OK - maybe this is crazy Friday afternoon thinking but…
What if IMNA kept the midnight cutoff, but ran 2 waves:
Wave 1 - Masters/Recreational: M50+, F40+, anyone else who wants a 17 hour cutoff. Starts at 7am.
Wave 2 - Pro/Open Amateur: Starts at noon.
Recreational registration is 1 year in advance to a max of 2000 entries. Masters/Open Amateur registration is 6 months in advance to a max of 2000 entries.
Event could be marketed in such a way as to encourage new and slower participants to graduate from recreational wave to open wave where they could compete for Kona slots.
Pros
Experienced athletes don’t need to sign up a year in advance.
Masters race gets highlighted as they are likely the first finishers.
More people around for the excitement of the midnight cutoff and associated fireworks.
Recreational category sold out? You can always race open and try to break 12!
More people, more atmosphere, more money for IMNA.
If I am in wave 2, I CAN SLEEP IN! This is the biggest and most significant advantage
Wave 2 racers get to run in cooler evening weather (this is getting better all the time!)
Cons:
Wave 2 racers would have to move through recreational and masters participants on the run
Density of finishers would create challenges in the finish chute and Med tent
Not everyone feels they are in the same race as the pros (even though they aren’t anyway)
Second thought is “logistical nightmare for swim starts at noon”…I would think as a rule it would be extraordinarily tough to pull off for a variety of reasons…
OK, let me get this straight. I can race masters, sign up a year in advance and get hammered by Konaexpress. Or I can sign up 6 months in advance and race open and get hammered by Mike Coghlin. Either way, I get hammered. Sounds like lose lose
Interesting concept though.
But you realize if I had my choice, whatever race I do would start in the dark. Something about starting an openwater swim in the dark and emerging in the light is very cool!
Can you imagine how pissed you might be if you were a pro trying to win money and you were having to dodge in and out of aid stations praying to God on high that each one still had enough flat coke?
17 hour cutoff on Saturday for allcomers, and a 13 hour cutoff on Sunday for pro/eltite/kona quals.
They need to get permits for 2 days of racing rather than one, but all the rest of the infrastructure is there. They can offset the cost by having 3000-4000 people race.
Wave starts to the race, but with the slower people starting first - get all through the water in waves with less congestion, but it all comes together on the bike and run as the faster races catch up. Lower the 17 hour cutoff for the slower athletes to 16, but the faster ones are limited to 15, 14, 13, and 12 based on projected finish time. Adds a layer of strategy, too, 'cause if you say “12 hours” too optimistically, you’re toast if you take too long…
This decongests the swim start, allows ‘faster’ racers to sleep in a bit, give a chase feeling to the race, provides more people on the race course during the run to liven up the atmosphere a bit. The only downside is that the faster racers have to move their way through the crowd, big deal, really…
Restrict registration to the next year’s race to in-person only, day after, and only if you (a) raced, or (b) volunteered. This way anyone considering IM will have experienced the thing in person and gotten a feeling for it while helping with the logistics and support.
Make whatever slots left over available via the lottery idea…
OK, let me get this straight. I can race masters, sign up a year in advance and get hammered by Konaexpress. Or I can sign up 6 months in advance and race open and get hammered by Mike Coghlin. Either way, I get hammered. Sounds like lose lose
Interesting concept though.
But you realize if I had my choice, whatever race I do would start in the dark. Something about starting an openwater swim in the dark and emerging in the light is very cool!
That’s asking the bike course volunteers to be out there for a long time!
Good point - I forgot to mention that Wave 2 should have shorter Swim and T2 cutoffs (say 90min and 7.5 hours), presupposing a venue with daylight later than 7:30pm. Only 2 more hours for bike course volunteers (although that’s still a long day)
why does everyone keep postulating ideas on how IMNA can improve Ironman when we all know, regardless of how good the idea may be, they could really give a shit?
