You did a great job with your posts!

Oh, ha! Thanks. I honestly was so inspired watching both my friends in the race and the amazing pro performances! It made me really glad I had actually signed up for a full this year because it made me want to qualify!

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

Oh my gosh, so much butthurt in the main forum!

Congrats on your slot, and keep fighting the good fight.

L O L. Thank you, I appreciate it!
Ya. Now I’m invested, haha, and we have the data from Kona to back it up! I do start a new job in a week so I will likely be quieter, but it’s just not cool how disparaging the main forum is.

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

I was there, and LOVED the whole koa wāhine vibe. Race day I felt supported, empowered and not an "afterthought" starting after all the men's waves.

In the leadup, I've found myself avoiding the butthurt threads and articles, but it affected me.

It was at the UPR where I finally felt I belonged & deserved to be there and the rest of the days flowed from there. I executed a strong race in a day filled with joy & gratitude, encouragement & empowerment.

I am so happy reading this!!! So glad to hear it :) I'm sorry the butthurt guys affected you in the lead up. It's just pathetic to see the whining over and over. Way to go, way to execute and enjoy!!

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

Thanks!

It's also really hard to read through the current thread about Women qualification for Nice. So much ugliness. So much idolization of a haze-ey BS past that made our KQ process that much harder.

Also, congrats on your Nice qualification!! That's going to be another epic celebration.

Thank you!! I’m super excited to get to be a part of it. Hearing your experience from a few weeks ago, seeing / hearing from friends and acquaintances… I think Nice will just be super cool.

I started writing a reply to some of the posts last night and just stopped… and it was reassuring to see some other people come out of the woodwork to be reasonable / support the move!

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

Great job! Isn't turning that corner onto Ali'i Drive just the most awesome feeling in the world?

And re the neanderthal's posting - screw them. Post away and who cares what they think or say. They most likely have TDS and are trying to compensate for it.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Yes agree 100%. I think the main reason I'm on Slowtwitch (if I'm being totally honest) is that I get lonely sometimes living off-grid in the woods. While I love it and need my space and privacy, I am a friendly and social person. I loved Kona and the entire women's race experience. So glad to have been a part of it. But also happy to be home. I think that the main tri-forum can be a bit toxic sometimes. Too many bad apples. My husband hates that I participate.

I forget about the women's forum mostly because many women avoid Slowtwich in general for the attitudes and trolls. And it's a bit quiet not being private from the main tri forum. Lots of insecure men and trolls who would never say half the shit they type in person. One person once described ST: It is like every other anonymous Internet forum full of trolls and tough guys who would never dare say the same things to someone in person.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Hi, long time forum member, extremely infrequent poster for reasons probably anyone in here understands :) I raced in Kona this year and have a few other times in the past, as well as attending several times to watch. I was concerned going in, not about more women qualifying, but that it would feel not quite the same or have the same level of WC excitement as it usually does with the men there. Or that vendors would not bother to make the trip for "just" women. I was very happy to see that I was wrong on all counts and really enjoyed it being just us women and at no point did it feel like things were downgraded without the male presence. I really enjoyed the vibe without the sort of ego and entitlement that seems to come with some (not all) of the male participants. I also don't think there is anything wrong with letting "slower" women in the race or expanding the field and in fact I think it's better to race more than the usual, what, 600 women? Was it even that many prior to 2022? It did not seem "diluted" or anything like that and in fact as someone who has occasionally done quite well there, I had a fairly decent race and finished pretty far down in my age group so if anything, to me it just added to the competition. The only thing I didn't love was that my age group wave was HUGE, as were the few in front of me, so having to swim through such large groups was not ideal but that was a small problem. Ok, well, that and also the fact that this same issue made T1 an insane mess but that's not entirely different from some regular Ironman races and again given all the other positive things that came from it, it's not a terrible issue. And honestly, I think it's great to see SO many women who are genuinely excited to be there and just want to enjoy the experience rather than so many men (and some women) who have been there so many times it's not even a big deal to them anymore. There was just so much positivity out there, even on the run course when some of us were suffering a bit.

As for Nice... I don't know. When it first got announced my initial thought was absolutely no way, no thanks. Not that I wouldn't race there, I would. But preferably as a "normal" Ironman and not in a women only WC race with the increased costs associated. But when I was in Kona this year and after hearing positive things about the men's experience there, I started to think, well, maybe. Also as a strong cyclist and a weaker runner that course could be a good one for me. And as an American on the east coast of course it's much closer than Hawaii, and I have an aging mother who enjoys the excuse to travel with me to races, speaks French, loves France, but has never been to Nice who likes the excuse to go and as she keeps getting older (as we all do) I don't know how many more years she has where she can physically make these trips so I also kind of feel like I want to take advantage of that too while I can. Plus now with this new (ironically, actually *old*) way to qualify through a 70.3 the thought became even more appealing. I'm still not totally sure what next season will bring as I am signed up for exactly nothing, but for sure my positive experience a week-and-a-half ago made this seem much more appealing than it did a few months ago.

Hey thank you so much for sharing your concerns from pre-race. I think those make a lot of sense and are super valid, and I am so glad to hear they were unfounded!! The positivity you mentioned is how I felt about 70.3 WC, too :) I loved racing with all women.

I think all of those factors around Nice make a ton of sense! I am still trying to convince myself that there's nothing wrong with going on vacation for vacation's sake, but I am super excited to be going to France for the first time (also with a friend who is a fluent French speaker!) and get to race in an all-women's world champs.

Congratulations on Kona, I am so glad it was a successful trip!! (Swim and T1 aside...)

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

Love your post and thanks so much for sharing! I'm so glad to learn you found it to be a great experience compared to other years. It was my first Kona but third all-female race. (Nice and Chatt worlds 70.3). And I just love racing in a women's only field.

I hope you get to do Nice worlds in 2024. I absolutely loved my Nice race experience in 2019 for worlds. It was amazing. You'll love the bike course. Really stunning. I didn't love the 20 miles of descents, but I think the full IM course will be different. The Mediterranean Sea was gorgeous for swimming and running along the water was really fun. It will be a really good IM marathon. Warm but I don't think any hotter than Kona. Nice was a fun city and we could walk easily from our AirB&B to restaurants, the sea, transitions and the start/finish. I loved that! I really hope aa lot of women will decide to do Nice in 2024. I've already been there, and I am most likely done with the full distance. 50s have been unkind to me. I'm going to focus on doing well at the 70.3 distance.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

That seems to be mostly newer (mid-2010s on) I think. There are quite a few long time folks who have met up at various races. Hopefully more of that will happen in the future.

Now you all have me seriously thinking about going to Nice next year to volunteer. It's one area of France that I've not been to and a couple of friends bought houses further west and have been bugging me to come visit (and have the local realtor send me listings).

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I haven't raced 70.3 WC since it was in Clearwater so this was my first all female event. The main deterrent for me on 70.3 now is with the 2 days of racing it's just SO MANY people all at one venue at once. Which of course was what made Kona 2022 do much more unpleasant than usual. I guess that one for me would be about a venue I really wanted to race. But it really was nice having just women racing and even more exciting for such a great pro race that got 100% of the attention and so deserved.

In fairness, there are many really good people here on ST. I even had someone reach out to me to help me read my MRI scan when I was waiting on the radiologist just recently before Kona. Unfortunately, the bad apples really stand out sometimes. I have to remember that when someone is unkind or just plain old rude on ST or any internet forum, they are probably having a tough time in their own life and I shouldn't take it so personally.

You'll love Nice. Great idea to volunteer. Will be very rewarding. And it's not a bad flight from the East Coast.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I can't imagine having 5K athletes in Kona during 2022 after doing Kona this year with just over 2K women. The town is not big enough for double the athletes and their families and friends. And then add the cruise ship people during the week. Kona village is small and I would have not enjoyed it being that crowded in 2022. Nice is much bigger and can handle more people. I also don't think the # of athletes in Nice worlds 70.3 in 2019 were as big as Kona. If I remember correctly there were around 200 women in my AG at Nice in 2019. There were around 300 in my AG at Kona this year. Would be interesting to dig into the numbers for the 70.3 races. And Chatt is a good city for a worlds event as well. It didn't seem overly crowded. And I am one who is very sensitive to crowds and too many people. I moved into the woods away from Burlington VT as I thought that area was becoming insufferable with too many people, housing developments, traffic, etc.

I'm very curious to see where worlds 70.3 2025 will be.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I have raced Kona 15 times and preferred the all-female version. Hopefully they will continue to keep the women's championship events separate.
Nice's bike course is too difficult for me so am not interested in that one. The descents look terrifying.
It would be nice if men and women didn't have to alternate Kona years, but my bank account will be better off. Maybe they will figure something out.