Kona Qualifying- What it takes.. (Page 6)

First, I have no desire to race in Kona, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Lottery: I don't have a problem with it. Some of us will never qualify and Kona is a very popular race. This gives those of us that would love to be there, a chance.

Half IM slots: Undecided. At first I agreed, there is a champioship race for this level, let them race there. But, the point was brought up about 2 IM's in one season. Even if you don't factor in the recovery time and loss of "B" races while training for 2 IM's, the expense alone would be enough to exclude quite a few. Again, not sure.

Kona as a first IM: My buddy got in through the lottery on his first attempt in his first real season. He lost 200 pounds and decided to get into triathlons. He applied because he thought "Would I ever want to go to Kona? If the answer is yes, then I will apply now and never wonder, what if". He trained his butt off, so he didn't embarrass himself out there and he did quite well. (don't remember his time). But, this race killed the sport for him. Afterwards, he thought "What's left?". He will never qualify nor win the lottery again. And he couldn't see himself doing a bunch of sprints for the rest of his life, so he pretty much dropped out of the sport.

Now, he is the only person I know that did Kona first, and he didn't qualify, so other's experiences may differ.

For me, I'll just focus on going longer, until I can't

BUT, it does bring us back on topic, which is good. Training for IM is a whole world different from 70.3. It's 2x the distance and will take more than 2x as long. Training for a Kona slot at IM is a whole different universe, as I said in my initial post of this thread. Maybe that's reason enough to make Kona slots only available through IM racing. It also would preclude the situation, which has occured, wher Kona is an athletes first IM distance race. I still contend that I would rather Kona qualifiers have qualified at an IM.

From the 'Ironman: The Beginning' thread -

What other sport let's a handfull of everyday competitors race beside the world's best?
Both pro and age group.

As far as training for an Ironman killing the rest of your season, it is a choice some have to make. You can't always have your cake and eat it too. I raced marathons and had to give up having fast 5k's in the process. Two different animals.

But I bet your half-marathon times benefitted at the same time.

I disagree again.  Training to race a HIM is 90% the same as IM.  The 10% difference can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time--say 8-12 weeks.  You make it sound as if there's some enormous training difference at the IM (or at least Kona qualifying) level.  There is very little difference at all.

In my case, no.  I just happen to focus on the avg Kona qualifying times for my AG at WI because I'm new to this game and want to know what the trends are for qualifying at WI.  My long-term goal is to get my IM time down below 9:30 (pretty ballsy for someone who is already 46 years old, eh   ), which would blow away the current qualifying times for my AG at WI (haven't analyzed other races yet).  My training is geared toward my long-term goal, but just like it took me several attempts to learn how to "race" a stand-alone marathon, it will take me a few tries to learn how to "race" an IM, learn how to swim and improve on the bike, and get below 9:30. 

Your game plan SHOULD be one which places you on the ragged edge of performance if qualifying is your goal.