Armstrong says in interview he'll do Kona & other IMs...

He likes to mess with the media's heads.  As revenge, he should be telling the French media that he's signed a multi-million-dollar, multi-year contract to play professional soccer in Europe!  Really screw with them after all the years they've been trying to screw him!

It's the second time he's said it and I can see it happening. What I like is that he also mentions several 1/2's. I'd actually be pretty surprised if we don't see him here at Longhorn 70.3 in either 2011 or 2012.

Does he still have what it takes to qualify for Kona?

Im sure with Livestrong he would get some kind of VIP slot for CEO's,charity slot or something like that. I would think he would be able to qaulify though!

Edited by nevergivin 2009-08-17 11:59 AM

I don't think he'd need to qualify, with that kind of publicity, they'd be stupid not to let him in.

2:50:58 at Boston.  Add in that he'd finish the bike in less than 4 hours and he could doggy paddle the entire swim and still qualify. 

First, they do celebrity entries all the time. There's no need to "bend the rules" when it's a private, for-profit race. Who races is completely at the discretion of WTC.

Second, I hope the "Does he still have what it takes to qualify for Kona?" comment was supposed to be in the sarcasm font. The guy just finished third in the Tour. Even a conservative bike split estimate would be under 4:45 (I'd bet he goes under 4:30 without much effort). He's run several sub-3 stand alone marys, so he's probably good for at least 3:15 or so on the run. That's 8 hours without swim or transition. The guy has a ridiculous aerobic engine and was actually a hell of a swimmer in high school. No way he doesn't go sub-60 minutes on the swim. Throw in 10 minutes for transitions and he still KQ's at any IM race in the country.

I have no doubt he could qualify...if he actually trains for it.  His first marathon, while WELL faster than I could ever run one in my dreams, really hurt because he didn't properly train.   Well, you can't fake your way through the IM marathon and do it quickly.

I think if he sticks with a training regimen he can crush the field.  But if he does what he did for his first marathon then he'll do okay (far far far faster than me) but probably wouldn't qualify for Kona.

Which is the ONLY reason I don't think Kona should just hand him a slot.  If he gets handed a lot I am tempted to think that he might have the more laid back attitude about it and not really train....

I will bet a week's salary that LA will NOT have to qualify for Kona. 

I agree can't you hear that phone call.  Hi this is Lance. I would like to come race.  Oh OK we have a spot for you

I honestly think for someone with willpower like Armstrong, he has what it takes to accomplish anything - it's just a matter of he truly wants it or not.

IM Kona is THE triathlon to the general public. The TV coverage is always very real people story oriented. They love a good human interest story. I don't know if they are WTC or NBC sports but Lance's presence there will bring way more publicity and worldwide coverage than anything else could and that translates to higher ad dollars and bigger sponsors/commercials.

Edited by losta 2009-08-17 11:11 PM