I PM'd ya, (if you care).

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

The first time I qualified for Kona I had the following disadvantages:
1) $800 aluminum bike, with cheap (heavy) aero bars, completely random fit
2) Bad training strategy- it contained no recovery periods, no intensity or intervals. It was 100% long slow training.
3) No thought given to nutrition. (Except that I should eat something)
4) Bad race pacing- I swam hard, I rode hard and I started out running hard. After a mental and physical breakdown at mile 18 of the run- I zombie stumbled towards the finish.
5) Below average (for KQ) running talent.
6) No power or heart rate data.
7) Poor running form
8) No bike racing knowledge or experience

So what did I do right?
1) Was a competitive swimmer growing up
2) I had many, many 100+ mile rides and 22+ mile runs under my belt.
3) I had suffered mental and physical breakdowns in practice. I was prepared to carry on in the race.

What is my point.....
A little talent and a lot of work will get you to Kona.

There is nothing wrong with legacy, executive, sponsor or charity participation in Kona.
There is nothing wrong with going on a triathlon vacation to Hawaii.

But sorry, "participation" is not "competition."

I don't see why a bunch of triathlon tourists (some watching, some participating) have much affect on triathlon competitors.

Sure they take up a few spots on the peer.
But they are just pretending to be Kona athletes.

Train hard, train and race smart- you might actually get to be the thing that these others are pretending to be.

A competitor.

To the 99.999% of NYTimes readers who haven't given a thought to triathlon, this story is indeed a story.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I have qualifed for Kona 3 times out of 31 IM's. So yeah, Ebay would be waaaay cheaper for me. I'm pretty well at the pace of the legacy guys, but I never had that option.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Well, WTC likes to portray the image that everybody racing their "world championship" qualified the hard way....

As this article may not be "news", or "old news" to the WTC addicts or sponsors here on this forum, I am pretty sure there are plenty of 'sportsfans' out there who are not aware that their celebrity of choice did not qualify by time.

I am sure there are some athletes, who would like to obfuscate that fact....

Disclaimer: I did this race back in the 80's and thought it was a neat little race at a cool location. I would never claim to have raced a "world championship" of some sorts.