Kona "finish" (Page 2)

Originally posted by gailg

I know her.  Karen Aydelott -- she has crossed the Kona finish line 12x under the time limit, and she won her AG at Kona in 1997.  Despite losing her leg, she still competes in the AG category, not in the Challenged Athletes category, and has qualified for Kona twice since then.  I suspect she does not care about the actual medal.  And she is one of the nicest, most giving triathletes I have trained and raced with.

Originally posted by franktheguard Intresting paradigm. I'm glad we agree. I'd like to add, I think your straying away from the topic, not that its a bad thing. But winning and wussification (oh whatever term youve used). The winner was first, and first per age group. The medal for me,should be given if you make the cutoff, otherwise no. I love the fact that another racer gave his medal, that is truly to be admired. IMO He/she (because its happened before) saw something that deserved being recognized or championed, notice...not the organization. As for survival, there are people who survive things everyday and dont get medals for it. Keeping to the topic of Ironman, you can survive that distance on a bored saturday or sunday if you are that bored and have the time, would you put forth the same effort doubtful but you could "survive" it. The survival is doing it in the time allotted.

Originally posted by Shop Cat " Or, you could go ahead and do it the same way they do it in the races my kids go to. Get on the podium for a medal or go home empty handed. Of course, I'm sure I'm raising kids who's self-esteem is being crushed because they didn't get a medal every time they lined up." While I see your point, and agree in general, when it comes to this race and others that give finishers medals, part of what is offered to those who pay the entry fee, is that medal. I see it like commemorative swag, not a "prize " to promote self esteem. What it means to the adults who get one is personal, and I like to think whomever lines up at the start of an IM has the emotional maturity to not need a medal to validate their efforts.

Originally posted by DanielG They should take the times of every finisher and average them and assign those as everyone's official time. After all the people going really fast are only being greedy with their time and there is no reason not to reallocate the minutes to people who more need them.

Originally posted by Left Brain

  Don't give them out and watch what happens to "emotional maturity" in many of those IM'ers.   HA!!

Originally posted by mr2tony

I went through my medals recently and had fond memories of each race I did to earn each one. I don't see a finishers medal as a prize, per se, but more as a keepsake -- something you can look at many years later and say `Oh I remember this race!'

Originally posted by gailg

I know her.  Karen Aydelott -- she has crossed the Kona finish line 12x under the time limit, and she won her AG at Kona in 1997.  Despite losing her leg, she still competes in the AG category, not in the Challenged Athletes category, and has qualified for Kona twice since then.  I suspect she does not care about the actual medal.  And she is one of the nicest, most giving triathletes I have trained and raced with.

Originally posted by trijamie I think with Ironman, it's seen as less of a sporting event and more of a feat of survival, so I can understand that a person would feel pretty jipped if they came in a few seconds later. Technically they didn't do it, and I think that should very well be enforced, because without rules, it wouldn't be worth as much, but the medal itself is still a nice way of saying "yea, you still went the distance." I've been at the finish line an hour or 2 after midnight when the finish is being broken down and nobody's there anymore except the race crew, and racers STILL insist on finishing. They cross the line at 1 or 2 in the morning, and a crew member gives them a medal, just a gesture of accomplishment i guess. I also saw a girl at Coeur d' Alene who finished a few seconds too late, and a guy who had finished hours beforehand gave Mike Riley his medal, who gave it to the girl. That was a sweet gesture that got him a huge round of applause from everyone there. All that being said though, I'd be one of those people refusing the medal if I didn't make the cutoff.