You are pouring more salt in the wound with every post

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Shall I post some pictures of palm trees and dolphins?

No offense taken. I could 'ifs and buts' all day, but the only one that really matters is if I would have finished one spot higher. It has no reflection on my race, only what place I finished.

I've had mediocre races and placed higher, and I've had great results that got even less than an 'attaboy'. I finished in 10:09 for my first Ironman. I'm ok with that.

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I've got two friends that were simultaneously hurt and benefited from this type of reallocation. After the wetsuits were taken out of the mix at IMTX in 2011 a friend "lost" his slot when it was reallocated to another age group whereby another friend of mine was able to pick it up. The guy who lost the slot has done many IMs since then and never again been anywhere close to getting a slot.

Aww man...I met the young dude who took first in 18-24. It was his first IM and he wasn't sure if he was going to take it. I'm like "seriously?". I'm sure he'll have his chances over the years, but still...

agreed it sucks, but depending on one's schooling status or job, the money and time required even for a one week trip to Kona can be prohibitive. I know I couldn't afford the trip and likely couldn't plan to get the exact right time off right now even if I could magically KQ.

The flaw in their algorithm is not rewarding top 10 OA amateur male and female first before allocating additional slots.

I could go for that. I would rather see fast young guys go to Kona before fast old guys and I am racing in 50-54. The sport should be about the best overall, not best in the older age groups, even though I have a vested interest in the latter. I'd rather see a fast 20-34 year old in the race at Kona than a fast 70-85 year old and yes, I get it that it is awesome that the older gents are racing, but but imagine an NFL superbowl for 70-89 year olds (or 50-69 for that matter)?

At the AG only races in particular it just makes sense. Yeah young guy who finished top 10, you don't get to go because the 40-44 males have more time and money to train and race. Personally, I think the descent from Hawi is not safe for some older and very young age groups who may lack the strength to adequately control the bike on a very windy day.

Are his initials T.S.? :-)

Jokingly, he blames me and another guy for screwing that up for him. For whatever reason and at the last minute, we both decided to put on our sleeveless wetsuits that morning. Most people brought a wetsuit "just in case" that morning. I was literally stuffing it into my morning clothes bag, and had already put my swim skin on. My buddy just said fuck it and puts his on. He's an uber swimmer so I thought if he's wearing it so am I. So I put the sleeveless on over my swim skin. :-)

I'm certain the two of us didn't totally screw up the numbers since that year it was like 2/3 non-wetsuit, 1/3 wetsuit. But T.S. still likes to mention that from time to time.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I was just looking at the race splits. You had an awesome run, the fastest in the AG I believe. Congrats on an awesome race!

Yep. He's got to be close to a legacy slot by now though.

And how are additional slots allocated? Remember you've only got 40 of them and you've used 20 already on the overall fastest. You don't even have enough left to guarantee that every AG gets at least a single one. So, are you eliminating the every AG gets a slot requirement? If you're going to go the route where some AGs get zero slots at a race, then I would be explicit about it and have races with a pre-determined number of slots per AG. So, IMLP is effectively the M20-29 and F20-29 championship with 25 slots per and none for any of the other AGs. IMCDA is the M30-34 and F30-34 championship with 25 per and none for the other AGs, etc.... I don't think you can adopt an approach like yours that results in zero slots for some AGs and have that approach be used at all races. Because, then some AGs will get zero slots at every race and that clearly is no good.

I think he is at 12 or 13 now so he's just waiting in the legacy queue. He had to take this year off though.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

You would debit the AGs that had people in the top 10 then allocate to 0 AGs first with what remains. You can Go tell a guy/gal that got 4th OA in a race that he's not going to Kona because the slot allocation system rewards AGs with more robust participation not the best athletes in the race. Those at the the front of AG only races should be recognized/rewarded in the same way pros are in similar races. Maybe it's only top 5 or whatever.

The problem is that there are 2000 positions to fill and it is the Age Group World Championships, not the Overall Fastest World Championship. Your approach guarantees the AGs that don't include the overall fastest get underrepresented, and that is not right for the AG World Championship. Can you state with certainty that the guy who placed 10th overall is more worthy of competing in the AG World Championship than the guy who won or placed second in 50-54.

WTC's proportional representation model is right. Their math for actually determining the proportions sucks.

That comparison certainly shows how the allocation is becoming less and less proportional. With WTC's acquisition, there will no doubt be expansion elsewhere in the world, and unless there are races without slots at all, we'll go from 40-30 in 3-4 years. At that point, you might as well call it 1 per AG. (Which is almost where we are today with 70.3 Worlds.) The only issue that I have with that is that outlier AG (especially 65+) are dramatically over-represented. But, I can't think of a reasonable alternative. Age-graded performance is the only thing that comes to mind, but that really seems so artificial.

no rolldown for M30-34?

Not even one spot. Top 3 took all 3 spots.

There was at least one rolldown from 35-39 because I had to pass.

Doesn't anyone know who took it? It will make me feel better to know it found a good home.

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http://snappletriteam.com/

Is it really that common that someone top-10 OA didn't get a slot?

I would think it would be pretty rare, but 12th overall at IMChoo last year did not earn a spot. (He was 7th in M40-44)

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Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

And it would be rarer still if WTC implemented proportionate distribution of discrete entities correctly. For instance, M40-44 received 5 slots but it actually should have received 7.

Here's how a proper implementation of proportional distribution while ensuring a minimum of one would have distributed the IMCHOO slots. You can figure out the columns, but WTC slots is what happened; Optimum slots is what should have happened.

I heard the F40-44 received a reallocation slot and it was snagged by 59th place in that age group. If true, it sucks for the ladies who left early!

12th amateur or 12th overall? Big difference.