"Even more of a factor is the fact that with two kids, a wife and a career, I can't go through two IM training phases in one year and hope to remain married/employed/recognized by my children!"

You can assume I fit the above mold, Dan. I will race Florida 70.3 this year, where I will take a slot for IMLP. I will do IMLP. If I am lucky enough to have a great day and get a slot for Kona I will take it in order to realize the dream of doing that race. If I do so, it will take a heavier toll on family and job than I am willing to repeat anytime soon, if ever.

I am a United States Marine and I am an Ironman. With those experiences, I know that people are capable of far more and far deeper endeavors than the average Joe on the street THINKS they are capable of performing. But that doesn't mean that it will be a good thing to keep reaching down into that wellspring, for a whole litany of reasons; only a few of which have to do with physical capacity. Many of us are Ironmen. That doesn't make us SUPERMEN. At the end of the day, we are only men and women.

Ok more info...a little sketchy but more info.

2005 Faris Al-Sultan IMAZ 5/05 1st
2004 Norman Stadler IM Switzerland 7/25/05 2nd
2003 Peter Reid IM Germany 7/03 4th
2002 Tim Deboom
2001 Tim Deboom IM Cali 4/01
2000 Peter Reid IMC 8/00 1st
1999 Luc Van Lierde
1998 Peter Reid IM Australia 4/98
1997 Thomas Hellriegel IMAustralia 2nd 4/23/97 Roth 7/13/97 4th
1996 Luc Van Lierde Nice 09/96? Another full?

Out of the last 10 winners only 3 are confirmed that they did not race past may.

Unless I screwed up, highly possible, the 1997,2000,2003 & 2004 winners raced past may. The 1996 winner did Nice but that's merely 3/4 the full distance. However to make up for that it was in September I believe. The 1997 winner did 2 IM's with one past May.

I could not find and thus did not verify info on the prior races for the 1999 & 2002 winners. Even adding these two in and excluding Van Lierde for only doing a 3/4 full you still have 4 out of the last 10 that have raced fulls in July and Aug one with two other IM's in the same year.

I did not go back much further becasue info gets fairly scarce and out of the next 10 years 1995-1985 we only have 5 different winners.

~Matt

that's where dedication come into play.
all i have right now is training. I work sometimes, and i make enough money to buy equipment, pay my coaches and travel fees. but my main goal right now is to train.
My desire in life right now is to work out and my goal is a top3 finish in the ITU LC champs in canberra next year for my AG.

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"The aspect of sport that you learn is that you have your good times and your bad times, but you share it with great people." - George Gregan