In triathlon, all roads eventually lead to Kona for the Ironman world championship. It’s the race that, with a lot of help from NBC, put triathlon on the worldwide map. And chances are, thinking back to your very first flirtation with the sport, you'll recall that the annual Kona Ironman drama played a central role in your initial interest in triathlon. All in all, it’s easy to understand why each year thousands of age-group athletes harbor the secret (and often not-so-secret) goal of racing the Ironman world championship.

But in order to do so, they must either enter the Ironman Hawaii lottery or score one of the coveted race slots by competing at one of the many Ironman-branded races around the world. For the sake of keeping this brief, I'll describe the process of getting your gold ticket to Kona in a somewhat simplified manner.

Every Ironman race has a small number of Kona slots (usually 50 to 80) that go to the top finishers in each age-group category. Sometimes these slots will roll down. For instance, if one of the top finishers has already qualified at another Ironman race, or has no interest or lacks the ability to travel to Kona for the world championship, a slot will roll down to the next highest finisher in that age group.

Kona slots are awarded the day after the qualifying Ironman race and must be accepted and paid in full on the spot. In other words, if you snag a slot, you'll need $500 to pay for it the very next day. No cash or credit card, no Kona for you!

The real world effect of this slot and roll-down slot system is a wide discrepency among times that qualify athletes for Kona. At some races, you need to break 10 hours (depending on your age group, of course) to qualify for Kona, while at others, albeit in the same age-group, all you have to do is finish the race in the legal time of 17 hours.

This may very well be the case in the upcoming Ironman China. Last time I checked, there were only a few hundred people signed up for the race. Most qualifying races draw 2,000 entrants, so it makes it pretty easy to get one of the 50 coveted Kona slots when a fraction of the usual field shows up to race.

In real terms, what all this means is that the current slot system assigns a significant number of Kona slots by luck (who's racing on any given day), by wealth (who can afford to fly to China this year), and by chance (how far the slots roll down). I believe this system was set up by the World Triathlon Corporation as a way to promote, control and grow its business. The WTC uses the world championship slots as both a carrot and stick.

Take away the Kona slots from a significant number of Ironman races around the world and you've just about killed that race ... Ironman brand notwithstanding. Give 50 slots to any iron-distance race in the world and you've just created a significant new Ironman-branded race that will draw triathletes from around the world. That's a very powerful business tool. Some might even call it (and many have) an Iron monopoly of the iron-distance races.

Which is exactly why I believe the current slot system has to go the way of the Dodo bird.

Every year, it becomes painfully more obvious that the current slot system is simply about money: how to make it, how to keep it and how to make more of it. It is high time the Ironman world championship joins the greatest marathon in the world, the Boston Marathon, and switch to a system of simple qualifying times for Kona.

I would estimate it would take about a week for the WTC to come up with a straightforward qualifying time for each age group. With a little number crunching and some padding, the organization could easily hit its target Kona race size given all of the numeric data it has at its disposal these days. In other words, the WTC could establish qualifying times for Kona and still keep the race manageable.

This would shift the focus away from the money and on to the athlete by:

1) Giving every triathlete a fair and even chance at qualifying
2) Creating a set of constant and measurable goals for anyone who wants to qualify
3) Ultimately increase the reputation of the race, and grow it beyond the politics of corporate control
4) Make a good race great, and let it really become the legend that NBC likes to portray it as

Is it not high time the WTC set Kona free? The race has matured far beyond the early days when a handful of athletes tested themselves against the ocean, the road and the lava. Also, with almost all other Ironman races selling out around the world, Kona has moved far from the days of pending bankruptcy when the WTC purchased the race. Kona has even moved beyond the legendary battles of Dave Scott and Mark Allen. The race has outgrown the star athletes, the early struggles of adolescence and need for tight corporate control.

It is time for the WTC to give up a small part of its control, do the right thing and give the race back to the triathletes that make it great. It is time for the WTC to look beyond its pocketbooks and let the race mature to greatness like the Boston Marathon. The only way either can happen is if qualifying for the race becomes Democratic with a big "D" and not corporate with a small "c".

Roman Mica is an amateur Clydesdale triathlete who lives and races in
Boulder, Colorado, and has his own blog, EverymanTri.com. He is also the founder of the team raceAthlete www.B-FitB-Day.com Challenge. His new book entitled No Seriously, My Training Starts Tomorrow: The Everyman's Guide to IRONFIT Swimming, Cycling & Running was just published and is available on Amazon.