I just got back from Lake Placid. I had the race of my life. I am extremely happy, couldn’t asked for more. I went way beyond my expections and felt awesome. Never in my life would I think I’d be even close to qualifying… well I got 7th in my age group, they had 5 spots and 1 rolled down… I sat thru the roll down, shaking, wondering how I got there… I didn’t get it, I was disappointed, you know, being so close… Man, that was tough sitting thru that…Now I have a whole new sets of goals for myself, next year will be an interesting year… I had planned to take a break, not anymore!!!
marisol,
Congrats on your great result! You told us many of your fears going into the race and it looks like you got through them and had great race! :-)))
Great job! Looks like you had a great day out there. Sorry you missed the roll-down. You’ll get it next time.
congrats on how your race went. how did you feel on the keene decent?
congratulations!!! how was your overall time?
I believe that 34th overall at LP was not good enough for Kona. IIRC, there were only 6 spots in the M25-29 AG, and 34th was the 7th place male. Dunno about you guys, but to finish in the top 2% of that race and not get a slot is a slap in the face.
geezz that sucks.!congratulations on a terrific race…!!!
on top of that, the 7th place guy was only 11 seconds behind the 6th place guy. if he didn’t a rolldown, then that sucks big time.
Damn, that was one painful 4:00 penalty if the slot didn’t roll down.
By your post, do you think they should just give all the slots to the top 100 AG finishers regardless of how each did in their respective AG?
My buddy missed it by one slot at CDA this year. He said it was worse than missing it by 10 slots.
But on the positive note, you are so close I’m sure you will get there.
This is part of the challenge for people on the fringe in the deeply competitive age-groups trying to get spots for Kona - you may have no idea of how close you are in the final stages of the race. This is the result of not really knowing who your competition is and having no idea of what place you may be in( both overall and in your age-group) due to the multi-lap run courses at some of the IM race courses.
Shooting for a time target of the average cut-off time over the course of a few years is a good thing, but ultimately it may get down to racing head to head with someone over the last 5 - 10 miles of the marathon.
I feel sorry for the guy, if he did miss out by a few seconds. That’s tough to take after 9 hours of racing!
This is not unusual. Keep in mind that the mens 25 - 39 age-groups are very competitive and deep. It’s not unusual to have to go close to 9:30 - 10:00 or even faster, depending on the IM course, to make it to Kona.
You’re on the money, Fleck. My age group, men’s 35-39, was 400 out of 2200 registered athletes, and 344 out of 1961 who started. I had no expectation of qualifying, or getting roll-down, but I knew that I was in the largest, and one of the toughest, fields out there.
The age group competition seems pretty fair to me, despite prehaps seeming unfair if you are only judging based on numbers. There are loads of fit, highly trained young men and women out there who can finish an IM in well under 12 hours. But there are not too many folks 55 and up who can finish, let alone finish in under 14 or 15 hours. They deserve the slots as much as the next athlete, and if they don’t want it, it rolls down to the people in the more competitive age groups.
I think M25-29 in LP rolled down to 8th so this guy was at least offered a slot.
You still kicked ass being that close, so great race. Looks like it is becoming more competitive and faster - my buddy did a 10:01 at CDA and missed by two slots - I feel for you guys, but you are still faster than about 99% of the people out there.
Whooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeee…you go girl. Now I need times to see if my predictions came true. Bet you had an awesome bike too;-)
Missing Kona by one place.Bummer. I eliminate this type of frustration by jogging very slowly on the run.
This year I managed to miss getting a slot at IMNZ by 91 places in my age group! I’d LOVE to miss by just 10 or especially by one place!! 
Oh I am HAPPY! I was hoping for 12 hours, my previous IM was 13:00:32… I went 11:18:11… I have never been good enough to think about hawaii, this whole thing just happened… So I am disappointed just a little but I am SOOOOOOOO happy other wise, it doesn’t matter… and by the way… I went down to keene, with the zipps at 30-35mph:) I felt great the whole time, and I signed up for next year, more determined than ever!!!
Way to go Marisol, what a fantastic improvement on your previous best. I know it must be hard to have been that close, but if you’ve seen that sort improvement this year, think what next year holds.
Great result, enjoy the result you got.
J.
Man..when I said you go girl…I didn’t quite mean you go THAT fast. That is totally incredible. The way you were talking about splits prior to LP I secretly had you pegged to go 11:50..but this goes way beyond. Can’t say that I thought you’d be going down Keene hill that fast but I sure am glad you did..guess all those little minutes here and there added up. Not sure what kind of training you did to prepare yourself for that kind of time but if I ever need a coach I know who to call. I feel sorry for the competition next year…Hawaii here you come.
Oh I am HAPPY! I was hoping for 12 hours, my previous IM was 13:00:32.. I went 11:18:11.. I have never been good enough to think about hawaii, this whole thing just happened.. So I am disappointed just a little but I am SOOOOOOOO happy other wise, it doesn’t matter.. and by the way.. I went down to keene, with the zipps at 30-35mph:) I felt great the whole time, and I signed up for next year, more determined than ever!!!