If you're racing Ironman Kansas 70.3 just outside Kansas City and dreaming about a change to race in Kona in October, you're out if luck.
Slots for the prestigious Ironman World Championships in Kona are given only through full distance Ironman events plus a select few half events. Ironman Kansas 70.3 will not be one of those events.
You could race inside the full ironman distance races and train 30 hours week to qualify, or you might play the lottery.
No, you cannot buy your strategies by if you win the lottery, even so the Ironman Lottery is usually a way of entering your reputation for a chance for getting 1 of 100 spots for the people age groupers that do not qualify in an entire ironman event.
This past Sunday, the 2012 winners were announced on and only 1 person was from Kansas or Missouri.
Seiichi Noda, 48 from Missouri won the Ironman Lottery and may get a chance to race in Kona.
Ironman has created a few other avenues including the Legacy Program for people that have raced several full Ironman events and still have yet to create the Kona cut. They offer 100 spots that go on the most qualified racers first.
Ironman also developed the Kona Inspired program where folks have been maing videos about why they ought to get to race. These videos go through a compilation of votes to discover the winner.
As you can view, there are lots of ways to have to Kona, but none seem to be easy.
For the whole list of Ironman Lottery winners, click HERE.
If you would want to be notified when Ryan publishes a short article, click here "subscribe" below, follow his BLOG, follow him on TWITTER, find him on FACEBOOK or find him at Man Versus Triathlon.