#136: Rapid fire triathlon

And everyone else gets into the data about competitiveness.

issue #136: May 21, 2025 (oops!)

On Friday evening, I saw whales during my ferry ride over to the city (fyi, for the T100 SF & Alcatraz athletes). Then I took an e-scooter along the water, riding next to someone’s large rabbit in a toy truck for a bit, to the basketball stadium — where I got to cover the opening game of the brand new WNBA team. I was exhausted after and it took forever to get home — the ferry back had to wait for the fireworks to end — but even those things sound like the kind of complaints that aren’t really complaints.

Just putting that out there into the world as a counter-story to all the bad stories you hear about San Francisco. Now, when you all come next weekend for the T100 race (here are my recommendations) do remember not to leave your purse or laptop in your car, because this is still a city and it will 100% get stolen.

- Kelly

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Rapid fire results

There were so many races this past weekend (so so many) that no one really wants to read a play-by-play of all them. It’d take too long, we’d rather be training! You just want the highlights! So we’re going to go rapid fire with one- (or four-) sentence explanations of what was interesting (to me).

WTCS Yokohama

Very rainy. Cassandre crashed. Morgan was Morgan. I think everyone’s reaction to Jeanne Lehair winning her first WTCS was ‘good for her!’ Though the season question from these podiums remains: Is it the year for the German women? The Australian men? Is Gwen back (in 4th)? We’ll see again in two weeks in Italy.

Plus, sprinting (and wiping out) in the rain in the para races.

Challenge Championship

In this era of so many pro series, I think it’s just hard for Challenge to get the names on the start line that they used to. Hanne De Vet won (and I just learned she’s dating Hayden Wilde — who she went to Japan to help after his crash and then came back to race). And Richard Varga did his final race in his home country — and it was nice to see a dad crossing the line with his kids for a change. Emotional Instagram fodder: Not just for moms!

Ironman Lanzarote

Really, this race is so often about Lucy CB, isn’t it. She won by a lot (!), but no one expected anything different. I did think Laidlow was originally supposed to make his season return here, too, but it’ll be at Roth instead now. And, even though he got a flat in the race, I also just learned Ben Hoffman is back.

Aix-en-Provence 70.3

I saw someone ask, after this win, if Kristian Blummenfelt is the best mid-distance athlete on the planet. And the answer is: No, Taylor Knibb is the best mid-distance athlete on the planet. Kristian might be the best all-around. Also, good to see Marjolaine Pierre on top in her semi-hometown race. Which I just learned is basically a suburb of Marseille.

Chattanooga 70.3

Would normally put this in the ‘only Americans care’ category, but Sam Long won and then announced they’re having their second kid. So now everyone cares.

XTERRA N. American Championship

It’s been all about the undefeated athletes on the Xterra circuit this year — which is either really exciting or not. And I just learned that the defending 3x Xterra world champ is now racing 70.3s.

Results: WTCS Yokohama, World Triathlon Para Series Yokohama, Aix-en-Provence 70.3, Chattanooga 70.3, Challenge Championship, Xterra N. American Championship, Ironman Lanzarote

Photo: Ben Lumley/World Triathlon

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This week’s thought about Kona

A lot of Ironman’s (old? current?) business model is built on the prestige and the hype and the lore/lure of Kona, right? It’s what keeps people in the ecosystem, keeps them coming back. And it’s fundamentally this business branding issue that Ironman is saying forced their hand in the return to the island’s one-day, right?

But.

That entire model is built on the assumption of the lore/lure. And so much of that built-in marketing has always been on the back of the annual TV special — at least in the U.S. That’s what originally blew the event up, when Julie Moss crawled across the line on national TV. It’s the first triathlon most people ever see on TV (at least in the U.S.). And it is this entire media hype system that has created so much of the race’s iconic status.

None of that exists anymore, though. There is no more annual TV special. There’s a Youtube series and streaming videos, and they’re well-done don’t get me wrong. But they simply do not have the same reach. There is no triathlon print magazine in the U.S. anymore. There is no built-in free marketing. (Earned media, whatever you want to call it.) Sure, you can create your own buzz and own your story and have multiple platforms, but niche podcasts and websites only crack so far into the mainstream, only bring in so many new customers. And I suspect Ironman’s business model projections into the future have not accounted for this fracturing media landscape and the free publicity reach they used to get. I suspect they assume the lore/lure will always exist. But I don’t know if it will if no one creates it.

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Who’s more competitive? The answer may (not) surprise you!

Personally, I’m not that interested in arguing about competitiveness in the men’s v. women’s fields for a huge number of reasons. But other people are! So here we go.

Women in Tri UK released the report I mentioned last week, which analyzed the top age-group performers across 35 Ironman races. They defined top-performing as within 15% of your age-group winners time — which seems fair, though there are certainly different ways you could define “good.” And it turns out, to the shock of exactly zero women, that a higher percentage of the women in an Ironman field are top-performing. ie. Women are two times more likely to finish near the top of their age-group than men are.

Why? Well, the report just analyzed the data, and didn’t put forward a hypothesis. (We pulled some report highlights here.) But if I was going to guess I’d tell you what I’ve told you before: There’s less pack filler in the women’s amateur fields, because if you’re going to overcome the barriers to get to a start line then you’re in it to do well. Maybe someday that’ll change and women will feel secure enough in childcare and societal expectations and time etc etc etc that they’ll sign up in droves to be mediocre at triathlon. But right now that is not the case.

What that means is very straightforward: A system that’s based on participation numbers doubly penalizes these women. Or in other words: We’re all really goddamn tired of the races where getting second overall still wasn’t good enough, somehow.

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The -ish

And a few other things worth knowing about this week in our sports.

• This week is U.S. cycling nationals, and this morning was the individual time trial. It looks like Taylor Knibb ended up not racing (she’s got a busy year), but Lisa Becharas was 5th and there were a few other triathletes in there, too. (US Cycling)

• A bunch of races this upcoming weekend — the first Xterra S. American champs, Shanghai 70.3 — with Kraichgau 70.3 being the big one with Laura Philipp on the line. But the big big ones are in two weeks: T100 - San Francisco, WTCS Italy (women’s & men’s start lists), and IM Hamburg. (XTERRA/Ironman/World Triathlon)

• This new “up-to-date” injury list of pro triathletes is funny, only because I can’t decide if they meant it to be funny or not. (Instagram)

• I will forever have a soft spot for Nick Symmonds because he knew how to make a scene and because he let me interview him for my grad school thesis project. And now, he’s become (it appears) the first person to break the 4-minute mile and climb Mt. Everest. For whatever reason. (Runner’s World)

• Rohan Dennis (the Tour and Olympic cyclist) got a suspended sentence for running over his wife and killing her — which seems to mean he doesn’t serve jail time if he stays on good behavior. Setting aside the super American bias of ‘jail solves all problems, so more jail is better,’ I’m willing to believe it may have been an accident, but it’s an accident that looks and walks and talks like a domestic incident. So. (New York Times)

• Marion Jones did the Honolulu Triathlon and won her age group. (Honolulu Triathlon/Instagram)

• Fenella Langridge is getting surgery for her external iliac artery endofibrosis. (Instagram)

• Hayden Wilde is recovering. (Instagram)

• And Sophie Coldwell had her kid. Also, it is not just your imagination, yes, there are a lot of pregnant and returning-from-pregnancy athletes now. It’s because of improvements in maternity clauses, contracts, more research on coming back to elite sport, an off Olympic year, etc. (Instagram)

• It’s also always interesting to me which stories go viral. That one we shared last week about Nikola Corbova becoming the first woman to win an Xtri outright is now everywhere. And this week, the viral story seems to be the one about Stephanie Case winning the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia 100K six months postpartum, while breastfeeding, from the last wave. (Instagram/Triathlete)

• Same vein, different continent: Former triathlete Beth McKenzie took second at another UTMB World Series 100K with her kids as crew. (Instagram)

• For the rest of us: There’s a grant program from Strava to support the costs of childcare while you race. (Strava)

• I will also be honest that I am not the type of person who would notice that Strava took tenths of a mile off my uploaded file, but you all are that type of person. That’s why Strava is explaining what it calls the Strava Tax. (Strava)

• I also haven’t had a Whoop in a few iterations, but it sounds like the latest upgrade and promises didn’t go great because when you tell people they’ll never have to buy a membership and then you change your mind, and then you tell people if they are a member they’ll never have to pay to upgrade and then you change your mind, it doesn’t go well. (Not a Conversational Pace)

• This is an interesting question: What did it take in running to earn $1,000 last year across prize purses awarded — fastest and slowest times? Someone should try to do this for triathlon. (Running USA)

• Also interesting: They put sensors on cyclists’ handlebars to map what are the riskiest streets and routes in Seattle (ie. where cars drive the closest). You could probably guess in your own area, but still fascinating to see it quantified. (University of Washington)

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One last thing

I was pretty sure I’d heard all the weirdest stories out there about what athletes are willing to do in the name of science. But did not see this story taking this turn.