The Rich Can Buy a Different Ironman Experience

"I'm sure you have noticed we are spoiled kids," is how Jerome Le Jamtel puts it. The New Yorker is a C-level executive who spends close to six figures a year entering Ironman races. With race entry fees that typically run from $475 to $675, how is that possible? As Devin Gordon explains in a deep dive for the New York Times, Le Jamtel participates in the races through Ironman XC, meaning "executive challenge." The races are the same, but the entry fee isn't: Among the roughly 2,000 people who participate in a given Ironman race, about 10 to 15 of them are XCers who pay between $5,700 and $15,000 to participate. That gets them guaranteed entry, all logistics handled, high-end accommodations, and white-glove service.

Gordon gives the example of a mini-bar stocked to the athlete's specifications, from "red bananas [to] a six-pack of Upside Dawn nonalcoholic craft beer." There's also a VIP experience for family members, who get escorted to prime viewing points along the course. There's one other major perk—the XC winner at each race gets a slot at the world championship, held each October in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. "For many XCers this is the program’s top lure: It improves their chances of qualifying from about 100-to-1 in the open field to better than 10-to-1," writes Gordon. If you're wondering how XCers stack up athletically, Gordon reports on an Ironman 70.3 race in which the top competitors were done in about 4 hours; the first XC athlete was done about two hours later. (Read the full story.)