I very much enjoyed your post and miss the mass start at IMFL. No one can deny that there was something special about that mass start. See for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwYwUPVPLnM
People like to knock IMFL, but what domestic Ironman can match that swim?

Wales and Lanzarote are both on my bucket list. There is so much more to a hard race than the manner of the swim start ... that's about as trivial as you can get.

Not sure if I should have put that in pink.. did Wales in 2016 and loved it, despite the lumpiness of the course:)

Mass starts actually produce faster swim times for the average AGer in confined narrow swim venues lakes/harbors. There is a continuous draft stretching for miles - lots of extra pull for an average swimmer like yours truly.

While I do find it sad that harder courses like St George, Los Cabos, Lake Tahoe could not get enough entries to sustain themselves as full course, I get it that WTC is a commercial enterprise... and they are striving to deliver the best rounded mass market product they can... all good.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

I was in that race! Awesome conditions all day long! Can you pick me out of the group before the start? I was wearing a black wetsuit and green swim cap.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I knew exactly what you meant. I've watched every year's edition on youtube (Ironman Europe TV). Plus, I've been all over the UK, but not to Wales.

Looks similar to when I did IMFL in 2008. I also did IMFL in 2014. For the latter, I would say that just about any domestic Ironman could top Florida's 2014 non-swim.

LOL ranting that 70.3 finishers are celebrating my getting an M-dot tattoo I think sums up your rant. Who wants an M-dot tattoo anyway and who cares if they do??? What if they have done two 70.3s??? Are they inferior to your elite M-dot club???

I don’t have a tattoo and don’t want one. 3X Ironman and in many ways, I don’t even care to talk about it much.

I think it helps that my penis is above average statistically and it’s fabulous. I don’t need the extra emphasis on other things.

We have got a situation in Western Australia with 5 triathlon swim cancellations in one year, 3 because of sharks, 2 because of bad weather. The bad weather, was a ridiculous call, it was slightly choppy, there was a surf-lifesaving comp just round the corner with 9 year olds swimming... the shark sightings is a bit more contentious I guess. My thoughts are they should:

- ascertain size and type of shark
- ascertain directions it's travelling, very few hang around and are just passing through
- chase it out to sea
- tranqulise it
- change the swim course
- wait it out

But on the 3 occasions the swim was simply cancelled, the sharks weren't particularity large or that close. I felt the RDs panicked. Contrast that to the Rottnest channel swim, a 20km OWS from land to Rottnest island. A 4m Great White swam under a competitor, the RD pulled out only the people in the close vicinity and allowed everyone else to finish.

It's that kind of shit that pisses me off, playing to the lowest common denominator, especially with the weather cancellations. If you're going to struggle because of a little bit of chop then you shouldn't really be there. I have no problem with crappy swimmers wanting to do triathlon, but I do when it results in swim cancellations. I do 10 triathlons this season, 5 of which ended up being duathlons.... I hate duathlons.

Hopefully, that year will be the exception. But I would freak if a great white swam under me!

Yeah that guy actually finished the race, I'd be out that fucking water so fast! I'm OK with sharks, but not 4m Great Whites! I'll see if I can track down the photo of it's dorsal fin, it's huge.

 

Every time you are in the ocean you are sharing it with sharks. Ironman Cairns swim is in an area frequented by large sharks and crocodiles. Of course, you won't see them because the water is brown, and the swim won't be cancelled due to their presence. Out of sight out of mind.

IM is essentially an ITT from start to finish. Why begin with a kicking and punching match? Which BTW still happens even with a rolling start. Why make it worse?

The swim start is, after the finish, my favorite and most exiting part. But, I am a strong swimmer, sub 1hr in IM and used to do sub 1 min in 100 m freestyle. If the changes in the swim start makes it safer and more attractive to others, so be it. After all, triathlons, no matter the distance, is just a hobby for those who are not pros.

Yes, the world's going to hell. Apparently. It must be awful for you.

Another self absorbed fellow who shares that weird obsession with IM tattoos it seems.....

If you think the "right" to get a tattoo is a significant reason to do IM then I think your perspective is rather warped to begin with. I do IM for me. Relatively few people I know would even be aware of that and fewer care.
I don't care what arbitrary time cut-off has been chosen to determine the last person to be awarded an imaginary title by the organisers. I'm not terribly fast myself but I'm nowhere near missing any of the cutoffs. However, I have plenty respect for anyone who guts out a 15, 16, 17 or 18 hour IM.

Let me point out a huge logical inconsistency in your way of thinking if I may:

IM is composed of completely arbitrary distances. They were chosen by RDs. IM and triathlon itself is a very young sport and there's no fundamental reason that the distances, times or anything else should be set in stone. There is no objective right and wrong. Why then do you have a problem with these races being refined over time to make them safer and more approachable so long as the opportunity is still afforded to you to thoroughly challenge yourself on a long distance triathlon?

You ridicule the changing of courses to make them easier, or someone thinking they're an ironman if they took more than 17hrs. Do you really not understand that this is all just made up? There is no objective absolute truth in the 2.4/112/26.2 distances in under 17hrs from a mass start. If you didn't get that and decided to brand yourself with a company logo because you thought it meant something fundamental and held a protected status, it's no-one else's fault.

Well first of all I don't have an MDOT Tattoo and would never get one, so wrong assumption there. And the thoughts you have expressed are precisely what I was referring to in my post. Maybe some things need to be earned and not given, or bastardized to the point that anyone can "achieve" them. Based on what you said lets just give people participation medals when they show up. Anyways, its a moot point because as triathlon participation starts to decline and races start to lose money then RDs will need to find ways to increase participation numbers in any way possible. We have only begun to see how much IM will be "watered down" as the OP wrote.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

Curious: why would you never get an MDOT Tattoo, but present a sig line like yours? It's just a matter of scale, isn't it?

Because IM is so watered down now. duh....

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Nope, you're still not making sense.
What's being given? What should be earned?

Why do you feel so threatened by what other people do?

How does it effect you that someone else takes 17hrs+ and is proud of themselves?
It seems quite clear to me that your entire point is driven by your ego and you don't even see how irrelevant it is to those who race because they enjoy it and get satisfaction from their own efforts, not as a deluded ego boost derived from dominating others.

Why would anyone want a participation medal for turning up? And how did you see that as a logical conclusion to anything I said? A fair part of my point is that for most it's not about the medal at all. I personally couldn't care less if there's medals provided. Actually that's not true, I'd prefer if there weren't - unnecessary cost and waste.

Who knew?! And all this time, I naively believed that the distances were neither set by a RD nor were they arbitrary. I mistakenly understood the challenge to have been established by the original competitors themselves based on existing events; namely the Oahu Roughwater swim, the around Oahu bike race, and the Honolulu Marathon. But one thing I do know is that after 40 years those distances ARE set in stone. It's not an accident that even independent race producers seeking to put on a "full distance" triathlon use the Ironman distances. It's not an accident that even the Xtreme triathlons like Norseman, Celtman, Swissman, etc., use that same distance. And it's also a fact that Ironman owns the distance as a world championship. ITU sued twice over the issue and lost twice. Those distances are not just set in stone, they are carved deep into granite.

Other than that, I get the crux of your argument.

I don't agree with all the things folks are saying about being tough on participants, but you do have to keep it to a level that a normally fit person can't do it without solid training.

From a cyclist point of view, the cutoff time for the bike is pretty ridiculously generous.

I live in Raleigh, and if you can't bike that route over 15mph avg........jeesh. That would still leave you 3 1/2 hours to do the run.

Pretty sure the time cutoff to Marion for AOMM is tougher than an IM bike leg time cutoff to achieve. I'd have to check, but it isn't peanuts.

OH F*CK THAT!

I did a swim in my hometown in a deep dead end channel where I know there are HUGE alligators and the water is like coffee...I think I PRed that swim. They paddle boarded people around making sure there were no gators, but lets be real haha

I can't believe the guy is complaining about rolling swim starts watering things down when I'd say the over-reliance on wetsuits does much worse.

The current upper temperatures that allow wetsuits are entirely too warm for them to be needed for any reason other than 'free speed'. Not to mention that whenever the temperature is on the fence, multiple readings are taken so that a lower, wetsuit legal temperature can be obtained.

As a strong swimmer, I'd say that's probably my biggest gripe with the swim leg of triathlons (since it's already the shortest w/o wetsuit).
However, as a triathlete, I couldn't care less if someone gets a free minute or two for using a wetsuit. Doesn't affect me one way or the other...unless they take my Kona slot