Ironman All-World Athlete?

2015 Bronze Ironman All World Athlete Badge

So, last week I got this email from Ironman saying…

Congratulations on becoming an IRONMAN BRONZE All World Athlete!

Your strong performance during the 2014 season positioned you in the top 10% of your age group earning you Bronze All World Athlete status.

As an IRONMAN All World Athlete, you’ll enjoy a host of benefits at many of our 2015 races, including priority access to athlete registration, as well as special recognition of your accomplishments on your race bib and swim cap, and in the race program.

At first I was like “huh…is this a joke?” or some dime-a-dozen title to get you to sign up for more Ironman-branded races? I remember seeing some other athletes at Lake Placid last year with these white swim caps on that said “All World Athlete” on them. I figured it was just deal were people paid extra money to get some special priviledges or something.
So, since I fell in the Bronze category, I was in the top 10% of my age group in all Ironman races I competed in. I guess that is not too shabby? There is also a Silver category for 5% and Gold for top 1%. Benefits include things like Priority registration check-in, early entry to banquets, some special recognition on their website and on race week, and access to “special” gear. Gold members(not the Austin Powers type…lol!)  get priority entry to certain races. You can see the details here.

So how does this All World Athlete point system work? Well, they take your top 3 Ironman Races of the prior year. I only competed in two last year, Ironman Lake Placid and Timberman 70.3. Points are given based on your finish time and how much time behind the first official finisher in your age group. For an full Ironman distance race, the most points you can get are 5000 which is awarded to the 1st place AG finisher. The points are then decremented by 12 points per minute for each finisher behind them until they reach some arbitrary point floor which they do not disclose. For Ironman 70.3 races, first place starts at 3500 points and decrement by 18 points per minute for each place behind 1st in AG.

You can read more about the Ironman All World Athlete Program here…

So in my case, for Ironman Lake Placid I finished 115th(of 404) earning 2,891 points. For Timberman, I finished 47th(of 193) which earned me 2,495 points. Together gave me a total of 5.386 points for the year. Not too bad considering I only did two Ironman-branded races. If I did a 3rd I probably could have at least gotten Silver status.

I think this is pretty cool actually. Doing Ironman’s with so many other people you really feel lost in the shuffle sometimes. I think I am a little faster than average, but I am surely not Kona-worthy. It is nice to have some way to see how you fare over all of the other racers worldwide. It surely puts a little spring in your step, so whatever works. From WTC/Ironman perspective, it could be a good way to get people to do more IM races. Although, it didn’t work for me since I am only doing one so far next year. Nice try though.