#121: A 2025 cheat sheet
Of sorts.
issue #121: Jan. 8, 2025
All-sporters, I’m probably (ideally) about five weeks away from going on maternity leave, since that is the week window where what the doctors think and what I will agree to overlaps. But, given possible complications, I also might be out sooner! Who knows! It’s a parasitic miracle!
All of which is to say: I was going to pre-write a few newsletters to feed your Triathlonish appetite while I’m gone, but you won’t see me as much in your inbox for about six weeks from mid-February through March. And then I’ll be back before the season really really gets started. Ideally.
I used to tell my staff to only call me on vacation if there was an emergency and there’s no such thing as a triathlon emergency. So that’s something we could also all probably remember.
Now, before we get down to a quick (late, sorry) newsletter as we get back to whatever we call this time of year, it also seemed like a good time to share this old insight from a psychology researcher on goals. Just seems like some of you might find it useful.
- Kelly
What to circle on your calendar this year
As I did the last two years, I’ve created Your Big Calendar of Big Races for the season — with details on how to watch the events and with all the “important” races highlighted instead of just adding every. single. thing. It’ll be updated as more details are confirmed throughout the year.
However, I will say that putting this master calendar together has gotten to be more and more of a PITA over the years. Not because there are too few races, but because it’s too hard to keep track of which ones to care about. And even if you can keep track, the dates and locations and start lists and details change at the last minute.
Which is 100% definitely how major sports build massive fan bases: By making it confusing to know which events are the big deal ones and by having four different ways to watch those big things.
A few high-level triathlon points from the calendar:
IM Pro Series: They did condense the number of Pro Series races, which was key (because it does help with those above issues). But there are still some non-Pro Series races on the pro schedule that are big enough and with enough money or enough qualifying spots that they’ll likely still draw competitive fields. Which does not help.
PTO T100: Although there was an announcement of the preliminary seven-race schedule back in September, some of the dates have since changed (which is mostly reflected in our calendar) and there still is no updated page for 2025 on their website. And even though I’ve now been told that the San Francisco race is definitely still happening, it was not even listed on the World Tri press release calendar! So, not not confusing.
«It’s also an open secret that Escape from Alcatraz is lowkey up for sale, so I’ve been waiting and waiting to see who buys it. Mostly for my own personal self-interest in my favorite race.»
We also now know the athletes from the top 10 who have signed with T100 + the hotshot athletes. What’s left to announce is the rest of the contracted athletes. And while I don’t know who those athletes are, my suspicion/guess is you could go down the rankings list and cross off anyone who you think really wants to win an Ironman World Championship title or who is better at pure long-course and what you’ll have left is probably close to the final list of T100 athletes.
Supertri: Hasn’t announced dates and details yet, but their indoor event was listed on the World Tri schedule. And you can figure out some of their likely pro dates from when the mass participation races are scheduled. I would also really like to see them revamp U.S. mass participation short-course because god knows we need it.
World Triathlon: Announced the full WTCS, World Cup, Para Cup, Multisport Worlds, and associated calendars. Though I think the big question is going to be: How many of the short-course stars stick with WTCS this year instead of trying something different — especially after we’ve already seen so many of them come over to T100. Who is left for Alex Yee to beat?
Can you follow and keep track of all the pro triathlon-ing?
**An addendum: Pucon 70.3 is this weekend (which is always a little small/mid but especially so this year while everyone is still recovering), so we’ll continue to skip the Results & Calendar section of the weekly newsletter. But will be back with those Wednesday details soon!**
The -ish
Stuff from around our sports worth knowing about this week.
U.S. Olympic medalist Fred Kerley was beaten, tasered, and arrested by four cops, and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest this weekend. A lot of the headlines have said he “got in a fight” with police, but, I dunno, fight implies two equal parties squaring off and that’s not really what it looked like when the body cam video popped up on my feed. Sure, he resisted after they threw him to the ground and were punching him, but these officers of the law, tasked with keeping the peace, got to that point way way too quickly. It’s not a good look for America. (Yahoo/Local 10)
A 55-year-old Belgian woman ran a marathon every day in 2024. (For clarity, she ran a marathon distance — actually she ran slightly farther each day for certification purposes — not an actual organized marathon race every day.) Which made her, apparently, the first woman to ever do so. (Instagram/NPR)
Women’s cycling salaries are on the rise, but it’s a mixed bag. (Escape Collective)
And it’s sponsorship announcement season. Seems like running is experiencing some massive shake-ups. I think cycling is also still going through some huge post-pandemic pressures, without a ton of money to throw around. (Word is Felt is dropping a bunch of its gravel women, which is odd because gravel feels boom-y, though Nike did just get back into cycling in a splashy way.) Triathlon-wise, I think there’s a similar issue — the brands that have venture funding are well-positioned for now and backing a lot of athletes, but it’s as hard as it’s ever been to sign sponsors if you’re outside the top 10-20 athletes in the world. (Runner’s World/Youtube/Escape Collective)
Gravel still is tiny, though, comparatively. Hot but small. Consider that the biggest single race prize purse in the sport is $150K for a new stage event in S. Africa. (Velo)
And I’m still pretty skeptical that marathons are really booming — given the first graph in this story about how marathons are booming shows that numbers aren’t quite back up to pre-pandemic levels, but whatever, details. The general consensus does seem to be that 1. running is doing well and 2. destination high-profile events are massively selling out as part of a desire to do destination high-profile things and 3. a lot of this vibe momentum is being driven by the younger age-groups (though I sorta remember the last time everyone said that during the last running boom) and the most interesting thing about those the younger groups is that the women are out-participating the men. (Wall Street Journal/Business Insider)
I think it’s safe to say that no, Sam Laidlow is not really retiring to do Hyrox. (Instagram)
Cassandre Beaugrand is changing coaches and leaving Loughborough. My understanding is she originally moved to the UK to train near her British open water swimmer boyfriend and they are definitely no longer together now. Which makes this a predictable outcome, I think. (Tri247)
Lucy Gossage is back at this winter’s Spine Race to wipe clean the slate after finishing last year with her partner — and then finding out, because of how wide the social coverage of her race went, that he had been dating someone else too the whole time and lying about it. It’s a wild story. (Lucy Gossage)
Endurance Exchange isn’t happening right now, but there’ll be smaller regional Endurance Exchange(s) later this year. (Instagram)
There’s a lot going on with the NCAA this year (which matters even if you’re European or Australian, because the NCAA is the largest and most successful U23 development pipeline in the world), but if final approval is granted in April, then the settlement on revenue-sharing with student-athletes will go into effect immediately, and DI schools can pay students up to $22 million (and all the Power conference schools are expected to participate) and dole out $2.8 billion in backpay to those who have already graduated. But it’s not clear how the money will be distributed and schools are already fundraising to pay for this revenue-sharing. Plus, the whole point of the settlement is that in exchange there will also be limitations on NIL pay-to-play and roster caps. Of course it’s a mess. And, personally, I’m of the belief that football needs to spin off from college sports because it has nothing to do with college anymore and is basically just a way for TV to try to convince us to watch semi-pro football. And then, without football, we could realign the conferences back to logic and tackle the rest of the students’ issues. (The Athletic/Front Office Sports)
The U.S. is withholding funds from WADA, which really isn’t going to help tighten up anti-doping efforts. (New York Times)
Two interesting studies recently: A case study on Magnus Ditlev’s exercise efficiency and metabolism, and the total calorie consumption and expenditure from Kristian Blummenfelt (which is higher than previously thought possible). (Human Kinetics Journal/Journal Applied Physiology)
The Chipotle Challenge is back — though nothing will top last year’s tied finish. (Chipotle/DC Rainmaker)
There is a huge fight going on right now over whether this wave surfed at Mavericks last week — which measured over 100ft according to a computer algorithm — is really the biggest wave ever. It’s a whole thing within a very niche community. So put that in the list of ways surfing is like triathlon. (SURFER/Youtube)
With a number of friends evacuated and a couple of their houses destroyed, I can confirm the L.A. fires are really really bad. And it is because of climate change and human expansion into wilderness spaces, not because of lasers. Help them out. (Washington Post/TIME)
One last thing
If somehow you missed the eating of the life-size Pop-Tart and the resurrection of last year’s eaten Pop-Tart, it was the highlight of college football bowl season. By far.
