Press Release
Ultra520 K Canada & Ultra355 Canada
Out with the Old, In with the New
Penticton, BC – The 2022 version of Ultra520 K Canada will be the final version of this race, according to the Owner and Race Director of Ultra 520 K Canada.
First launched in 2015 after separating from the Ultraman Family of races, Ultra520 K will run its final race on the weekend of July 30th through August 1st, 2022, in Penticton, ushering in a brand-new race: Ultra 355 for 2023.
“The time has come to end the Ultra520K and move toward a whole new model of events”, said the veteran Race Director, “The future of Ultra Racing I believe is upon us and needs to be appealing to the masses. The issue with Ultra 520 K and events like it is that they are too exclusive in their scope and distances involved and becoming too expensive to maintain and run. As a result, the participation level is very limited.
To respond to these changing needs, the new Ultra355 series will:
- Be less expensive. The entry fee will be reduced from $2,415 down to $1,575 Canadian (yet to be confirmed). The need for an accompanying crew will be eliminated.
- Introduce the use of drop bags (which we will provide to the athletes), and the athletes will prepare and provide their own supplies of fluids and nutrition.
- Have the organizers distribute the bags at intervals along the course. This is far less expensive than providing for a crew and the organizers don’t need to provide full aid stations with supplies and volunteers, keeping costs under control for both parties.
- Drop Bags will introduce a new element for many athletes, making them less reliant upon others for their success and challenges the athlete to think about their own self sufficiency.
- Stretch athletic limits but not completely dominate the athletes’ time and resources.
- The event still follows the 3-day format of the former Ultra520; however, the distances are more closely related to the traditional distances one finds in the Full Ironman distance events. This makes the event more appealing to those athletes that want to push themselves beyond what is considered the norm but not so far as to be considered a fringe sport. Day 1 will consist of a 5 KM Swim and 125 Km Bike; Day 2 will consist of a 175 Km Bike and Day 3 a 50 KM Run. Each day has an 8-hour time limit. These are all distances very doable by any athlete training for a full Ironman and can be considered a stand-alone event or a great training weekend for athletes preparing for an Ironman. By comparison the standard distances for a Full Ironman are 3.8 Km Swim, 180 Km Bike and a 42.2 Km run, to be completed in under 16 hours.
Ultra355 Canada will be part of the new Ultra355 Series of races currently running in Australia and Mexico. The new event is scheduled to run in Okanagan Falls, 12 KM south of Penticton, British Columbia in 2023 from July 15th through July 17th, allowing 6 weeks for recovery between Ultra355 and the 2023 Ironman Canada for those athletes looking to do both events.
The organizers need to get a sense of the level of interest in such and event and ask that anyone seriously interested to register their expression of interest by visiting www.ultra355.com Follow the link to Canada Event and fill in the “Register Your Interest” form by September 1st, 2022. We are looking for a minimum of 50 to continue to move this project forward.
