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On the Big Island

Kona special edition: Oct. 27, 2024

Reminder: This is a special edition from the men’s Ironman World Championship in Kona. Will be back with a shorter regular newsletter on Wednesday.

- Kelly

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In the end — even with all the records and the lead changes and the numbers and the closeness of the race — the top four yesterday were the same as the top five from last year in Nice, except everyone moved up one spot and our defending #1 Sam Laidlow imploded with a 3:12 marathon.

Maybe the reality is the best are just the best, regardless.

That makes the race sound less exciting and less brutal than it was. It was brutal. People did not look good, even for an Ironman; everyone except for Patrick Lange tipped over after the finish, glassy-eyed and unsure how to step off a ramp or onto a podium. At one point, on Ali’i Drive during the run, I had to step back out of the road because I didn’t want to get projectile vomited on.

Only Patrick seemed fine, like it was just another day at work. He picked up the Ironman CEO at the finish line in a giant bear hug and shook him. I guess lots of things make sense in your head in a moment like that.

Last year, 16 women went under nine hours here — didn’t even get you a paycheck. That honor this year went to Jonas Hoffman under eight hours and out of the money in 16th. Seven men rode under the previous bike course record (also set again by Sam Laidlow, 3:57:22, and since he finished he gets to keep it) and Patrick broke Gustav’s two-year-old course record. Patrick was also the longest time between wins, at six years, one of the oldest at 38. And he was the only one who ran relatively fast, too.

Patrick said later in the press conference, when someone asked if the athletes regretted chasing down Sam on the bike, that actually he hadn’t been concerned about Sam taking a flyer off the front. I don’t know if that’s true or just what you want to be true, but races do weird things to your brain. Magnus Ditlev said no, he didn’t regret going for it, even though maybe it backfired, he was racing for the win and that was the only choice for the win. Then the two of them debated it on the stage. Magnus also said he almost quit in T2 (you can see he spent some time in the transition tent, mentally willing himself on), thought he couldn’t run a marathon, but then just started at an easy jog out to the turnaround, step by step, and eventually he realized the gaps were holding on the athletes in front of him and then the gaps were going down. All of them said the giant bike group was hugely surge-y, requiring massive power numbers and then sitting up on brakes to not drift into the zone. Leon Chevalier went from second to walking through aid stations, dunking his head in ice, rallying for 4th.

Pros, they’re just like us, except not.

Spectating here, I can never really tell how the conditions are until the athletes are almost done. Sometimes it feels fine in town, but it’s actually windy out in Hawi. Sometimes it seems hot, but it’s no more hot than usual. Yesterday, when we were walking back to the rundown Airbnb after the men were biking out on the Queen K, I thought it was extra humid, it felt heavy, like before a storm was about the break (the storm did come around 4:30 p.m.) and that, even though the bike had fast conditions, it might really hit the men on the run. People thought I was wrong, but I think I was right.

I think that + the effort + the hype of being back on the island with something to prove + the jellyfish stings got to so many of them. Yes, nearly all the pro men got stung by jellyfish at the start (apparently it was predictable with the jellyfish calendar?) and they mostly all said it hurt but wasn’t that big a deal — remember when Daniela won after getting stung. But, as someone who once climbed into a Gatorade cooler delirious mid-race in Mexico after getting stung, I can confirm jellyfish stings affect different athletes differently.

See the full results here.

Photo: Donald Miralle/IRONMAN

People keep asking what it’s been like, what’s the vibe, an all-men’s Kona, is it so much testosterone. And the answer is yes and no.

There have been more women in town than I think people expected, more spouses and partners and sales reps and fans. Zoot apparently sold out of its women’s gear, because no one expected that many women. Someone pointed out there’s been fewer families and kids, though, and I think that’s probably true. Opposite of last year. You’d assume, by math, that about the same percentage of male and female triathletes have kids, so bringing them or leaving them home is clearly a choice.

But it didn’t feel that out-of-the-norm during the days leading up. For better or worse, it felt like a throwback. What it felt like was when I raced here eight years ago, when there were 690 women out of 2300+ and I spent all the weeks leading up explaining that no, actually it wasn’t my husband racing, it was me.

It wasn’t until during the race yesterday that it started to feel like just a lot of men, that my brain kept waiting for an occasional woman to run by. I think it’s because in Nice everything just seemed new, both men’s and women’s races, so my brain didn’t expect anything. And last year, Women’s Kona was exciting, something never-done-before. But this year it simply felt, in a lot of ways, like we had gone a decade back in time (but with much much faster athletes and weirder bikes!) and so I kept expecting the same old stories, old arguments, the same way it’s always been done, the same limited 25-30% of the athletes to be women. And so then it was weird when there were no women running under the banyan tree.

I couldn’t even remember how we used to do the post-race press conferences or what it was like to have only five women and five men at the pre-race conference. I was walking along the first bike loop in town during the race, that’s always so crowded, and remembering how much chaos it was when I raced it in the age-group women’s field with so many men. This weekend felt old, for better or worse.

They do what they do here very very well. They’re the best in the business at putting on this event. But Blackberry also made the best mobile phones in the world, everyone had one, until they didn’t anymore.

Photo: Donald Miralle/IRONMAN

A few odds and ends:

• The expo and number of non-expo booths and brands was still slightly smaller than it was pre-pandemic, but about the same as the last two years. A few of the non-partner brands, who weren’t in the expo, told me they’ve had conversations with Ironman about making the overall experience for athletes better — ie. athletes want everything to feel like more of a thing, and that requires Ironman to loosen the reigns some for all the non-partner activations.

• The crowds were pretty much the same as last year too, but not as big as the two-day two years ago.

• Yes, there were more gear launches and new things than either in Nice or than here the last few years. Probably a mix of supply chain finally catching up and the tradition of Kona gear launches.

• Canyon topped the bike count (which the counters have an app for now!), which walking around the pier on race morning felt super evident. There are no not-nice bikes anymore.

• The coffee boat had AG1. Interesting Q&A with BlueSeventy about how they lost control of the boat, sounds very Hawaii.

• Precision Fuel & Hydration told me they were booked to do 30 sweat tests, but ended up doing 60 because the men just showed up on the island and were surprised by the humidity and didn’t bring nutrition or plan ahead. I, for one, am shocked.

• Ironman also keeps close contact every year with the town about any complaints from locals that get called in, whether they’re specifically Ironman-related or not. Usually, those calls really start in earnest mid-race week and last year was notable for the scarcity of complaints. Word is this year the calls started the weekend before. And one industry person told me when they rode the Captain Cook loop (before realizing they weren’t supposed to) on a mix of road and dirt, they had run-ins with a lot of angry locals.

• There was no traditional Friday evening beer mile at the old airport!! And when I was making fun of the guys for not getting it together (because we even did a very bizarre small one last year), they told me they got rejected by the city for their permit. BOYS, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO APPPLY FOR A PERMIT FOR THE BEER MILE.

• I asked Magnus what was illegal about his bike that Ironman wouldn’t approve and he said he couldn’t tell me. My guess was faring or the degree of drop from seat to bars, but rumor is it’s a faring piece that moves with the wind. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• Kudos to Kristian Blummenfelt for finishing after all that vomiting on the bike and run.

• And kudos to Gustav Iden for getting out there, even knowing his fitness wasn’t where it needed to be. I get it, it didn’t go well, but I also think sometimes lining up as a defending champ knowing you’re not where you need to be is really really hard.

• And to Rudy von Berg for getting the U.S. back on the men’s podium for the first time in forever.

• 42 pros finished. And 2,287 of the men finished overall out of 2,491 starters.

• This was the last year of lingering men’s deferral from both Legacy and from when people qualified but the split was announced — so that ballooned numbers some and we should maybe be back on a regular number from here. Whatever regular is.

• Former race car driver, Billy Monger, broke the course record for double amputees.

• And there were more PC athletes, fifteen, than in past years.

• My husband, who doesn’t really follow any of this, decided Sam Laidlow is his new favorite because (and I quote) “at least he makes it interesting.”

• Out of all the different people I introduced him to at events too, my husband was also most excited to randomly meet (in his words) “the best triathlete of all time,” Daniela Ryf.

• Jan and Daniela were out again at the aid stations.

• There’s been a lot of talk about the amount the pro men were grabbing whole gallons of Coke or water and then dropping them, dunking their heads in the buckets. And part of me agrees: We can not make this the norm, at least try to grab the cups first, come on; or maybe the volunteers need to give the pros some better options. But a huge part of me also thinks: This is their job, they have to do whatever they have to do and the brain does weird things.

• What Patrick actually said in the pre-race press conference was “Please, bring the women back to our race.” Sure, English as a second language, and he’s a nice guy, I don’t think he disrespects the women deliberately. But a lot of media outlets have paraphrased what he said or tried to guess at the sentiment or changed the words. So, look, it was pre-meditated and deliberate and this was how he chose to say it. It was also reflective of certain male attitudes that are pervasive. The men in the audience at the press conference cheered, which was also weird, but I cringed and so did quite a few of the women. I said this in last year’s Ironman documentary show but I’ll say it again: When you ask male triathletes (pros, age-groupers) about having the races separate, they talk about how nice it is to see the women out there, to have the women around, how it adds more feel to their event. When you ask the female triathletes (pros or age-groupers), they almost always talk about how the men specifically affect their race for good or bad. Those are different perspectives, and one is more important.

• We’ll talk about what’s going to happen with Nice & Kona and the men’s & women’s world championships in Wednesday’s newsletter, but I’d just add: No woman got up on stage here or in Nice and said bring the men back to our race; they did say over and over how important it was for the women to have their own race, their own stage, how it changed the media coverage, and the lack of male interference changed the literal race dynamics and strategy. They have said it many times and loudly. And anyway, Kristian Blummenfelt also said on the stage that it’s good to have the world championship in different locations and terrains. So let’s not pick and choose who’s random opinions we value. I’ve had a lot of reasonable, rational conversations this week about what should happen and the various issues, but those aren’t the ones that get headlines.