I know it’s early, but I’ve never thrown my name in the lottery for Kona before. It’s always been a dream of mine to do the Kona Ironman. I’m sure thats true of 95% of people that post here. So I wanted to try for the lottery this year. I’m average at best and would have 0 chance of qualifying. I did IMKY last year and it hurt (100+ degree tempts). I took this whole year off Tris (got married/did some running races), but want to start back up again in 2012.
So my question is, when does the lottery open for Kona 2012? And when will you find out if you got in or not?
I saw recently there were about 8000 entries last year and 200 selected. That puts it at about 2.5%. Lottery opens in the fall some time and results are released in April.
I’ve entered 3 times and never been selected (but I did run the part of the course from town to the little blue church a couple times on vacation) - but I know several people who have. Don’t know when it opens, but it closes at the end of February and you find out the middle of april.
you put wait too much ignorance and angst in your responses.
Seriously though, you’ve got some anger going on the forums, why all the hate? WTC is running for profit, makes sense for them to give out slots to repeat customers, versus someone who will do a one and done. And there are a ton of sites reporting they got a response from the WTC saying they are exploring this option.
Seriously though, you’ve got some anger going on the forums, why all the hate? WTC is running for profit, makes sense for them to give out slots to repeat customers, versus someone who will do a one and done. And there are a ton of sites reporting they got a response from the WTC saying they are exploring this option.
Oh you misunderstand, there’s absolutely no hate at all. If you read the thread about the tweet and saw where the speculation went you’d be saying pretty much the same thing. I have no clue what WTC is going to do with the lottery slots for 2012 and neither do 99.99% of the people posting here or reading the forum. Reacting angrily, as some have done, to changes that haven’t even been proposed yet doesn’t make a lick of sense. If it really matters to you, provide your input to WTC when any proposal comes out or if it’s put up for discussion on a moderate forum.
Personally I couldn’t care less what WTC does with the Kona lottery race slots, it’s not my area of interest and I won’t be in the lottery ever again. I’ve been to the race x 3 and won’t race it again. I’ll volunteer as long as it’s here, and if it leaves I’ll put effort into getting a better organization to fill the void out here.
There is also a ratio. Can’t remember what it is but most lottery spots go to the USA while the rest of the world has to compete for what is left over. My wife won the lottery in 2008. We’re in Canada, so she really did beat the odds.
There is also a ratio. Can’t remember what it is but most lottery spots go to the USA while the rest of the world has to compete for what is left over. My wife won the lottery in 2008. We’re in Canada, so she really did beat the odds.
FWIW, they did make changes to the 2011 lottery by making everyone go into the same pool instead of a US - Everyone else lottery system. I seem to recall though that overall numbers had even more US residents with lottery slots.
From the stories you’ve read about when John Collins dumped the IM to Valerie Silk, I believe he said that it was her duty to ensure that the “common man” always had spots set aside for this race. I also believe that WTC must hold true to that promise because that is stipulation that was required when Silk sold IM to WTC. My history on that may be off but that is the story I recall. If I were a betting man, there will definitely ALWAYS be a lottery. Forever…and ever…and ever…and ever…(in echo…)
I spoke to Andrew at the launch night for Ironman Melbourne about this as I won a lottery spot this year and he said it will still be done but using a differently. eg Raffle
Note he didn’t say raffle he just said differently