Mecca does not change location.

I agree, in that I am surprised.

I don't think any World Championship should always play to a particular type of athlete; year after year. Kona may be a great race, and have lots of history, but a World Championship should allow different types of athlete to have their chance. By that I mean: sometimes have the race in a colder climate, sometimes in the southern hemisphere, sometimes on a course that is more/less hilly. And even the occasional course like Norseman.

It would be like cycling saying "Tour of Flanders is best race, it is the World Championship, always". (This is true for Belgians.) Really? What about rewarding riders who could win a race like Liege? What about rewarding riders who could win a race like Paris-Roubaix? What about rewarding riders who could win a race like Lombardy?

---

2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)

Some things should remain in place. Kona just has this extra added mystique to it like no other, and I believe the poll results reflect that.

Putting the poll up several days after Kona likely influences the voting. Those who don't have the Kona love are likely paying less attention to ST at this time of the year.

^^^^^^ Anyone who's ever been understands.

This X1000.
I've been 4 times. 3 as a spectator and once as a participant. There is something very special about the location, the energy, the heat, the wind, the people, everything. If it were to move it would cease to be what it currently is. It might still be great, but it wouldn't be the same.
To those who have never been, go. You owe it to yourself to witness the full potential of our sport.

---

Gary Mc
Did I mention I did Kona

Is it the World Championship because the WTC says it is? Or is it the World Championship because it is *KONA*?

If they suddenly declared the World Championship to be at Louisville instead, would people be clamoring for a roll down to get to Kentucky? Or would people still want to go to Kona? Does anyone pay attention to whoever was the "World Champ"? Or do they pay attention to who won Kona?

In other words - what is the draw? The World Championship? Or the race itself? Personally, for me, it would be the race itself because of its intrinsic qualities, not because it happens to be the world championship.

Perhaps yet another way to put it would be to say "let's move the Boston Marathon to Austin Texas this year!"

I think Kona would and should always have the KONA luster and fame about it, but I also think that the Ironman World Championship should be moved around the world. Kind-of like Paris-Roubaix or Milan San Remo are these queen races that everyone wants to race and win because they are icons, but the World Championship varies course and location from year to year. Really it benefits the whole world by moving the World Champs around and giving the sport more exposure.

The Europeans are sleeping now. Tomorrow they will cast their vote.

---

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

A sudden surge in voting from China wouldn't be too suprising

---

--------------------------
The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

there's probably only one vote that counts and it will be coming out of China.

---

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

I don't think it should change just to cater to other athletes, as nice as it may be to race in cooler temps. I'm afraid that by that thinking we should make the swim longer to cater to the better swimmers and do a 50k trail run to cater to certain runners. As much fun as it would be to have Norseman (or any other course) as the WC, in my opinion it would take away the special nature of that race and also diminish the Kona race spirit.

The alleged Kona mystique mystifies me. It's only mystique because it's been there for quite a while.

It's not like it's the home of Ironman or triathlon. For me, the home of Ironman will always be Oahu. I mean the ridiculous distance of 112 mile bike ride is (or was, allowing for roading changes over the years) simply the distance around Oahu?

Lots of endurance tri races back in the day had all sorts of distances. Nothing special about 112 miles.

Why Kona has mystique really makes no sense. The race has moved islands over the years and the number of different courses over the years means there is no being bound to history or anything.

If I ever get a lottery slot as a 100 year old man, I wanna ride around Oahu. Kona? Phhhht.

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Great way to put it noofus.

For me, keeping the WC in Kona is about the history and mystique of the race, just like Boston.

---

"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

The alleged Kona mystique mystifies me. It's only mystique because it's been there for quite a while.

To some, the mystique is "alleged". To many, many more, it's very real.


The race has moved islands over the years and the number of different courses over the years means there is no being bound to history or anything.

It moved once, from Oahu to Hawaii. The course has remained essentially the same, with a few tweaks through the years. Starts and finishes in the same place. Bike turnaround still in Hawi. Lots of time is spent on the Queen K.

If I ever get a lottery slot as a 100 year old man, I wanna ride around Oahu. Kona? Phhhht.

To each their own.

The idea is NOT to cater to certain athletes, but to allow allow a wider range of great athletes to shine. Keeping the race in Kona is catering to a specific type of athlete; one that does well in extreme heat, and (sometimes) favoring cyclists who are good in the wind. It also favors people who live in the northern hemisphere. For age groupers, it heavily favors North Americans, just due to travel costs.

Also, it is easier to get people interested when you take one of the biggest events in the sport to their doorstep. People who don't know the sport aren't going to travel to a remote Pacific island just to see it. But, take it to them, maybe they'll step out and watch, then get interested.

Fundamentally, there is an opportunity to have more than 1 big event in Ironman distance racing.

---

2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)

While Kona is a pretty cool place, there are plenty of other really cool places too.

The big things for me are:

1. If the race is going to stay in an historical place, then that really needs to be Oahu.
2. If it's going to be the world champs it should move around. Spread the wealth so to speak (even the TdF is different every year).
3. Don't have the world champs in the same place as that only highlights the best athlete for that location and course. The heat and wind are specifics that eliminate a lot of people that in other climates or conditions, could kick ass.

Marathons don't always happen in .......Marathon. TdF changes courses and countries every year, mixes up hills, flats, TT, TTT etc.
As far as I'm aware, world champs in pretty much every other sport, rotate around places

Kona could still be an IM race, just like any other race. The world champs could be rotated through the other IM locations or pick a new location each year like other sports do.

If that happened, we'd really see if Kona has any mystique.

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

And just like you have Boston and New York and London and Berlin, you also have Roth and Frankfurt.

There are about 40 Ironman branded events, about 40 Challenge branded events, and probably at least that number of independently held events in the world. There's choice. You can worship in Mecca, you can worship in Rome, or you can go to the local facility.

---

'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

The Open Championship has the biggest and best field. Its played on a rotation of courses.

The U.S. Open and PGA Championship have great fields, possibly as good as The Open. They are played on a rotation of courses.


then there's little old Augusta National. its a quirky course. it generally favors a specific type of player. and there's the fact that its an invitational, which decreases the field.

but i still wanna go to the Masters. winning that makes you immortal.

Roth, Penticton, Placid ... they ain't got no Iron War.

I think that it probably advantages New Zealanders and Australians, who have direct flights and only have to cross a couple of time zones. Not bad for the Chinese either, if they ever gain prominence.

It disadvantages Germans, and when was the last time a German reached the podium?

---

'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

There are lots of impacts on all sorts of criteria.

I was thinking of people like Cameron Brown. You might not have too much of a time zone problem from NZ to Hawaii, but coming from a southern hemisphere winter to Kona makes it really really hard on the body.

I think the general consensus for southern athletes (assuming you're not training in the tropics) that you need a month in Hawaii to acclimatize

I reckon Cam would have won a couple of times at least, if it wasn't for the heat and humidity.

Me? I would have a much better chance if the IM world champs were held somewhere at -15degC. I go sooooo much better in the cold than the heat.

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

A month to acclimatize!


That's a load of crud., not to mention a lot of northern hemisphere folks don't have "great" training conditions going into Mona.

"Perhaps yet another way to put it would be to say "let's move the Boston Marathon to Austin Texas this year!""

nobody can or would move the boston marathon to austin. you could move the marathon WC designation to boston to austin. the boston marathon is a classic; it's always going to fill, whether or not it's the WC. is the same true for kona?

ironman is in a much healthier place with the 70.3 WC because it's not hamstrung by history. history can be a bitch. for good or bad, it's got a history 70.3 doesn't have. would you rather have the 70.3 move around, as it now does, or would you rather have the 70.3 WC held in the same place every year? probably depends on where that same place is.

moving the WC designation off of kona, it's not an experiment you can really afford to have go wrong on you. you place a wager and then that's it, you're all in. but when somebody in another thread whether we're all cool with 40 kona slots instead of 50 or 75 or 100 slots given out in one race, one way you get more than 40 slots out of a race to have more than 2300 starters. the only way you do that is to have the race in a place that holds a bigger field, or have the race contested in a place that can host and deliver a 2-day event.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I'm just going on the results of friends that have gone to Kona for various amounts of time ahead of the race, and their results compared with past races/expectations.

People I know, from NZ, that go for a month, tend to perform a lot better than those that show up a week or less, before the big show.

Just sayin'

---

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"