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Coach Russ Cox on Qualifying for the Ironman World Championship
757 Plays8 days ago
Michael welcomes UK-based triathlon coach and data analyst Russ Cox to unpack Ironman’s major overhaul of its World Championship slot allocation system. Drawing on his 14 years of statistical modeling and 16 years of coaching experience, Russ explains how Ironman’s shift from participation-based to performance-adjusted qualification is reshaping who gets to Kona — and what that means for athletes, coaches, and the broader triathlon community.
- The origins of Coach Cox’s Ironman results database and its evolution from manual HTML scraping to modern race analytics
- Key environmental and geographic factors influencing Ironman course speed (heat, humidity, elevation, wind, road surface)
- The 2024–25 transition from the legacy slot allocation system to Ironman’s new performance-adjusted ranking model
- How adjustment factors are derived from the top 20 % of Kona finishers by age group
- Implications of a single combined men’s/women’s pool and early evidence of gender and age-group skew
- Why 50–54-year-old men have disproportionately benefited, and how that may (or may not!) self-correct over time
- Effects on athlete race choice, qualification strategy, and how coaches can advise under the new framework
- Practical guidance on interpreting adjusted times and using Russ’s online tools to benchmark Kona qualification potential.
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Transcript
Introduction to Ironman Changes
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, folks, Michael here. The episode you're about to hear is with Coach Russ Cox, where we discuss the new a qualification system for the Ironman World Championship in both the full distance and the seventy point three s And um because we recorded this conversation originally, but way back in the beginning of October, I asked Russ to see if you had anything else to say, given that there have been some recent races that have been run and based on the qualification results from those races,
00:00:31
Speaker
um and ah primarily he stood by what he said earlier, that there we're still obviously seeing ah some age groups, specifically older men, do very, very well, and other age groups like obviously women, but also even younger men do less well.
00:00:48
Speaker
um And one of the things we get to in the episode is how you can't please everybody all the time, of course, but um Russ makes the point of you could – upset fewer people with ah with a better system potentially. So um have a listen. i think it's a really interesting conversation where some of the stuff came from and how Russ's website and his services can help wade through the ah the massive data that goes into making these decisions.
00:01:17
Speaker
So that's announcement number one. Announcement number two is that I will be racing Ironman Arizona on the 16th of November. So if you are going to be in the area, um send me a note, podcast at eitech.io.
00:01:33
Speaker
um And ah yeah, love to say hello.
Coach Russ Cox's Journey
00:01:36
Speaker
On with the show.
00:01:43
Speaker
Hi, everyone. I'm Andrew. And I'm Michael. and you're listening to the Endurance Innovation Podcast.
00:02:03
Speaker
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Endurance Innovation. Joining me today is coach Russ Cox, who's been on my radar for almost as long as I've been doing triathlon, ah simply because he's got a really interesting um analysis tool for race comparison and cone and qualifications. And we're going to get into a lot of that stuff. But before we do, ah Russ, thank you very much for taking the time and welcome to Endurance Innovation.
00:02:33
Speaker
Hi, thanks for having me.
Race Factors: Climate & Elevation
00:02:35
Speaker
Okay, so let's start with ah with your background. um you're You're clearly a coach um and you've been you've been working on this, I don't know, you what the best word to call it, this this database.
00:02:46
Speaker
ah Tell us a little bit about how that came to be. ah Sure. um So I've been coaching for about 16 years. um Prior to that, I worked in software development for about a decade.
00:03:01
Speaker
um And then yeah've I've kind of been in science and stats through my education and and an early life a long time ago now. um I started looking at this data ah couple of years into coaching.
00:03:19
Speaker
um Partly because, ah you know, I see lots of questions from athletes about what performance you need, you know, to do this Ironman here or this Ironman there.
00:03:33
Speaker
and um and And, you know, this is quite a while ago in in terms of what the internet is like for discussing and discovering things. So sure it was a little bit harder to find out good information on this at the time anyway.
00:03:46
Speaker
um And I really wanted... proper answers to it rather than you'd go on a forum and you'd get somebody say, well, I reckon, you know, this is what's going, I wanted to see what the data actually showed. And I realized I had the skillset to build tools to get the data.
00:04:05
Speaker
Um, you know and And at the time, it wasn't in the most readily available formats, but I could build tools to get that, put it into a database, build stuff to look at it and and do stats, make graphs from it and things like that. Just to clarify, were we're folks asking you, ah i want to do 10 hours at this course or I want to do 12 hours at that course or do I want to qualify for Kona? What sort of questions were you getting?
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. The 10 hours is actually a ah good mark. That was one of the very early questions. I think um ah ah certainly, you know, this is quite a male focused answer in picking 10 hours, I'd say, yeah um especially back then.
00:04:46
Speaker
very male dominated sport in terms of people who were talking about it online. Um, and, uh, so one of the questions was, you know, going under 10 hours. Uh, and I think it still remains one of those clear marks. I've often, you know, I compare it with, it's a bit like going under three hours for the marathon. for the marathon. Yeah, for sure.
00:05:05
Speaker
It's funny that we're talking about this because one of the reasons, you know, I said that I've been following you for a while and I really wanted to have you on the show. But one of the reasons it's a little bit more in the back of my mind is I'm racing Arizona in a month and I'm trying to go under 10 hours. So this is a complete, a complete coincidence, but I'm just got to throw that out there because it's a fun, yeah, coincidence.
00:05:26
Speaker
But yeah, so so so actually some of it was was about answering that question. It was it was being able to go, well, at this race, on average, someone does, I don't know, a 105 swim, 5, 10 bike, whatever, run split, you know, and getting a sense of what the actual splits were rather than just that kind of vague questions and answers that were going on on the forums at the time. um ah Yeah, and just actually being able to have precise answers to that because – And, you know, I was aware I'd done it when I'd been racing in the past. ah
00:06:01
Speaker
What do we do before a race? We start looking at old results from the race try and get a sense of what we might expect there, you know, how we might do.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, because it's stating the obvious that that races are very, very different from from all the all the the the different perspectives. And maybe maybe it's worth just stating the obvious a little bit again here and and talking about why are some races slower than others?
00:06:27
Speaker
i Sure, yeah. I mean, you know, the most obvious thing... The biggest thing is humidity and heat. The slowest races in the Ironman calendar are like Malaysia, Taiwan.
00:06:41
Speaker
um It's so funny. I was expecting you to say elevation. Elevation is is up there. Yeah, but you said humidity and heat. You're speaking my language because, yeah, that's something that, you know, listeners, you'll know that we we spen we spend a lot of time thinking and talking about. But I totally agree that that would have a bigger net negative risk than than elevation.
00:06:59
Speaker
so So absolutely. that like you know If I look at... If you go on my site and you order any of the kind of lists of of age group average times for races and you order it slowest first, then it's pretty much always Malaysia or Taiwan at the top.
00:07:18
Speaker
yeah um And they aren't... It is primarily, yeah, the climate there. And I think there's two factors there. ah Firstly, the majority... you know I would say Asia probably has a smaller full distance Ironman community than Europe or America. I think that's probably reasonable to say.
00:07:38
Speaker
awesome um And ah doesn't have lots of people coming in from outside of asia you get some australia like australia new zealand and that comes in a little bit but less from america and europe and that's predominantly because the the climatic climatic conditions are not comparable and it's really hard to prepare for high humidity and high heat if you're not in high humidity and high heat um So it it doesn't pull in this field of athletes in the same way that European and North American races don't. So there's kind of an aspect that affects it there.
00:08:17
Speaker
But equally, it also is a a set of conditions that will slow you down and will mean you have to be slower to perform there. you know compared You know, if you try to race like you are in a nice...
00:08:31
Speaker
ah you know, mid-20s Celsius ah kind of European race, you're gonna you're going to have a disaster potentially in those conditions. 100%, yeah. so So that's one of the things. And then obviously the next ones are Lanzarote, Wales, and Leeds, the new UK, are currently kind of up the top there.
00:08:52
Speaker
And there it it is elevation ah mainly again um and a little bit of weather conditions, this time more about wind being in your face or rain in some cases. UK ones are also...
00:09:05
Speaker
the atrocious state of our road system and the quality of surfaces you are riding on and number of turns and corners we put on the course to make it fit in our narrow lanes and back roads that no not a lot of not a lot of 180k straights and uh in the uk yeah exactly so so you you get a whole set of conditions there so those are the slowest ones but yeah generally i would say uh heat and humidity equally you see with that um on the heat side of things more so with european races Every so often, one of the big European races, you know, they're very fast courses, all of them ah will have a heat wave and you'll be like, you know, the run will be ah in the mid 30s Celsius. like I can't convert it, I'm afraid. um No, i' listen, I'm a Canadian. You're speaking my language. I'm a Canadian.
00:09:55
Speaker
100% on board with the metric system. Yes. Usually when I, when I, when I have this conversation, cause we do have a lot of American listeners, I will, I will do, do both, both sets of units, but you're, you're all good with Celsius. Um, so, you know, they're going to be, they're hot, hot conditions and you see, uh, those years are noticeably slower than the more moderate conditions. Uh,
00:10:18
Speaker
So, you know, heat's a big thing and in terms of it. And, you know, and it it's it's the variable, particularly for, you know, Malaysia doesn't get lots of outside competition because people know they're going to get it there.
00:10:33
Speaker
But you know when you look at European or American races, it becomes this variable that...
Understanding the Qualification System
00:10:38
Speaker
if it is really hot, yeah then you have a slow year. Uh, and it, and it shows in the results of, uh, uh, quite considerably. Um, and as much as I'd love to talk, you know, talk to you about heat, because obviously said before, super, super interesting topic for us specifically, but, uh, I want to move us on to the, the kind of the main idea of the, of the conversation. And, uh, and that is the, the recent change, I guess that happened earlier this year in the, the qualification criteria that, uh,
00:11:08
Speaker
Ironman brought into their 70.3 full distance world championship races. So ah that's where I want to ah really ah for us to focus on. um And so to start, walk us through what that what that change was, where we were before and where we are now.
00:11:23
Speaker
Sure. So the old system, which essentially been in place for decades, you know, for for as long as there's been a qualification process, as you know, and certainly as long as I've looked at it,
00:11:38
Speaker
including the kind of historical races, this has been the method they've been applying, um was primarily based upon the number of athletes starting the race and the proportions between age groups. okay um It wasn't a completely straightforward approach.
00:11:55
Speaker
mimic user proportions. It used a piece of maths called the DeHont method, um which it took several years to work that out. And i to be honest, it would only have happened it was Torsten at Tri Ratings found out that they were using that with the pros. So he reverse engineered it to figure out what the method was? Well, he got told me it was, he found out that was what they were using with the pros and he let me know.
00:12:23
Speaker
And I tested it against the age group data and found out it worked exactly. Up till then, i'd been able to approximate it, but there will be these odd discrepancies and I had no idea. um ah and see You know, if you really want the technical stuff, you can look up DeHont on Wikipedia and it will give you all the maths. Fair enough.
00:12:42
Speaker
ah Yeah, i'm ah I'm a math weakling, so, ah you know, despite my engineering degree, so i I'll have to take your word for it. It's it's a piece of math that was used for elections and and managing different districts effectively and the voting between these districts and how to proportionate their contribution to an overall group vote and so on.
00:13:03
Speaker
So next you're going to tell me that Iron Man was gerrymandering age groups to achieve some kind of a effect. It worked um it it works in this situation as well, except I would say the one weakness of it was of it was is it probably worked better when they initially used it and there were fewer races and more slots at each race. As you got fewer total slots at a race...
00:13:25
Speaker
It looks a little bit more skewed, I'd say, um just the way it works. but Yeah, it's a little bit more like the steps are bigger, I guess. Yeah, it kind of feels, yeah, it smooths out as you get to bigger numbers.
00:13:38
Speaker
but Exactly, yeah yeah. But that um doesn't happen there because it was designed to deal with hundreds of thousands of votes, not sure yeah you know tens of votes, effectively. Fair enough. So we started with this proportional, roughly proportional system. Yeah. What did they introduce?
00:13:53
Speaker
So the new system i takes a very different approach to this. um It looks at finishers now. Okay. um And in particular, what it's trying to do is to normalize, level out finishing times so that there's an even playing field between different age groups based on, in this case, ah how those age groups perform in Kona or the 70.3 World Champs.
00:14:22
Speaker
um So everyone's finish time is adjusted by a factor that's been determined based on performances of age groups at the world champs. And I can't explain that in a minute.
00:14:35
Speaker
And that gives a new ah new time that you can rank everyone from first place to last place in. And it won't look the same as your... ah finishing time ranks because the adjustments will boost the times of, ah you know, older, ah you know, it it does, it does kind of match a kind of age degrading performance curve of, of as you get older, the adjustment gets bigger.
00:15:04
Speaker
um And it's quite flat for your thirties and so on. So anyway, it just the time you can re you can now rank everyone by this new time and you start to bring in, you know, ah like,
00:15:16
Speaker
specifically with uh iron full distance iron man where men and women are ranked on the were using the same system uh rather than having any separate men separate women's so it's one big pool now one big pool uh it will bring women age groupers and older men up towards the top of this ranking much more than if you just go on finishing time um So yeah, that that's the basic principle. We have a new kind of way of ranking by performance.
00:15:45
Speaker
And we're attempting to adjust for the fact that we tend to slow with age and that women tend to be slower than men, you know, in in that kind of group sense.
00:15:57
Speaker
um The way they work out the adjustment factors, are they look at the results at the world champs. um If we focus just on Ironman, the same principle of pies for 70 points, but focusing just on Ironman, they look at results from the Kona only in this instance. ah So they look at results from Kona over the last five years, and they take the top 20% of each age group and average that.
00:16:21
Speaker
Now, there is a bit they mention where they remove some outliers by a what appears to be a non mathematical method in that it sounds like they pick some people some numbers and say those don't look like they fit the pool well.
00:16:33
Speaker
um But it's not entirely clear. But they look at this top 20%. They average it and get a number they find out which age group's fastest. Sure. And that one is going to be modified by one. that' It's going to remain the same.
00:16:46
Speaker
No adjustment factor. Yeah. Then every other adjustment factor is effectively the proportion of that time that the other age group average is. In the case of Kona, it's 30 to 34-year-old men ah is the ah is the standard, the high the high line, as it were. And then everyone else is adjusted according to that.
00:17:07
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You know, that also interesting would probably reflect the fact that, I mean, you know, there there is the fact that we, as endurance athletes, peak later than shorter distance athletes.
00:17:19
Speaker
But also i would, you know, there's ah there's an element, a factor ah of a cost basis. 18 to 24 year olds probably can't compete as much Ironman and certainly not in Kona as much. Yes. And those who are really good are probably shifting towards pro racing.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah. quite More more it stuff. Yeah. Yeah. so it's ah So it's an understandable result. Like there' are no surprises that it's 30 to 34. Not particularly. And like say, if you plot the the the things, the numbers, it is like an age degrading curve. As you get older, the adjustment gets bigger. um So, you know, if you've got an 80 year old man, he gets a much bigger adjustment, even than like a 50 or a 60 or even 70, you know, they just it just, it ramps up.
00:18:01
Speaker
And so these tables, Russ, are available. I know I've looked at them. yeah you You spent a lot of time with them. So Ironman has published those numbers. Fortunately, I've not had to reverse engineer them. But it would it would at least be very simple in this case. Because you if they publish the qualifying, the the adjusted times, and you have the original time, you can obviously work out the multiplier.
00:18:21
Speaker
So it's it's fairly simple if to work out. So they publish in this time. So let me ask you this. this ah Looking at those at the adjustment factors, does it all jive or was there anything in the in the numbers that looked a little bit wonky?
00:18:34
Speaker
I mean, initially looking at the adjustment factors, nothing particularly looks wonky. Like say, it it follows a fairly neat curve that fits the fact that performance declines of age. And so you kind of think that that seems fairly straightforward. Yeah.
00:18:50
Speaker
You know, and I was talking with ah ah a group, Women in Tri, who had kind of been pushing for the fact that with the the return to a single race, you know, in Kona, things like that, women were not going to get as well represented there. And that was the push behind the split in the first place, if I understand correctly.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So they'd come to me, they did a report that helped push for this split, it seems, and they'd come to me for numbers for that report.
00:19:22
Speaker
and So I'd given them some data to to to work with and kind of discuss what they were talking about. And sorry to interrupt, listeners, just for the sake of clarity, the split we're talking about is is how we went from one day race in Kona to two races, one in Nice and one in Kona.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So... um you know So I'd kind of given them some numbers. They'd done their report, and then Iron Man came out and said, you know, we are going look at it.
00:19:51
Speaker
And then, yeah, one day, just one day, it suddenly they announced a new system. um And it was, you know, quite a shock to me that it was that new. Because I'd spoken with people that asked me, you know, what do you think?
00:20:05
Speaker
might come and I'd assumed it would be on the level of previous things. You know, they'd they'd done separate. One of the things that they changed was having men and women having separate slot and allocation pools so that they would, you know, there was a set amount of women, set amount of men.
00:20:20
Speaker
um I assumed it would be in that. And then this was a kind of, oh, I've got to go and rebuild. Yeah. one of the core elements of all the the tools the website and all the data management stuff i've built to handle this new system um uh but um Yeah, sorry. So so they' done this they they announced this change. ah The broad intention was that while they were bringing men and women back together on the island, they would this new distribution would be fairer because it rewards performance.
00:20:55
Speaker
It's based on final results with this adjustment that reflects performance. the abilities of the athletes. And their performance relative to the best, to their best in their, in their age group.
00:21:05
Speaker
Effectively. Yeah. That, that's, that's, that's the ah fundamental idea there. um You know, and, and it's got a few details in there that it's probably worth going over. So when it comes to, you know,
00:21:17
Speaker
they do all this adjustment to times because it's just a piece of maths they can do as soon as you finish. They just ah adjust your time. Of course, you need everyone to finish or near enough to know exactly all the rankings because one of the things this means is, you know, you just because you finished ahead of people doesn't mean that if they're older than you, they may jump ahead, you know, depending and on the differences in the rankings. But anyway...
00:21:42
Speaker
The way the roll-down process works, which is where they hand out slots, in the old system, they would have a set number of slots per age group that had been worked out based on the number of starters, and they would work through each age group trying to hand out all those slots within that age group. Got it. And only if they couldn't, they'd then pass it to another age group in the same gender. Okay.
00:22:05
Speaker
So if they roll to the the last finisher in any given age group and there were still slots left over. Or if there wasn't anyone there to claim it. You know, these are things that happen. There was always the odd story of, ah you know, someone who was 200 in their age group grabbing a slot because they were eat in the tent and no one else was there at that point.
00:22:21
Speaker
it It happened. um In the new system... They give one slot to each age group that is offered to the first place finisher, the age group winner, and then can roll back to third place if if if they decline. It can go to second then serve. But no further than third.
00:22:41
Speaker
No further than third. And if the third place person declines it, it goes back into the general pool ah slots scan it available. Once they've done that for each age group, this remaining pool of slots then goes to the overall...
00:22:57
Speaker
rankings based on these adjusted times and they start working from the top of that ranking table. Now, if you've already claimed a slot because you won your age group and a lot of the people at the top will be the age group winners anyway, um then they're going to skip over you.
00:23:09
Speaker
But if you haven't claimed a slot or turned it down, you know, going to turn it down, then you will get your opportunity working down that table. um So, yeah, the effectively, I guess, you know, you're talking around uh 16 18 slots going out to winners of age groups something ah in that loud order uh you know depending on how many age groups your particular race has that's for sure and then the rest filtering back through the uh the newly ranked adjusted times um
00:23:46
Speaker
and that this won't have you know this is for everyone so at this point it you know whatever age group you're in if you're ranked 10th but you didn't get that automatic one slot for your age group you now have a chance at the slot um and it doesn't matter whether you know yeah you you whatever age whether you're a man woman you can be up there and and that means you'll get a slot And that's ah that's where it's more performance-based.
00:24:13
Speaker
Very cool. Just a question. the The adjustment time is ah based on obviously based on age, and it's the age that you would you will be in that calendar year where the where the World Championship race takes place. Is that correct?
00:24:27
Speaker
It's the age you're racing at on race day. Oh, the age you're racing at on race day. On that particular race day. So so there is there is a boundary case that that, yeah, there is that boundary case that... um The age group you'll be in when you race in Kona will be the age group you are in for Kona, which is your age at the end of the year, actually.
00:24:47
Speaker
And if you qualify, so if you're racing Kona 2026 and you 2025, but you age up 2026, will qualify in age group. you age up in twenty twenty six you were qualifying one age group and race in a different age group that's a bummer i'm 44 so like uh i would get a couple of extra bonus points if i was uh if i was uh aging up yeah so so yeah unfortunately yeah if you are on that borderline you can be racing in one age group and and then racing in the other one the next one up in kona um that is yeah that can happen um
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah.
Fairness and Bias Concerns
00:25:20
Speaker
But yeah, that that's that's fundamentally how it now works. And do you see any any um you know risks or vulnerabilities in this system, um broadly speaking?
00:25:29
Speaker
I mean, it's still fairly new, but... Yeah, I mean, it's been interesting looking at it so far. um What's become very apparent is it's a very different experience to the old system in terms of how you look at where slots go so one of the things on my website i always did in the past was you could work out the average number of slots each age group will get to the race based on you know looking at the average number of starters over the years you can see it and generally the ratios are quite consistent they don't they change a little bit but not hugely so you might be out by one slot here or there so you get a pretty ah what happens now is obviously you can't do that you have to look at past race results and i've built
00:26:18
Speaker
tools and bits of the website that can do that. And they will look at past results, rank all these old results, and then work out the average rankings and so on that that are achieved at different points in different age groups and give you an idea of where slots might go. By the way, this is the thing that I'm going to do after we wrap up our conversation.
00:26:36
Speaker
Go and have look. Go and have a look at where the slots go. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and obviously when a new race, when I get put some new race data I automatically it's calculating the ranks for these people and looking at where the slots go. And one of the things I noticed that happened straight away was the the very first race we had this ah situation, which was completely different to what we normally see, which was, i think, 50 to 54 year old men got nine of the 40 slots available at the race. Which is one of the questions I have for you. Like, it looked like a pretty sweet deal for the the the the dudes in their early fifty s
00:27:11
Speaker
Yes, so so it's definitely, they've done well so far, um is the thing. the The group that suffered are men in their 40s, because men in their 40s got lots of slots with the old system due to numbers.
00:27:25
Speaker
Lots of us racing in there. The yeah biggest age groups are 40 to 44 and 45 to generally, sometimes to um so they tended to get the bulk of the slots were concentrated there.
00:27:37
Speaker
And suddenly in this new system, it flattens out. They're dead like a little valley quite often between some younger age groups and some older age groups. But but certainly 50s, we've seen other races have similar.
00:27:48
Speaker
It's not completely the case. So it's not just the universal. Every race is just it's men in their 50s. Now we're just yeah going to Kona. What it means to me is that there they're outperforming their Kona standard. So that so they're what they did in Kona in the last five years or their top 5% or 20% in the last five years, these folks who are racing these qualifying races are outperforming that standard.
00:28:10
Speaker
that Yeah, that that's what it fundamentally comes down to. You know, one of the things I've noticed where I like plot kind of top 20 times and against past top 20 times for a lot of races and will check those is generally where you see an age group grab lots of slots,
00:28:28
Speaker
there that year the the kind of top 20 will be well ahead of the average for the race and up near the like the best times that that age group's done in the race so so you know generally there's a degree of correlation I'm not you know I haven't really analyzed it to give a, you know, ah you haven't had too many data points just yet, right? Yeah. and To be absolutely certain, but generally you kind of see this boost. Um, the flip side has been that I know again, talking with women in try, uh, and, and, you know, they're still kind of using my data to kind of track what's happening is when Ironman announced it, they were, uh, they were quite keen to, um, uh,
00:29:13
Speaker
it say state what proportion of people will be, um you know, what proportion of women will be in Kona. And um so so far, we're not at the proportions they were kind of implying in the statement. It's not been as, ah as as you know, as weighted towards women. um So for women's experience, I think it's a little bit more like the old system was where and probably possibly even slightly worse actually in in the, they're getting the one slot per age group, but then there's only the occasional additional slot coming in.
00:29:49
Speaker
So the performances from women are not pulling them into that group. And I guess the, how would you explain that? right who is it's happening So my fear is that, you know, that there's an element of, I wonder whilst they've used five years of Kona data, they've used five years of Kona data that spans the pandemic and some very weird kind of setups of who was going to Kona and when it was happened.
00:30:15
Speaker
Does that affect it? um You know, there there's an element of, ah the are the adjustment factors correct for what we want?
00:30:27
Speaker
um kind of sure do Do you want a heavier thumb on the scale? Yeah, it's kind of, well, there is an element that the thing about qualification in this, ah for Kona, whichever system we've had, there is a degree in which we've arbitrarily decided how we hand out these slots.
00:30:47
Speaker
yeah Yes, it's performance based in the sense that you have to be among the fastest. but we used to do it based on how many of you were racing. um Now we're doing it by trying to say this normalizes your performance so we can compare you all as to who's the most competitive.
00:31:05
Speaker
um But all of it involves a somebody deciding what they want qualification to look like. um Yeah, it's not like some kind of, ah you know, all seeing judgment. you know It's impossible to do, right? like how How do you, how do you, how do you arrive at ah at a perfectly fair system that works 100% of the time? I don't think that's a possibility. No, and I don't think, i think the reality of it is, is there will always be people who feel they've won through the system and people who feel they've lost through a qualification system in terms of what their opportunities are.
00:31:41
Speaker
And that's going to be the case. Yeah. There's always an element of chance. Like even what you were saying earlier, but you know, somebody doesn't show up on, in the tent on the day that they're handing this stuff out and yeah and you know happen to be there and you get the roll down that you otherwise wouldn't have had. And it's nices it's always that element of chance.
00:31:56
Speaker
So there's ah there's's factors like that. And my feel would be, you know, ultimately at the moment,
Impact of System Changes
00:32:01
Speaker
I think potentially you look at this and you and and then the feel would be, well, is you know, we need to see a whole year to have any sense of it. But right now it might feel like, are we going to end up with a race where there's a lot more 50 to 54 year old men racing than normal?
00:32:21
Speaker
Some of the younger age groups are less represented. Yeah. is that a bad thing or is it you know is it not? you know and i you know There is an element there where Ironman as a business also have to decide, can we do we want to make it harder on 40 to 49-year-old men to qualify given they're our biggest market? Yes. There's a lot of factors that go into that, I guess, is is the is reality. and And I think there is a degree to which I would not be surprised if there are adjustments made to numbers in the long term.
00:32:52
Speaker
i I don't think they're changing anything this season. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to, and it would then create a new can of worms of, well, these people qualified in the you know in the old in the old numbers now we have to deal with a new number so but but you know i could potentially see you know there is a review process built in which is that each year that because it's a five-year average from kona okay it effectively will roll in a new set of numbers and roll out an old set of numbers so there is some change process in there
00:33:23
Speaker
ah You know, there are concerns there of will that mean that if you're favoring more and more 50 to 54 year olds, how does that affect their new average if this field is much bigger? I was just trying to figure that, like do that hypotheical hypothetical in my head. Yeah, if there are more of them.
00:33:39
Speaker
Well, it's an interesting one because do you get more faster 50 to 54? So it brings their time down and they get faster. But then that means that their adjustment gets smaller next time. Exactly. So there's fewer of them next year.
00:33:51
Speaker
yeah Or if they get bigger there and you're using the top 20%, the top 20% gets bigger. And does that mean that actually they might even average slightly slower now and you now weighted them even more? Then it's a feedback loop, right? Yeah, and eventually it's just 50 to 54 year old men. and it's So so there's there's going to be some interesting things there.
00:34:13
Speaker
And and yeah I don't know how much Ironman modeled this and tried to work through all of that process. Because in theory, what you could do is entirely model this on all of plant past data and see how it will perform over a decade. I haven't done it.
00:34:25
Speaker
You could do. It's a lot effort. I've just not tried. I have a like a logistical question. so if And I know we've seen a few races like this already, but when we get, um ah so the race finishes, how quickly do folks, obviously you were saying that everyone needs to finish, but then how quickly do you know where where you're seated if you're not, if you obviously, the trivial case is you won your age group. We're not going to look at that case. so If you didn't win your age group, but you're competitive, how quickly do you know where in the pool you you happen to be?
00:34:52
Speaker
So they are on the Ironman Tracker app, they have a PDF they upload of it at the moment. It's not like a built-in feature, but yeah they they do put something on there after the race, and I guess they do that quite quickly.
00:35:05
Speaker
That said, there was at least one instance I spotted earlier, I think it Ironman Korea. Okay. They misused the... they handed out slots using the 70.3 adjustment numbers rather than the full Ironman adjustment numbers on the day.
00:35:21
Speaker
Somebody clicked wrong button. Somebody, yeah, picked the wrong button, which would mean, ah basically it would mean that women were women's times were adjusted relative to the fastest speed women's age group at the 70.3 world chap champs and men separately so women will not be being adjusted relative to men they were being adjusted entirely differently and so yeah that race only the one one that slot per age group for women and then the distribution for men is different to what it should be and it took a well it it someone pointed out you know i posted up some information about you know a quick overview of
00:35:56
Speaker
career and that and the data's up there and someone said well this isn't numbers that they had on the day that you know they've got something wrong know and i had a look and my first guess was well if i was going to make an error with that it would be i'd use the wrong allocation times i don't see how you know that's the most likely thing and yeah so again quite quickly take some numbers look at the multiplier and sure enough, 70.3 adjustments.
00:36:20
Speaker
So it's possible for it to be misapplied, but in theory, yeah, you should have a ah list at the end of race day, uh, or, you know, the next morning there's the list and you can see where you are.
00:36:32
Speaker
Um, you know, but yeah, until everyone, or at least a large majority of people have finished, you're going to get, uh, you know, you can't rely on,
00:36:43
Speaker
where you think you might be relative to the other. I mean, I think, you know, of course, where I talk with people about qualification, um you know, and I do still do stuff where I will consult with people and give them advice on race choices and so on. And, and that, when I talk about that, one of the things we always have to circle back to is that ultimately in this new system, while I have ways to say,
00:37:08
Speaker
this time on average gives you a very good chance of qualification that time's probably faster than it used to be in the old system quite often but also um you you have to go into the race now with a the mentality is as simple as you know you want to qualify you've just got to be as fast as you can and but that's it is what it comes down to you know there's not really much more complexity to it you you know Yep. Do your best. Yeah. When you look at these times, they can give you some idea to what as fast as you can needs to look like.
00:37:40
Speaker
But the reality is, is now if you turn up to a race and ah in the past, say, for example, if you're someone really competitive, you know, your age group, you might go and look for, try and work out if there were certain people coming and racing at that race who you knew were going to beat you.
00:37:56
Speaker
The thing is you, you could confine yourself to your own age group in the old system. Oh, the database has gotten bigger. Now, it's every age group because, you know, what if you're a competitive 40 to 44-year-old and you go to a race and it turns out that all the fastest 50 to 54-year-olds are there, if they smash times out that that you know really outperformed, ah as you said, the Kona standard,
00:38:24
Speaker
there they are. They've taken nine of the the top 40 slots and now you have to be, you know, right up the front of 40, it might be, you know, a couple of sorts have gone away from you.
00:38:35
Speaker
Um, you know, all this is soon to know roll down. But yeah, that that's the reality of it. It it is, you've you've got to go in and you've you've just got to be ahead as ah ah of as many other people as you can be.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah, you know what? It does change the racing dynamics because I remember, well, I've been racing for a little while, but you're just, you know, you're looking for that number on the calf you're like, I don't care about you. You can pass me. No, no, it doesn't matter now. That's gone. That's like, you're racing all of you.
00:39:00
Speaker
You need to be in front of them at the end to be a bit more confident. The problem is if they're in front you and they're older, You might need to be a bit more further in front of them. You shouldn't be able to see them. Yeah. ah um So, you know, there's an element of, I would say, that there is a simplification to how you have to approach this this race mathematics when it comes to qualifying now.
00:39:23
Speaker
You've not got to think about your particular age. group You've just got to think about, can I turn up at this race and go fast enough that this time is likely to put me up there compared to what normally happens?
00:39:35
Speaker
And you've got to accept that there is, as has always been, a risk that people will have turned up who will change the dynamics of the race and mean that a faster time is needed than than previously seen or than average.
00:39:48
Speaker
um And it could be anyone. Yeah, anyway, I think that's the, I don't know, confounding factor. That's like more the complicating factor yeah in the under the new system. And I guess the other thing doesn't really, because of the big change of a system, everyone focused on that.
00:40:03
Speaker
The other reality about why it feels harder for a lot of people to qualify is that we went from a few years of two separate races allowing... 2,000 plus athletes to come and race to one race allowing 2,000 plus f athletes. So, you know, in 2024, I think there was like 5,000 nearly, ah people racing in the two Ironman world championships in 2026, it might be, it'd 2,500 to 3,000.
00:40:33
Speaker
So yeah the, the pool of slots for qualification, uh, again, this is Ironman specific, uh, is much smaller, meaning that if your age group was going to get 10 slots in the past, even in even if they'd not changed the system, it wasn't going to get 10 slots anymore.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, you'd be half that. ah You were going to get less. And yeah, I'd just say Ironman 70.3, because they give separate pools of slots for men and women at each race, it's slightly different.
00:41:00
Speaker
And the proportion of men and women in the number racing will remain largely the same. What's probably happening, and I admit I don't look as closely at the numbers for 70.3, is, you know, you will get those, oh, lots of 50 to 54-year-olds are getting slots here or yeah that sort of thing. Do you know why they would do they would adopt two different systems for the 70.3 and the full distance? I assume it's just because 70.3 is maintaining a split race.
00:41:23
Speaker
You know, Kona, you know, for for for full Ironman, Kona was the... the championship location and it was a somewhat, you know, it was always a contentious thing when it was moved and taken, uh, you know, and then split because it, you know, uh, it was less contentious, I guess when they did two days in Kona, but it wasn't practical from an actual kind of race hosting perspective.
00:41:48
Speaker
Um, but you know, it was very much a thing of Kona is iconic for for the sport. it is It is the place, yeah.
00:41:59
Speaker
It holds a different hold. where is Whereas 70.3 Worlds started in clear water and then has moved around for quite a while and everyone is fine with that. It's not a a thing...
00:42:12
Speaker
a thing that people argue about or speculate about in that same respect. So I think it's primarily that it's that kind of fundamental cone as an iconic location of this sport and is where the championship is. So, yeah, it's going to be more
Success Indicators & Competitive Balance
00:42:29
Speaker
competitive.
00:42:29
Speaker
ah Russ, I want to take us back a little bit to, um to sort of the the motivations and the, and the outcomes. um If you were to put your, you know, Ironman hat on,
00:42:41
Speaker
um what would What do you think success would look like for this new system and how would you how would you determine whether or not you're achieving the outcomes you're trying you you set out to achieve?
00:42:53
Speaker
um I mean, I think... From Ironman's perspective, you know ultimately there's an element as a business as long as they're selling, for sure they're getting people going to Kona, that's working.
00:43:05
Speaker
um I think we we kind of hit a kind of talked about earlier the fact that, well, actually, though, I guess there from their perspective, does it work, though, if you do end up with like a a skewed race favouring a particular some particular age groups because you may be putting off people within other core parts of your demographic.
00:43:27
Speaker
um You know, if their aim is to kind of promote continue to promote women into the sport, try to increase participation and encourage that, then they probably do need to have, you know, a target of where they expect that to be, ah what that means in terms of the percentage of women racing.
00:43:47
Speaker
So I think from their perspective, you know, there's an element of you want a system that doesn't cause too much fuss with athletes, as in it doesn't result in lots of online complaints and the like, and and so on.
00:44:01
Speaker
ah And broadly balances out the groups you've got, so that you've got a good mix of people there and and performing, you know, I think, you know, if if I'm looking at it,
00:44:13
Speaker
I'm generally of the view that, yeah, i i what I don't want to see, I wouldn't want to see, is that next, you know, 2026, 20% of the athletes are 50 to 54-year-old men or something like that.
00:44:27
Speaker
um That would be a signal that things are not going well. Yeah. You know, I don't feel that that's a good feel for it because it, it you know, it's also... um You know, we and we categorize races in in all sports. We're racing. We categorize people. We have men's races, women's races, and so on.
00:44:48
Speaker
And age groups are just a form of categorization, you know, or, you know, just as running has, you know, veterans and and so on as well and different groups for age grouping. Yeah. And it doesn't make, you know, the idea is that within that age group, you're getting to race against the best and get a competitive race against that age group. So it doesn't make sense for some age groups to be really missing out on numbers whilst other ones get lots.
00:45:16
Speaker
ah and And yeah, sure, you know, there's an element of making the whole race competitive, but actually in terms of, ah for most age groupers, they competitive,
00:45:27
Speaker
right at the top it's about podiuming in your age group at Kona is is the the kind of peak for an age group and yeah sure if you can also say you were you know up there in the top 100 at Kona or whatever that's another number but the number most people are going to talk about on note is that age group finishing place there so you want to have age groups to have a competitive field there that feels like it's captured the the top competition from around the world and brought them there. So if I understand you correctly, we'll be able to answer that question when we see the mix of age groups that show up in 2026. I think so. I think, you know, if we do see some really...
00:46:12
Speaker
skewed age ah age groups, that might throw us off a little bit. I mean, if we looked at the old data, then because it was selected based on start numbers, the the start numbers in Kona largely reflected the typical trend of 40 to 44-year-old men with a big group.
00:46:29
Speaker
and other groups were smaller. So we've always had a bit of a bias towards certain age groups. um This was one of the problems we were trying to fix. or the ah but But if we end up with a new bias of a different kind, that's not really yeah the aim. And you know you could say, well, it's are we trying to have a ah slight bias? There is an element of we're trying to make sure there's more women participating in the sport. We're trying to grow that.
00:46:53
Speaker
That might mean there's a little bit of a bias there. But again, what we don't want is a bias that ends up with, you know, 70% of the field is women versus 30% men. Men would be very unhappy with that, just as women are very unhappy with it. We would all hear about it nonstop. Oh, we would hear about that nonstop. Yeah. ah um So, you know, it's, it's,
00:47:14
Speaker
there's a lot of balancing acts, I think, to go there. But but broadly, what we want is for people to be able a race, feeling they're racing against a competitive field in their age group. Sure. um You know, and there will be age groups that are smaller. You know, there's the 80...
00:47:29
Speaker
year old lady you know in the 80 84 age group she's not going to have much competition and in terms of other people racing in Kona you know but yeah she's earned it she's earned yeah exactly you know no but but you know bri we know we're not going to have a situation with large field of that age group um but but yeah yeah I think that that's what we're trying to get and I think it's where There is always that degree of categorization, groupings, and you know it's not just it's ah it's a qualitative thing as well as a quantitative thing. It's not just applying some maths. its there's no There's no one right answer to this, as we've we've probably said two or three times already.
00:48:08
Speaker
um I want to shift gears a tiny bit and and focus on something that you probably are...
Athlete Strategies for Kona
00:48:13
Speaker
you know, the subject matter expert in, and this is athlete behavior. um How do you think this new system or will it affect race choice for folks who are really keen on qualifying? Now you mentioned that it's, it's much less straightforward to, to understand how the process has changed qualification, but are you starting to see ah athletes skewed towards some races versus others? Yeah.
00:48:38
Speaker
So I've talked with a few athletes since we ah since a new system who wanted some help and advice in terms of picking races. And what conversations with athletes about this tend to look like –
00:48:54
Speaker
it's becoming much more about an athlete needs to come away from those conversations with less of a, it's less of a, this race will be easier or looks like the numbers favor you a bit more because there tends to be a few more slots in your age group. We can't say that anymore. It doesn't work that way.
00:49:13
Speaker
Um, it's much more of a firmer line of, well, I can say to you, if I look at this race, um, on average, you would be in the top 40 with this kind of finish time.
00:49:29
Speaker
In the worst case, you would be in the top 40 with this kind of finish time. And in the best case, you're in the top 40 with this kind of finish time. So you get bracket performance.
00:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, a bigger bracket. And you know that bracket could be quite large in some cases, depending on the range you're looking at. But it starts to contextualize what that results i mean. So the conversation is now less about just you know, athletes will say to me, these are the sort of times I think I can do it broadly for an Ironman without thinking too much about courses at the start of it.
00:50:00
Speaker
um So there's a very immediate thing of, well, this is the sort of time that, we think you need, and this is a sort of time that gives you more confidence. um And you can start to really chop and change on what races they might be thinking about.
00:50:15
Speaker
And, and, and yeah, it's a bit harsher, I would say than the old system where you could maybe be a bit fuzzier and say, well, this race has a bit more potential. um I think race wise, It's not necessarily hugely changing the races I'm recommending to people overall, and cra but it's definitely changing how confidently I can recommend them to people, I would say. So typically when I've been recommending, the the obvious choices are
00:50:48
Speaker
things like Cozumel would be an obvious choice this year because it's got 100 Yeah, that's a massive slot out here. Is it a championship? It's a championship, but it's the only, you know, 100 slots is as much as any championship is getting. I'm not sure if Texas is getting that many either.
00:51:05
Speaker
So basically... I think Texas had 100 this year. i was We were there. um Yeah, i'm not sure if they are next I'd have to check. I've got the number somewhere. But ah but yeah, it's the most slots... You've got – Cozumel's an interesting race. It often comes up because it's had some – it's times a wildly over the place due to conditions and and swims being fast with currents and things like that, ah which makes it a bit of a – always feels a bit of a gamble ah because, you know, well, some years it's great and some years it really and heat, though, isn't it? Like it's – what you were saying earlier, it can be iny quite warm. Yeah, exactly. But with that many slots, you get into a situation where actually –
00:51:44
Speaker
numbers start to look a lot better than some of the other places you know i have had some people with texas again more slots um less so like when you go to hamburg and frankfurt they're so tight at the front that yeah well that feels see you you you europeans are fast it's yeah stuff to be true those race courses all very tight with their and packed at the front so they feel less comfortable south africa is often a good bet um it's a little bit out of the way.
00:52:08
Speaker
ah And it's tended not to draw in as many athletes from outside South Africa. And ah that can be a positive factor. You know, it used to be, it's hard to say, it can't say for Ironman leads, but the old Ironman UK wasn't a bad choice for a lot of people um because of the fact that it didn't draw the a bigger pool than outside the UK, which means you can certainly get the fastest of the UK there, yeah but you're not necessarily also getting the fastest of all of Europe turning up. the right All the Germans crashing your party. So you don't get the same mix sometimes. So so these are some of the choices that might go...
00:52:45
Speaker
through my head when I was looking at races for people. Now it's a lot more of of just, you know, I had a lady in an older age group, sort of late 60s, 70s, asking about it.
00:52:56
Speaker
And I can just say to well, look, these are the sort of numbers we can see from what gets people 40th rank. In that age group, I think in the most races, you've win the age group, no? Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, that was one of the things where I've had conversations. You know, one of the things I've started looking at with people is average age group winning time versus the average time for like 40th rank, but you know, or whatever the slot number is.
00:53:21
Speaker
and And one of the big things there is, you know, when you get to these older age groups, what you start to see is, well, actually – to rank 40 if you often have to be faster than the age group winner anyway. So clearly it's age group winner or nothing.
00:53:33
Speaker
Whereas if you go to some of the younger age groups, you see a bigger gap between that. And that starts to give you this range. if you're in that range, you're kind of probably in the right spot. Got it. Interesting. It's interesting how that dynamic changes a little bit. And there's there's there's a little heaps of folks who are you know I've worked with, I'm sure you you you do it all the time. is like who that's That's what they're after. They're after, let's see, you know obviously I'm trying to do my best, but also it would be real nice to get that GQ.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yeah. And there's not, unfortunately, you know the the reality is there's not a there's no trick. There's no hack that gets you the race that that will... that will ensure you're you're going to qualify you know the other thing I'll often advise is can you do two races over that season to qualify you know ah ah one late in the year before one during the year itself you know it's a case of you know the more, then you know, you can't, if you put all your eggs in one basket for Kona qualification and it goes wrong or all the fastest 50 to 54 year olds turn up, you're kind of, you've you've missed that opportunity and you've got to um you've got a wait a whole year cycle again for the next time.
00:54:45
Speaker
So sometimes it's, you know, having a backup race if you can. And obviously that puts extra demands on training, yeah finances and so on, but that's the other a factor.
00:54:56
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's ah it's ah it's a whole, it becomes a job at a certain point. Oh, yeah. and ah you know And most, you know, where i ah where I've coached athletes for Kona, it's very rare. ah I've had a couple of times in my time coaching, I've had people come in to me completely new to Ironman who've managed it.
00:55:15
Speaker
And it's usually been that they were exceptional in one of the sports beforehand. They had a standout performance there. And so it wasn't, as much a step. I've had plenty of age groupers where it's a process of working from, you know, something that's probably, you know, a top 20% in their age group, but you're getting down to the reality is Kona qualifiers are generally...
00:55:39
Speaker
ah definitely under the top 5% in their age group um and possibly more like top 3% nowadays in top two. um One of the things on my website does when you can put in a time in your age group and it would tell you what that time would rank at every single race in the last two years, where you would have ranked, where you'd rank in your age group, where you'd rank in a new qualification system and also what percentile of finishes you'd be in. So you know how and how near the sharp end of age group as you have to be. And yeah, it's it's mostly...
00:56:13
Speaker
right in there in that like like top two, 3%, or you're not going to make it. Interesting. Yeah. I think it's, ah it's definitely gonna be fun to see, especially for us coaches to see what, the what the, the longterm effects are because um you know, a lot of this at this point, because it's so early, we are, we are speculating, but yeah, if we do see that massive 50 to 54 year old bump, if that, if that, if that effect is persistent, then I think it would be, yeah, be curious to see what Ironman does if they do see it.
00:56:42
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, like I said, I don't think they're changed mid-system or mid-year it potentially opens them up to lots of complaints of people saying, well, this has changed the the game on people.
00:56:55
Speaker
ah But I think, you know, the potential that they... are willing to adjust numbers a bit more in future years or slightly alter their criteria is certainly there. And and ultimately they could keep the same system. And it's just as long as, you know, they get their adjustments where they want them.
00:57:15
Speaker
That's, that's one way they could do it without having to radically change again. They just ah adjust those adjustment numbers to suit what they think is. the the kind of the race dynamics need to be.
00:57:27
Speaker
So Russ, as kind of a closing, closing ah blue sky question, if you were the owner, if you had the the magic wand and all the power, how would you design ah a system that that
Russ's Ideal Qualification System
00:57:39
Speaker
feels fair to you? Of course, obviously a very subjective question.
00:57:42
Speaker
It is. It's a very difficult question. I mean, ah there are elements, and it may be the the kind of software engineer mathematician in me that really likes this system because it's so neat to implement compared to the old one.
00:57:58
Speaker
Fair enough. and So there's an element in me that likes that simplicity, but i I do agree that I think the adjustments are all. so So for me at the moment, my answer to that will probably be that, yes, I like the performance adjustment idea.
00:58:11
Speaker
Okay. I think I would be working on the adjustments themselves and how I calculate them to try and find a better system that that kind of gets closer to the output I feel I want. and I guess, you know, that that leads the question of what is that output like? It's not going to be a perfectly flat, you know, there's, you know,
00:58:38
Speaker
each age group gets the same percentage of people so everyone is competing against the same numbers that that's not realistic of what where this sport is and and how the numbers work um but i do feel like the distribution you know we will need would need to slightly favor it should see bigger age groups probably get a little bit more but also ensure that the smaller age groups are still getting enough based on their performance abilities and not ending up kind of, ah like said, the situation for women at the moment where it seems like they're generally getting one slot and that's it.
00:59:17
Speaker
So they might be going in the wrong direction. Yeah. yeah so So in that case, you know, that may be, they're not adjusting well enough to ensure that the competition is is there for the women ah in Kona next year if they don't make sure there's a bit more ah going in. You know, if if you're only getting one slot per age group at all these races, then, you know, your biggest age group is going to be, you know, 40, 50 women.
00:59:45
Speaker
you then you're Then you're top 2% if you're winning that age group. Yeah. um But yeah, so, yeah, some sort of balance. so So my feel would be at the moment I would we'll kind of keep that that kind of performance adjustment concept.
01:00:01
Speaker
I quite like it. ah I would be looking at those adjustments and saying, i think we need to model this calculation more. and you know Maybe it's something I'll end up doing over winter or something. I'd say you could realistically model it by just simulating numbers over
Consultation Services for Athletes
01:00:20
Speaker
decades. One of the things I've been thinking about building and not got around to is a little...
01:00:25
Speaker
web page where you can enter whatever adjustment numbers you want and see how it impacts the year's qualification so far and maybe find the distribution you like by just adjusting those numbers manually or come up with your own calculation and put it in there i keep me yeah it's it's on my to-do list of things i'd like to build uh it's a little fun project but but yeah that's that's where i go Awesome.
01:00:50
Speaker
Well, Russ, thank you so much for for taking the time and sharing this. This is ah like a really delightfully nerdy conversation that we just had, which is like right up the alley. For me, I'll speak for myself, but I think also for a lot of our listeners.
01:01:03
Speaker
um Now, if folks want to ah want to have a consultation with you, if they want to, you know, if they're in that in that group that is that is close and they want to optimize their chances, what's the best way for them to get in touch?
01:01:14
Speaker
So if they come to my website, which is coachcox.co.uk, there are contact me email things on the page where you can drop me an email. It's it's fairly low tech in that respect. you If you email me, and there is a page for it that you can click through to. There's a little box out on most, a lot of the the stats pages that will take you through and and that kind of,
01:01:39
Speaker
we'll put you in touch as well um uh and then yeah if you you get in touch and uh we kind of i'll get back to you and then you know have a questionnaire and things and then we organize a time for a a zoom call basically, or or something similar with screen sharing and I'll just talk through data for an hour with you. Sounds like a dream to me. So there was some PDFs afterwards and the like, um but yeah, it's all, ah all that stuff's on the website and you know, ah generally I'm quite happy for people to get in touch.
01:02:10
Speaker
I get sent. various questions. I try to answer them or solve them. Or as I say, you know, ah sometimes people will point out to me something about the results where there's a problem with results or a race that had something unusual happen that might be worth noting. So, you know, that's all of the information I like getting because I can then potentially feed it into new developments on the site or additions or other things that might be useful for future kind of analysis.
01:02:39
Speaker
Got it. Got it. And I noticed that you're also on Instagram, so I'll also share your your Instagram details in in the show notes. um Thanks again. And listeners, as always, thank you very much for for joining us and for spending an hour with us.
01:02:55
Speaker
If you like the show, give us a rating or review, and we'll talk to you soon.