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Qualify for Kona 2008: The Road to the Ironman Triathlon World Championship

By Raymond Britt

The first time I saw the Ironman Hawaii World Championship broadcast on television, I knew I wanted to be there myself one day.

I wanted to join the athletes who had competed, struggled, and finally crossed the line in Kona after completing the 2.4 mile, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile marathon. It looked like an epic undertaking, an epic achievement. It looked glorious, it looked painful, and it looked life-changing. I wanted that.

And I wanted the pride that comes with saying I had qualified for, and finished, the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona.

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One problem, however. At the time, I had never competed in a triathlon. With no background whatsoever in swimming, biking and running, my getting to Kona seemed just about as likely as my chances to pilot the next rocket to the moon.

Qualifying Slots

Getting to the Starting Line at the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona is not easy. Each year about 50,000 triathletes compete to earn one of about 1500 qualifying slots at these races.

Each Ironman race has its allocation of slots determined by that race's organizers, and the number can differ by event. For example: Ironman races in North America offer 80 slots each (72 for age groupers, 8 for pros); Ironman Germany has 125 slots (113 for age groupers; 12 for pros); and Ironman Brazil has 50 slots (45 for age groupers; 5 for pros).

With an average of less than 75 slots per race, distributed among each age group, the competition is fierce.

An Average Athlete's Road to Kona

With no previous background in swimming and biking, and two years of running experience under my belt, I competed in my first Ironman in 1997 at the age of 36. I finished, but also proved to myself that getting to Kona would be all but impossible. I was so far behind the ones who earned Kona slots that it was clear I probably could never hope to compete with them.

I continued to enjoy competing in Ironman races in the next few years, with the gap between myself and the Kona qualifiers still seeming insurmountable.

But then, I began to close the gap. Slowly but surely, it began to seem less impossible. Even remotely possible. I just needed to figure out how to get there.

The challenge and the reality: I had a busy full-time job as an executive, four growing kids, and a personal need to keep those as priorities. As ever, training time would be limited to early mornings before breakfast, and a few hours on weekends.

I had to make it happen averaging little more than an hour per day. I had to figure out how to make it all fit. I did.

In 2002, I earned the Kona slot that had seemed a distant impossibility only two seasons earlier. I also qualified for Kona in 2003 and 2004, and proudly finished in each of those three years.

The best news: I've been able to run all those races with average training of less than nine hours per week. I've got the details to prove it, in my detailed training plans.

One of the most frequent questions I receive from readers is simply: how does one qualify for Kona? And with such limited training time?

These articles will help explain.


Good luck on your Road to Kona.

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