One of my unexpected achievements for 2016 was achieving All World Athlete (AWA) status.  Several years back Ironman introduced a program to  recognize and reward the top 10% of athletes in each age group.  They break it down into gold (top 1%), silver (4%) and bronze (10%).  Ranking is based on a point system; your top three races count to your overall point total.

Achieving AWA basically means two things.  First it means you raced Ironman branded events at the 70.3 and 140.6 distance.  Which means they got your money.  See how that works?  You race with them, they reward you.  The rewards are given in the following year to be used when you race more Ironman branded events, which means…they get more of your money.  Pure genius.  Almost as good as Ebay’s “you won!”.  You didn’t win, you bought.  Congratulations.

I don’t write this in a totally jaded fashion, but simply to point out that part of their recognition program really has a marketing spin to it.  Nothing new in the business world.

The second thing it means is that you did a halfway decent job racing.  For this, I’m proud to be an AWA athlete.  It’s possible to race three races and still not accumulate enough points for status.  It’s also possible to do really, really, really well in one race and score enough points.  In my case I did two races (I placed in the top third in one and top quarter in the other).  Keep in mind that when I started this sport six years ago I was easily in the bottom 10% for my first sprint and Olympic distance races.  It’s encouraging to look back over the past few years and see that not only  have I managed to go longer distances but I’ve gotten faster along the way.

While the benefits of AWA status are minor (expedited check in, better bike rack spots to name a few) it’s nice to see that Ironman does offer some rewards for those who work hard and race with them.  It also changes the way I look at the coming year.  Now that I know it’s achievable (currently bronze status) I feel like for the first time since getting into the sport I’m really in a position to start racing not only against myself but against the field in 2017.  I don’t know that a top 10% race finish is in the cards but it certainly has me questioning the possibility.

I’m thankful to have found a sport I’ve grown to love and that continually pushes my limits mentally and physically.  I look forward to 2017 and seeing what it holds.

Anything is possible.