Best of the Best: Triathlons Worldwide

The course here offers an extremely difficult swim in open, choppy water, and what Zeiger calls a "brutal and beastly climb" on a bike, with an average grade of 17% over 56 miles. The run, too, is a hilly one, and the tropical May sun supplies oppressive heat and humidity.

But for Zeiger, it's the people who make the race in St. Croix. The spectators offer unbridled encouragement and unparalleled hospitality, she says. On her first trip to St. Croix during a post-race swim, Zeiger remembers, a family of locals saw her exhausted and famished body floating almost listlessly in the water. They insisted that she join them for what became an unforgettable dinner.

Of course, an encouraging audience can make the race in any setting. Chuck Prosser, who owns a physical therapy practice in a suburb of Syracuse, N.Y., and is a budding amateur triathlete, finished his first-ever Ironman this past July in Lake Placid, N.Y., the oldest official Ironman in the continental U.S. (June 20, 2008). Accompanying him on the final lap around the old Olympic speed skating oval were his children.

And thanks to a computer chip that follows each entrant's progress on the course, Prosser also remembers hearing his name announced as he entered this fabled place where Eric Heiden took home five gold medals back in 1980. "You feel like a rock star," he says of his Lake Placid experience, which also included a bike ride alongside the Olympic ski-jump venue.

In the Bay Area in California, another imposing structure highlights the landscape of a major triathlon: the old Alcatraz Prison, where some of the most notorious criminals served time from the mid-'30s until 1963.

Race participants in the Accenture Escape From Alcatraz (June 8, 2008) begin their frigid 1.5-mile swim -- water temperatures can plunge below 55 degrees -- from boats anchored just outside the imposing walls that once housed the likes of Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly. A grueling 18-mile bike ride follows, and the race culminates in a hilly 8-mile run through the trails of the Golden Gate Recreation Area, featuring the dreaded 400-step Sand Ladder on Baker Beach. The imposing beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge inspires the athletes on the push to the finish.

Indeed, physical splendor is the pervading theme among many of the great courses; race officials have chosen amazing places to host events.

Ironman France (June 22, 2008) features a swim in the crystal-clear blue Mediterranean waters off the coast of Nice; the Wildflower Triathlon (May 2-4, 2008) unfolds in the wilderness in Monterey County, Calif., in a place so remote that athletes stay at the campgrounds along Lake San Antonio; the Pucon Half Ironman (Jan. 20, 2008) in Chile features a swim in a lake at the base of the active Villarica volcano; and Ironman Canada (Aug, 24, 2008) unfolds in quaint small towns of British Columbia and in water so clean, according to Zeiger, that "you feel like you don't need a shower afterwards."

It certainly can't hurt to swim, bike and run in an inspiring place, Zeiger adds. "If you're gonna suffer, it's nice to have something to look at."

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