I hear a couple of factors being discussed by regulars…. firstly, the volunteers have been treated much less well recently, with less in the form of gifts or giveaways to attract them, and have also received lots of grief from athletes (unfairly) due to IM providing insufficient goods for feed-stations… and secondly, significantly fewer athletes bringing partners/friends/supporters due to the huge costs now associated with the trip, and hence a big reduction in number of volunteers from that source.
All sounding like another nail in the coffin for Kona
They aren’t totally unpaid though, I don’t think the IM in the US understands the concept of genuine volunteers. They pay church groups, scout groups etc to ‘volunteer’ for a considerable donation back.
Even then, they still can’t get enough.
Issue is Thursday is a weekday, that hurts availability of volunteers, and I think will bring in a whole new level of angst for locals when their travel to work/kids to school etc is messed up.
My tenner would be on the 2024 race not being in Kona
Maybe by then they’ll have cleared the backlog of legacy people and the economy will have priced a lot of people out of it and so will drop back to single day racing again
I think if it’s a 1 day in Kona vs a viable 2 dayer on the road elsewhere then Messick will have it on the road.
Fairly sure I read an interview with him that more or less said that.
Yep, when he spoke at the welcome banquet at St George in May he was explicit about the fact that they envisage the future of the Ironman WC as a two day affair. He didn’t go as far as to say that if Kona couldn’t support this then they’d have to go elsewhere but that was certainly the takeaway message.
I’d imagine they’ll make their position about the 2024 race pretty quickly after this October and how this year’s race goes down with the local community will be decisive.
It’ll be a different experience this year for sure but Still wishing I was there. Hope those of you going have the experience of your lives!
And if it will ever alternate.
An article in BJSM this week calling for sports to alternate their schedules each year so that women’s events get parity. They highlight tennis as one of the better examples of where that would work within realistic economic models given both finals are weekends at same time so wouldn’t detract too much from TV viewings/sponsorship for men to be saturday instead. Their perceived benefit being women’s isn’t always seen as the Saturday warm up for the Sunday event.
With my current luck they’ll pick Australia as the 2024 venue after I move back to the UK.
COVID rescheduling has moved 70.3 WC Taupo and ITU World’s in Townsville to after I leave.
Keith is already out there, casual 146K of the bike course in 4:06 
Judging by a post on IMJ sub 10 people arent happy, the Thursday was mentioned as they have normal lives. The locals have put out a “notice” to athletes about having respect for the people and the island. I guess the % of douches goes up exponentially with the influx of type A entitled American triathletes.
I saw that and a lot of moaning going on about it. It is what it is and far more frequent aid stations than at any other IM I’ve done. Lanza had them far less frequent. I’ve always planned on taking a handheld soft bottle with me on the run
But, like you I’ve never run a marathon in Hawaii heat, could be wishing they were every mile come the afternoon of the 8th 
Finally getting pumped for next week’s races.
It’s taken a lot longer than usual, but a couple of friends are out there and sending images back, watched a couple Brekkie with Bob’s en route to work and hopefully the folk in here will send despatches back once arrived.
Hope at least one of the races is an epic - Ryf could walk it but I can see Ditlev leading and running well with a good, norwegian led chase coming after him, hoping Skipper can get himself in the run mix too.
Couple of good watch parties at least to while away the dull bits. Has anyone seen Mark Knopfler in Kona?
Yep, really starting to look forward to both races and hoping there will be some real battles on both sides.
Have our Kona correspondents touched down yet? Paging @Matthew_Spooner and @SidSnot, looking forward to hearing your impression of things on thr island and tracking you next weekend 
I think Sid said he’s leaving tomorrow didn’t he?
Ultimately though, I think it’s a shame there’s this friction between Kona residents and Ironman. Most of the Island is actually unaffected; I think it’s a mixture of strong NIMBYism and douchey triathletes tbh.
I wonder how it would affect the local economy; I’m sure there is a crapton of price gouging over the fortnight! I almost feel it’s a golden goose on both sides, that’s being lost.
Move it back to Oahu 
An island with multiple airports fairly near by to make visits easier, not thousands of miles off the coast of the nearest major land mass, nice OWS venue. Canvey Island all the way!!!
ETA: Also, great for when Americans ask “Is that near London?”
you’d have to ask though…. “do you mean physically, or culturally?”