February 21, 2012

Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy?

By Pete Williams

Registration now open for 2013

The Tampa Bay Times broke down the numbers from the Feb. 12 Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in St. Petersburg and the results show that the inaugural event fell well short of what race organizer Competitor Group projected in May when it landed $30,000 in city services and $100,000 from Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater to market the event.

During a splashy news conference in May, Competitor projected 12,000 to 15,000 runners and St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster said the event could account for 10,000 hotel nights and pump $15 million into the local economy.

We examined those numbers at the time, turning to economist Philip Porter of the University of South Florida, a longtime critic of sports economic impact projections. Porter suggested only a small portion of the runners would come from outside the Tampa Bay market, minimizing economic impact.

That’s exactly what happened, according to The Times. The Feb. 12 race had just 7,000 finishers, only 1,248 of which came from out of state. The three official race hotels booked just 200 rooms. Other hotels already were nearly full with other bookings.

Porter says such projections always overestimate economic impact.

“Think about it. You’re coming to City Council and asking for money and support shutting down roads and you’re going to promise the sky,” Porter said this morning. “If you don’t deliver the crowds it doesn’t matter because there’s no mechanism in the contract that holds you accountable.”

Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater has a three-year contract for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon and has pledged $100,000 for each race in 2013 and 2014.

Though the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon generally was well received, some runners wondered why it needed to begin at one site (Tropicana Field) and end at North Shore Park. Runners faced $15 parking fees at The Trop on race day and for mandatory packet pickup on the days before, though many parked in free two-hour spots on the streets and walked over.

Weather was chilly for the race, though that likely had little impact on late registration in the days leading up to the event as entry fees were a whopping $125. Advance registration was as little as $55 and Competitor was offering $65 registration for the 2013 event during packet pickup this year.

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February 20, 2012

Activate Your Core Anywhere

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February 19, 2012

Ragin’ Warrior: Mud Runs Go Rambo

By Pete Williams

Coming to Ocala March 3

Donny Jones admires the success that obstacle races such as Tough Mudder and Spartan Race have enjoyed attracting athletes for a couple hours of muddy strength and endurance tests.

But the creator of the Ragin’ Warrior, which takes place at Florida Horse Park in Ocala on March 3, thinks the category could use more noise, some pyrotechnics, and perhaps even a little gunfire.

Athletes navigating the 11.5-mile Ragin’ Warrior course might feel like they’re in a warzone says Jones, who wants them to get at least a small taste of what it’s like to deal with the mental and physical stresses of combat. He consulted with former U.S. Special Forces personnel to create a course that will include guys dressed as drill sergeants barking orders, smoke grenades going off, and “explosions that feel real as hell.”

“There’s going to be dust and mud flying everywhere and you’re going to have to keep calm and collected while all of this is going on around you,” Jones says. “You’re going to have deal with 24 obstacles, most of which won’t be similar to anything that’s been done by Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, or anyone else.”

Most mud runs require athletes to go under barbwire. For Ragin’ Warrior’s “Shock and Awe,” athletes must crawl under electrified barbwire while a 50-caliber machine gun fires compressed air overhead.

“It’s just compressed air, but it sounds like a 50 caliber firing 350 rounds a minute,” Jones says.

Other obstacles include “Icy Burrows,” where athletes must crawl through large metal culverts partially buried in ice water, and “Mount Ragin’,” two metal cargo containers stacked to form a 17-foot obstacle athletes must climb with ropes.

The military theme continues after the race, when athletes can test their target skills with paintball guns. The Ragin’ Warrior has partnered with the Lone Survivor Foundation as its official charity. Post-race will include bands, beer, and vendors selling food.

The Ragin’ Warrior was moved from its Jan. 28 date after the original race site was sold. Now the event is in the middle of a busy Florida obstacle race calendar that includes Spartan Race (Miami, Feb. 25-26) and Savage Race (Clermont, March 10).

“Our goal is to not be a regular mud run,” Jones says. “We want to provide a challenge that’s as much mental as it is physical.

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February 19, 2012

FitPerkz: Providing Daily Fitness Bargains Via ‘Apple Deals’

By Pete Williams

FitPerkz founders James Bellamy and Whit Lasseter

James Bellamy and Whit Lasseter spend most of their time advocating a healthy lifestyle, serving as marketing ambassadors for fitness-related companies and competing in many Central Florida endurance races.

So it was a natural that the two Tampa residents, who were friends growing up in Tennessee, have teamed to create “FitPerkz.com,” Groupon-like discount offers for health and fitness-related products and services in the Tampa Bay area.

Dubbed “daily apple deals” after the famous apple-a-day doctor advice, FitPerkz showcases everything from health products stores to upcoming races to Lasseter’s Tampa CrossBoot bootcamp business.

“The idea is to provide information and opportunities for people to get healthy,” says Bellamy. “By doing the small things every day, you can make big changes in your health over time.”

The current apple deal, which runs through Tuesday, is a heavily discounted entry ($59) into next weekend’s Super Spartan Race at Oleta River State Park Miami. The offer is a discount of 52 percent from the $125 entry price for Sunday’s event; Saturday is sold out.

During the last two years, Spartan Race and Tough Mudder have become the most popular races in the booming obstacle mud run category. The Super Spartan Race is the eight-mile version of the Spartan Race, which some consider tougher than the 12-mile Tough Mudder. Unlike Tough Mudder, which does not penalize athletes for skipping or not completing obstackes, Spartan requires athletes who do not complete challenges to perform 30 Burpees.

Bellamy says the daily deal will be the centerpiece of a site that will grow in the coming months to include recipes, fitness advice, workout videos, featured athletes, and an event calendar.

“We’ve been fortunate to build a community of fitness enthusiasts in this market and develop a lot of contacts that can help people live a more active, healthy lifestyle,” Bellamy says “FitPerkz makes it as fun an inexpensive as possible to get fit and stay healthy.”

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February 17, 2012

Super Bowl Triathlon Training

By Pete Williams

Members of the Timex Multisport Team get the pro treatment.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – It’s not the life of a Super Bowl champion, but the life of a sponsored triathlete is pretty good deal.

Actually, here at the Timex Performance Center, home to the New York Giants and to this week’s annual gathering of the Timex Multisport Team, it’s tough to tell the difference.

Eli Manning, Justin Tuck and the gang aren’t around, but 50 top Ironman triathletes have convened for three days of tests, training, meetings, and, most importantly, swag distribution.

It’s nice being mistaken for one of the gang, something that never happened when I covered the NFL. I’m just a sprint triathlete here covering the three-day event, but still get to hang with Team Timex as they eat in the Giants dining room, use their training facilities, meet in their position conference rooms, and even get a taste for having a big-time locker room.

This morning, the Giants locker room staff replaced players’ nameplates with those of the triathletes, who opened Thule backpacks stuffed with race kits, tri shorts, bibs, cycling jerseys, race belts, and assorted swim products. It’s just a fraction of the swag the athletes will get over the course of the year.

Giants staff gave strict instructions not to touch any player stuff, guidance I didn’t need after spending way too much of my life hanging around locker rooms waiting to interview athletes. Many of the triathletes didn’t recognize many names other than Manning. This is a group, after all, that goes to bed early and spends weekends training and competing themselves.

Fourteen researchers from the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute are on hand to measure sweat and salt loss during intense training. I underwent a 45-minute session this afternoon and the preliminary results, much to my surprise, were that I don’t sweat that much.

The researchers will have more definitive data tomorrow morning, but the initial theory is that since I train in a warmer climate (Florida), it takes more heat to get me sweating profusely.

I also sat in on a Timex product development meeting. A dozen triathletes offered suggestions on everything from design to GPS, heart rate monitors and a lot of technical stuff that went over my head.

Simple suggestion someone brought up that I’ve always wondered: Why can’t we measure heart rate from the wrist rather than a cumbersome chest strap that’s forever falling off?

Apparently we can – and Timex is working on it.

The juxtaposition of the Giants and triathlon make for some interesting moments. Giants head coach Tom Coughlin is legendary for setting clocks five minutes ahead. That means clocks at the Timex Performance Center are never correct.

The Timex product development meeting took place in the defensive line conference room and the whiteboard still included photos, notes, and inside jokes representing Tuck, Chris Canty, Jason Pierre-Paul and others. At one point before my sweat session, a member of the Stringer team had me lie down in the linebackers meeting room to get a resting heart rate.

Then I hammered out a 45-minute workout in the Giants weight room, feeling less like a sportswriter and more like a pro athlete.

At least a pro triathlete.

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February 15, 2012

Tough Mudder Moves Tampa Event to Fort Meade

By Pete Williams

Tough Mudder, the wildly popular obstacle mud run series that drew 20,000 athletes to Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City in December, is moving to Dirty Foot Adventures in Fort Meade for this year’s event Dec. 1-2.

Tough Mudder spokesperson Jane Di Leo said the change was made to “give our participants a challenge, whether it is their first Tough Mudder or fifth. The change to the new location in Fort Meade is a way for us to continue to offer a variety of courses to our participants and to offer others throughout the state easy access to our events.”

Dirty Foot Adventures, located in southern Polk County, is just 60 miles from Tampa or Bradenton and 70 from Orlando or Sarasota. The sprawling facility is used for dirt bike and ATV racing and in October hosted the Iron Crusader mud run, which drew about 1,300 runners for an inaugural event.

Geno Stopowenko, the vice president of marketing for Dirty Foot Adventures, says Tough Mudder first approached them between 18 and 24 months ago as it was searching for a site for the 2011 event. He said the property also has fielded inquiries from Warrior Dash and other obstacle mud runs about putting on a race at the 1,800-acre facility, which includes miles of trails, creek beds, and other natural terrain.

Walking the plank at Tough Mudder

“This property is the total package,” said Stopowenko, who said Dirty Foot plans to stage its own five-mile obstacle race some time in May. “Every time someone comes to check it out they immediately try to negotiate with us. We’ve hosted events of more than a thousand people, nothing to the magnitude Tough Mudder will bring, but we’ll be ready.”

Little Everglades Ranch, which hosts equestrian and cross country running events, received rave reviews as the site of the inaugural Florida Tough Mudder. The 11.5-mile course was spread out across the Pasco County property and included water obstacles, muddy ravines, and plenty of room for the race’s signature obstacles such as Mt. Everest, the Ball Shrinker, and the Chernobyl Jacuzzi (above).

Convenient to Tampa and Orlando, with plenty of room for parking, Little Everglades seemed a likely site for 2012 and, indeed, Tough Mudder listed a Dec. 1-2, 2012 Tampa event on its Web site within days of last year’s event.

Tough Mudder still lists Tampa as the site of this year’s event. Polk County is considered part of the greater Tampa Bay area.

The scheduling at Dirty Foot Adventures seems to finalize the Florida scheduling for Tough Mudder, which has been in flux for weeks. At one point, Tough Mudder’s website listed 2012 races without dates for Jacksonville, Miami, and Pensacola before updating them to “coming in 2013.”

Di Leo said Tough Mudder did not have solid dates for those locations in 2012, but “we are very excited to host events in these locations in 2013.”

Billed as “the toughest endurance test on the planet,” Tough Mudder is a grueling 10-to-12 mile trail run containing 20 military style obstacles designed by British Special Forces. Conceived by CEO Will Dean while at Harvard Business School, it debuted in March of 2010, expanded to 14 races last year and 32 this year. Athletes complete the course by navigating a field charged with 10,000 volts of electricity, receiving an orange finisher’s headband for their efforts.

Tough Mudder has become the most popular race in the booming obstacle mud run category, successfully marketing to the 21-to-45 year old demographic and to some degree replacing triathlon and half-marathons as the leading aspirational endurance test. Tough Mudder does not issue timing chips or finishing times, stressing that it’s not a race. That inspires groups of friends to sign up together and complete the race as a single unit, often at a leisurely pace.

That has fueled revenues, which could eclipse $100 million for the three-year-old company in 2012. Tough Mudder, like other events in the category, has raised entry fees considerably. Last year, athletes registering for the Tampa race paid as little as $60 for the Saturday race and $80 for Sunday if they registered by March 15 and $100 (Saturday) or $80 (Sunday) through June 15.

This year, Tough Mudder made no distinction between the days and offered a $95 “early bird discount” through yesterday. The registration fee is $125 from Feb. 16 through May 31, $155 from June 1 through Oct. 31 and $200 after Nov. 1.

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February 15, 2012

An Interview with Joe DeSena, Spartan Race Founder

By Pete Williams

Death Race competitor Joe Decker

We spoke this morning with Joe DeSena, founder of the infamous Spartan Death Race and the Spartan Race series, which quickly have become recognized as the toughest races in endurance sports – perhaps even more so than Tough Mudder.

You can listen to that Fitness Buff Show interview HERE. Some highlights:

— DeSena does not like the term mud runs, preferring “obstacle racing,” believing the competition is more about overcoming obstacles than dealing with mud.

— Though his company plans to attract more than 350,000 competitors to 41 events this year, including several overseas, he bristles at the idea of people entering huge teams of athletes, some of which are not prepared for the rigors of the race.

— More than 10,000 people applied to be on “Unbreakable,” the upcoming reality show that will pit 100 athletes in seven days of Death Race-like competition in Vermont this spring.

 

 

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February 10, 2012

Obstacle Course Training

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February 9, 2012

The Inevitable Ironman/Lance Armstrong Marriage

By Pete Williams

Ironman 70.3 Florida competitors can wave to Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong and the World Triathlon Corporation announced a long-rumored partnership this morning that will include the seven-time Tour de France winner competing as a professional triathlete in several Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races, including Ironman 70.3 in Haines City, Fla., on May 20.

The deal, one of the endurance sports industry’s biggest rumors for years, came six days after federal prosecutors dropped a two-year investigation into whether the world’s most famous cyclist and his teammates engaged in a doping program during his greatest years. Armstrong has denied doping charges raised for years by journalists and prominent cyclists.

That the most polarizing figure in endurance sports would partner with the most polarizing organization in the industry seemed inevitable from the time Armstrong announced his most recent retirement from cycling a year ago. The 40-year-old Armstrong, who began his endurance sports career as a teenage triathlete, was looking for a new high-profile platform to further his Livestrong Foundation.

WTC, for all of its success selling out its high-profile Ironman and Ironman 70.3 events, has struggled to extend its brand and generate mainstream media coverage. Its 5150 series, which debuted last year, met with mixed results. WTC scrapped a proposed obstacle mud runs series last year and was a late entry into the booming world of half marathon races. Its signature event, the Ironman Kona race, remains under the radar as a tape-delay highlight broadcast. None of the current professionals are known outside the triathlon world.

Armstrong will bring a built-in audience to Ironman, which in turn should put him back in the limelight. His foray into marathon running from 2006-2008 drew little attention and he returned to cycling late in 2008. It was during his marathon training that talk of a WTC/Livestrong partnership began.

James Gills, the Tarpon Springs opthamologist who owned WTC for nearly three decades, sold WTC and the Ironman brand to Providence Equity Partners for a reported $75 million in September 2008, a week before the Lehman Brothers collapse triggered a national financial crisis. Providence moved WTC from Tarpon Springs to Tampa and in May hired new CEO Andrew Messick, who during a four-year stint as president of AEG Sports oversaw the Amgen Tour of California.

Though triathlon has boomed in the last five years, WTC and Ironman have not emerged into the sports mainstream. Under Gills, the company was fiercely private, operating out of a small suite of offices at his medical practice. Many triathletes have a love-hate relationship with Ironman. Though completing an Ironman is perhaps the most sought-after accomplishment in endurance sports, athletes must deal with steep entry fees ($625 average for Ironman events) and ever-changing registration rules.

Armstrong will have a huge advantage in the bike portion of triathlons, which accounts for 56 miles in a 70.3 (half-Ironman) triathlon and 112 miles of the full distance event. As age-group triathletes are quick to point out on popular triathlon industry message boards such as SlowTwitch.com, bike drafting is illegal in triathlon – and there is random drug testing of the pros at Ironman events.

Armstrong will bring a much-needed spotlight to triathlon, which receives little media attention outside of trade publications. ESPN and other sports networks, which rarely feature triathlon, likely will show highlights from his races. Rank-and-file age group trithletes will clamor for a chance to race against Armstrong, even if he will race as a pro in the first wave of every event he enters.

Those will include Ironman 70.3 Panama on Feb. 12 and the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 in Texas on April 1. Armstrong also will compete in Ironman 70.3 in Florida, moved from Lake Buena Vista to Haines City for this year’s May 20 event, and a 70.3 event in Hawaii June 2.

Armstrong will return to France to compete in Ironman France on June 24. If he competes in Ironman’s world championship in Kona on Oct. 13, it won’t be via a celebrity exemption.

He plans to qualify like anyone else.

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February 8, 2012

Will TriRock Work in Clearwater?

By Pete Williams

Racing Clearwater's bridges

It’s been quite a start to 2012 for Competitor Group and its endurance sports properties in Florida.

Two weeks ago, the San Diego-based publisher and event promoter pulled its Muddy Buddy series out of Florida, part of a downsizing to just eight events for the bike-and-run event for 2012. Competitor had considered moving its popular Orlando Muddy Buddy race to Pasco County after Disney booted outside endurance sports promoters from the Magic Cashbox, but decided to go with more proven markets, at least for 2012.

This week, runners participating in Competitor’s inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in St. Petersburg on Sunday realized they must pay $15 to park at Tropicana Field to pick up their race packets and another $15 on race day unless they make less convenient arrangements. That’s part of a complicated relationship between Competitor, the City of St. Pete, and the Tampa Bay Rays, but mostly a product of the cushy deal St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster gave Competitor.

But when it comes to sucking up to endurance sports conglomerates and giving away the keys to the city, nobody does it better than Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, who after getting little in return for the city’s six-year investment with the World Triathlon Corporation to put on five Ironman 70.3 races and cancel a 5150 event, signed on this week to host a November event in Competitor’s TriRock triathlon series.

The inaugural TriRock Clearwater will take place November 11, the same weekend Ironman canceled its inaugural 5150 event last year due to low registration and the same weekend Ironman staged its year-end 70.3 championship from 2006-2010. That event, which attracted few spectators and little media coverage, generated headlines mostly for tying up 56 miles of traffic in Florida’s most densely populated county.

The Tampa-based World Triathlon Corp. relocated the 70.3 event to Nevada for 2011 and thanked Clearwater on the way out by not printing “Clearwater” on a single piece of merchandise for the 2010 event. In October, WTC canceled its inaugural 5150 season-ending event in Clearwater just three weeks before the race when it could not reach its modest goal of 800 participants.

Race director Philip LaHaye wondered at the time if Clearwater could “support a bigger production, $150-per-person race” at the end of the season.

Competitor’s entry fees for TriRock, which features sprint-distance and Olympic-length triathlons, rank among the highest in the industry. The sprint distance costs $100 through Sept. 10 and escalates to $150. The Olympic distance costs between $140 and $180 depending on when the athlete registers. This does not include the RaceIt.com online registration fee, which also goes to Competitor, which purchased the Virginia-based online registration company in August.

No word on parking arrangements and fees but they were not an issue during Ironman’s 70.3 events out of Clearwater Beach, which featured roughly 2,000 triathletes per race.

Competitor is banking on athletes paying a premium for enjoying rock bands along the course, much like they do for the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon series. The company’s Web site bills TriRock as featuring a “rocking competition, complete with live bands along the swim, bike and run courses, followed by a post-race party and concert.”

The TriRock series debuted last year with races in Annapolis, Md., Seattle, San Diego, and Gettysburg, Pa. This year’s schedule starts in New York on May 5 and includes races in Annapolis, Seattle, Austin, and San Diego.

Competitor expects 1,000 athletes for the Clearwater event, which starts with a swim in the water off Clearwater Beach. Such modest expectations make sense for a city that, for whatever reason, has struggled to build traction around the booming sport. In addition to Ironman’s mixed results, the Sand Key Triathlon initially folded last year after a seven-year run. A new promoter took over the event, postponed it from September to Feb. 25 and this week announced its cancellation.

The Morton Plant Mease Triathlon, a sprint-distance event held like the Sand Key Triathlon at Sand Key Park just south of Clearwater Beach, debuted in 2006 and is scheduled for June 24.

 

 

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