Kona

Watched dribs and drabs yesterday. Wow. Those guys are fast.

The amount of work you need to put into going to Kona as an age-grouper (in the AGs I currently populate) is tremendous. In the 30-40 AGs, you pretty much need a sub-10 IM to get a slot. That's several seasons of 15-20 hours/week of peak training (say 4 months), with my current hours the rest of the year.

Would developing that sort of self-discpline carry over into other parts of your life? I think of the hours I spend to be moderately competitive (say top 10 in AG for local races), and wonder if I spent 8-10 hours / week at karate / playing piano / teaching orphans to read, what levels would I get to?

That said, I'll probably enter the Kona lottery this year...