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New rules..??
Ironman’s proposed architecture
Written by: Dan Empfield
Date: Mon Jun 28 2010
The framework can fix several problems. Calibrating races according to their de facto importance just makes sense. Pros, like AGers, vote with their feet. If, year after year, a strong starting field defies generation even though a $50,000 purse is offered, isn’t it rational to give that purse a haircut, bestowing a historically well-attended race with the largesse it deserves?
But WTC must guard against abuse of the process. These $75,000 purses should go to the better, and better attended, events. WTC shouldn’t try to engineer good fields, rather to reward historically good fields. This process of athlete input should include asking the athletes what races should be awarded the higher prize purses, rather than larger purses being used to bolster an otherwise underperforming race, or to honor a financial deal cut with a city or convention authority.
We also feel WTC’s pain on the issue of qualification. Should a pro make the starting line at Kona through the accident of a cherry pick? No. if WTC is going to pare the field from 180 pro athletes to 80—which it intends to do and will do irrespective of what the pros think (count on this)—then WTC is right: It needs the world’s best 80 pros, and a qualification process makes sense. This, if executed against the backdrop of fairness and egalitarianism.
SERIES QUALIFYING
This is an artful and shrewd idea. Its result, by design—or at least by effect—sucks up all the energy and oxygen available to all athletes seeking to qualify for Kona and Clearwater championships. Through creating a yearlong points competition culminating in a dead sprint ending on the first of September, few but the very best athletes can spare the time to race in a Challenge, an Abu Dhabi (IMG) or Rev3tri event.
This is high risk for Ironman. Starting 15 years ago Euro pros increasingly decided against racing Kona, even if they qualified for it, because the prize money was so low; if an athlete didn’t finish 3rd, he couldn’t pay for this travel expenses to Kona. That trend hasn’t abated. A process designed to keep athletes from racing events other than WTC events may well backfire, and marginalize the talent on Kona’s starting line. WTC needs to take care not to overplay its hand.
Yes, the Hawaiian Ironman has been granted the legal right to be called a world championship. What’s more important, however, is whether the world considers these races world championships. Up until this point, that race has have earned the right by virtue of the stature of its starting field.
Yes, you historically qualify for Kona through racing WTC-aligned events. But there’s always been room in a professional’s calendar to do a few no-WTC races. This new structure places that flexibility in peril: It actively works (whether or not this is the intent) to keep athletes from competing in other events altogether. This marginalizes WTC’s claim that Kona is, in fact, a world championship. Rather, it renders it more like a series championship.
THE CALCULUS FOR WTC
This qualification stampede right up until the bare weeks before Kona is cynical and maybe even dangerous. Has the sport advanced enough to provide viable alternatives to Kona? If so—and we think it has—WTC is playing fast and loose with its brand, treating it in a cavalier way. Certainly, if our recommendations below are adopted, there may be fewer athletes racing its races in July and August, and more of its athletes able to compete in events owned by competing race producers. But if WTC keeps to this exclusive qualification method, it demonstrates a body language that says it’s fearful of the event brands IMG and Rev3 are building.
RECENT HISTORY
Let us remember that WTC has made judgment errors in its policy several times over the past year—all policies from which it’s had to step back: the 8 percent rule; compression wear; enacting rules prior to USAT dispensations. These were small, tactical errors that did little to damage WTC’s brand. But these changes contemplated here are in a different category. How they are implemented, and executed, could bring the world’s great triathlon brand down to the level of the others in its competitive set.
Or, its new policy can raise the Ironman brand to further heights, depending on the care it takes in formulating these changes.
Our recommendation is for Ironman to resist trying to wring every tactical advantage out the construction of this qualifying and prize money framework. WTC has already gotten from the pros a gift of several hundred thousand dollars per year (maybe more) through giving up 100 slots on the Kona pier. Those 100 slots largely “fund” St. George and The Woodlands with AG slots that give these races legitimacy. This legitimacy allows WTC to earn all the revenue that these two races provide it. In return, WTC should honor the sacrifice its imposing on its pros, and, we think its proposed scheme can do that. But it needs to hold true to certain principles. This new framework should increase the worldwide prize purse, not simply in the aggregate, but in the average purse paid out per race or, at least, per important race; it should grant Kona its best possible starting field; it should honor races that deserve money with money.
Our recommended structural enhancements to the framework are two:
1) Establish a point threshold that guarantees Kona and Clearwater entry. If WTC does its homework properly, perhaps 30 men and 20 women will hit that number prior to September 1, and will not be forced into the mad August points rush, the prospect of which demeans the very pros WTC wishes to have attend its events. These athletes can then make travel arrangements at greater leisure, and train for Kona in a way that honors that world championship with top performances by dozens of Kona’s pros, rather than only by the top few.
What should this point total be? Look at the 15th through the 20th best men who competed in Kona last year, and the 10th through the 15th best women. What were the totals accrued, when the point system contemplated is applied to their performances during the season? The average point totals achieved by these high performing men and women would be threshold point totals for automatic Kona qualification status.
2) The time-honored tradition (going back to 1978) of allowing top Kona finishers an auto-requal to Kona is going to be scrapped, based on the published document. That’s regrettable. But it’s worse than that. According to the proposed framework, every other Ironman past September 1st—except Kona—fulfills the requirement of a completed Ironman in order to race Kona.
There is a middle ground. If WTC is going to scrap the auto-requal benefit to a top-10 Kona finish, then at least make a top-10 Kona finish count as the Ironman race the athlete needs to perform prior to the subsequent year’s Kona race. Requiring an Ironman to be raced in addition to Kona—in order to be eligible for Kona—smacks of a desperate attempt to fill unattractive races through a coercive and anti-competitive process.
Ironman is a great brand, and it’s been well-husbanded throughout its ownership, by Valerie Silk, by Dr. Gills, and now by Providence Equity Partners. But WTC’s management team has exhibited a recent history of decisions from which it’s had to embarrassingly crawl back. This, because it announced structural or rule changes without thinking them through; and by taking only its own counsel, rather than by first talking to stakeholders who might not have a corporate blind spot.
WTC’s new architecture can be a big step forward. We applaud the thought; we applaud the effort; and we stand behind the theme. At the same time, WTC needs to remember that it routinely fails when it doesn’t listen to its customers before making a myopic decision. So, we also applaud this period of input. But it needs to be more than perfunctory. It needs to be a true partnership with its customers and, for the purpose at hand, the customers are the pros who patronize and legitimize these world championship events.
Ironman Hawaii
Re-posted courtesy of: RunTri.com
raymondbritt@runtri.com
The Kona Ironman morning routine will be much like your other pre-race experiences, but this one will have a couple of differences. First. you will have to line-up to get formally body-marked – it’s a real process — and the line does not move quickly. It you are the kind that needs plenty of extra time in the transition area to feel relaxed, get to body-marking very early.
Second, there will be television camera crews surrounding the athletes, focusing specifically on the pros and a few pre-selected age groupers. It’s the beginning of everything you’ve seen on the television broadcasts of the race. There’s Natascha Badmann . . . there’s Norman Stadler . . . It will strike you at that moment: This is Real, I am Here. The fun begins.
There’s only one thing to worry about: getting in the water before the cannon fires at 7am. The very narrow stair entrance to the ocean at Dig Me Beach means that it’s a single-file process. The line can extend even farther than the bodymarking line did. If you need to be in the water comfortably a few minutes before the race starts, get there early.
Swim
There is no Ironman swim that is as enjoyable as the one in Kailua-Kona Bay. Unless rough water conditions have churned up the sandy bottom, as happened in 2002, the water is clear and the views are spectacular.
When you’re in the water before the start, just look around. It’s an amazing moment. You are really there. It’s everything you expected it would be. Then . . . boom! And cheers. Off you go.
As you work your way into a good rhythm in the water, you’ll start to notice that you’re among a good, even polite, group of swimmers. Maybe this is more true for the slower swimmers, like me. In other Ironman races, with up to 2500 people in the water at the same time, the congestion can be unreal, the constant contact frustrating.
But in Kona, you only seem to be around good swimmers, ones who know where they are going, who don’t bang into you. You’ll find the swim experience enjoyable because you’re really swimming with a group of swimmers like you. It’s like a group run, you’ll enjoy the company of others around you. It will be a new experience.
And make sure you look down often to take in the scenery. It can be wonderful, and even distracting. But worth it. That’s the part of the swim you’ll remember most.
Others who know better tell me that the Kona swim is typically breezy out to the turnaround, followed by a tougher return. The return to shore has been likened to a ‘water treadmill’; you don’t move forward as fast as you think. No matter, you’re there for the experience. Enjoy it.
Bike
One of the things I looked most forward to was the 112 mile ride through the lava fields. It looked like a spiritual experience as I watched it on television broadcasts, and it was exactly like that when I got there in person. But first, you have to get there.
I break the Kona bike course into five parts: warmup, fast and fun, legendary climb, screaming downhill, headwinds going home.
Warm up
The first several miles of the bike course, in and around the town of Kona, seem to be designed to break up the pack somewhat. There are small climbs and descents that basically give cyclists the opportunity to warm up without going crazy. The first miles are such that you won’t see a lot of passing, and you’ll realize it’s best to just hold your position and get into a comfortable cycling rhythm.
Fast and Fun: to Waikoloa
When you get onto the Queen K highway, the best part of the bike course is ahead of you. The highway is nicely paved, the undulations are friendly and not too challenging. You’re fresh and you’ll feel like picking up the pace a little. Go ahead. Just keep it in check; tougher miles are ahead.
Look right, left and forward. All you will see is dried lava. You’re out in the middle of nowhere, and it’ll be nearly silent, except for the sound of cyclists pedaling. Mile-after-mile through fields that feel like an endless moonscape. Where else will you ever have an experience like that? It’s where you were meant to be.
Your bike computer will say are fast, having a great ride. And that will be a true impression for the first hour or two. But when you reach the intersection for Waikoloa Village, it’s time for some serious work.
Legendary Climb ‘The Road to Hawi . . .’
After Waikoloa, the course will toss some sharp drops and climbs in the next few miles. And then you will take a left turn toward the west side of the island, for the climb to Hawi.
Check it out on the course map, there’s a point where the climb clearly begins, 12 miles before the top. Mile markers on the road will measure your progress. But they will creep toward you, not as fast as you might want them to. You start the climb thinking: 12 miles, that’s not too bad. And yes, it could be worse, but it’s not easy. Take this time to eat and hydrate if you can.
The last five miles to Havi are more exposed to wind, and you may have to battle that additional resistance. Gravity and wind. Not fun. But soon you’ll be in Havi, an unremarkable town but for the role it plays in the Ironman. Then you’re heading downhill.
Screaming Downhill: into the Wind
What goes up, must come down. And after Havi, you will retrace the course back downhill. It’s a manageable downhill, not so fast that you have to concentrate closely on staying in control. But it’s fast enough to help you gain back some of that speed you lost on the earlier climb.
The bad news is that it’s only 12 miles or so downhill. Then things get a little challenging on the next 13 miles heading back toward Waikoloa. The wind may be getting stronger, and it’s all but certain to be blowing right at you.
Headwinds Going Home
You’ll reach the Waikoloa intersection feeling pretty good, and your bike computer might reveal that you’re having a good ride, speed and time. Each time I got there, I was thinking: hold this pace, and you’ll finish near a bike PR!
No such luck in any of those cases. While the last 25 miles are relatively flat, it’s the pummeling headwinds that will all but kill those dreams. I remember riding 12 to 15 miles per hour, and just not being able to pick up the pace.
The winds are maddening. And the mile markers are there, again, constantly reminding you how far you have not gone. Just hang in there. Everyone is dealing with the same conditions. Everyone will tell the same story when the race is over: the winds were everything you heard they would be. Rough.
Run
In 2004, I remember emerging from bike-to-run transition into a blast furnace of the most powerful heat I’d ever experienced on a race course. By the time you start running, the sun will be high in the sky, the humidity will feel like 100%, and the asphalt will be radiating even more heat.
It takes time to acclimate to that kind of heat after swimming 2.4 miles and riding 112. The good news is that first half of the course provides many opportunities to run in the shade, while soaking yourself with ice and sponges at well-stocked aid stations.
After heading east out of town on Alii Drive, the course takes you to an oceanfront turnaround near the 6 mile point. You’ll do a 180 degree turn and head back toward town. The run course is mostly flat for the first 12 miles or so. Then you’re back in town, facing Palani Drive.
A friend and consistent top age-group finisher in Kona tells me: the race begins at Palani Drive. For him, he’s been running the first half of the marathon smartly. He turns it up a notch or two after he runs the 200 yards up Palani, then heads west on the Queen K.
If you want to be competitive in Kona, he is indeed right. The last 13.1 miles in Kona are where the best crack wide open. You are completely exposed to the sun. There are long inclines to wear you down. And yes, for some reason, the several miles into and out of the Energy Lab can suck the life out of you. The competitive racers will use those challenges to their advantage.
The rest of us – I race Kona for fun – can expect to run more conservatively, trying to maintain pace. The Energy Lab may not seem as rough as it does in Ironman broadcasts; it is survivable. Once you’re past that, 21 miles complete, just 5 miles to town, and you’re an Ironman.
The next four miles have never been easy for me. They seem to be constantly uphill, and they go by so slowly. But when you reach Palani Drive, and make that right hand turn after the 25 mile marker, your best moments are ahead.
Finish
Savor that last mile. You will have trained and raced thousands of miles over the years to get there, For the first 1000 meters of it, you will probably be alone. Most of the spectators are at the finish line. In that relative solitude, reflect on all you’ve done to get to that point.
Two right turns later, and you’re on Alii Drive. Sacred Ground. At first you won’t see the finish line, but you’ll hear it. You keep going. Then you see the bright lights, you hear Mike Reilly welcoming home the athletes ahead of you.
Then it’s your turn. The best 100 yards in endurance sports. Slow down. High five spectators., cross the line with your favorite gesture as Mike Reilly says it:
You are An Ironman.
You’ll never be the same. Welcome to the Club.
Interesting assertions…Steve Jobs
When it comes to tech news, Steve Jobs “is all over it,” to use the phrase the Apple CEO employed in an e-mail explaining his company’s investigation of suicides at the Chinese factory making iPhones. Yet his on-the-record press interviews have been rarer than Obama press conferences.
Tuesday night, he granted an onstage dialogue at The Wall Street Journal’s D Conference where he cheerfully handled questions on the big Apple issues of the day, including the Foxconn suicides. (“We’re all over it,” though he said the suicide rate in the factories is lower than in the general population.)
He gave only a couple of solid clues about Apple’s plans. But in his 90-minute interview session with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, he presented a portrait of a leader brimming with confidence after having his visions endorsed by the public, both by purchasing his gear and boosting his stock price past the valuations of his longtime rival Microsoft.
Mossberg started the questioning with that milestone, which Jobs described as “surreal.” Jobs then adopted a stance he’d take throughout the interview — professing that he was less interested in what company he was beating, or other peripheral issues, than making great products. It’s a theme he’s struck before, and Tuesday night it became a familiar refrain.
“We never saw ourselves in a platform war,” Jobs said. “We just to wanted make the best computer in the world.”
Why Apple’s rejection of Flash in its iPad and iPhone? Because it was a lousy, battery-draining technology that would make for a worse product! “We weren’t trying to start a fight with Adobe,” he said.
Citing previous cases where he voted technologies off the island — floppy disks, parallel ports and HyperCard (!), he said, “We have the courage of our convictions. We want to make great products, and we chose. They (customers) are paying us make those choices.”
Since Apple sells an iPod every three seconds, Jobs said, he seemed to be making the right choices. Anyway, he added, finally answering Mossberg’s question of whether customers were frustrated by Flash-powered sites not running, all people missed by not having Flash was a bunch of ads.
He shrugged off Google’s Android challenge by (a little bit coldly) saying, “They decided to compete with us, so they are.” He wouldn’t admit he felt betrayed by a former close collaborator whose CEO had been on his board. But throughout the conversation, Jobs kept making little zingers which seemed to reveal that while he truly believes in his “great product” theory, the competition part is indeed personal.
When discussing operating systems, he allowed Google’s “Chrome is not baked yet.” In a fascinating analysis of why TV innovation is moribund, he casually remarked that in a few months Google TV will join a list of failed efforts in that area. And with some glee, he made a semi-irrelevant mention of Google’s admitted error (or worse) in capturing people’s private unprotected Wi-Fi transmissions. Gotcha! (He did say that Apple is not going to compete with Google in search.)
And he put Microsoft in its place by theorizing that PCs — which the Redmond giant insists will the tech center of the universe until the death of the universe — are pretty much over, with devices like the iPad their successors.
“PC’s are like trucks,” Jobs said, explaining that in rural times those vehicles were dominant but now are only a small percentage of the market, for those with specific needs.
Jobs’ most mysterious answers dealt with the iPhone 4G prototype whose appearance in Gizmodo wound up a legal flap. He prefers to think of the phone as stolen, rather than lost, and implied extortion as well.
He introduced puzzling new elements — like someone’s girlfriend calling the police (it wasn’t quite clear) — and said the story had so much intrigue that someone should make a movie about it. Then he implied that his pursuing the criminal case, even to the point where cops would raid a journalist’s house, was a case of corporate valor on his part.
He had stood up for Apple’s principals when others urged him to back down. Presumably great products will emerge.
It was prime Steve Jobs, Silicon Valley’s most charismatic figure in a great performance. They should make a movie about it.
