Yesterday, while on a bike ride, a person mentioned that his goal is to qualify for the Vegas 70.3 HIM World Championship. I went out last night to try to read about how to qualify, but I don't get it. It's a point thing...I get that....but it looks like you don't know until race day if you qualify. That can't be right. How does a person qualify?

Here's some information on qualifying I found on the Ironman.com site: http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/worldchampionship70.3/ironman-world-championship-70.3-first-qualifiers#axzz24f1jDWpv

I was aware you had to quality for Kona, but I didn't know about the other ones. My brother-in-law is competing at this very moment in his third Ironman in Canada in the Subaru Ironman trying to qualify for Kona.

Yes. It's pretty much the same system as Kona. There are a certain number of total spots allocated to a qualifying race, say Augusta 70.3 or Austin 70.3. Based on the way the entries fall they disperse those qualifying slots. So if the Male 40-44 AG had 20% of the total number of entrants it would receive the corresponding percentage of slots allocated to that race. The WTC does this for the IM and HIM distances. The USAT does it for shorter ones. I qualified for nationals in Vermont by placing in the top 10% of my AG in one of the races I did this year.

First, yes, from what I have read, the HIM championship is Vegas. I guess that is why you have to qualify.

Very interesting. Thanks. I don't understand the part about notification race day. When I read the information about it, it makes it seem as if people don't know they have qualified until race day. That can't be right.

You know the day of/day after the race you're in. For instance if I did Timberman 2 weeks ago I'd know post race if I qualified on time or if I received a roll down spot for Vegas. Times for IM branded events are posted real time so you'll know how many spots are allocated to your AG prior to the race and you'll know you placement in your AG (pending penalties) almost immediately as you cross the finish line.