Interesting email lands in my box this morning:

Today, World Triathlon Corporation officially announces that St. George, Utah will serve as the host city for its newest Ironman event beginning in 2010. Taking place on May 1, 2010, the event will consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run. The inaugural Ford Ironman St. George will utilize a variety of Utah’s scenery, to include Sand Hollow Reservoir, Snow Canyon and the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.

This could work.  St. George is about 10 hours from us here in SF, making it driveable (It’s a complete PITA to box, ship, or fly with your bike- when I lived in NYC I drove to Ironman Louisville, about 10 hours, just to avoid the same problem).

Also, southern Utah is supposed to be incredibly gorgeous, with Bryce Canyon and Zyon National Park being two of the places I’d absolutely love to see.  We tried to fit in that area on our road trip, but unfortunately since we drove highway 50 over from Colorado, through the northeast corner of Utah to Park City, we ended up seeing more of this route:
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and missed out on the southern portion of Utah. Also, we were getting a bit pressed for time as the roadtrip wound down, so little side trips couldn’t be accommodated as we needed to high tail it to see Amy in South Lake Tahoe.

This IMSt.George could be a possibility. Plus, timing-wise, I think it would fit into what I was imagining for next year. Basically next year I was planning to run a bunch of 50 milers in the spring and then do my first 100 mile race sometime in the summer. The fact that it’s relatively early in the year would work out as well- because we have such nice weather in this area all year round, I could get in a lot of longer bikes and runs in mid-winter and it wouldn’t suck as much as trying to train for something like this on the east coast! My friend Cedric trained for Ironman Brazil, which is also in May, when we both lived in NYC, and I remember how much it sucked for him to be doing most of his rides inside on the trainer because it was snowy out!

Here’s my favorite trip report from Bryce Canyon. As soon as I saw this posted on TGR I remember my jaw just dropping, and just dying to get there some day.