If you think the 30-39 is hard...wait 'till you turn 40 and see how hard that it.

You get the same fast people, gain some more and all the slow people that you used to race against gave up and are drinking beer now.

Waaahhhh :)

I hear ya, but after a bunch of 3rd place AG finishes I'd kill for the 4-5 slots I see up there every race.

I don't plan on slowing down much in the next few years so I guess I'll have to wait and see if my crying will remain as loud.

---

Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

I actually got faster every year until I was 47.

This is BS. Not a single guy over 40 placed even close to the top in Nice. Why do people falsely claim that M40-44 is a great AG?

The same goes for Americans. They're not competitive in AG overall. Did anyone break top 30?

I didn't say the 40+ were faster I said:

If you think the 30-39 is hard...wait 'till you turn 40 and see how hard that it.

You get the same fast people, gain some more and all the slow people that you used to race against gave up and are drinking beer now.

And:

I actually got faster every year until I was 47.

So you have all the same people you raced against before, then some new fast ones and a lot of the slower people drop out. So the competition within the AG is harder.

If you continue to get faster and you move from a fast AG to a slow AG, how does it become tougher? The overall times are slower, which means that it will get easier for you if you get faster.

What am I missing?

The top amateur at Chattanooga this weekend was from 40-44AG, and the top 40-44 at Augusta was 7min faster than the top 35-39AG.

Maybe true in local American races but again: Americans aren't competitive in AG racing. That middle aged American men beat young Americans says more about the young ones IMO

All age groups are highly competitive. How about competing in an AG that only has 2 effing slots!
#alliwantisthatgdcoin

Shocker. Everyone thinks their AG is the most competitive, haha. I have a feeling it's all pretty relative, and this is definitely the right thread to cry about it at least!

Of course the top 1-2 guys in these AGs have a shot at being beasts. Individual race results are kinda meaningless though so quoting a recent finish won't do much to sway someone who understands a bit about numbers. And I don't know the answer to this, but to get it right you'd have to look at WC result distribution. My guess, 35-39 is faster than 40+ pretty handily.

And as for meaningless personal experience I know this much, every time I missed by one slot while 30-39 I could have jogged into that 4th-5th slot if I was 40+. Debate top end competitiveness till you're hoarse, but more slots would have made it easier for me. 3 is rough, 2 is painfully rough.

But like I said in my original cry, it's 100% on me to just win one. Still haven't put together a whole good race, even for 6th OA. Just in this thread to vent.

---

Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

All comes down to pushing yourself hard in training, putting down the best possible performance on race day hoping all along that no one faster than you shows up that day!!!

Right on. All I can do is all I can do!

---

Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

If you have 20 people in your AG and you all move from AG to AG nearly the same time.

5 really fast people
10 fast people
5 slow people

The slow people drop out. You're AG just got more competitive.

I saw a new update to my all-time favorite thread on Slowtwitch. The "Cry like a little biatch here" thread. Turned out it was just a bunch of folks discussing the relative competitiveness of different age groups. Wwwaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

Someone questioning this old geezzer

Wwwaaaahhhhh!!!

I'd love to bring this back around to my original biatchness. My #1 USA AWA AG consolation prize actually makes missing Kona by 1 slot much more frustrating than it was 2 days ago. Wahhhhh

Admittedly a toothless $$ranking$$ of course. And it's my fault for not just being faster.

---

Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

I am ranked number 1 too wahhh! at least number one for 1 more week until i drop to 50th after kona... I am the tall guy in the green sleeved kit, i took 4th 40-44 and missed out too.. wahhh! Did you negative split that run on purpose? I looked at your stava it was a thing of beauty, your hr increase steady the whole time. wow. me i went out kinda hard and then faded. i just can't help myself, in the first few miles i feel sooo good haha!

Haha company in my misery! Sorry we have to share this one...

I didn't split that way in purpose per say, but after a pretty bad bike (missed power goal by 20 watts, want to convince myself it was 2 IMs in 6 weeks but maybe I just sucked that day since plenty of people do that) I committed to "feel good through 18" for the sake of survival in that humidity.

Then at 18 I was still able to take in a lot of nutrition which is rare for me (first time with UCAN on the bike, maybe that?) so I just started building my pace to see what I could hold. My closing miles surprised me as much as it did anybody around me. Think I climbed 15ish OA spots in the last 10 or so miles.

Too little too late though and I knew it. Never really had it clicking all day. So to stay on thread theme, wahhh

---

Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

You're only an old geezer if you're older than Dan and Monty. I'm older than Dan, but not sure about Monty...

Wwwwaaaaaaahhh!

I'm sick and tired of the gad damned heat. 97F in October isn't right.

Whaaaaahhhhh!!!

I'm sick and tired of the gad damned heat. 97F in October isn't right.

---

Up yours, you jerk. We're probably going to turn on the furnace before the weekend's out. I'm not ready for the cold. waaaaaaaaaaah

---

---

---

Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Texas and New York...always at odds...over more than just one thing. lmao.

Thought all this was just a bad dream that I'd wake up from. finally realized it isn't and that I'm really not going to be racing in Kona next week...
Whaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa

Any interest if I start a "I missed by one $%*$ing spot" support group?

• Hi, my name is Tom and I've missed by one spot 3 times. It's been 4 days since my last miss."

---

Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

Only thing missing is, "Wwwwaaaaaaahhh!"