Finish top 2 of your AG, that SHOULD get you there...

From Qualification FAQs Ironman.com

How does the Age Group slot allocation work?[/url]
- Prior to race day, at least one slot shall be tentatively allocated to each Age Group category (both male and female). Please see the official Age Group category breakdown on the FAQ page.
- Final slot allocation will be determined on race day based on the number of official starters in each age group. If there are no starters in a particular Age Group, then that slot will be moved to the next calculated Age Group within the gender.
- Final Slot Allocation shall be representative of the actual number of Age Group starters in each age category in the race.
- Athletes MUST claim their slot in-person at the qualifying race during the IRONMAN World Championship Slot Allocation and Rolldown Ceremony. Please check the event schedule of events for time and location of the ceremony.

Depends on which AG and which race...and Gender. You might need to win your age group.

Finish among the top 10 amateurs and your pretty much a lock.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

What's your gender and age?

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Ironman Certified Coach

Currently accepting limited number of new athletes

Guessing you are M45-49? Depending on race, top 4-6. If you are female; that's another story

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leslie myers
http://www.foodsensenow.com

Yes 45-49. IMMT which I believe is pretty competative. The first 2 in this age cat came in 2nd and 8th in Kona

There were more slots at IMMT last year. Won't be next year. IMTX will have more; but is early season. Your best bet is to pick an IM scheduled Sept/October as all the habitual KQ'ers will be on their way to Kona

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leslie myers
http://www.foodsensenow.com

do 3-4 IM races per year for the next 4 years, enter the Legacy Program and there you go, Kona bound
or win your agegroup at any of the IM races around the world.

Ken66, just a couple of questions if I may
Q1/ have you done an IM?
Q2/ is Kona Q the major motivator for doing an IM?

Q1- First IM
Q-2 Not initially but is now. Yes I know I should do one first before aspiring to place. Im finding out that Im better at the longer distances. Did my first half this past summer and did well despite 6-8 hours/week of total training. Im planning on peaking at 20/week this year. Biking and running are by far my strengths and it seems to be a benefit to me in the longer events

What was your time on that half??

4:39. swim 34:00, bike 2:15 with 2500 feet of elevation gain, and 1:40 ish on the run. First 3 miles at 6:50-7:00 pace and felt fine then got a cramp in quad. Had to stop and stretch, walk a little then kept it at 7:40 pace. Cramp kept coming back with anything faster. Hydration and calories was good, Ate plenty. I just figures that 6-8 /week was the cause of the cramps. My longest ride and run were in that race. Which I know is a stupid mistake.

I'm not sure that helps. The field might be tad bit weaker (I don't even thing this is the case), but rolldown is pretty much inexistent as demonstrated at Mallorca and Barcelona.

Read the interview with Jason McFaul on the front page. He is a monster on the bike and run and it still took him over 20 races to qualify. Dude trains more hours than he works every week. That is the kind of commitment it takes.

/

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Gary Mc
Did I mention I did Kona

4:39 for your first half IM is very solid. Seems like you may have overbiked a bit based on the splits you posted and that there is room for improvement just based on pacing, as well as an increase in volume. M45-49 is super competitive, so there is a bit of luck involved in terms of who shows up and if they already have a slot or not. Given that outside of IM TX most races now have only 30-50 KQ slots total you probably have to shoot for top 3-5 in the AG unless you get lucky at rolldown. With that first 1/2 time my guess is you have a decent shot in the near future. Pick a race that plays to your strengths. You mentioned you are a strong bike/run guy...I assume that means swim is weaker...so maybe look at something like Chattanooga or Cozumel that have a current assist. Best of luck.

Solid cyclist, bad swim/runner?
My advice is to throw a truck load of volume at your run fitness, and show up to IMChoo ready to suffer the last 10k.

Wouldn't hurt to have a leprechaun in your run special needs.

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@christopher_borden •
Spinning Spoke • Dimond Bikes • Flo Cycling • Castelli Cycling

Yes that is not a good run, but that was not near my normal pace. I had mentioned here for the first 3 miles I was running 6:50-7:00 pace and felt fine until I got a quad cramp. Aerobic wise, I felt great. Hydration, electrolytes , and colonies were all perfect so it was not that. I assume it was my lack of training that caught up to me. My background is running and I know this will be fine. Running more than the other disciplines needs more miles ( for me anyway) to do well. On the bike someone mentioned I may have over biked. Maybe I did for my conditioning at that time, but I was feeling strong and I was riding at 70 watts off my FTP.

This. Be prepared to go into a deep, dark place of pain.

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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

Too slow, try 4:15-4:20

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age is just a number after your name

Well I guess I'll just have to go for the win then. I'll train my tail off for this one. So far I've won my age group in all my events but this is getting to the even more competative races. Can't get away with low training hours anymore. Hell I learned to swim 2 years ago so I will be faster next year in the water so , will see how it goes......

I don't think that the commitment that Jason has shown is normal by any means. He seems exceptional in his attempts and his persistance.
Most people who end up KQ'ing, and repeating, do so in their first few races.

It's also not normal to train that much to have to get there.

I am more of a believer that it's either in the cards or it's not. Try a few times, but don't let it rule everything in life.

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New Training/Racing Log - http://www.earthdaykid.com/blog --- Old Training/Racing Log - http://colinlaughery.blogspot.com

This is not my first rodeo ( competition ). Im not setting myself up for utter disappointment if I fail in my goal. Everyone is different, but I set high standards for myself to obtain high goals. If I don't, I will never make it. This is my way of doing it. I need a challenge that is hard. I need the difficult goal and this is what will drive me when I get up at 4 am in the rain to go out in the dark and run. I'm new at this sport (2 years). I could not swim 2 years ago. I am a runner trying to find his way back into it. During this time (2 years) I have found out that I am a pretty fast biker. This is what has given me success in tri's so far. I can ride at 330 watts for an hour off of 6-8 hours of total tri training so I am happy for that. Problem is, I'm 48 going on 49. I'm still learning to swim but even at my age, I am getting faster and faster as I'm still learning to swim , improving transitions, and getting the run going again. I think I will just need to triple my workload over the coming year, improve my swimming and see how it goes. If I can get the hours in and stay injury free I think I will have a breakthrough season.

I would disagree, on you either Q your first few times or not. Myself and many others i know have taken a few years. First IM 2001, one IM a year until 2007 where i finally qualified so it was my 8th IM doing one a year when I qualified. Was the first spot not to qualify two times from 2002 - 2006. Each time I learned more and improved my training and racing focus. After Q-ing it gives you a good deal of experience to repeat and I have been fortunate to requalify in both attempts subsequent to qualifying.

To the the guy posting this thread his half times seem to be on point to q in the 45-49 qualify. I would not take the cramps on the run and assume it was completely nutrition related. Cramps can be because you pushed your body racing more than it was prepared for in racing and that is why you cramped. Like others have said the last 10K is critical. You likely will be running in a dark place and quite possibly running through or fighting off cramps. Best of luck!
GS

I think so - it's really humbling to see a super hardworking guy like that (he says he put up 40 hour training weeks in Hawaii on the course in the 6 weeks prior to Kona!) still go 10+hrs on the course whereas quite a few folks on this forum train 12-15 and go 9ish.

You see it all the time posted on ST. Someone wants to know what training it takes to KQ or go a certain time for a race. The answer is if you have a lot of talent, not much. If you have above average talent a lot of work. If you have average talent or below, never. For some reason there is a common perception that the average Joe just needs to train more, want it, and anything is possible. To Colin's point it is much less common for someone to be on the talent bubble and just crank away for a very long time and get there.