Subject: Help me understand Ironman Kona u So I am new to triathlon. I happen to have a coworker (never really talk to due to national location ) who has qualified as ag 6 x times. His wife qualified for the first time this year. So for me that is really neat. I have no real dreams of going there ever happening. I just want to understand the jump from qualifying to actual times at kona and how can the discrepancy be so large. I have researched qualifying times for many different age groups on a world wide scope. It seems like no matter your age 40 to 60 you have to throw down a 9 hr to 11 hr (taking a guess on real averages ) to "garner a spot to,kona ". I am totally addicted to watching The 2013 iroanman world championship broadcast. If you see some of the pieces on some of the athletes you can't understand how they got there in the first place. Take for instance a father / daughter team.,, did not finish due to bike crash a couple of years ago. Made bike cutoff by short margin only to cash it in at 11 mile mark on run. If you watch farther in the program you see so many people finishing much closer to the 15 to 17 hr mark. I just don't understand how these people made it there. All my research shows they had to do so much faster to get to Kona. How can they slow down so much so they barely make the end 17 hr time end or even 25 hrs.
I understand Kona is the ultimate goal. How do people finish so far behind the research times to just get there. ???? This really bothers me |