Like I said, should never leave if Hawaii and most locals remain smart. But they just put more tourism authority in the govenors hands this year, and grumpy people like biting the hands that feed them when they are mad about something else.
The issue with Kona is that Ironman is not doing a successful job of making the race belong to the islanders. Not saying they don’t try. Just aren’t having a lot of success. The various fun and kitchy things people come to Hawaii pale in comparison to what Ironman can mean. They could be proud of the spirit that brings thousands out to endure the elements in pretty much the same pathways their ancestors took. IM used to have (still do?) some entries for military personnel. They need to be doing it for influential locals, coaches, etc. Giving them training and so on. The most excited Ironman constituency in the world should be in Hawaii. USAT has spent time talking about getting minorities etc involved in triathlon. There’s a lot of troubled young men in Hawaii that could use some focus and dedication in their lives.
I’d even say they should go as far as giving a slot to any local resident of indigenous ancestry who completes the Hawaii 70.3. Half off entry (refunded) if they get 10 volunteers.
I always thought the 70.3 WC was more a regional championship. There are always many more athletes represented from whatever continent they decide to rotate. Yes there are some people that will travel no matter the cost or location but traveling for the 70.3 WC is not a given like Kona is. I think a lot of people view the 70.3 WC as if it’s in my area I’ll go otherwise no bigs if I skip.
In contrast everyone travels to Kona and knows it’s part of the process. Sure it’s hard for some people to get to depending on where they live but everyone travels there and few spots are rolled.
I think if IM moves the WC from Kona it turns into the 70.3 WC distribution and loses the luster.
I know it’s not the IM’s business model, but if I had the chance to rethink the KQ system, I would start by challenging the AG categories. Science shows the decline in endurance performance is delayed (a fact confirmed by a pros average career length). Roughly, one could consider the 25-45 yo bracket to be the best years of an individual athlete, where his performances show relative consistency (all things being equal).
So I would keep a 18-23 yo AG (a “developmental” AG, as it is in WT racing), then implement a 24-44 AG including the “pros” (because why are we stopping considering age with them?), and then I would keep the 5 year cohorts (45-49, 50-54…) for the “masters” athletes.
IMO, that would be a healthy change if you want to promote fairness in an age-based system.
The trouble is there’s not much of a difference between 44 and 45.
I’m curious how it would look using the Kona adjustment if they smoothed out the times by birth year.
I have to assume the older men will stand out a little less. We might be seeing the double whammy of the male Kona cycle + recent age ups compounding where these guys are the ones coming out to race for slots and crushing it.
The trouble is there’s not much of a difference between 44 and 45.
Yes, but you have to draw the line somewhere. I don’t know how it’s called in english (not my first language), maybe a “threshold effect”? If my memory serves me well, I think the curve in performance decay gets steeper and steeper starting around 45.
I’m curious how it would look using the Kona adjustment if they smoothed out the times by birth year.
Curious too. We all know too well these 5 year brackets are pretty arbitrary, and that a 59 yo guy or gal is at a thereotical significant disadvantage vs a 55 yo.
Easy to get to 3500, transition is in the parking lot…getting to 3000 is also easy. Bike Racks instead of bike stands. But this hold out one DeRue quote that also came with no timetable has been a weird hill for some posters to die on.
I’m always side eye to someone saying “it’s easy”, as if it was that easy, dont you think an company like IM would have already done that when it’s in reference to registration numbers. Right? Don’t you think IM wants to max out it’s ability at any and every race? I would assume that’s a given, so when you say it’s easy to get to xxxx, I dont know man.
I’m talking about the physical real estate of what is needed to get to 3000 on the pier, there are many other considerations then just oh, 500 more people, profit.
Fair point. It’s a lot of chutzpah for a mainlander to come to Hawaii and then complain about others coming to Hawaii and ruining things. But ya, they do that all too often as well. The point is still the idea of connecting Ironman deep into the roots of Hawaii – which IM does integrate many themes into their visuals and marketing already. But you might say that’s a bit of appropriation (in the modern parlance). Giving slots those native there is the opposite of that.
Well, The Grip himself has started a petition to advocate for Scott DeRue to revisit the women qualification system. I would say that is a bit of an escalation.
Maybe I’m wildly over-simplifying this. Doesn’t this show that the system is working, it just needs a little bit of tweaking to pull in the outliers from both sides closer to the line? Give the under 50 females and under 45 males slightly more generous modifiers and that should bring everyone closer to the line, right?
I’m not saying over represent them as a knee jerk reaction, just ever so slightly adjust their (or all) the modifiers to pull both sides in closer to match participation:representation better.
I would have a lot more respect for the petition if it also included the younger mens groups that are also getting shut out. In fact those groups are the ones that are really going to have a tough time, as the ladies will sort out once their full cohort of top racers rejoin the ranks. The men are already there, so there is no future softening to look forward to. They are truly stuck and unfortunately just get lumped in as “men” in these conversations. I really wish this did not become a battle of the sexes and a more fine tuning of individual AG’s would get applied to the par times..
