#29: Out here making myths
#29: Out here making myths
At Harborside 2023.
issue #29: April 5, 2023
We actually managed to keep this week’s newsletter short (!), so if you want more detail about Oceanside it’ll be on this week’s podcast.
And a reminder: This is your free weekly Wednesday morning triathlon-ish newsletter. This past Sunday, paying subscribers also got the monthly roundup of the key training & gear stuff they should know about.
- Kelly
Oh, you want to talk about Oceanside?
To close out her swim-bike-run and take the biggest win of her career so far, Tamara Jewett ran either 1:12:59 or 1:13:00 at Oceanside 70.3 on Saturday (depending on which Ironman results you look at, which is probably another topic entirely). And because this has been downplayed in some places, I think we just need to say clearly: That is really stupid fast. Tamara ran close to that at Augusta 70.3 last year, but otherwise it’s a bit over a minute faster than the next fastest 70.3 run on record anywhere (which is from Anne Haug). I mean, hell, Chelsea Sodaro has to be like ‘Wait, I also ran faster (1:15:21) than the previous Oceanside course record for 13.1 miles and somehow I got caught and passed?!’
And, in case you were going to bring it up, no, Oceanside is not a fake suspiciously fast run course like Dubai; it’s just competitive, so the top couple times tend to be fast because they’re going at it, but it’s pretty normal splits from there.
Photo: Donald Miralle/Ironman
It was hard to go from watching the blip-y Ironman feed (though it constantly failing, crashing, and having to be reloaded was really an Outside Watch transmission/broadcast issue) to then watching the TV production that is college basketball. I don’t blame the Ironman commentators—though I know people love to hate on them. Dede does a good job and Taylor Knibb was funny as additional color commentary. I blame the set-up. The problem is they only have as much information as they’re given. They, literally, didn’t know passes had happened because we never saw those passes. There was only one sad camera on Tamara’s back as she headed for the finish because that’s all there was. Do you know how many interns and production assistants and stats people and graphics work behind the scenes of a top-level game to make it what it is? How many people and money go into a basketball production? We’re just not there yet in triathlon. But we need to get there. Now.
Because the racing is there. Yes, Jason West almost running down WTCS World Champ Leo Bergere was exciting. His run (1:07:40) was also ridiculous. And, yes, I am 100% adopting Jason’s strategy of slapping himself in the face in the final miles.
The race of the day, though, was the women’s. Once Tamara was able to stay with the front group on the swim and bike (!), even with the 30-second penalty for blocking, I think all the rest of those women had to be a little nervous. I’m sure she’ll have up-and-down races from here, but the fastest mid-distance runner in the sport has now proved she can be there when the run starts—which is dangerous.
Chelsea and Kat and Holly Lawrence and Paula Findlay all leaving T2 together, with Tamara a minute back, made for a banger of a race, as they say. Even if we only saw some of it. And, off course, the absolute emotional heart of that race was Kat, just six months after being hit by a car in the lead-up to Kona. I don’t think any of us, even her, thought she’d pull off third in a field of that quality this soon. Can’t imagine how she doesn’t win Ironman Texas later this month.
And then I think we have to give a shoutout to Chelsea, who has proven herself to be the on-point face of women’s triathlon in this moment, the fittest mom in the country (as Brad Culp likes to say), and always a total gamer. Between the story that came out a few days before the race about her dealing with crippling OCD and anxiety both postpartum and then after winning Kona (which is not uncommon for athletes after huge wins), and then her move to donate her winnings ($5,000) to the gun violence advocacy group Moms Demand Action, she was 100% exactly where and who she needed to be this week. And then she ran a 1:15:21 for second, and looked smooth doing it for this time of year.
Women:
Tamara Jewett - 4:08:09
Chelsea Sodaro - 4:09:31
Kat Matthews - 4:12:27
Holly Lawrence - 4:16:31
Paula Findlay - 4:21:51
Men:
Leo Bergere - 3:45:25
Jason West - 3:45:37
Jackson Laundry - 3:47:38
Ben Kanute - 3:49:37
George Goodwin - 3:50:34
Full results here.
Photo: Donald Miralle/Ironman
We contain multitudes, man
While I was watching the Oceanside 70.3 coverage on Saturday—in between having to re-load the browser every time the stream stopped—I tweeted out that one of the problems with how we cover women’s sports is we tend to forget or ignore that women can be things other than ‘vaguely inspirational.’ They can be funny or sarcastic or making a point or taking the piss out of each other or angry or a million other emotions and personalities.
I was thinking this because Kat said something that was clearly a tongue-in-cheek joke to Holly as they were exiting T2—a thing I have done dozens of times and something that I don’t think she was thinking about much in the moment, but my goodness the internet made a lot of the possible cat fighting. And then there were a few more instances where no one seemed to realize Kat and Chelsea are friends, or understand the obvious fact that one of them was kidding about something in an interview, or seemingly recognize that there were multiple personalities out there racing that aren’t all just generically polite. And it just all seemed so….eh.
Aren’t we past this?
Over the weekend it turned out the answer was ‘no, not yet?’ The ball sports world descended into a national debate about how female athletes should be after the women’s March Madness championship basketball game. One player made a gesture, another made another, trash was talked (mostly by outside commentators, the women themselves seemed fine), oh my are they appropriate role models, can female athletes be anything other than vaguely inspirational, etc. (Here’s an NPR explainer, as seems fitting for this crowd.)
The time has come for this to be past, though. Because 9.9 million people watched that game. It dominated conversation. The photo of the debated moment will be re-shared and posted and put on walls.
The New York Times had an interesting piece too on why women’s sports have not historically been mythologized as much as men’s (hint: it’s for obvious reasons), why their moments haven’t been put on posters or replayed or argued about or made into movies, and the effect this has on diminishing those athletes and their myths. It’s why the poster of Brandi Chastain was the one every girl had, because it was the only one available. But there are more coming now. An entire generation of female athletes coming. As you can see.
And when I thought about it, about this feeling that’s been in the back of my head swirling around everyone calling this a moment but that’s not quite right, I thought ‘that’s what’s happening, that’s what feels different:’ Our myths are being created right now. That’s why standing at the end of the Queen K watching Chelsea come over the last hill for the win back in October, with the helicopters circling, felt like genuine Wheaties box stuff. That’s why Kat’s crash feels like it’s getting the full Showtime treatment lately, and why her third place this weekend felt so emotional, because we’re invested in the myth of the story. It’s why Flora Duffy’s gold medal felt like it meant so much. And why, if you were standing there in the storm, Lucy Charles-Barclay running in the rain to her first world championship title felt epic. It’s rare you actually know you’re in myth-making moment when it’s happening, but I’m telling you: It’s happening right now.
(Which is weird for our small sport, because everyone knows everyone and these are still just people with flaws and all, but it is happening. Whether the world is ready for funny, angry, sarcastic, smart, quippy women or not.)
Other results from the weekend
Xterra Australia: New Zealanders Sam Osborne and Samantha Kingsford won.
All the results in detail are on our results page now.
Mark your calendar
Super League Arena Games: The London finale this weekend has quite a few big names (though it looks like Jonny Brownlee isn’t in there anymore) and always exciting coverage. There will also be two waves of para-athletes racing, including a number of Paralympic medalists.
WATCH: Finals on Saturday evening local time, which equals 12:30 p.m. ET, with para races and heats earlier in the day. Or watch on TriathlonLive
The -ish
Everything else from around our sports that I think you might want to know about, or that I just think is interesting.
Holly Lawrence has a Youtube now, if you’re not tired of Youtubes yet. Which I know is ironic coming from someone with an email newsletter. (Youtube)
Des Linden has a book out—excerpt here. (Penguin Random House/Runner’s World)
Brent McMahon says this year is his last year. (Instagram)
Camille Herron says a lot of things after her 48-Hour world record. (iRunFar)
It looks like we’ll see Gwen Jorgensen and Katie Zaferes face off at the U.S. Continental Cup next weekend, as both continue their quest for points to make it to the Olympic qualifying races. (World Triathlon)
I shared this in this month’s exec crib sheet of training & gear news you actually need to know, but: these are the best guidelines I’ve seen for training in pregnancy and post-partum. Also in app form. (Triathlonish/IJSPT/Stirrups to Situps)
This Lyons soccer player (one of the best teams out there) was cut after she got pregnant and was told she’d be paid while on maternity leave but wasn’t. (Player’s Tribune)
While we’re on the topic: Sarah Vaughn, the runner, started a fund for college athletes who get pregnant. (Runner’s World)
I was interviewed for this story on birth control and performance, which was an oddly stressful experience after typically being the one interviewing people. (Outside)
A look at two ways college athletes are making money from NIL deals (which stands for Name, Image, Likeness and are the deals that allow college athletes to sign sponsorships while still in college). In short: you can be attractive, influencing, or good, or all of the above. Yes, female athletes and athletes in niche sports are to be most impacted by these NIL deals, because they’re not leaving college to get drafted or go pro. (Runner’s World)
Relatedly, collectives—which have deeply eh results so far—are a way for a bunch of athletes to pool together and then donors can fund all of them via NIL deals. Triathlon has one such collective, organized by USAT. (USAT)
Bicyclists deserve the right to free movement. Subtitled by me: the right not to die. (The Nation)
Of course, cyclists (like all people) can also be painfully stupid. (They still don’t deserve to die.) This risky move at Tour of Flaunders basically crashed out every single person except the one who did it. (Twitter)
A lot of us know Jimmy Riccitello, who is Ironman’s head referee. His son is making waves now as the next big American male cyclist. (CyclingWeekly)
Water gets sprayed everywhere after victories and in locker rooms. So so much water. (New York Times)
Unfortunately, not shockingly, exercise has become a rich person thing and there is a physical activity divide between rich kids and poor kids. (New York Times)
One last thing
I just feel like we’re on a theme this week.
