The halo of Ironman is gone. I remember I thought it used to be cool when Mark Allen and Dave Scott used to duel. Everyone knows it's a niche sports for rich white elites now. If you have the time and the money, anyone can do this. But I do credit them for doing it. If I was that rich, why the F would I waste all my free time training? For what? Still a better trained equivalent of a hobby jogger.
What stuck me about the article was how these people think doing an Ironman is somehow helping them with their business acumen. I've done Kona Ironman, it is just a long day of exercise. It is not a life changing mystical experience. On Monday you go back to work, just like every Monday.
A different way for people with oodles of money to show off their expensive toys.
Their jobs, their triathlon training. That's it. Their lives are void of any other meaning.
Here’s a postrace email report from Le Jamtel, the self-admitted spoiled one, who also qualified for the full-distance world championship with a boost from XC, on his experience in October at Kona:
“Very tough race. I truly learnt again about ‘Iron Will,’” he began. “Got stung by a jellyfish midway. Current, wind and waves picked up over the last 3rd of the swim. All against. I must have absorbed too much seawater. I also had a cold, and that didn’t help. I was blowing my nose every [few] seconds during the bike and marathon, losing lots of water and salts.” Things got grim. “At the end of the bike, I had major gastrointestinal issues and nausea. I could not run without vomiting and could not absorb liquid or food. I had to manage on a very narrow line to move forward without collapsing.” His family was waiting for him at the finish line, though, so “no scenario for me to quit. My 20th Ironman, 4th Kona, my slowest and hardest but great memories! Never DNF as we say!”
Yeah there usually aren't jellyfish blooping around on my local 5k course. Probably happens from time to time in places like Florida and Australia though.
I never knew much about triathlon times until I did them and many of you, who are pure runners, may have missed what I thought was the most funny thing in this article: First, they leave the reader impressed by all the advantages these people have -- super-expensive gear, personal trainers, $$$s to fly anywhere to overpriced races by the Ironman Corporation, and even the ability to buy their way into the championship Kona race (this is appalling! should be based only on qualifying race results). But then they mention that the best of them do a half-ironman (which Ironman corporation comically no longer calls a "half") in about 6 hours. SIX HOURS???!!! I did a half in the 4:40's on a cheap used bike, and I'm nothing special, I have plenty of friends quite a bit faster than me. Six hours is really a mediocre time for this distance - and to do it on tens-of-thousands-of dollars of equipment? Hilarious! I'm not sure of the most meaningful running analogy, but, to get a sense, imagine an article about people paying tens of thousands of dollars for elite run coaches, personal trainers, top masseurs and sports therapists, gait analysts, vO2max tests, sports psychologists, extremely expensive fancy shoes and running clothes, etc... in order to prepare for a series of 1-mile races around the world -- but then you find out that the best of them ran the mile in these races in about 8 or 9 minutes(!) These folks may be able to buy their way into Ironman corporation "champion" races, but you know what they obviously can't buy? Champion-quality performances!
Interesting read -- saw it yesterday. It's kind of whatever to me. This is about the .01%. & when those people do a marathon, it's going to look different to how I would do one. Ironman is out to make $$$ & they put out a product that appeals to some of the driven types that might be in high up roles at major corporations.
What I wouldn't do is stereotype triathletes after reading this. If super rich people want to pay to make race weekend easier then I'm mostly jealous because traveling to races is a major headache in a way traveling for a marathon isn't. Front end triathlon racing is exciting. The different formats at exciting. Pros are very good right now. & Ironman is only one race group. Local tris & shorter race distances are a lot of fun.
I never knew much about triathlon times until I did them and many of you, who are pure runners, may have missed what I thought was the most funny thing in this article: First, they leave the reader impressed by all the advantages these people have -- super-expensive gear, personal trainers, $s to fly anywhere to overpriced races by the Ironman Corporation, and even the ability to buy their way into the championship Kona race (this is appalling! should be based only on qualifying race results). But then they mention that the best of them do a half-ironman (which Ironman corporation comically no longer calls a "half") in about 6 hours. SIX HOURS???!!! I did a half in the 4:40's on a cheap used bike, and I'm nothing special, I have plenty of friends quite a bit faster than me. Six hours is really a mediocre time for this distance - and to do it on tens-of-thousands-of dollars of equipment? Hilarious! I'm not sure of the most meaningful running analogy, but, to get a sense, imagine an article about people paying tens of thousands of dollars for elite run coaches, personal trainers, top masseurs and sports therapists, gait analysts, vO2max tests, sports psychologists, extremely expensive fancy shoes and running clothes, etc... in order to prepare for a series of 1-mile races around the world -- but then you find out that the best of them ran the mile in these races in about 8 or 9 minutes(!) These folks may be able to buy their way into Ironman corporation "champion" races, but you know what they obviously can't buy? Champion-quality performances!
Also have some proximity to tri (and used to be a competitive swimmer). Agree, definitely hilarious. If you're going that slowly, benefits from having a super light, super aero bike are negligible because you aren't moving fast enough. Most AG tri people would really benefit much more from spending some money on swimming lessons... technique>fitness for swimming until you get to a pretty high level.
While some people will say that there are worse things they could spend their time and money on, I'm not entirely sure I agree. Doing such massive amounts of exercise when your body isn't really up to it (and that sort of time indicates it's not!) doesn't strike me as being very good for your health. The running equivalent of that is people doing >6h marathons.
Most of those people (very slow middle-aged age groupers in either sport) would be much better served by doing events of a shorter duration. The training for that (more varied intensity-wise) would be much more beneficial from a a health perspective and there would be less gap between the training they do and the racing they do. It's very silly that AG run/tri culture has deified longer distances so much.
I never knew much about triathlon times until I did them and many of you, who are pure runners, may have missed what I thought was the most funny thing in this article: First, they leave the reader impressed by all the advantages these people have -- super-expensive gear, personal trainers, $s to fly anywhere to overpriced races by the Ironman Corporation, and even the ability to buy their way into the championship Kona race (this is appalling! should be based only on qualifying race results). But then they mention that the best of them do a half-ironman (which Ironman corporation comically no longer calls a "half") in about 6 hours. SIX HOURS???!!! I did a half in the 4:40's on a cheap used bike, and I'm nothing special, I have plenty of friends quite a bit faster than me. Six hours is really a mediocre time for this distance - and to do it on tens-of-thousands-of dollars of equipment? Hilarious! I'm not sure of the most meaningful running analogy, but, to get a sense, imagine an article about people paying tens of thousands of dollars for elite run coaches, personal trainers, top masseurs and sports therapists, gait analysts, vO2max tests, sports psychologists, extremely expensive fancy shoes and running clothes, etc... in order to prepare for a series of 1-mile races around the world -- but then you find out that the best of them ran the mile in these races in about 8 or 9 minutes(!) These folks may be able to buy their way into Ironman corporation "champion" races, but you know what they obviously can't buy? Champion-quality performances!
6 hours isn't bad. It's certainly not 8 to 9 minute mile bad. Probably closer to 6 to 7 minute mile. I think the general breakdown is 45 min swim, 3 hour bike and 2:15 run. Obviously if you're running 215 after a 3 hour bike ride you can probably break 2 fresh so that's already 9 minute mile for 13 miles...a far cry from doing 1 mile at 9 min pace.
Of course they're going to have mediocre times. They spent their youth climbing the corporate ladder. Now they get to use that money in an attempt to buy back some of their youth. Most of you would trade your race times for the amount of money they're making. I sure as hell wouldn't be sad getting in my lambo after finishing mid pack.
You can certainly "buy speed" to a certain extend in triathlon (best wetsuit + bike & components + super shoes), and apparently you can buy entry into championship races, but how fulfilling is that?
I respect the hell of of the folks that somehow manage to balance the intense training + family and work to compete in full distance tri events, but I also know a few folks who literally gave up their marriages and time with their children to pursue Kona.
This is an interesting read, albeit a bit…puzzling.
It’s frankly unclear what these people are trying to accomplish by training exclusively indoors. If they have the time to train a decent amount and sleep at least 7 hours a night (per the article), they presumably have the time to get I outside every now and then. They can fly to a nice location and have someone motor pace them on their 15k tt bike. Fine by me.
What is striking though is that these people seem to not care at all about performance, or sport, or the outdoors, or most importantly, the safety of their competitors.
Riding a tt bike around other people when you literally never ride it outside just isn’t safe, and it’s frankly selfish.
As someone with primarily a cycling/time trial background but who has dabbled in triathlons, the average age grouper is bad enough at handling a bike. I’ve seen two people killed at Ironman events on the bike, and it’s been their own fault.
Unfortunately WTC is just a massive conglomerate at this point and doesn’t really care about anything but their bottom line.
Is what it is. I’m just perplexed how seemingly rational people fail to miss the most obvious problem with what they’re doing, which is endangering themselves and others.
Counter point:
Cycling on most roads is very dangerous. That means you are packing your bike onto your car and driving off to somewhere that's safe/safter to ride. That is even MORE time dedicated to what is already an immense amount of time. You could easily end up spending 5-6 hours dealing with what's just 3 hours of actual time on the bike.
This is an interesting read, albeit a bit…puzzling.
It’s frankly unclear what these people are trying to accomplish by training exclusively indoors. If they have the time to train a decent amount and sleep at least 7 hours a night (per the article), they presumably have the time to get I outside every now and then. They can fly to a nice location and have someone motor pace them on their 15k tt bike. Fine by me.
What is striking though is that these people seem to not care at all about performance, or sport, or the outdoors, or most importantly, the safety of their competitors.
Riding a tt bike around other people when you literally never ride it outside just isn’t safe, and it’s frankly selfish.
As someone with primarily a cycling/time trial background but who has dabbled in triathlons, the average age grouper is bad enough at handling a bike. I’ve seen two people killed at Ironman events on the bike, and it’s been their own fault.
Unfortunately WTC is just a massive conglomerate at this point and doesn’t really care about anything but their bottom line.
Is what it is. I’m just perplexed how seemingly rational people fail to miss the most obvious problem with what they’re doing, which is endangering themselves and others.
Counter point:
Cycling on most roads is very dangerous. That means you are packing your bike onto your car and driving off to somewhere that's safe/safter to ride. That is even MORE time dedicated to what is already an immense amount of time. You could easily end up spending 5-6 hours dealing with what's just 3 hours of actual time on the bike.
Yeah I'm sure their time is important to them. But if they don't have functional cycling skills for a 112 mile bike leg, their chances of injuring themselves or competitor is probably high than if they were biking outside a few times a week.
Would you want to hop on an airplane with a pilot who only practiced flying in a flight simulator? Probably not. Nor would that pilot be very comfortable doing it.
I never knew much about triathlon times until I did them and many of you, who are pure runners, may have missed what I thought was the most funny thing in this article: First, they leave the reader impressed by all the advantages these people have -- super-expensive gear, personal trainers, $s to fly anywhere to overpriced races by the Ironman Corporation, and even the ability to buy their way into the championship Kona race (this is appalling! should be based only on qualifying race results). But then they mention that the best of them do a half-ironman (which Ironman corporation comically no longer calls a "half") in about 6 hours. SIX HOURS???!!! I did a half in the 4:40's on a cheap used bike, and I'm nothing special, I have plenty of friends quite a bit faster than me. Six hours is really a mediocre time for this distance - and to do it on tens-of-thousands-of dollars of equipment? Hilarious! I'm not sure of the most meaningful running analogy, but, to get a sense, imagine an article about people paying tens of thousands of dollars for elite run coaches, personal trainers, top masseurs and sports therapists, gait analysts, vO2max tests, sports psychologists, extremely expensive fancy shoes and running clothes, etc... in order to prepare for a series of 1-mile races around the world -- but then you find out that the best of them ran the mile in these races in about 8 or 9 minutes(!) These folks may be able to buy their way into Ironman corporation "champion" races, but you know what they obviously can't buy? Champion-quality performances!
6 hours isn't bad. It's certainly not 8 to 9 minute mile bad. Probably closer to 6 to 7 minute mile. I think the general breakdown is 45 min swim, 3 hour bike and 2:15 run. Obviously if you're running 215 after a 3 hour bike ride you can probably break 2 fresh so that's already 9 minute mile for 13 miles...a far cry from doing 1 mile at 9 min pace.
Of course they're going to have mediocre times. They spent their youth climbing the corporate ladder. Now they get to use that money in an attempt to buy back some of their youth. Most of you would trade your race times for the amount of money they're making. I sure as hell wouldn't be sad getting in my lambo after finishing mid pack.
"6 hours isn't bad" - I said it is mediocre, not a time that should get someone into a championship race. And remember that 6 hours is what the *best* of them did. You're certainly generous when you write "Obviously if you're running 215 after a 3 hour bike ride you can probably break 2 fresh"... you do realize that your "subtract 15 minutes" or "subtract 12%" for fresh legs implies that all either the fastest male or female triathletes would have to do to break the world records in an open half marathon is enter a race without biking first? But, let's go with your very generous assumption for a moment (you don't like my mile analogy so I'll use your open half marathon example): wouldn't you find it rather comical if you read an article about a group of runners who were each spending tens of thousands of dollars on elite coaches, personal trainers, top masseurs and sports therapists, gait analysts, vO2max tests, sports psychologists, aerodynamic running skin suits, specially custom-made high performance shoes, etc..., and traveling all over the world to enter half-marathon races -- it all sounds great so far! -- and then you read that the result of all of this was that *best* of them had barely broken 2 hours for a half-marathon?! Of course, one could say "2 hours isn't bad" - but it is certainly mediocre, inappropriate that 2-hour-half-marathoner should be able to *buy* their way into a world championship event, and so incommensurate as to be comical that it is the best result that all those tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and trainers could produce!
"6 hours isn't bad" - I said it is mediocre, not a time that should get someone into a championship race. And ...
Jealous?
YES! I am jealous of my friend who did his first half ironman in the low 4:20's on cheap gear, when I was only able to go in the 4:40s on the inexpensive used bike I bought. So, you're right, I'm a jealous guy. And I'm jealous of my female friend who won SOS in a faster overall time than I could do, and of my male friend who had a full time job and family but finished in the top 100 at Kona in multiple years when his maximum training week was 16 hours. Jealous, and jealous...guilty as charged. But of folks who spend tens of thousands of dollars, can barely break 6 hours in a half ironman, and have to buy their way into championship races? Not so jealous of them! :-)
someone who can spend $100K/year on ironman training, equipment, and race travel is not in the 1% they are in the 0.1%. It was in interesting article. I thought that Ironman competitors were sometimes characterized as elitist or that the demographic does not represent America. XO Ironman takes that to another level. There were a few mistakes in the article - paying $350 for a pedal power-meter is actually pretty cheap.
I do triathlons and make a lot more money than most of those people, but would never consider blowing $100k/yr on it (or racing CX). Honestly, I have difficulty figuring out how you could even spend that much while keeping a full-time job … you can only travel so much for races and camps.
I will say that most of these people would acknowledge they suck. Like they aren’t trying to claim they’re good because they won Ironman XC. They just like being part of an ‘elite’ club. People also like being in special airline mile clubs. It’s not different.
letsrun is where people get criticized for doing a tri, or cross fit, or not being able to run a "fast" 5k, but also get criticized for being fat couch potato that does nothing but watch tv and eat processed food.
Ehhhhh wrote: 6 hours isn't bad. It's certainly not 8 to 9 minute mile bad. Probably closer to 6 to 7 minute mile. I think the general breakdown is 45 min swim, 3 hour bike and 2:15 run.
sorry, but yes - those times are quite bad. Every leg that you referenced is worse than mediocre. That’s not far from an untrained effort for someone with a semblance of athletic ability.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but to spend all that money and participate at that low of a level is really strange. Those dollars would be better spend on coaching if the race was the point. But alas, the race isn’t the point. The point for these people is to buy belonging or meaning somewhere. Spoiler - but it won’t be triathlon for a lot of them.