After a long and grueling triathlon season, it came down to one final race and one last opportunity to qualify for the Kona IRONMAN World Championships in October, and required nothing less than winning.
For Kona professional triathlete, Bree Wee, it was all or nothing.
Sunday’s IRONMAN Japan race in Hokaido was the last qualifying event on the IRONMAN circuit for both professional and amateur athletes seeking a chance at the “Big Dance” happening on October 10 in Kailua-Kona.
All professional triathletes wanting to participate in the 2015 World Championships are required to earn “Kona Points” throughout the qualifying year that began on August 30, 2014 and ended with IRONMAN Japan’s race on August 23, 2015. The Kona Points Ranking, or “KPR,” is a point based ranking system used to determine and evaluate the eligibility of professional athletes to compete in the 2015 race.
While the top 50 male professionals at the end of the KPR season automatically qualify, only the top 35 female professional athletes are considered – a hot topic that is currently under much debate, criticism, and speculation regarding gender equality in the sport.
For professional triathletes there are no shortcuts to being selected into the Kona World Championships like the former IRONMAN Lottery and Passport programs offered to amateur athletes, and for Wee, no Big Island or state drawings either.
Chasing after “Kona Points” have become somewhat of a game among professionals.
“It’s a game and I think that’s why I didn’t qualify the first couple of years they had it because I’m not really good at playing strategic games,” Wee said. “I didn’t really understand it. To get into Kona, I now realize that you need to do five races to gain enough points. You could do less, but there are very few women that do less than five races to qualify. IRONMAN rules allow you to compete in a total of three IRONMAN’s and two half IRONMAN (70.3) races.”
Wee said she sadly sat out of her hometown World Championship race during years 2011, 2012, and 2013, and attributed her lack of qualifying to the reality of living on an island.
“I think the most difficult part of the whole thing is where one lives,” the 35-year old said. “With the exception of me competing in last year’s race, we haven’t had someone from Hawaii, Japan or Taiwan on the start line at Kona since the start of this KPR thing. It’s more difficult for us to travel to the mainland to compete in these races as it’s a financial struggle due to where we live to be able to afford the flights and expense to get there.”
After competing in last year’s Kona IRONMAN World Championship race and finishing with an impressive time of 9 hours, 34 minutes and 37 seconds — 16th place among the women’s professional division — Wee immediately set her sights to qualify for 2015.
“My biggest goal has always been to make the top 10 in Kona because nobody from the State of Hawaii, man or woman, has ever done it before,” Wee said. “Last year I found myself only ten minutes out of the top 10. But after doing five IRONMANs to get into Kona, with Kona being my sixth IRONMAN of the year, I was so tired by the time Kona came around. So in my heart I knew that my goal was reachable which motivated me for 2015.”
Wee began her campaign for Kona 2015 by competing in December’s IRONMAN Western Australia and placed sixth among the women’s professional division. The next stop was the IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championships in Melbourne, Australia in March where Wee placed an impressive 10th place and earned valuable Kona points among a stacked women’s field that included 2014 IRONMAN women’s champ, Mirinda Carfrae, and other top Kona contenders such as Caroline Steffen, Yvonne Van Vlerken and Melissa Hauschildt.
While it seemed Wee was well on her way on “the road to Kona,” her body began to break down.
“I pinched a nerve at IRONMAN Melbourne and it ended up doing damage to the back of my right hamstring,” Wee said. “So I had to take nine weeks off in the middle of the season to recover from this injury leaving me struggling to regain fitness for my other races.”
Wee said her lack of fitness exposed her weakness on the run and ended up not finishing at IRONMAN Texas in May. In June she went on to compete at IRONMAN 70.3 Japan and placed third, then attempted to follow up that performance at July’s IRONMAN 70.3 Vineman in California but fell short.
“I needed a top ten at Vineman but I still wasn’t fit yet,” Wee said. “And by not getting points or placing well at Vineman, I didn’t earn the money I needed for my 70.3 race scheduled in August, and so I was forced to miss that one as well. So I knew that everything would rest on a win at IRONMAN Japan.”
With having regained her fitness and strength back to pull off a winning performance at IRONMAN Japan, Wee said she never felt more confident and sure of herself.
“I went into this race believing that I could win and I wanted to win which was a really big difference for me,” she said. “I felt really good and confident, and I had the best training leading up to this race than I’ve ever had in my career as a professional.”
Wee added that emotionally, IRONMAN Japan was the most difficult race of her season knowing what was at stake. But she had a game plan and work cut out for her as she found herself in the lead during the bike course.
“I stayed patient during the race and I even got a flat tire on the bike around the halfway point,” she said. “But then I rode like a crazy woman and the whole patience thing flew out the window trying to catch back up to the girls that passed me. I was in tears thinking of how hard I worked to get here. My thoughts went back to the hard Saturday group rides and remembering how I learned to bridge gaps. So I rode hard to bridge back up to the rest of the girls and actually ended up putting three minutes on the lead female. But I think it cooked me for the run so it wasn’t a good idea.”
And it was as if the whole world was watching, glued to their computers waiting for live updates on the IRONMAN website, cheering for this Kona girl who thought of nothing but laying everything on the line, determined to get to that finish line in first with absolutely nothing to lose.
Wee battled valiantly over the 26.2-mile run course, going back and forth with Japanese professional, Keiko Tanaka, until the 30K mark. Then out of nowhere, Taiwan’s “pocket rocket,” Shiao-Yu Li, came from a near 20-minute deficit off the bike, to take the lead for good and win in a time of 10:22:59. Wee continued to fight all the way to the end and finished in second place at 10:33:59. However, she would leave Japan without a spot on October’s start line.
After having a few days to reflect upon her performance on Sunday, Wee didn’t spend much time feeling disappointed, sorry or down on herself and already has plans for Kona 2016.
“I wanted to cry when I didn’t get into Kona this year but at the same time it’s almost like a blessing in disguise as I’m going to start now collecting points for next year,” Wee said. “In September I will race IRONMAN Tennessee, the first qualifier for the 2016 year. I know that a lot of the girls racing Kona will not be at IRONMAN Tennessee and that will give me a better chance. In November I go to race IRONMAN Malaysia. So before the start of the New Year, I will already have two IRONMAN races giving me a better chance that I will be able to qualify early. I’m now learning how the game works.”
While being a professional triathlete may not be as glamorous or financially giving as people may think it to be, Wee said she will never take this amazing opportunity and chance to “live a dream” for granted, and appreciates the many blessings she’s collected along the way as part of her triathlon journey. And with that, comes valuable life lessons learned for a girl with a heart of a champion.
“Right now, I’m given this amazing opportunity and I’m going to hold onto it for as long as I can,” she said. “That often means living with a lot of sacrifices like living in a tiny apartment with my son Kainoa and not being able to have fancy things. But I have definitely learned to appreciate my journey more so than the outcome. It really has been a beautiful journey – the places I’ve seen, the people I’ve met, and the love and compassion from people in this community that have really helped me out more than those big triathlon sponsors. The journey is so much more than the outcome, and that has been my biggest lesson.”