So happy for that guy. He did CPR on his infant son last fall and then had that horrific crash a month or so later.

And here he is, showing off not only his exceptional talent, but exceptional grit. What an awesome day for him.

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Trent Nix
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It would be great to see him do well. Insane bike split. 13:03 lead off the bike!

It is an IM record and appears nobody will come even close. 27.85 mph average....crazy fast.

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So happy to see him back in the mix and what a bike split. Dude deserves a parade. This is a sport where you always seem to meet people that leave you in awe of what the human body and the human soul can endure and Starky is certainly up there.

Agreed. Crazy fast time not even taking consideration recovery / rehab. I hope he posts his power profile for the race - it will be drool worthy.

I was really hoping that he would take the win but Hanson is running very well. I am glad he rode so well after what he has gone through.

Yes crazy! And he even ran the first 13.1 at quite decent pace. The last 13.1 however - I suspect even I could follow! (fully rested state ofcourse, hah! :D)

Looks like he's walking it in now. Just gave him 3 cookies at mile 16 aid station.

He can have all the cookies he wants.

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Putting aside all the non-race stuff, I don't get this.

What's the point of blowing up your run? This is a multi-discipline sport.

I'm a 20-minute 5k guy and once ran a 5:45 first mile like a boss. I jogged it in at 22 minutes. Who cares about the 5:45? It wasn't a mile race.

Maybe it's my lack of familiarity with the pros, but I imagine there are others who could ride faster if T2 was really the finish line?

This has been discussed on the boards ad infinitum. Starky is playing the hand he's dealt. He's a big guy... somewhere in the 6'3" 185lb range. With a frame like that he's never going to run a blazing fast marathon. His best option is to try to break the field on the bike. He doesn't totally nuke himself on the bike either fyi (sorta scary if you think about it).

I would guess he just doesn't have the miles in yet to even run the full distance. So "mentally" with all the shit he's gone through, maybe he just wanted to run fast while it felt good...knowing all the while he would be walking at some point.

Anyways, I am very much an anti fanboy when it comes to pro triathletes, especially Snarky when he first came to attention.....

He is definitely winning me over today.

Maurice,

This reaches to a separate topic to some extent, but I can imagine Starky has a ton of incentive to #1 set the course record. There are a lot of perks that come with that on your resume and potentially lots of $$$. The reality is that pro triathlon is not a sport where you can count on any sort of paycheck.

Second, I am not sure if you are aware, but Starky is coming back from a horrendous bike/car crash. The last thing to come together would likely be the run. Even when it does come back you might have all sort of imbalances etc and 26.2 mile is a long way to go after a 112 mile hard bike. I have no idea what kind of shape he was in coming in.

I think your example is a little different with the 5k. The reality of triathlon is we look at swim, bike and run segments almost as separate events. An analogous situation would be like if we said Starky biked 1:59 for the first 56 miles, then 2:28 for the second 56 miles. Frankly we spend way too much time covering the first guy gal out of the swim, when they rarely end up winning the race.

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Yeah but he might be one of the only pros that fully commits his race to his bike split, this was the case even before his accident. Not trying to dump on his bike split times, cause they're impressive but he often comes off the bike run/walking, so what's the point?

Give a few good cyclists the challenge to beat his bike split time and they most likely could, while also blowing up their run.. but no one else races like this.

My 0.02$.

Do you realize that Starky nearly died in a crash last year and that this is his first race back? He was probably testing fitness and hoping the run legs would be there. He has had some pretty solid runs before (IM FL and Eagleman come to mind).

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That is a fair assessment. I do think though that given the need for swim, Starky is pretty rare. The majority of cyclists are not going to be able to swim like Starky. Don't get me wrong, I wish people only cared about finish place, but the reality is that a 4:01 bike split turns heads. The reality is also that people in charge of marketing/advertising budgets aren't students of the sport and you need something that looks good on paper.

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uh, perhaps you should take a course in economics.

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David
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Well cam wurf has been trying for some time. He still hasnt touched starkys times.

Looks like Starky finished in 8:54. Glad to see he finished so he will get credit for the bike record.

His run split was nearly longer than his bike split. Is Dark Mark his new run coach?

I wouldn't necessarily expect wurf to beat his time. Others could, especially on that course..I'm sure.

Most of us would kill for Starky's run split today....and his swim split and his finish time. What else am I missing. The guy almost died a few months ago, swims in the lead pack, sets an IM bike course record and gets the run done so his record counts. I don't see any threads on here about 2-5th place even though they all went sub 8 hours. Everyone is talking about Starky's 4:01 ride.

Who finishes an Ironman in eight hours walking? Incredible athletic achievement!

^^This.

Amazing performance by Starky, and hats off to the pro field Top 5 all under 8 hours.

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who cares about all of this stuff today. My guess is that this is therapy for that man's soul. He probably needed this bike ride and to just finish in a very deeply personal way that none of us can ever appreciate.

Nothing but respect for his strength of mind and courage.