issue #195: July 22, 2026
Hi all. You might have noticed this newsletter looks different and is back on the Substack platform. (Or, you didn’t notice, and you’re just like: This email shows up in my inbox, sometimes I read it sometimes I don’t. Which is a totally fine attitude too, but then you may want to skip ahead over the next part.)
Triathlonish is no longer under the Feisty umbrella. Decisions were made and the Feisty Tri podcast will be going on hiatus (we just recorded our last episode together), as will the other Feisty newsletters I wrote. I’m wrapping up the rest of the behind-the-scenes work I do/did for Feisty by the end of the month, and have taken Triathlonish back for myself.
From a logistical perspective for you this means: The email list is back with me, but if I messed up something in the exporting and importing and re-exporting, sorry. If you’re one of the handful of people who wanted to unsubscribe in this last 10-month period and I have now messed that up by reverting to old settings, you can still just unsubscribe by clicking the button at the bottom of this email (but please don’t everyone unsubscribe or it’ll make me sad). And the Triathlonish site is live again, but nothing’s been updated since it migrated back in the fall and there are some definite quirks. Bear with me; it’ll get sorted out over time.
From a personal perspective this means: I’m figuring out what’s next (besides using my free time to get fit), and I’m figuring out how I want to start building Triathlonish back out, too.
And, if you want to sponsor the newsletter now, well, press reply and let me know.
Other than that: Nothing will change for you. You’ll get your weekly triathlon-ish email. You can now leave comments on the newsletter or share it again (please do). I’ll probably have more insight about triathlon again, too, as I dive into things. But mostly it’ll still just be the newsletter you’ve come to know over the last 195 weeks.
So what else is going on?
- Kelly
You never know how Ironman will go
For both pros and age-groupers, the last 10km of an Ironman is almost always an open question. You just don’t really know what will happen until it happens.
And I’d argue that despite a lot more words being said these days, there’s actually no more really knowing how a top athlete is going to do in an Ironman until they do it. Sometimes the best Olympians in history are then just OK at the 140.6 distance, they never really reach the same level (see: Alistair); sometimes perfectly fine short-course racers turn out to be exceptional when they go long and really excel at hour eight (see: Solveig). As we’ve had more athletes cross-over between distances, I think it’s become even more obvious that it’s almost impossible, unless you’re inner circle (and even then), to predict.
Well. Paula Findlay turns out to be very very good at the Ironman distance.
When the prime minister tweets about your IM Lake Placid victory, either it was really impressive or Canada just needs some good news these days.
Of course Paula was always going to be decent. She’s been training for this for 20 years. But a new bike course record at Placid and on overall course record pace until that epitomal last 10km is more than decent. And, I think what brought most people along with her was that she also just seemed to be enjoying it — a rare thing after that many years in the sport.
Plus. Marten Van Riel — there’s another short-course athlete who has also been quite good at long course — ran a 2:34! for a 7:41:57 course record! Is every Ironman fast now! (That course is not fast, fwiw.)
And, a cute post from Ben Kanute. And, a validation from Chelsea Sodaro — who, despite what People On The Internet say, I would not count out. And last year’s overall age-group Kona winner grabbed the last pro Kona spot for this fall.
There’s one last race now for pros to get their IM World Champs spots: three men’s + three women’s at IM Kalmar. Full list of everyone who has qualified to date here.
An update on women
Speaking of qualifying for Kona. Normally, I’d probably have a lot more to say about this, especially since I’m sure this is the last time we’ll ever talk about how many women “deserve” to be at Kona. (Kidding, the one-sided conversation will never end. Proportionality is a zombie that refuses to die.)
But. Here it is: Ironman published a June 30 update on the Kona 2026 slot allocations. There have now been 1,726 slots handed out and, after the December updated system, 30% of those total slots have now gone to women.
No update on how many slots went to which age groups — the other obvious distortion from the “performance” algorithm.
If you’re also wondering how we’re only at 1,726 Kona slots through the end of June, good question. There are still 295 more slots to be handed out. But, yes, that will still be well shy of the ~2,500-2,700 total spots that Ironman says it expects in Kona this fall.
So, crazy idea: If we were really that worried about who “deserves” to be there and performance quality, then maybe we wouldn’t hand out ~600 spots to sponsors and lottery. Or, better yet, maybe we’d admit to ourselves that “deserves” is just a marketing concept and Ironman’s business model needs us to buy into this principle of scarcity or their whole velvet rope system collapses.
But, anyway, I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts some other time.
From the races
World Cup - Edmonton: Taylor Knibb won her first World Cup apparently. And there was a four-man sprint in the men’s race. (But did the prime minister tweet about that? No.)
Results: IM Lake Placid, World Cup - Edmonton, Gdynia 70.3, European Triathlon Middle Distance Championships
Mark your calendars
WTCS London: Packed start lists (men & women), though Hayden Wilde is out. Someone also asked me today if it was the old London course through Hyde Park and I wasn’t 100% sure but I am sure now: It is not. It’s more tied to last year’s T100 London race, which they bought from the London Triathlon (and is one of those ones they’re kinda saying is a joint World Tri-T100 venture). So, anyway, it goes by the docks.
WATCH: Saturday - women @ 9:30 a.m. ET/6:30 a.m. PT, men @ 11:15 a.m. ET/8:15 a.m. PT on TriathlonLive and apparently on BBC in the UK
Boise 70.3: Pro Series heads to Idaho. Pronounced BOYS-ee, fyi for the internationals. Lots of Americans, and then also Vince Luis and Hannah Berry.
WATCH: Saturday @ 8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT on Ironman’s Youtube
Start lists are also out for T100 Vancouver, and there’s some new names + some classics.
The -ish
Some of the things worth knowing about this week in our sports — or that I just think are interesting.
Josh Kerr broke the mile world record. Which, also fyi for the internationals, is an extra 109m big deal. And my favorite part of this post-race interview is when he’s like ‘yeah, I lose my hearing sometimes in training if I push too hard, so it wasn’t that weird when I temporarily went deaf in the race, too.’ OK! (Youtube/The Athletic)
The Triathlon World Tour made the Associated Press, which also had some of the same details from our chat with World Tri President and our chat with T100 CEO. Including that next year’s schedule should have been announced by now… (Associated Press/Triathlonish)
Garmin bought TrainingPeaks. (DC Rainmaker)
The Boston Marathon announced a second chance lottery for qualifiers who don’t make the time cut-off. (Runner’s World)
I read the details a few weeks ago of this study from 2023 Kona about motivations for women racing, but there’s more now from one of the authors. I’m sure Ironman will take from it whatever they want to hear, except definitely take from it that ‘losing weight’ is not a motivation. (European Society of Medicine/Triathlete)
Triathlete also had an interesting profile of the next high-level coach and method everyone is talking about: Glenn Poleunis. (Triathlete)
This guy is believed to be the only one to ever do all of the Seven Summits + the Seven Swims. And I just learned there are Seven Swims. (Outside)
At 91, this guy’s hiking the Appalachian Trail. (New York Times)
And this woman is doing a 2,000km record route through the Alps. (Instagram)
Heather Jackson stopped her Tour Divide attempt. (Instagram)
The 2 a.m. anti-doping tests at the Tour are really taking the surprise element of anti-doping to a new level. (The Athletic)
If you missed the new Canyon Speedmax at Roth, well, how did you miss it. (Slowtwitch)
Apparently, the new Chamonix mayor is also not thrilled about UTMB and wants to scale it back — but is less insane than the Nice mayor. So I return to a previous point: Is France just a no-go for races. (TrailMix)
And one of my media beliefs is that we’re two to three years away from short-form online video becoming so completely swamp-like that you can no longer reliably sort the truth from the swill and, in turn, people will simply opt out and stop believing almost everything. We’ll over-correct. Until then, however, the cess pool is filling, and computer-generated wellness influencers are selling you supplements. (New York Times)
Is ‘trackflation’ a real thing? (WIRED)
One last thing
Granted I may be a little strung out, but this story about a bike mechanic coming to an athlete’s aid at Roth was heartwarming. (And then the comments criticizing the girl for not knowing more about her bike were annoying. Classic internet circle.)
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