Big Race Qualifying

The qualifying process for Kona is pretty clear and it’s getting clearer all the time. As the Ironman parent, World Triathlon Corporation, continues to expand its race series you pretty much have to attend an “m-dot” race to get to Kona. If you are racing the ironman distance to get to Kona then you can finish a hair deeper than first, but any half Ironman almost demands a win to get a slot. If you are curious what it takes then start at Ironmanlive.com and look at the list of qualifying races. Then proceed to the home page of each race and find the details on how many slots are offered in each age group. After that you can look at last years results to assess the slowest qualifying time in the age group of interest.

Don’t get discouraged, there are still anomalies out there: earlier this year after a legal battle and an epic tsunami, Ironman Malaysia put on a race with only a few weeks notice. There were approximately 34 Kona slots up for grabs and only 36 people entered in the race. The weather was so brutally hot and humid that day that only 28 people finished the race. Ironman Canada 2004 had a “roll down” take place on the lawn near the swim start. The ages and genders were slowly dispensed and folks wandered off after their portion was addressed. When the caller got to Women 55-59 there was a slot left over with no takers. They did a quick calculation and ended up giving away the Kona gift to a 30-34 year old woman who was the only person in her age group there – she might have gone 15:50 and still made the day!

USAT Age Group National Championships is a big deal and a race that’s worth attending. It’s loaded with speedsters old and young, who really step up to a higher level of competition on this day. To get to this race you need to go to a normal everyday USAT race and either win your age group or finish in the top 10% of your age group (if there are 50 folks in your age group you have to be in the top 5). You could also attend a USAT race with “special designation” where the top 3 or top 33% in an age group qualify – so, for example, Wildflower Olympic is a Regional Championship for Collegiates. If there were 282 folks your age group then you would have to have finished in the top 93.

XTERRA has sure taken off and there’s a structure there to qualify athletes for the USA Championships in Tahoe and the World Championships in Maui. To make it to Tahoe you’d have to be a top points earner at three of the over 50 events all over the world. To get to Maui you’d need to finish in a qualifying spot in one of the four national championship series events, the qualifying spot at Tahoe, a qualifying spot at the Mountain Man Tri in Hawaii , or via the “at large” spot (AKA the lottery).  

Other articles in this series:
   » Could Wildflower be showing signs of a decline?
      We got a whiff at Wildflower
   » Avoid the PANIC that so many stumble into at the start of the swim
   » Olympics in Athens and how athletes try and make the grade
   » Another course change at the IM World Championships
   » Put your mind to work in your favor before and during the race with
      visualizations
   » Triathlon, the Olympics, and the Evolution
   » Triathlon Keeps Inching Towards Mainstream
   » Slowtwitch's Kona Survey

 
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