Wetsuits and the 5150 Events: Follow-up

This is follow-up to my earlier post on this subject on the new offering from the WTC called 5150, the highly sought after new Olympic distance race series in 2011. I was holding back on registering for any races until I knew if my wetsuit was race legal or not.

Specifically, I use the De Soto T1 Water Rover wetsuit and I was making darn certain it would be race legal for the 5150 events. Per USAT, these suits are race legal until 2013, but I wanted to make sure of that with the WTC so I sent them a note. My initial reply back from the WTC was:

Hello Brian,


Thank you for your email. We are currently working with USAT to determine which wetsuit rules we will be abiding by. More information will be posted online at www.5150.com before the end of the year. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. Thank you,


Maria
Athlete Services Coordinator
Ironman World Headquarters
2701 North Rocky Point Drive
Suite 1250
Tampa, FL 33607

So, I waited and I can now share with you other lovers of 10mm neoprene that the wetsuit will be legal. I received this reply on December 21:

Hi Brian-


We are following USAT rules for all 5150 events. We are working on the 5150 site and expect it's launch will take place early January.

Very good news! Now I just have to dive into my 2011 calendar and see what I want to do and then pull the trigger. I have my eye on the Hy-Vee Triathlon/5150 U.S. Championship (Des Moines, Iowa) and 5150 Galveston (Galveston, Texas). I'm sure I will finalize within the next one to two weeks.