#138: New Ironman record, new IM marathon record, new winners, new new new
From the ground.
issue #138: June 4, 2025
All-sporters, I’m in Boston right now for the Female Athlete Conference — some takeaways from the last one two years ago — and it’s my birthday on Friday and I just got shit on by an entire tree of birds. So, that’s how things are going thanks for asking. I was going to talk a little bit about postpartum training and the various pregnancy deferral policies, but we’ll save that for next week and, anyway, we talked all things pregnancy training with Katie Zaferes and Emma Pallant-Browne on this upcoming Friday’s Feisty Triathlon episode. So, we’ll just stick to the highlights today.
- Kelly
What was the best performance in a weekend full of them?
Debate.
Let’s review a few of the contenders:
First up, we have Ironman Hamburg and the new new Ironman brand world record. (A reminder: Ironman records only cover Ironman brand races; the fastest ever times often come from Challenge Roth.) Hard to believe, though, that at the start of this year the Ironman brand world record was 8:18 from 2022; the world record was 8:02 from 2024. Then Kat Matthews lowered that to 8:10. Now, Laura Philipp (and Kat pushing her on the run) brought it down again to 8:03. And we haven’t even thrown Anne Haug (who has the 8:02 from Roth) back in the scrum. Notably, even third place at Hamburg (Solveig Lovseth) went under that previous record (8:13) — with a broken aerobar for a good portion of the bike. Remember when a women’s sub-8 seemed like it required a team to draft off?!
Not to be outdone by Laura becoming the first woman to run under 2:40 in an Ironman, Manoel Messias at Ironman Brazil became the first to run under 2:30 — and not by a small amount: 2:26:50 (and he only got second place). There’s been the standard internet debate about this, and it’s fair to say it’s not like he has *no* history of previous performances but this is certainly a significant leap.
At the T100 San Francisco race, I’ll say I thought Rico Bogen’s dominant win was impressive — in how he did it (he rode away and some of the best athletes in the world weren’t able to catch back up) and in the fact that most people thought he couldn’t get back to his 70.3 world title level. But I also think many of the guys in the field weren’t quite at full form yet; you just can’t be for every race anymore.
The big takeaway from San Francisco: We now know that Taylor Knibb can be beaten. Was this the recipe all along: Find someone to work with you on the bike, stay in reach, and then outrun her? It worked for Julie Derron, but I don’t know that it would have worked without Jess Learmonth on the bike, or if it’ll work when Taylor’s in better run form. But isn’t that why we race!
And what about Cassandre Beaugrand back on top at the WTCS Alghero? Or Miguel Hidalgo with the first WTCS win for Brazil? (Big weekend for Brazil.)
Or, what about the totally crazy Giro?
Or, Heather Jackson setting a new course record at the 350-mile Unbound XL four weeks before she takes on Western States? (Sid has a list of all the things Heather’s been up to lately. It’s a lot.)
According to the PTO’s point scoring system, Kate Waugh’s third place in San Francisco was worth more than Laura Philipp’s new Ironman record. So take that with a grain of salt.
What’s your pick?
Best of the rest
IM Brazil: Pâmella Oliveira won her home race, which has to feel good. Plus, a special shoutout to Fiona Moriarty in second.
Loire Valley 70.3: Good to see Indie Lee back. And Casimir Moine seems to be another athlete who is starting to pop up on the top of mid-distance podiums again and again, but it’s just so hard to keep track of everyone.
Results: IM Hamburg, WTCS Alghero, T100 - San Francisco, IM Brazil, Loire Valley 70.3
Pro athletes really need to learn to read their emails
It turns out that, yes, the pros on the Ironman pro list did get an email back in April about the hydration and fairings rules. They also got another one last week to remind them that the rules went into effect on May 25 (for pros). If you haven’t watched the World Tri video on those rules, it’s worth something. Reports, though, from the pro meetings were that in Brazil officials’ concerns were significantly more focused on not stacking your water bottles into a pyramid and not carrying absurd quantities. fwiw
But, also, pro athletes really do need to learn to read their emails and calendars. One of the pros in San Francisco was explaining how he reads emails on Thursday. Only on Thursday. Which I partially respect, but also partially never want to hear you complain about coverage or communication.
A few more thoughts from the ground at T100 SF
First, and most importantly: No, that was not a shark on the broadcast. It was probably a porpoise (there’s lots of them in the Bay), though I will tell you that two weeks ago there were whales in the Bay and when we were standing on shore during the race I saw a couple of water spouts (possibly porpoises). Make of that what you will.
Secondly: The barricade situation was French-like in its absurdity. I was wearing a media vest and I guess I looked official because spectators kept yelling at me about the layout. The problem, from a simple standpoint, is that the race and transition are along the water; whoever set up the operations set it up (both last year and this year) so that spectators were supposed to spectate from the water side of the course — however, since NO ONE APPROACHES FROM THE WATER, this meant everyone encountering the race had to cross over the bike and run courses to get to the other side. And there was nowhere to really cross, no logical flow to where you were supposed to go or how to watch, even being on the correct side would dump you into corners you couldn’t get out of. This is fine if they primarily care about it as a TV product, but not great if they’re trying to create a spectator product.
Third: This is maybe a local thing, but after two years here I now officially think it’s dumb to have a race that’s the day before Escape from Alcatraz, not quite the Alcatraz course, not quite connected to the more famous event, and not quite easy to explain. Escape from Alcatraz has been around for 44 years. Media and people understand it, it gets attention, it’s on Sunday with 2,000 athletes. Having, instead, some smaller version of the race on Saturday morning that’s different is an uphill battle to explain to media or to locals or to spectators. Even the handful of people who came out to watch kept getting confused: ‘No, sorry, this race doesn’t do that part of the course.’
Mark your calendars
Eagleman 70.3 (presented by Qatar Airways, which maybe only I think is funny): Quite the start list.
WATCH: 5:45 a.m. ET/2:45 a.m. PT on Sunday - on Outside Watch in N. America and Ironman’s Youtube everywhere else
The -ish
Some of the things worth knowing about this week in our sports — or that I just think are interesting.
Both the men’s and women’s races at Unbound were decided by long (ie. like over 100-mile) breakaways. And these are their bike set-ups. (Velo/CyclingWeekly)
I’d also like to point out: Female participation was up 44% at Unbound. How? Top-down and bottom-up genuine efforts over many years. (Instagram)
Speaking of: Shoutout to Wild Swimrun, which is doing a free women’s intro program to get more people into Swimrun — if you’ve been thinking about it! (Instagram/Wild Swimrun)
Kilian Jornet released a look back at 15 years since his first Western States. (His 50-mile Strava training run in prep also puts the Norwegians to shame.) (Youtube/Strava)
You can fake Strava runs, too, if you really wanted to for some reason. Though I’m skeptical that this happens on any kind of scale because what’s the point. (New York Times)
A bunch of new Strava subscriber features, btw. Though they’re clearly still having a challenge getting people to pay; personally, I pay primarily for the mapping functions. (Strava)
Mikaela Shiffrin wrote about dealing with PTSD after her crash. The Endurers podcast has also been talking with triathletes about mental health and resilience. (Player’s Tribune/Instagram)
A Brazlian Paralympic medalist was suspended for a positive doping test from Paris. (Triathlon Magazine Canada)
The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials standards were released — the men’s got two minutes faster (2:16) and the women’s stayed the same (2:37). And I agree with Mario that this is a bit of a miss; the goal should be a big field for all the reasons that’s a benefit. (USATF/ the morning shakeout)
The Army also released new fitness test standards — and there was a lot of talk about how they’re harder for combat positions, so I was trying to figure out if I could pass the tests. I think I could; I mean not right now, but in general. (New York Times)
Mile & Stone had an interesting piece on trail race organizers feeling frustrated with environmental constraints. Which is, you know, something. (Mile & Stone)
I’m always fascinated by which stories go super viral, and the one about Stephanie Case winning the 100K postpartum, while breastfeeding, from the last wave has now reached super viral status. (Instagram/NPR/The Guardian)
The Ingebrigtsen trial is wild. (The Guardian)
Athlos announced a team league for 2026. And Grand Slam changed things up in Philly — which made sense from a spectator POV but it’s not great for the distance runners. (Citius Mag/Runner’s World)
Can the L.A. Olympics deliver on its promises? (New York Times)
One last thing
This is not a joke: Killian Jornet is looking to hire a pacer. It could be you.
Here's a shout out to Izzy King who won the 50 mile race at Unbound last weekend at 6 months pregnant! https://www.strava.com/activities/14675780940
USATF getting in their own way. Again.