This is just a rehash of what I posted above from Mark.
Marketing opportunity for sure, but if heâs going to be giving free coaching to 500 women free of charge in the hopes that it lays the ground work for future sales of his womens coaching program, cool.
Good name tweaking of No Limits as well.
I donât doubt his good intentions and of course itâs a good marketing and business opportunity as well.
But not sure this will increase female participation in the sport of triathlon ny significant levels. Free coaching is great but there are many challenges that are not going to go away for women in general. Add that to these strange times where there is so much uncertainty in todayâs world and rising costs of everything, more rapidly than increases in salaries and wages. Which makes is more difficult to buy those pricy tribikes and the endless equipment needs for this expensive sport.
Childcare, family needs, careers, then menopause and the cost of triathlon. I mean itâs almost amazing so many of us women do the sport. Itâs not easy trying to do it all with three demanding sports (s/b/r).
Over 55 here and did this sport hard for 10 years - 6xIMs and 16x 70.3s. Iâm now burnt out and feel like itâs all just too expensive. That all being said, if Mark can increase female participation in the sport even just a little bit, that is still good. Mostly men here commenting on most of these posts but just an older female perspective here.
The sport of Triathlon does not need to be expensive at all. There are plenty of cheaper options both with races and equipment.
Mostly men are commenting here because,like Ironman it is mostly men active here on ST.I wish there were more females active here but there just isnât the interest.
My wife is interested in what will be released. She needs motivation. 3 kids later, some Sprints and one 70.3 sheâs lost motivation over the years. But she is interested in what will be offered. She still has the gear needed and sheâs hoping this will help her get back into the sport.
Looks like Mark Allen is sticking with TriDot, which was giving away intro packages of about a month of training back when it was partnered with Ironman. And now TriDot, lacking the flow of potential clients flowing from Ironman websites, is looking to build critical mass by offering training to a certain number of women, which could be a smart move.
I was a bit put off by TriDotâs initial push to sign up masses of coaches by offering to take the planning onus off of them using TriDotâs supposed AI-assisted algorithms, freeing up coaches to do more personal interactions. Also, TriDot was kind of expensive. As was its pool school offering.
I donât doubt Allenâs intentions here, and want to wait to hear more about this initiative, but am skeptical whether itâs just another effort to broaden the TriDot client base dressed up in pro-women marketing.
Thatâs great! I hope she finds success in this coaching and hope she finds her motivation as well.
I guess weâll have to wait and see how it all pans out and how many women take up or get back into triathlon.
Ironman & TriDot had a partnership separation
Does giving away athlete slots grow the sport, does it enhance retention? Maybe it stops it from contracting.
I was thinking about active women friends who got into tri. The general theme is a group of friends or with family members do a 5k together than a 10km. Hooked the next logical step is a half marathon next year leading to a few who get introâd to a few triathletes in the half marathon running group and next thing we see if they are doing try a tri. At this point they have heard about Kona a while back and no one is thinking about doing an Ironman, they just want to know how to do that local super duper sprint.
Itâs that path to the local sprint. So the most useful thing that IM can do is start a IM15 series: 200 yd swim-12 mile bike - 3 mile run.
could be a womenâs only series like the old Danskin, but have 5-6 of these with top women pros to help market women in tri.
Thatâs probably waaaaay more useful to get women into tri than all the Kona talk?
Ive been saying this for years but people who are pushing to increase the numbers in Kona ignore it, especially Feisty Media. We have our Triathlon Pink series which for women and kids 7-13 hosted by The Event Crew based here on the Gold Coast led by ex-Pro Triathlete,Kiwi Brendon Downey(They also host the largest Tri Series in Qld).
https://www.theeventcrew.com.au/event/triathlon-pink/
Last year,between the Sprint on Saturday and the Olympic on Sunday, the Ironman owned Mooloolaba Tri Festival was 51% female.A lot of that has to do with the sporting culture here in Oz as even High School Triathlon is a thing down here.
Using the sexist pejorative âfeistyâ for a womenâs empowerment business tells me all I need to knowâŚ
I once recall a critique of various programs is they are justified by their benefit to the neediest at the bottom, but the lionshare of the resources often go to those who are not at the bottom. This isnât to derail into that topic, but it seems to have a similar thing going on. The women who might need the most âhelpâ and guidance in triathlon arenât those gunning for a Kona slot, but the ones gunning for the Kona slot are the ones who reap most (but not all) of the benefits from the resources targeted at increasing women in triathlon.
Fred Sommers has been hosting Womenâs only races for a while in Florida. Itâs a shame Fiesty doesnât acknowledge it. Iâm sure there are other RDs around the world do similar.
We have a Womens only race here that will be in its fourth year in 2026 - Nashville Womenâs Triathlon
It gets healthy numbers, mostly first-timers/returners/casual triathletes. This year it fell on Motherâs Day, so there was still a good crowd. And most of the local seasoned triathletes werenât there as most were in their final prep for Chatt 70.3, which was the following week.
Perfect marketing to generate new clients under the guise of increasing female participation in the sport.
Call me a cynic
A cynic would say that itâs going to be mostly women who are already triathletes who will sign up. I hope not, it would be great to stop having this conversation and the absolute best way to do that is to get womenâs participation up. Iâm happy for any real efforts to do that and this is a solid step.
If the goal is to help a certain demographic, the solution is to help that demographic directly. Helping women who follow Mark Allen, probably doesnât increase women involvement in triathlon too much (other than referrals, which Iâm sure happens).
But if they said, we will buy 500 entrance fees to 70.3 races and give them to women who have never raced a 70.3 if they sign-up (and pay) for 6 months of coaching with us? That would essentially accomplish the goal of growing women in (longer distance) triathlon directly. Plus theyâd have those women signed on as paid subscribers already, rather than 12 months of moochers theyâll hope to convert someday.