Qualifying for Kona

That sucks. I cant afford a trip to Hawaii this year. I guess I'll have to qualify twice.

Bring the pain.

If you don't already have a spot paid for to race this year, you won't qualify this year.  You need to sign up a year in advance for a qualifying race in the US (in most cases).

If you haven't entered a race yet, the best you can do is to sign up for an IM between March and October NEXT year, then compete in Kona Next year as well.

Where there's a will theres a way.

Louisville is still open.

No. But I have so little interest in salesmanship and outgoingness in general, I doubt I'll even consider it. Unless I happened to run into a 'we sponser athlete vacations' establishment.

Hell yea.

How close were you to KQ on your last Ironman? 

(I ask because I'm presuming that it would be tough to qualify on your first IM.)

This is mostly anecdotal, because I've never even done an IM. I'm currently training for a 70.3 and my paces/times are right on target to qualify - according to a few of last years times, that is. I'm aware that I havent been to mile 20 of a marathon after 9 hours of racing, all I'm saying is I seem to be on pace so far, so it sparked my curiousity.

I've always been a fairly gifted athlete, but I agree with you that it seems pretty tough (to say the least!) to KQ the first time around. Its not a goal I would carry into the race, but it would be something I'd keep in mind for the last 10k, should I be within range.

This is another question maybe someone can answer me.   A friend asked me the other day if you qualified at Wisconsin this year (2013) do you have to do another IM race before Kona 2014 to validate it at all or are you still good?

Have you done any triathlons?  If so, how did you do?

Mark

Ya. Pretty good. I started in Xterra. I qualified for the National Championship in Ogden last season, but I couldnt afford a trip to Utah so I didnt go. I'm consistently in the top 10-20% swimming and running, but when it comes to mountain biking, I'm not very good. I actually dont even like mountain biking very much, which is why I'm moving over to road racing. Plus I've been racing trail runs for years with some age group wins and some top ten overall finishes, although, no overall wins.

I wish I could find a race(s) with open water, road cycling, and trail runs.

Like I said, this is mostly anecdotal, but racing in Kona has been on my bucket list for a while, and my training times are making me think I oughtta just go ahead and sign up for one.  

No, you're still good. Wisconsin would work for the professionals too as it's in the same qualifying year. Arizona is becoming popular with some of them for that reason.

Here you go.  If you like a tough trail run, this is your race.  

http://www.fundyh2o.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCourse

I think only one guy broke an hour for the 11k run last year and he is a 2:30 marathoner.

Wow this looks awesome! Totally my kind of thing - thanks!

Off topic but the Bay of Fundy is awesome!  Took a trip to Nova Scotia in 2002 and it was really cool to see the boats floating at a dock and then 12 hours later sitting on the mud 20 feet below the dock level.

As long as you're going big, something like Norseman, Swissman, or Celtman could work for this.  They're not part of the Ironman series though.

These look badass - especially the Swiss one:

http://www.suixtri.com/en/swissman-trailer-2/