The title is off. I am in the 1%. We don't blow money like that. This is the .1 or .o1.... I do like how it is basically a way to buy your way to kona. Got to appreciate a sport which has found an effective way to charge rich people more. Imagine being able to OT qualify for the marathon by writing a check....
The well off have to spend their money on something, it might as well be on tri gear, it helps the manufacturers employ workers. I liked the quote about how the high achieving execs prioritize sleep, when years ago sleeping little was a badge of honor.
I found the quote about the exec calculating his odds of death at 100% if he continued to bike on the roads, I’d like to check the math on that one. Otherwise this all just seems stupid, but harmless. I’m not losing a lot of sleep over stealing spots for Kona given that the whole thing is a money grab anyways.
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.
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!”
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.
I found the quote about the exec calculating his odds of death at 100% if he continued to bike on the roads, I’d like to check the math on that one. Otherwise this all just seems stupid, but harmless. I’m not losing a lot of sleep over stealing spots for Kona given that the whole thing is a money grab anyways.
On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Either reads zerohedge a lot or big fan of fight club ha
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.
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.
LOL! This post shows exactly the difference why you are a plain Ironman and they are Ironman CX.