OP ED – IS THIS THE MOST DAMNING PICTURE OF THE YEAR?
Is this the most damning picture of the year?
We saw a few of these pics emerge from the week in Kona. And to alert the cliche police, a picture tells a thousand words and this one is damning. This photo appeared most recently on Chris McCormack’s instagram feed and spiked a lot of commentary around the content. And let’s be honest, trying to find an explanation for this turn of events on the road to Hawi is a tough one.
For starters, it’s becoming quite clear that Hawaii is at maximum competitor occupancy. There are simply too many people on the road in this event. The numbers sit at around 2300. Too many. As the global expansion of the Ironman race footprint continues to grow, so too does the pressure to incentivise athletes. In short, come and race this event for your chance to win a spot to Kona. And this holds true as each new expansion area gets some of that golden ticket love. The new races in China have those places attached in order to get people literally across the line. And this applies more pressure to the race with more athletes getting attached to it. At some point it has got to have a line drawn through it.
The second part of this equation is that we have long said that this is a world title for the pros and about 1000 age groupers. And this is not to put down anyone who has trained and fronted to this race. But the roll down system means that the best are not always getting a spot. If the age group has a top level finisher who doesn’t want to go to Kona it rolls down. Stories filtering out from some races have roll down spots going to 12 hour finishers. Again, if the opportunity takes flight then you grab a spot to Kona with out thinking. However, this dilutes the field and makes for huge groups exiting the water together.
There are also those too manage to get themselves to Kona and use it as their bucket list race. This is a small group due to the rigours of getting to Kona, but there is a percentage of very inexperienced people on the course. The huge packs of age groupers pictured here are 5 and 6 across and this is clearly not an acceptable. There has been calls on social media as to the complete lack of Technical Officials (TO) watching this part of the race unfold. The question we have is, if you were a TO what the heck would you do with a pack that size? How do you separate a bunch like this short of using a loud hailer and a cattle prod? As an athlete what do you do as well? Do you red line to get around these bunches or do you park at a speed until it sorts itself out? Look up the road in this pic, it ain’t sorting itself out.
So what’s the answer? In short there has to be change and this seems to be pointing to reducing the racing numbers. Ironman is the true test of ones self in the individual sense. Which now you can get all over the world. So why not just get it there? Kona is the pinnacle and it should be kept as such. If it means only 1500 or1800 athletes can race it annually then so be it. It doesn’t lose it’s prestige or cache. It makes it a more valuable ticket. One could argue that IM could raise the price of admission, lower the entry numbers and still garnish what they need to in order to support the event. There also needs to be a more of an acceptance at races that, if you go like hell and have the race of your life, you might not be entitled to a Kona ticket. Not all races need to have Kona slots attached. Remember, not everyone wants to go race Kona. The cost, heat and cost all conspire to make racing this event a head scratcher. If you want to race on the Big Island then go target the events that have slots attached. The average triathlon joe wants to go race an Ironman and doesn’t think much about a Kona slot. Someone expecting to go 12+ hours might not have it on their mind.
To be a true test and a true world championship the whole qualification system would need a refit. But it works well now and doesn’t need that facelift. Reducing the numbers around the world and making it a truly prestigious race to do might be the answer. A gradual reduction of numbers is the way. Losing 100 spots a year over 5 years wouldn’t be felt by the majority.
The last thing we need to see is more of this.
Original blog here