Though I dislike the tone and use of the term "embarrassing," I too have been very frustrated to see the sparse fields female pro fields at many IM and 70.3 events. Living in North America, my greatest frustration primarily stems from the small fields lacking depth at Vineman and Placid, and to some extent IMMT. First of all, I feel like it does not help the 50 Women to Kona movement. Likely the lack of attendance is hurting it. Surely there are fewer female pros, but I also cannot help but question what many female pros, specifically the hundreds who were not gunning for a KQ in 2016, are thinking when picking their races. More than a handful of North American female pros opted out of these races to race in Europe. Surprisingly many of these women even live on the east coast! I mean it is great that they can afford to take the risk to fly to Europe and race, and for some it was a good return on investment, but my guess is they could have gotten an even greater return on investment racing here. It is possible that many of these women do not approach their race selection as a business decision, and maybe they have the financial stability and other sources of income and funding that they don't have to, but in my opinion, when racing as a pro trying to make a living in the sport, choosing where/when to race is a business decision. Though I am and can only speak for myself on this matter.
The other reason I feel frustrated when I see these results is that I feel like I missed an opportunity to go make some good money. Because I fractured my neck in November, Ironman racing fell off my radar for the year. But maybe if I knew that I could put together a half-way decent race, and baring any major catastrophe, I would have pushed harder to do Placid, Vineman, or IMMT and I likely could have earned a good paycheck. Had I not had the injury setback, and with the addition of the entry lists showing the pros who have entered any given race, I am almost positive I would have been on the starting line of one of those races this year.
To build off of what one poster said about racing pro for the money, while I did not choose to race professionally for the money, I almost cannot afford to go to a race and not walk away with a paycheck. My expenses are fairly minimal and I work part time, but the sport is so expensive and I do not have a ton of sponsorship support so it hurts my bottom line to not finish in the money. It does make racing much less fun to have to approach racing as a business decision, but it is kind of a necessity. I made a great decision to race Rev3 Williamsburg, as I had a free place to stay and it was driving distance, it was a bonus to find out only five women showed up to race and a bigger bonus to earn a substantial paycheck to cover expenses and then some. Timberman was a not so great decision, and I ended up in the red. Rev3 Maine falls in between, I made some money, but not enough to break even on the trip.
I would not be surprised to see prize money disappear from many more WTC events, and honestly I can't say I'd be all that mad about it, we female pros will have no one to blame but ourselves. There are too many races with fewer female finishers than prize money places. Though I am almost certain they will continue to offer prize money, I would be very disappointed if Rev3 did away with their purses because of lack of female pro attendance. I did what I could to support their races this year and feel they offer a great opportunity for developing pros, such as myself, to start climbing the ranks and make some money. I cannot understand why so many women forgo racing Rev3 and opt to finish at the back of the pack at multiple 70.3 races. I know from experience, the later is not so much fun.
Emily Sherrard @EmSher1
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