Does anyone else feel that the cutoff times are too high for the lower age groups?
Here’s why I bring it up… A friend of mine did his first triathlon last summer, a 70.3, and finished 30 minutes before the cutoff on the event.
This year he signed up for IMTX (his 2nd triathlon) and isn’t taking the training very seriously. The swim is his strong sport and he’ll get through the swim just fine (but not fast by standards here), but is very weak on the bike and thinks his 1 day/wk on my computrainer is plenty, and runs roughly 1x per week for 8 miles or so… Still, even given all of the above, I’m almost positive he’ll make the 17 hour cutoff.
He can complete the swim in 2 hours, that leaves 8.5 hours for the bike, then 5.5 hour marathon (assuming he takes the whole 8.5 on the bike).
It’s just a little disappointing to me to read training plans on here about getting in tough workouts every day and having trouble getting enough time to get sufficient workout time, then hear my friend say “That’s not needed” about the training. When people hear that I’m doing an Ironman they’ll think “yeah, well XXXX did one and he barely trained”.
First thing: Why did you friend run a marathon in a 70.3? Perhaps that is why he was slow?
Second: I think that IM races either need to be fun parties with no cut off times (well maybe 24 hours for logistics) or only for uber studs and below 10 hours. No more of this stupid in between stuff. Invite all or weed out the slow idiots.
Edited original post to remove typo
Hey I’m one of the “slow idiots” right now but that’s why I’m waiting a year to get better at my slower events.
I don’t think I articulated myself very well in the OP and probably come off as just being a dick.
