issue #205: Sept. 30, 2026
You all, I’m doing Jan’s SGRAIL triathlon on Saturday. And I’m 90% sure it is going to take me three hours. And then I fly to Kona on Monday morning.
Our final Kona plan:
Daily fun fact Kona newsletters Monday-Friday next week > should hit your inbox in the morning, should be short and sweet — unfortunately, creating a new list for the 83% of you who said they wanted daily Kona updates was nearly impossible, so it’s going to come to all of you, but I promise they’ll be quick and you can always ignore them
Your regular post-race from-the-ground Triathlonish newsletter will come out Sunday morning, Oct. 11 > and then we’ll be back to the regular Wednesday schedule the following week
The race week podcast will come out late Tuesday/early Wednesday & then after race weekend we’ll have your Everything You Want to Know About the Ironman World Championships show
Our annual ‘win something random from Kelly’ Kona predictions contest is up; leave your podium predictions in the comments there.
I’m also working on a few other stories and pieces for other outlets. And am currently on the hunt for great American age-grouper stories. Last year, I only ended up with the 80-year-old Natalie Grabow interview because one of you all texted me that there was a badass woman at your local Y. So hit me up with what you got. I’ll be out-and-about at all the things during Kona week too, if you see me.
And, with September wrapping up, I want to give a huge thank you to Lynette at Mint & Honey Co. for her support these last two months. I’ve been continually impressed with her knowledge and connections in the space. If you’re looking for someone who knows endurance and wellness, you can’t do better. I’ll leave you with this message from Lynette:
It's triathlon championship season, and the fall marathon majors have officially kicked off! Which means it's time to talk 2027. From media campaigns to brand partnerships to race sponsorships, the conversations and planning start now. Like any long distance race, planning, pitching, and execution take time. Reach out to Lynette today to start exploring your 2027 visions!
- Kelly
The next of the world champs: Pontevedra!
It was the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) Championship Finals in Pontevedra, Spain. And if you think I made that name up, I did not. It is no longer called the Grand Final — even though most media outlets still call it that — but don’t worry because next year it’ll be called the World Triathlon T50 Championship Final. Or something.
The Elite Women’s Race
Cassandre Beaugrand capped a perfect season. Three French national records on the track. Five WTCS victories. The question, I think, is simply whether she can maintain this level of dominance all the way through LA? Or, if she’ll have to let off the gas next year, to a degree?
The Elite Men’s Race
Riddle me this: Matt Hauser won four WTCS races (including the Championship Final), Vasco Vilaca won two WTCS races and was outsprinted in the Final — and yet Vasco is our 2026 world champion.
This, I would argue, is why there needs to be a World Series winner and also a one-day World Champion crowned at the championship race. But I have been out-voted.
Of course, the big question from the men’s race was: Why did the ramp collapse during the first lap swim exit? And how did no one drown during that melee? Tim tried to convince me that it didn’t affect the race outcome too much, but I don’t believe him.
The Para Races
Primarily want to note that the U.S. won the mixed relay, and the para mixed relay is a pretty cool event because it combines classifications (and will make its Paralympic debut in L.A.) — which makes it pretty wild out there with the different categories going up against each other. Plus, Olympian Kevin McDowell guided Paralympian Owen Cravens to the win, which I remember Kevin telling me once that was a goal/dream of theirs because they grew up together, so I’m glad they were able to make that happen.
It’s also worth noting the dominance in the individual para races (as we discussed on the podcast): Alexis Hanquinquant won his 10th world title, Dave Ellis won his 9th, Susana Rodríguez won her 8th, Grace Norman (still undefeated) won her 7th, and Lauren Parker won her 6th (plus she has some cycling titles). Number of reasons for this, but it is kinda crazy.
One more takeaway: I left the weekend with the impression that we should all be worried about France. Sure, they weren’t as dominant this year as they’ve been in other years. (They got beat, handily, in the elite men’s race.) But they took the mixed relay + when you look at the up-and-coming races (juniors, U23) it looks very French.
Full results: World Championship Finals + U23 + Juniors, Para Championships
And a bunch more updates from Pontevedra
On this week’s podcast we covered two big topics:
Every update you could possibly want from the big World Triathlon annual meeting (including hybrid racing?!)
An overview of the anti-doping and whereabouts systems
And here is a thing I learned while researching anti-doping for the podcast:
The World Triathlon testing pool now includes 24 T100 athletes (some of whom are exclusively T100 athletes, not also racing World Tri events), so the PTO does now have out-of-competition testing.
Also, when I asked Ironman why their 2025 anti-doping report wasn’t up on their site, they put it up. So it’s there now, if you want to peruse. And also that’s probably how frequently someone looks into this.
One of the big items out of the Pontevedra meeting was: The rest of the final official Triathlon World Tour 2027 schedule. Probably.
Go listen (or watch) the full podcast episode to hear me explain why the PTO CEO was wrong about non-endemic sponsorships: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube
Speaking of: What did you **think the LA28 course was going to be?
One of the other items announced in Pontevedra was the LA Olympics course. (See the course here.) And I’ve seen a lot of people complaining that it’s kinda stupid flat beach loops. To which I say:
What did you think it was going to be.
Ben Collins’ overview for Triathlete was decent. But I re-iterate: After they announced it was going to be in Venice, it was clear this was pretty much what we were going to get.
Swim: Beach start. Often very choppy. Two laps. The surf could make or break the race
Bike: Eight flat beach loops designed for TV. Lots of stupid turns. Everyone’s panicking about the part of the loop that goes on the bike path — which yes, will be very narrow and probably have a crash or two — but they’ll sweep it, they’ll barricade it, it’ll be clear of roller-bladers during the race.
Run: Eight laps. Up and down across the Venice canals. Designed 100% for that beach finish. IMO, the weirdest part about the run is the part that goes through the very residential narrow one-lane streets.
Welcome to L.A.
From the races
Augusta 70.3: After the New York (Jones Beach) 70.3 was canceled, Ironman added the pro men’s race to the pro women’s race in Augusta, Georgia — a 13-hour drive away — and did, reportedly, give the pro men a $500 travel credit to make the switch. Which isn’t bad. Jackson Laundry came out on top. And shoutout to Lydia Russell for her win. Watch out for her.
Results: Augusta 70.3
Mark your calendars
Xterra World Championships: Also next weekend on Oct. 10 and will be the first year (of three years) they’re in New Mexico. Given Xterra’s background and history in the U.S., it’s nice to hear U.S. participation is up again and they’re trying to build that community. Check out the pro preview ahead of the race.
And you can WATCH on Youtube if you need a break from Ironman watching. It’s at least very different and probably more exciting.
Plus, a few Kona notes so far:
TriRating has his Kona report out — one of the best resources in the sport
We’ve started the tracking of who’s there and who’s not
And, there is a box jellyfish watch window from Oct. 4-8 — basically a surge starting eight days after the last full moon — and the beach at the pier is particularly susceptible because it is south facing. If I was racing, I’d wait until Wednesday or so to get in the water, but maybe you enjoy pain.
The -ish
Some of the other things worth knowing about this week in our sports — or that I just think are interesting.
Hayden Wilde won $209,800 in September. I made much less than that this month. So samesies. (Instagram)
Jocelyn McCauley gave birth to her kid. (Instagram)
A fundraiser for Jeanne Collonge and more details about + a fundraiser for the athlete who had the serious accident at Ironman Maryland. (helloasso/Serbian Times)
Ironman announced a re-birth/re-launch/new launch/rebrand/whatever of its women’s initiative. It’s called Woven now. RIP Women for Tri. I waited on today’s newsletter partially because I wanted to talk about this after it launched, but I find the bulk of what I have to say is that we’ll have to wait and see what happens. A lot of people have messaged me to ask what Woven actually is, and as best I understand it’s a bunch of little things that come together out of that Survey of 10,000 Women last year: marketing materials that center women, women’s specific facilities and needs at races, a women’s group and ambassadors with events and content, targeted races where they’re going to test efforts to drive up women’s registration. Some of those things I think are logical, some are not. (And some of the people I know they’ve gotten involved are good picks.) But, as we have said many times, so often how these things go down is in the details. And a lot of the rest of how it goes down is in how it fits within the larger context and history. Which is to say: During all of the debate the last few years, I had so many women say to me ‘oh so Ironman cares about women now?’ And I guess the answer Ironman is going for is: Yes? (Instagram)
This is a good post about why exactly having a women’s-only race matters to a lot of women. (Facebook)
Also an interesting report on the rate of injuries from crashes in the UCI pelotons being higher in women’s racing than in men’s, and involving more athletes. (CyclingNews)
The U.S. has a cycling world champ again, for the first time in a long time. (The Athletic)
Yes, Ironman is expensive. But no, it does not have to be £18,000 ($23,900) expensive. (Instagram)
UTMB has changed its qualification, but it’s a little as if they only announced half of the change and now everyone’s confused. (Canadian Trail Running)
Jessie Diggins was on Trail Society to talk about going from Olympic skiing to trail running. I gather she’ll also be in Kona with Salomon, along with Courtney Dauwalter. Will we get them to do a triathlon? (Youtube)
On the note of Olympians-turned-runners: Jan Frodeno ran a 2:23:33 at the Berlin Marathon. (Instagram)
The big news out of Berlin, though, was that Tigst Assefa somehow completely ruptured her Achilles with 2km to go and managed to still win. (Runner’s World)
The Beer Mile World Champs. Any word on if we should do the traditional Kona Beer Mile? (Youtube)
Is Nike still cool? It’s actually an interesting question, because sales are dropping as there’s more and more competition, the Chinese market has not panned out for them, they seem to be struggling with the All Conditions Gear re-launch. Yet, perceptions of the answer tend to be very split depending on the demographic. (The Economist/Slowtwitch)
A good Hoka movie on Amazon Prime. (Amazon Prime)
Strava is getting a governor candidate in trouble because it shows he may not actually live in the state. Or else he just really likes to ride and run in another state. You’d think by now people would know how to turn on Strava privacy settings. (MS Now)
“We must create the shit machine.” (McSweeney’s)
One last thing
I’m sure no one racing in Kona identifies with this.
Support Triathlonish partners: Reach out to Lynette at Mint & Honey Co. to connect about ways to find potential partners, create earned media, and build campaigns for and from athletes.
1. Yay Lydia!
2. Looking forward to the Beach Cruiser division at LA28.
That is all.