Too many?

A nice quiet day today, no coaching and obviously no exercise. Just a quiet day spent relaxing with the family, finishing off some training programs, being out and about on a glorious Spring Day, that sort of thing. I also spent a fair bit of time feeling some serious FOMO (Failure of Missing Out for the older generation) watching all the racing going on around the world.

The big deal of course is the 70.3 World Champs going on at the moment. The men's race is yet to occur, but the women's was pretty impressive. The highlight for me was former Perthite, Swim Smoother and Break Your Limits member defending her 40-44 year old World Championship. The win even came after a 4 minute T1 caused when she given the wrong transition bag and had to run back to find her correct one. Dual World Champion has a pretty special ring to it. It is no secret that Janine is simply awesome and this back up win simply confirms it.

On the Pro front it was another impressive win for Ryf. Watching Ryf dominate I am torn between pure admiration and the hope that somebody will come along to challenge her. The hope for a challenger is simply from a selfish desire to see the amazing racing that would occur. Like when any athlete dominates their sport for a while, you can find yourself longing for a bit of variation. The same goes from Frodeno. I would never disparage him, like Ryf he is an amazing athlete who, when he is at his best, operates at a different level, which is forcing the entire long course world to step up. However, I would love to see others come up to their level just for a bit of variety. It will happen eventually (it is perhaps already starting), but until then the results can feel a little predictable, although no less impressive.

The other big race of the day on the local scene was the Sunshine Coast 70.3. This is the race that was the World Championship course last year. Given that the World Champs are on this weekend too, the event attracted a very large and strong Aussie and NZ Pro Field. Sounds like it was quite an impressive race, with a great performance from former Perth Pro Katie Gibb to take the win. A very honourable mention should also be made for Kerry Morris, another Perth Pro who pulled out on the run leg after dropping from 2nd to 4th. Usually pulling out after dropping back in the field wouldn't be a good thing, but in Kerry's case she is pretty unwell after racing in China a few weeks ago. Being in second place to start with, given how she is feeling, is worth a lot of admiration in my books. By my count Kerry has done about 5 Pro races now (all since the start of 2017) and of those she has 2 x DNF, 2 x 3rd and a 4th. Quite an impressive record in my view. Pretty sure she has big things coming her way.

While the racing has been great, one thing I wasn't such a fan of this weekend was simply how many races were on. I just checked and this weekend alone Ironman had 4 x 70.3 and 3 x Ironman, as well as the 70.3 World Championships. Now I can accept that a lot of Ironman athletes wouldn't want to go to the 70.3 Worlds, but still, 4 alternative races on the same day as the World Champs? Surely on the World Championship weekend that should be the only show in town, or at least the main one. I have always felt that the 70.3 Worlds don't really get the respect they deserve. I think it has improved since Iroman took the decision to move the event around, but still, the event doesn't seem to carry much weight. If you want to see this phenomenon in action simply go and watch a 70.3 roll down ceremony compared to an Ironman one. In Ironman having a Kona slot roll down happens, but not a lot. In a 70.3 event you have a pretty good chance of getting a roll down in you are in the top 10 of your age group, perhaps even in the top 15 if are in a big age group. I know when I went to the 70.3 Worlds in 2013 the last person to get a slot in my age group was 16th. The same can be said in the Pro Ranks. In the Pro men you have a decent chance of getting a 70.3 Worlds invite on roll down if you are in the top 100. For Kona though, forget it, if you aren't very close to the top 50 you won't get a chance. People simply don't give up Kona slots, whereas 70.3 Worlds seem much more optional.

The above is an issue, but a solvable one, however, to me Ironman isn't really helping. By having 7 other events on the same time as Worlds it is like they are admitting that the 70.3 Worlds aren't really a big deal to lots of people. Lots of people already feel that Ironman is more about the money than the sport and by having so many other events on the same weekend as the World Champs, it sort of feels that way. To me it kind of says 'forget the Worlds, just make sure we pack as many people into as many races as possible'.

I could have that wrong, but that is sort of how it feels. To me it just doesn't feel right.