Translation: "I was so scary awesome I could KQ and not take it seriously. I drink beer!"

Who was the douche at Kona again?

Kona is the only thing in the sport that gets any attention from the media (besides triathletes dying in the swim). Maybe we should embrace the Kona spectacle instead of trashing the only event that anyone outside the sport is even remotely aware of. I know we all want to see IM Boise covered on Sports Center, but that ain't happening.

Challenge Roth and Norseman, just to name two.

What media picks up Kona coverage besides any media that is paid for by WTC (NBC telecast) or triathlon related media? I've only seen ESPN or NYT write about the sport when they as you mention talk about swim deaths. I've never seen Kona results covered by ESPN (and I check espy daily).
ETA: Was told espn has a few articles from Kona..so you are right there.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I more or less agree with OP 100%

That said I'm nowhere near fast enough to go anyways. But if I'm taking a trip to Hawaii, it is to surf and the only question there is north or south shore. Couldn't imagine a less interesting place to host a world championship. What were the active lava flows booked that weekend?

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//Noob triathlete//bike commuter//ex-swimmer//slower than you

My first thoughts were "Geez, this guy is a Negative Nelly...who pissed in his Cheerios?" Then I kept reading as if Pubes could not be contained and he finally broke through and took over the kileyay persona, unfortunate. Then I kept reading..."Hey, this guy is actually NAILING it and that is exactly how it is, exactly the same reasons I stopped a few years ago." Read more...okay, this is getting funny now and taking a turn towards entertainment, especially when the Gerlach comment hit. By the end, there were some pointed sticks that while if I were one of the named, would be a bit offended. Those athletes likely tried their best but at least, tried. In the end, it was a well written bit with a tad of sarcasm and humor. An entertaining overall take of what you watched and experienced.

Looks like you got a stick up your ass.

Seriously though. I went to Kona as a celebration and had fun dude. I was pretty much saying it would have been a drag to take it seriously as a podium contender.

To each their own I guess. I for one had a damn good time and had a few good VERY low pressure races out of it.

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New Training/Racing Log - http://www.earthdaykid.com/blog --- Old Training/Racing Log - http://colinlaughery.blogspot.com

Hmmmm....I was 2 minutes off my IM PB at Kona 2015 and ran 3:30. This year, a little slower, but under 4 hours on the marathon. Is Kona hard? Yes. For people who live in Maryland(or somewhere thereabouts if random memory stands correct?) it will be harder. That doesn't make it insane or irrelevant. It is race-able for many, and it is enjoyable! If I had to walk 15 miles....I can see where a lot of your emotion about this race originates. I know you are an amazing athlete and I can imagine a little of what that felt like!

The fact that pros and amateurs alike can blow up on this course is part of why it feels so amazing when you get it right. (Or as close to right as an IM ever gets.) And what I mean by right is performing to the best of one's ability. 10:01 is small change in the Kona world, but it was the very best I could do...with a lot of training and work on race day to achieve it. Did it feel more or less significant than any other IM I've done? No.

But Kona is also a lot of fun. That stark landscape the OP derides is beautiful to me. Looking at many of the mainland US IM courses...I'd take this any day over riding around the suburbs of Houston etc etc. (I have never raced in any other US IM) As for drafting, I did lose 5-10 minutes plus too to having to sit up and avoid drafting penalties. More frustrating was that all the guys I had to sit up for passed me on the way out to Hawi...and then I passed them back on the way into town. That's life for MOST people in an IM...KQ'ers and people such as the OP are just spoiled in that they are almost always riding at the front of the pack and don't have to deal with these issues. But this is not a Kona thing; it's an IM thing.

Is it a money grab? Sure! Do I understand friends who want to sign-up for IM events but not Challenge full distance races because of "Kona?" Yes, if they are fast...no MOP'ers and BOP'ers.

This year my friend KQ'd and elected not to take his slot for 2018. Instead, he traveled with me and 9 other athletes from Taiwan who all know each other and many of us train together. Did we have an awesome week as friends, athletes and Kona participants? YES WE DID! The event is bigger than the race. Sure the expo is part of it...but so is volcano national park, waipio valley, the little out of the way places we found to eat and explore. Hawaii is quite a nice place for family and a nice change for me. There is also the joy of traveling to a familiar place and discovering small changes---just as interesting to me as traveling to new places too. I love both.

For the pros....it is what it is...race day. Perform or shut up. And yes, the conditions are far from ideal for many athletes who could do better on cooler courses, or courses with wetsuit swims, or flatter courses, or hillier courses. This is the course that came to embody the initial dream of Ironman...swim bike and run and see who goes fastest.

Kona is hype. It is marketing. But at it's core...it is what you choose to make it. I choose not to limit it to what others define it as. And that's the beauty of life.

Oh man. Guy could not be more wrong about his interpretation of you and what you said, Colin. Great to have a reminder that this is ST after all, where most people have no clue what they are talking about.

On that note, it's a perfect time for me to get away from this forum. Don't let the door hit me on my way out....

A quick search shows that the first time someone mentioned Foucault on this board was 2004, the most recent was in 2014.

While not expressly mentioned, the idea of coaches creating dependency in athletes rather than helping them become robust practitioners of the sport comes up reasonably often.

Bockel now lives out of a van?! :O

he is the star of sufferfest Chrysallis!

nice post.

I just train - a lot - for fun. Race rarely, almost always locally, on a day that works for my family. Not in this to beat others or to prove how cool I am. Just want to have fun and challenge myself. My family and my work (medicine) are way more important.

Enjoy your journey, wherever it takes you.

Challenge Roth, Challenge Wanaka. I haven't been to Roth, but I did Wanaka in 2012 and it is Amazing. and Hard.

Canuck1 - I think you've hit the proverbial nail here. I swam and played tennis growing up so I dreamed of the Oly in swimming and Wimbledon in tennis, since this tournament has always been thought of as the premier tennis event in the world. Using Wimbledon as an example is very apropos b/c the exact same arguments could be made about it favoring certain types of athletes, e.g. "the Wimbledon courts are grass which favor the big power serve and volley players. This is discriminating against all of us clay court players who are great at playing from the baseline. I'll never win Wimbledon and it's not fair." Prior to reading your post, i had not thought of this analogy but it is perfect. Thanks.

Just as a sidebar, I quit tennis in my mid-20s and returned to swimming and triathlon. Tennis was just too hard, the mental side of it just wore me down. Swimming and tri are hard but mainly from an exertion standpoint, not a nerves standpoint which goes on throughout a tennis match and only gets worse at the end.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Or they never make it to Senior Nationals or the Oly Trials and feel like they've failed and are not a very good swimmer, until they take up tri and realize that they're faster than 99% of tri swimmers. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I don't think you have to do long course tri, or even tri at all, to become addicted to your daily workout. An hour or so of swimming, running, or cycling, done every day for several years can become very addictive over time.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Except here is where the Wimbledon analogue fails......Wimbledon as great as it is, is accepted as it is because pros have 3 other chances to win "majors". So while Wimbledon may be the "big one", there is a a big on in France on another surface, and there is a "major" for the Americans to win, etc. So in reality tennis has 4 "world championships", and your arguing slight semantics at that point of which one is more important. Where as Kona is the only one you get and it's setup is limiting. So everyone has to go for Kona because it's the only big one, even if you know going in you'll always suck because the setup isn't to your liking. Just like the pros who play all 4 majors simply knowing that getting to a quarterfinal at a grass court when your playing style sucks on grass is a great accomplishment and then you can use that mo' when the major goes to your "advantage".

So Canuck talking about Wimbledon not moving to Brazil....it doesn't need to move to Brazil, because the sport realizes that each major has it's own set of unique circumstances and advantages, and that with the 4 majors, everyone can basically play to their strength. That doesn't happen with Kona. But pros show up anyway because it's the epicenter and their sponsors demand they do it, and even if they know going in your going in with longer odds, but you do it because it's your profession.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

.......this race is branded and marketed as the end all be all, the beginning and the end of all things triathlon, and despite being awful in every sense as a participatory event, the motifs of tradition and history -- IRON WAR! TOO MUCH GLOOOO -- and a carefully managed brand presentation are apparently intoxicating enough that this race has been called "more than a triathlon; it is triathlon.

Excellent point, QFT.

Scott

good post well written and thought provoking.

On commercialization, yeah so what? Are you somehow shocked vendors want to separate you from your money? Been to a car dealership lately? Wake up and smell the (expensive "designer") coffee. I'll admit I bought an $11 spare tube which it turns out I didn't need. I'll get over it.

It seems every sport has it's Kona. Ask hard core Mt. Climbers about Everest. They'll go on and on about that's not really Mt. Climbing. But, if you gave one of the whiners a chance - they'd jump on it. We got it way easier as far as getting to the mountain (aka Kona). And, our odds of death are even a tad better.

Go. Or, don't go. In the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter to anyone else. If it doesn't matter to you; that's cool, I promise there are plenty of people behind you who do care. Should they? As long as they...

Enjoy the journey

[because while a Hawaii vacation is great and all that, 13:05 of torture ain't, and, the only difference between 8:01 and my time is a little more than 5 hours LESS torture]

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

I don't know how some of the people on my strava feed afford to live when they were training 25-30 hours in the lead up to Kona.

It's funny how we are so horrified by blood/facial injuries. 20 seasons of rugby I've broken a lot of bones and had a lot of stitches, anything facial e.g a broken nose, a couple of stitches usually elicits immediate attention/sympathy etc from medics/friends/family anything else is meh.. my wife was in tears because I had a cut above my eye that needed 7 stitches, I was back playing in 1 week, but she was quite disinterested when I dislocated my AC joint which needed 2 surgeries, a screw and an anchor and kept me off sport for 6 months...

^ This is spot on.

A major played on clay - every time - doesn't prove who the best tennis player is. It proves who the best clay court player is...........and that guy rarely wins on grass.........or hard courts.

Ask any golfer which major is the "world championship"......and you'll get at least 3 different answers (I'm not sure how many would answer 'PGA'....though I could make an argument for that one, also). None of them would be wrong.

I know what it feels like to walk 26 of the 26.2 miles of that marathon course. I did it in 2003 after getting what was then a lottery spot. Third Ironman, and I went into it carrying an injury from my validation event 8 weeks prior, and a lot of extra weight from having life back - Beer, burgers etc. Weighed in at 225lbs at check in.

I was out of the swim quickly as usual, sufferered like a dog on the bike leading to a total blow up around 87 miles in. The run. I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Took me 7.5 hours and I limped home in 16:41. Medal achieved, t-shirt obtained, but like you allude to, no huge sense of life changing achievement. It was a physically and mentally miserable experience.

100% agree it isn’t the place to go and have a good race at. The draw for the pros is the prize purse and the kudos of being world champ, but for us age groupers it is a very very expensive trip to be a nobody in a field of nobodies.

Having said all that, if I ever did hit a KQ time I would probably take it. I feel I guess similarly to those who go and fail year in year out in that I have unfinished business there. I feel for myself however I am just not talented enough (or perhaps bothered enough) to get back there. I don’t live the tri life 365 days a year, I like Beer, pizza, curry, lie ins. If I never go back that is fine by me, but if I had the chance I’d likely be on the plane. Maybe it is that kind of sick love of suffering for no reason that draws us all to Ironman.

How many have ever qualified but not claimed the slot

I guess you've not heard of Roth.

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29 years and counting

But it’s so subjective isn’t it. I did Roth two years back and wasn’t blown away. The swim is the swim, bike was pretty scenic and it was a drag strip which is fun. The run I thought was pretty terrible. Up and down a dusty riverside path to start, stumbling through a forest to finish. I wouldn’t hurry back. Other than the one crazy hill with all the people, wasn’t any better supported than any other Ironman race I’ve done.