Kona Lottery

My buddy D__ just clued me into something that won't affect me one way or the other, but is creating a small furor in the long-course triathlon community: the change (described here) to the Kona lottery entries. When the Ironman was established, the organizers desired that the race always be open to regular people. I guess some of the early finishers must have been just that -- when I last looked (which was a while back, so my memory may be spotty) top finishes were in the 11-hour range before Dave Scott showed up. They've satisfied that desire by holding a lottery every year, as well as opening a few spots for special cases -- e.g., if one of the Chilean coal miners wanted to run, $10 says he'd be permitted to do so without qualifying.

I personally decline to enter the lottery. No moral issues, but I'd kind of like to qualify. The reality is, however, I never will.

The new approach is to permit 12x IM finishers to run without qualifying, and also to run a (presumably smaller) lottery with preference given to those who have tried several times to get in through the lottery but failed. This has a few obvious impacts:

(1) it guarantees some people entries, as there are surprisingly many 12X and greater finishers out there;
(2) it decreases the non-IM-triathletes who get in purely on lottery slots (so decreases the "can he beat the clock getting out of the water" drama);
(3) it encourages spending on race entry fees of up to $1000 (IM NYC 2012 -- price discrimination has found its way to IM racing) many times over, and disincentivizes "wasting" a race on an unbranded event.

Competition-policy concerns aside, I like the change. Because I could see going to Kona having earned my entry, though not having qualified. But there's the fallacy, because I ain't running 12 Ironmans. 12 140.6s is possible (7 to go). But when I can run the Chesapeakeman for $195 plus one $55 hotel room the night before -- or even go exotic and run the Israman -- I have a hard time seeing myself as an Ironman-brand loyalist.