monty wrote:
Thanks for the update and congratulations on your athlete and the adventure. I too have been crew chief of endurance events, and they are very personally satisfying and fun, but not for the faint of heart for sure. My comments about the overall numbers declining was just an observation, not sure why. I recall in the old days the races would get those 50 person fields, with some top talent throwing their hands into the ring to see what it was all about. You're right in that having 100's would dilute the experience, kind of like what happened to Ironman over the years..
Anyway glad they are still going on, but as a former RD of over 60 triathlons, I do wonder how long they can keep going with entires at all time lows these days...You're in the thick of it, what do you think is causing folks to give these epic races a miss these days?
With all due respect monty I believe your observation (all-time low) to be incorrect. The numbers in Ultraman branded events aren't trending downwards, rather have stayed somewhat consistent. UMWC Hawaii has always had a 40 athlete cap, and a quick look sees 40 in 2018, 28 in 2019, 40 in 2022, and 23 in 2023 (with 2 3pax relay tams). The recent UMArizona is a 3 year old race: 37 in 2022, 21 in 2023, and 20-whatever in 2024. UMFlorida is consistently seeing 30-45 athletes/crews, this year even more. In its recent iteration (2019 onwards) UMCanada is 15-20 athletes a year. I don't see any evidence anywhere that numbers were higher "back in the day".
I've completed three of these, and crewed at about 10 others. And honestly I've noticed more younger folks lately being both drawn to the distance and the camaraderie embedded within these ultra events. And frankly, any more than 40 athletes (imo) becomes a logistical cluster when you consider the crews, the vans and added impact all of that makes on small communities, often neighborhoods, traffic, etc... I remember a Ragnar event out here on the Big Island some years ago with about 150 teams, and all those vans pulling off, slowing down, etc created such a ruckus they got themselves completely banned from the county and closed Kohala mountain road for good for all future events. Ultraman really does live by its founding principles of Aloha, Ohana, and Kokua, and most likely wouldn't want to to tread so heavily on its host communities.