A few observations from my end of the pool:

• Well done Tara for getting & staying fit
• This doesn't mean that I accept you deserving a spot at a race so many people slave away for years to qualify for (or not).
• Ditto lottery winners.
• NBC would have orchestrated this as sure as a bear sh%ts in the woods. Its called marketing.
• Having celebrities and lottery winners at a race which is called a "World Championship" and they have never even completed the distance is very, very strange. It may be capitalism and a private business ......but its still strange.
• Triathlon has long been the "everyperson"sport where amateurs can race alongside pros. However, to take it this step further and include people who have never even completed a race before (Tara may have - but I'm speaking more about the lottery winners here) is strange.
• Tara at Kona probably does send a positive message to society - provided she doesn't crumble in the cauldron and fail to make the swim cut-off. She wouldn't be the first.
• Nevertheless, there's no point getting worked up about it cause WTC owns the game is this is how they like to play it.
• Its a strange world, especially when ratings are involved.

Maybe go with the new Lamborghini Aventador, or the Pagani Hyuara.

As for BL Tara getting a Kona slot: NBC-Universal does have the broadcast rights, and surprising she is from an NBC reality show. Just a way for them to get free advertising. Now I am not one of the super elites, or even remotely fast triathletes, and respect to you all of course, but personally I would not even consider going for the lottery for Kona. I agree with AG qualifiers and props to all of you. Now if WTC wants to inspire people to get off their lazy butts, like I should be doing more, and get active then more power to them. The US is turning into a vast nation of people who want convenience and everything given to them. This race shows people what you can do if you get out there and put your mind to it. Hell, I see the footage of the Hoyts racing or Sr. Madonna and force myself to take another look in the mirror. Those are 2 cases, but it is the idea. Good luck to all racing tomorrow!

I'd hit it.
More power to her, she lost way more than the 50lb I've lost....

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Chicks are like Voltron, the more you can get, the better it is." -Tucker

I believe that Tara has completed a number of 1/2 IM distance races - and I think she has also done a non branded IM distance race. Yes, she used to be fat and was given her slot to Kona, but she is as much a triathlete as most of us on here. I'm rooting for her!

I think this belongs in the cry like a little biatch thread...

Everybody wants the price of race entry to go down or at least not increase and they want prize purses to go up, or other changes and improvements to be made... well that costs money. Which requires WTC to act like BUSINESS. Which means drawing people other than you and I into the sport and towards the television broadcast of the event. If that takes a biggest loser contenstant getting a shot at Kona then I say whats the harm?

On top of that everyone likes to bitch about fat people, and how overweight people are in the US... Personally I think showing Americans through the coverage of NBC that someone that used to be extremely overweight can go on to complete an Ironman is a positive role model this country desperately needs.

Get over yourself... the pro's will still have an amazing race, the top age groupers will still duke it out, and a few stories of inspiration will bring up the rear. Whats the harm?

One word, Qualify!

Two more words: She's hot.

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If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
If at first you DO succeed, try to hide your astonishment!

Then be consistant, complain about the roll downs,

I wonder if she needed surgery to remove the rolls of extra skin.

The hard part now will be staying this way beyond the honeymoon period. Odds are high that within 10 years she'll be enormous again.

I don't want to seem like I am hammering you, because I think you have taken a pretty moderate and tempered position, but I just fail to see how the top age grouper race going on in the middle, and the lottery/celeb/charity race going on towards the back in any way take away from or diminish the true world championship race going on at the front. I love Kona (making food for my watch party right now), and I want it to be the most competitive and true world championship that it can be, but I just do not think that having lottery folks and media slots there in any way diminishes what is going on at the point end of the race?

Can someone try to articulate for me, calmly, why they think that having someone else on the same course, on the same day, 4 or 5 hours back, is diminishing the true race going on at the front? Is it because they are taking up camera time that "should" be spent on the fastest competitors? If you take away all of the stories that are interesting to the non-competitor public, there would be so much less media attention that the net result would probably be less camera time, even for the winners. I think the "3 races" analogy is right on, and I fail to see how having 3 races going on simultaneously in any way diminishes the world championship race going on at the front.

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The plural of anecdote is not data. :-)
- Andrew Coggan

Anyone have an update on her? As I type this, the Athlete Tracker has her last update as 5:18:00 to mile 59 on the bike (next bike check 30 miles later, but that was 4+ hours ago).

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-Mark Rebuck, http://www.markrebuck.com/

I thought she was finished with the bike at 8:31:47 and into T2.

I just talked to her and she looked great. I interviewed her yesterday and she is tough as nails. No way that girl was not going to finish. She is NOTHING like Judy Molnar or that other dude.

Kudos to her. She has a smile, is running well and is miles ahead of some very hard bodies. Unless the wheels fall off she will be in hours before the cutoff.

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infinIT Nutrition
Custom Blended Nutrition Solutions
http://www.infinITNutrition.com

Personally I don't mind celebrity slots. Seeing Tony Kanaan out there today was cool and if giving the Biggest Loser a slot makes 1 person lose weight and get in better shaped then that's cool too. I do wonder however, how the lady that missed the swim cutoff at last years race, got another slot this year? I know she's a doctor, so did she buy it on eBay or was she given it for being in the 2010 show?

I think it's great. All sports have some kind of public relations slant. She is obviously committed to health and goal achievement. Good for her.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

in talking to her beforehand there was no way she wasn't finishing. She was more nervous about the experience than not finishing.

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Owner of a few Speed Concepts since 2011.

Did gravy come out?

"Did gravy come out?"

Hey that is uncool! Come on be nice.


Yes, I did laugh.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

especially in the lottery group there are a bunch of people (not all) who DID NOT put in the work. And those people are less deserving of a spot and definitely take those spots away from AG-qualifier athletes.

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seriously dude, shut up. The lottery system is in place to honor how the race started and John Collins request when WTC took it. They did put work in, they have to complete at least a half before they toe the line. And frankly, Tara Costa's story is EXACTLY what the US needs to wake up. I had breakfast with her down here and she is an amazing, inspiration person. I suggest all ST'ers get off their bikes, shoes, pool and get involved with foundations like hers. Anyways....

BTW: to add fuel to the ST fire (because I can), I did Kona today. I was a lottery winner. I did 11:03. First IM in 3 years after "retiring". But, I have qualified for Kona before in 2003 with a 9:58 at IMC. I also did a 9:58 in 2006, and 10:09 in 2007. I've DNF'd too.

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@rhyspencer

I saw her when she got off the bike and she was happy and running off to the run. She will finish.

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

in speaking to a few people tracking her there, she should be in real soon.

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Owner of a few Speed Concepts since 2011.

Sub 14 for her first IM with all the media and self imposed pressure, Damn good job!

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Owner of a few Speed Concepts since 2011.

Tara looks pretty hot, id like to do inappropriate things to her.

Thing is, yoyo dont do thick crust...... So this presents a moral conundrum...

I have no problem with her getting the slot. But damn. She gained some weight back. If you really train for an IM and eat right you don't look like that. There are two things that make people healthy. Eating right (diet) and exercise. Just doing one is not really setting a good example. I think she could go faster.

Not to nitpick, but you need to ponder the phrase healthy. Being healthy is basically 95% genetics and 5% diet and exercise. It doesn't matter how fit or fast you are, you can have dangerously high blood pressure or heart troubles or defects or this or that. Conversely, if you have good genetics you can eat like crap and be outrageously fast.

Of course she could go faster. Her aerobic base consists of doing what it takes to lose some weight. But as is the entire topic of this thread, she's not RACING. She did the event because it's a bucket list thing.