So, with my stated year’s goal being to
qualify for Kona via the KPR system and the final cut off date passed, I spent
a couple of days feeling really pretty depressed. The fact that this feeling of
depression coincided with the first few days of caffeine fast and the end of a
big week of training (high level of fatigue) are probably not coincidence, but truly I felt there was
reason to feel upset. Failure is no fun, especially when accompanied by a sense
that there were many things that I could– should-
have done differently or –let’s be honest - better.
The Points Rankings system was introduced
by the WTC in 2011. There are clear commercial interests at work in creating
this incentive for pros to race more Ironman races (that is both having to
choose WTC owned Ironman Series races rather than the other attractive races
put on by competing organizations, and having to do more of them). However, existing was a situation where
was that it was relatively easy
for female Pros to get a start at the World Championship race based on a top
placing (or a roll-down) at just one race in the qualifying year.
For example, in 2010 I qualified with a 3rd
place finish at Ironman UK in a time of 10hr 16. With a (then) small number of
women with a WTC pro license and about 30 (at the time) races on the circuit,
probabilities played a significant part. Anyone who was willing to travel, do more
races and/or race closer to Kona had a decent chance, and certain races offered
significantly better odds for qualification than others based on their
location, prizes purse or timing in the calendar.
So the points system addresses this – now everyone has all
year to collect points, and points are given based on finish positions in up to
5 races. The top 35 women (50 men) holding WTC annual licenses, plus one or two
pre-qualifying world champions, based on points standings at the end of the
summer will go to Kona. With an increasing number of professional athletes, and
an increasing level of performance from the best of those, I feel that the new
system is designed to achieve the creation of a World Championships event which
features only the professional athletes of a truly elite standard.
So whilst my poor mother, devastated at
having her autumn Hawaiin vacation cancelled, considers the system which favours “top-tier athletes” very unfair…I need
to remind her that creating a greater separation between our professional and
amateur athletes is a positive for the sport.
And really this has been my motivation
throughout this whole season – an effort to qualify for Kona in this new
climate and able to count myself as a “legitimate” part of the elite field.
For me, generally posting finishing times a
little either side of 10 hours, I knew that it would require good performances
at the maximum number of counting races (5) and being somewhat strategic about
which races I picked. What I don’t possess in speed on the course, is made up
for in someway by an ability to handle high load – and I know that 5 races in
the year is something I am able to do. I have also learned however, that I am
prone to over fatiguing, and so my training and scheduling of races would have
to be considered carefully in order to achieve the “good performances”
component. I think the details and outcomes of my year a it unfolded will be
the topic of another post, but after the first round off qualifications in July
when the first 31 spots were given, I was sitting in the 30s…with my last race
to go. I had a very good race at UK, bumping me up a nice few places. We held
our Kona hotel reservations, but was far from certain because Ironman UK is
amongst the lowest scoring races in the series, and there were other races
around the world through the month of august. I’d picked my events, raced 5 Ironman and had no more
chances – it really would be down to luck.
My final ranking on the 25th
August - the final cut off date –
is 47th.
Four places and about 500 points below the
final qualifying position. And, as
I said at the start of this post - Failure is no fun, especially when
accompanied by a sense that there were many things that I could have done
differently.
First off, two out of my 5 races were
frankly pretty poor results. Obviously this was disappointing at the time, but in retrospect even more so. Considering
that even on a bad day I should run in around 3.5 hours – that’s just a
question of keeping going. It feels like shit at the time, and there barely
seems any point in raising the degree of suffering even the slightest when the
wheels have truly fallen off and the race for prize money has disappeared into
the distance. But had I thought then that the two places that a 3:29 marathon
would have gained me in both of
those races could have made all the difference to how I spent October, I’d have
found that motivation for sure!
My big race for the year was to be the
European Ironman Champs in Frankfurt – a race I love, and carrying big points.
I had a good day there, however I hadn’t counted on such a stacked field, and
my 15th place finish was lower than I had hoped for. The North American Championships at Mont
Tremblant would have been a better pick for my big points race…my second error
being insufficiently inform to make good the strategic selection. Once my
season was planned in my mind, I had not been reading my news close enough and
was only aware of the increased standing of this race long after I’d committed
to Ironman UK and spent out my races travel budget.
But that’s the way it goes. Of course,
feeling that I got so close, missing out through redeemable errors, I want to
have another crack at it next year.
However, recently announced refinements to
the points ranking system will be in place – these are heavily weighted for
podium finishes, and intended to reduce the number of races that athletes have
to do in order to qualify. This makes it less of a realistic prospect for
“workhorse” athletes like myself. Again,
I see this as a positive change for the sport – a further separation of the
Elite from just those with a Pro License.
Since I find myself on the start line for
Ironman Wales this Sunday, I guess I’m not quite ready to assign myself to the
latter category just yet!
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