Just winners get lifetime, but back in 1994, when Dave Scott was making his first comeback, he had to qualify. He had a bad race at Gulf Coast in Florida during the first week of May (some equipment related thing if I recall, and bad positioning causing cramps), and had to wait till later in the season to qualify. That is the year, he finished 2nd to Welch. Here's the full story on the man from xtri.com:

IRONMAN HAWAII 5 OCT-1996 00:53:16 04:49:55 02:45:20 08:28:31 IRONMAN HAWAII 2 OCT-1994 00:51:48 04:39:16 02:53:28 08:24:32 IRONMAN HAWAII 2 OCT-1989 00:51:16 04:37:53 02:41:03 08:10:13 IRONMAN JAPAN 1 JAN-1989 00:48:25 04:27:31 02:45:36 08:01:32 IRONMAN HAWAII 1 OCT-1987 00:50:57 04:53:48 02:49:26 08:34:13 IRONMAN HAWAII 1 OCT-1986 00:50:53 04:48:32 02:49:11 08:28:37 IRONMAN JAPAN 1 JAN-1985 08:39:56 IRONMAN HAWAII 1 OCT-1984 00:50:21 05:10:59 02:53:00 08:54:20 IRONMAN HAWAII 1 OCT-1983 00:50:52 05:10:48 03:04:16 09:05:57 IRONMAN HAWAII 1 OCT-1982 00:50:52 05:10:16 03:07:15 09:08:23 IRONMAN HAWAII 2 FEB-1982 00:58:39 05:17:16 03:21:02 09:36:57 IRONMAN HAWAII 1 OCT-1980 00:51:00 05:03:00 03:30:33 09:24:33

I could be wrong - but I think the winner gets lifetime exemption, and top 15 from get in for the next season. AG winners are welcomed back the next year as well.

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Mike Ricci
2017 USAT World Team Coach
USAT National Coach of the Year
Coaching Triathletes since 1992.

Yes- You win Kona, you can race in Kona for the rest of your life. Karen Smyers mentioned to me that she is glad she won in Kona, so she did not have to go to other races and qualify. Z

Mike,

Sure it's Mister Lessing -- has all the hallmarks of his excellent other-side-of-the-pond wit! Have to say that I miss the guy but I get updates via Monsy so that's enough for me. Some day (when I am fit again, sigh...) I hope to get a chance to line up with Peter and Simon -- that would be a fun day.

g

Simon,



Some of us belong to the club that believes you can win any race you start. Some of that club will be in Kona next week! Hope you have a great race :-)

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

hmmm....it's really early in Portugal...how come you're up already?

Gordo,

What shape are you in these days? Is the bike collecting dust? Maintaining the swim training at all?

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Adrian in Vancouver

g.,

Well I did notice the wit - so if its Mr. Lessing, he gets my apologies. I thought is was some wise-*ss -

I hope you are doing well g and I look forward to seeing you out in Hawaii.

MR

It's definitely Simon..there was an old school thread where he and MarkM were chatting back and forth and he clearly was legit.

"The fastest Ironman many talented folks do is their 'slowest'"

Nice summary. That's right up there with your line on bike fitness in the context of an IM triathlon - it's like a nuclear arsenal, it's best NOT used on race day!

Wish that I was going to Kona this year to watch. It will be very exciting. My sense is that it's wide open this year - but we say this every year. There is no way that anyone will be able to do what Norman did last year. Everyone will be watching everyone else. My sense is that it will be back to the strong runner who is in the best position at the end of T2 and if Simon nails it, I would say that he would be very hard to beat.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I believe Jan Sibberson isn't doing hawaii.
He was waiting for pro rolldown after ironman canada and didn't get the spot so unless he got a sponser or special entry since then don't think he will be there.
Wasn't able to pull up the entry list just now to check.

Mike,

I know for sure it's Simon. He lurks often, especially when he's tapering, and posts ocassionally.

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Shawn
TORRE Consulting Services, LLC
http://www.TORREcs.com

Shawn

Thanks - I owe Mr Lessing an aplogy: I'm sorry Simon - I do wish you the best in IMH - kick butt!

Mike

Gordo said last summer Dave was still strong on the swim and run but wasn't able to ride as much as he wants. That would fit given his professional and family obligations and knowing how "bulky" proper bike training is for all.

Well you guys will get your wish Dave Scott is signed up and his race number is #280............

But it's Dave Scott from North Perth M55-59 age group looks like he qualified at Western Australia race. Hey at least theres a 50 something year old Dave in hawaii this year...

[i] I have one objective when I swim with Dave.....to lap him.
Dave has one objective when he swims with me..... not to get lapped by me. [/i]

Wow, that must be one brutal lane to try to slip into. The "storm surge" from your strokes probably toss out lighter swimmers at the end of the pool!

Training is in super-secret-mode... Actually it's improving. I was very tired after IMNZ and then chose to sell my house, relocate countries, start a new business, get married... kind of over-did-it a bit. So then I had to chill out and decide on my priorities. That took me until about August --- May/June/July/Aug, not a whole lot, single figures (hours) of running. Plenty of zeros as a racked up massive air miles.

September was a decent month for training, a couple of 100K+ run weeks and my first decent week of bike training since NZ. Monsy and Spencer are here with me in Tucscon. Managed to fit in Oro Valley Loop, Mt Lemmon/Summerhaven and Kitt Peak -- this week. Probably 500K+ of riding, didn't use the SCR once. Don't ask me why.

Not a lot of swim training. I've been time limited due to making Monica and Work my #1 priorities. So I mainly run. This has been a bit of a holiday week so I pulled out the Colnago. Really enjoyed myself. Just me and the iPOD. I'm not the most social dude, well suited to the long stuff.

What surprised me is that with just running and eating right, I am still in reasonable shape. I could probably bluff my way through a decent Half IM. Free SL...

I don't have any racing goals, haven't signed up for anything. Just trying to run consistently, be a good husband and get my new company rolling. On the training side, I want to get enough volume done so that I don't get completely crushed at Epic NZ in January. I hope that Clas will come to the South of France to visit Monica and me -- we are planning on training there in Dec.

After Epic France in June/July, I've got my business partner's 40th birthday. Then I'll take stock and decide how I want to play it. I figure that I'd need 18 mths to get back in decent shape and then I'd have 2 IMs spaced six mths apart to see what's possible. Another deep break then I'd turn 40, race AG Worlds and take it from there.

g



g

That is a tough looking face.. Got to defend home course ya know? I was gonna head over to Sommer Sports today to see if I could get my bib number and start a "GFT bib number thread" just so I wouldn't feel left out of all you studs going to Kona. Best of luck to all St'ers there!

Kona-bound-athletes..one piece of advice that I have taken from there the last two years:

Just remember when Dorothy was searching and finally found the Wizard of Oz..the Wizard wasn't as magical and wonderful as he was hyped up to be. To me, my qualifying races will always mean more to me than either Kona race...enjoy your time there and have a vacation instead of a race. Just my $.02..

I think that guy is riding a Huffy??

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Striving to have sex more than 66 times per year