take responsibility for their actions? If you don't, you're doing a crappy job raising your kids. If you do, then there's a reason you do, because you want them to be that way, no matter what the venue...home, school, friends, business, etc. If you don't believe in those values, perhaps you're the one who hates America?

I'm not sure where you get that I hate America because I think it's wrong to just jack up prices. I'm not saying make no profit. I'm saying have some sense of morals and ethics. The lack of them is what put the economy in the situation it is today. Home Depot paid their old CEO in excess of $200 million just to leave! AIG, Enron, Madoff, etc. The list goes on and on. Greed is not good. A desire to succeed is. America was never about being successful at the expense of others, although, it certainly isn't a case of sweatshops, etc. here. If you want un-American, look at American companies who go overseas just to avoid taxes, but still do almost all their business entirely w/ Americans. I love America, and I love the fact that it is a place where people can become successful through hard work, but should that be limited to financial success, or can it be athletically too? Shouldn't I have the chance to work hard for the chance to be successful at a triathlon? As for comments about paying cops and what not...it still doesn't explain the additional need in for $210,000 in 2 years. I know the PD, FD, and EMS salaries have not risen by 40% in the last 2 years. By the way, since when are ethics and morals and responsibility un-American values. Don't we teach our kids to be moral? to be ethical? to take responsibility for their actions? If you don't, you're doing a crappy job raising your kids. If you do, then there's a reason you do, because you want them to be that way, no matter what the venue...home, school, friends, business, etc. If you don't believe in those values, perhaps you're the one who hates America?