Is the Ironman sell out craze a function of the babyboom generation? Does the AG growth in Ironman correspond to the Baby boom generation?
Wondering if in 5-10yrs as those folks age through will Ironman enrollment decrease.
As one at the backend of the baby boomers. I have followed lots of the shrinking markets they leave behind.
Just wondering.
Baby echo will take over.
I would say yes. Looking at IMC for example M 25-29 has actually shrunk 25% over the past 5 years while M40-44 has grown by 80% and now M40-44 is over 400% larger then M25-29.
Looking over the past 10 years at IMC M25-29 is down from 220 to 90 participants while M40-44 is up from around 200 to 400.
If I were the owner of IMNA, I would sell the operation before your target market gets to old.
So how long before the KIDS of those 40-44’s start racing? Waves…
So how long before the KIDS of those 40-44’s start racing? Waves…
Given what I can see of these children, of whom there are much less of, they have generally little to no interest in athletics, just look at participation in high school track.
Society is changing and children today are less active and I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon.
One other point about IM is, for the most part, it is not a very healthy activity, it goes beyond healthy and farther towards destructive, this will eventually become evident. This comes from someone who has done 10 IM, and who loves working out 20 hours per week.
Hate to break it to you, but true Baby Boomers are currently between the ages of about 50 and 62 (born from 1945 to approx 1958).
Hate to break it to you, but true Baby Boomers are currently between the ages of about 50 and 62 (born from 1945 to approx 1958).
I assume this meant for pokey and not me, as I did not put ages in mine.
But yes, as I am 40 born in '67 I come through as things are failing. The boomers stretch things, companies grow, then start to struggle as the boomers move on and typically fail or collapse about the time my AG arrives.
If truely the 40-45 AG has seen the bigger growth of late then this is the post boomer generation and it caused by another effect not just an increase in the population.
Here is an interesting chart, Its 7yrs old so slide the ages up now. but still interesting.
From : http://ceic.mt.gov/C2000/SF12000/Pyramid/pptab00.htm
And from wiki
is a person born between 1946 and 1964 in Australia, Canada or the United States. Following World War II, the United States experienced an unusual spike in birth rates, a phenomenon commonly known as the baby boom. The term is iconic and more properly capitalized as Baby Boomers. The terms “baby boomer” and “baby boom” along with others (e.g. “boomies” or “boomers”) are also used in countries with demographics that did not mirror the sustained growth in American families over the same interval.
Which still puts me on the constriction side. but does put some of them in the 40-45 AG
I had thought the same thing as you, but I’ve been seeing more <30 year-old participants at local tris in the past couple of years. What I think might happen to IM is what has happened with marathons – the median finishing times will continue to get slower as it becomes more about completion and less about competition.
You just burst my bubble, I keep trying to tell myself I am not of the baby boomers, but born in 62 seals the deal.
LOL. I thought this would have something to do w/ a ton of kids born to IM triathletes 9-10 months after IM. Gotta do something w/ all that newfound time and energy… Hell, that was our plan, but my wife is back in school, so we’ll see.
FWIW, our daughter was born 11 months after I came home from Afghanistan (30 days leave…). I wonder if we’ll see a birth spike post troop withdrawal?
**misspelling corrected
Sliding the scale up 7 years only works if no one died. I hate to be the one to tell you this but we are a dying breed by definition (if you are alive today, then you will die in the future, and it may not be that far away as you might think). Tim
LOL. I thought this would have something to do w/ a ton of kids born to IM triathletes 9-10 months after IM. Gotta do something w/ all that newfound time and energy… Hell, that was our plan, but my wife is back in school, so we’ll see.
FWIW, our daughter was born 11 months after I came home from Afghanistan (30 days leave…). I wonder if we’ll see a birth spike post troop withdrawal?
**misspelling corrected
Are we closing the 700+ bases we have outside our country? That would be a troop withdrawal.
Yes but the US census is only every 10 yrs and I did not feel like redoing the graph based on death rates, so Slide it by 7 yrs to see aproximately the curve. Of course it was not even correct in 2000 cause it was based on the census which is an estimator, at best.
I agree with Pokey. I was born in '64, so at the tail end of the Baby Boomers, and just started triathlon 3 years ago, and nearly every race I do, the 40-44 men is the largest age group in the race.
It’s not baby-boomer insofaras it is more “mid life crisis” syndrome! 
I have to wonder. Scuba diving was the in thing in the 70/80’s and once the boomers dropped out the younger generations haven’t picked up the slack. Same thing might happen with tri.
I see two older women with sagging boobs, back to back.
Wait, this was not a Rorschach Test ?