I got into the sport around 2006, started with Ironman in 2009. At that point in time it seemed doing 2 Ironman races in a year was a big deal, even at the pro level of B and C pro athletes.
Fast forward to 2018 and it seems 2 Ironman races is becoming more the norm and now doing 3 or 4 is not that uncommon. Especially for the B and C pros that seem to do multiple Ironman races each year.
Yes we have more Ironman racing options now, social media displays more of what is going on outside of our local community, etc. But it still seems that people race more and potentially do not allow their body to recover enough, respect the demand of the distance/event enough, etc.
A trend I have also seen in the past few years is the lack of development over the distance. It seems their is somewhat of a shift to race Ironman more and more and see how well you can do, then really invest into one maybe 2 Ironamns a year and give it your absolute best while feeding your desire to race with short course races.
This year it appears more athletes are injured, racing injured, pushing through races and getting injured, burned out, getting sick, etc. Heck about 2 weeks ago the first page on this forum was basically a triage of injuries. The narrative on social media with injuries is interesting as well. Angela Naeth posted about racing through an injury and the commentary was more or less "great display of bravery, etc". Same with Holly Lawrence after Oceanside "Great job pushing through the pain (injury) to finish."
But the pressure to race and race more is more prominent then before. Ironman's marketing; social media, email campaigns, etc are all geared rtf racing more, getting that second chance race right away etc. Since they are trying to increase revenues and do not necessarily care about athlete longevity, are they going to burn out their athlete base?
We all know the 18-34 demographic is lagging, as that demographic shifts older will they get into the sport?
What about the athletes that have been doing Ironman for 5-10 years will they continue or find other ways to feed their competitive itch?
Fast forward to 2018 and it seems 2 Ironman races is becoming more the norm and now doing 3 or 4 is not that uncommon. Especially for the B and C pros that seem to do multiple Ironman races each year.
Yes we have more Ironman racing options now, social media displays more of what is going on outside of our local community, etc. But it still seems that people race more and potentially do not allow their body to recover enough, respect the demand of the distance/event enough, etc.
A trend I have also seen in the past few years is the lack of development over the distance. It seems their is somewhat of a shift to race Ironman more and more and see how well you can do, then really invest into one maybe 2 Ironamns a year and give it your absolute best while feeding your desire to race with short course races.
This year it appears more athletes are injured, racing injured, pushing through races and getting injured, burned out, getting sick, etc. Heck about 2 weeks ago the first page on this forum was basically a triage of injuries. The narrative on social media with injuries is interesting as well. Angela Naeth posted about racing through an injury and the commentary was more or less "great display of bravery, etc". Same with Holly Lawrence after Oceanside "Great job pushing through the pain (injury) to finish."
But the pressure to race and race more is more prominent then before. Ironman's marketing; social media, email campaigns, etc are all geared rtf racing more, getting that second chance race right away etc. Since they are trying to increase revenues and do not necessarily care about athlete longevity, are they going to burn out their athlete base?
We all know the 18-34 demographic is lagging, as that demographic shifts older will they get into the sport?
What about the athletes that have been doing Ironman for 5-10 years will they continue or find other ways to feed their competitive itch?