did anybody here race in the collegiate division at ironman WI this year? When does it fill up?i am thinking that I might use my status as a college student to get past needing to pick a race 1 yr in advance.
on a related note, I’ve heard some people say that competing at this distance at too young an age isn’t smart. Why is that? I’ll be 22 at the time. would any of you advise against it? thanks
Well, i also looked into this (im 20), i dont think its “bad” to do an Ironman at that age but it is not good for your joints\knees to train that much for running, biking etc. But when you look at it how old was lance when he won worlds, how old is ian thorpe, and i think bjorn is like 24 (not sure). So it all depends i guess. About the collegiate slots, i know they hold like 160 positions for that and last year they had something like 70-80 pple in it. Check collegiate results and see how many were in it. You could probably show up a month b4 and get in
Where you going to school?
I raced colelgiate at Wisconsin this year. As far as I know the event didn’t fill, but there is a cutoff date. I registered in January without a problem. The biggest benefit of registering early is the psychological commitment.
If you’ve been running distance for at least five years, 22 isn’t too young to do an Ironman. (If you don’t have the run background you’ll likely get hurt regardless of your age). It’s highly unlikely that you’ll run your best race though. These are the years for PR’s in the Oly distance and HIM’s. Late 20’s and on are better years for Ironman.
I raced last Sept. because I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to put in the needed training again. Between grad school and beginning a career it was a now or never thing, at least in the forseeable future.
Caleb is right. I raced (survived) the collegiate race in 2001 on my 21st birthday. You shouldn’t have to worry too much about your body holding up to the training as long as you’re methodical about it. Build slowly, run on soft surfaces, eat well, sleep lots, and have fun. 22 is NOT too young at all. Best of luck!
bjorn is 26…
I signed up for this years race (IMWI 05) about 4-5 weeks before the race… not the best laid plans, but my schedule opened up at the last minute. I had been training with a bunch of people going to Kona so it wasnt too bad. It was my second time around doing IMWI.
Personally, i’d commit much earlier than 4-5 weeks so you can set up a good 6-10 month training plan.
wilson
It can be done. I raced IMFL last year at 23. I have a pretty solid running & cycling background (started marathons at 17), so I just had to build up my swim from square one. Be sure to build your training up slowly.
I was the exact same way, raced IMLP this year at 21 after graduating college because I didn’t know when I would be able to do it again in the next 5 years or so. Best decision of my life, I can’t wait to do another one, but I don’t sit at my desk at work all day when if I could have done it.