jkhayc wrote:
Absolutely not, and anybody that says "yes" is lying to themselves and to you.
I thought about this and I imagined if you rewind this back to 1982. They move the race from Oahu in February to Kona in October. They had two Ironmans the same year.
The first guys "making the race" did not do it because of any branding, BUT I THINK it was the only Ironman available. There was no prize money either. Just bragging rights on a stupidly boring course.
Now we have options that we can do a 140.6 race in a locatiton other than Kona. When they moved the original 140.6 from Oahu to Kona, there was just one race to go do. For the original guys if there was another race made at the same time say in Penticton, or Roth, would they rather go there....it turns out that by the time those options came up, they were part of the same "series" a few years later and the Kona race was the "original". So that entire road to Kona pull was already happening by 1985. When I did my first half Ironman in 1986, they had Kona slots back when you could do general registration up to around June. After that, you have to "qualify". I almost died in that first half IM from effort (I was just 20) and declined the rolldown. 1991, in Penticton I did my first full Ironman, and felt exactly as bad as after my first half and declined the roll down.
Wildflower 1996, I missed a slot by 8 seconds. Finally 2006 after 15 years of trying since my first Ironman I got a slot in Lake Placid...did Kona that fall...enjoyed it for the competition. 2007, got in on rolldown, but let it roll. After that I tried something like 20 times and only got slots 2 more times. Looking back at it, I was certainly not trying because I loved the course. I enjoyed race week in Kona and racing some of the top athletes in the world...the course....without the championship race, I would not be drawn to it.
Lake Placid, Nice, Roth, Whistler, South Africa, Tremblant, Penticton....I am drawn to those courses. Kona....any other course on the island would be interesting other than the Queen K centric course.