PNF won it 8x. Chrissy never lost. Mirinda holds the course record & is current champ. But who is the REAL Queen & do you base it off of which factors? Number of times won? Speed on the course? Or having never lost?
IMO, first to go out the door is Mirinda. Awesome record & the fastest time. But she never beat Chrissy--not even a road-rashed limping beat up Chrissy on her worst feeling day. We will never know if Chrissy was even holding back enough just taunting Rinny by being just out of range. CW may have been able to go much faster than Mirinda's current course record but had no reason to.
PNF won it more than anyone & how would she stack up against CW & MC these days with technology & having to raise her game to keep pace? Maybe MC's record has something to do with more ideal race conditions that allowed her to go faster? Was PNF's competition more "watered down" quality wise than today (just saying that because there is a huge number of "out of the woodwork sub 9 hour finishers" all over the globe in the women's pro fields) just in the last few years.
The sad thing about seeing Chrissy retire is when she went out on top, may have been able to dominate even up until today, keeping MC at bay from winning anything there to date.
But the undeniable ability of MC to have that never say die attitude & just keep going makes me never bet against her for the W in Kona--she is, without a doubt, THE force to be reckoned with for Kona.
In the end, it doesn't really matter--but the curious question is who is the REAL Queen of Kona & what do you base it off of? Current active status, x-won, OA, having never lost?
When I hear people say so & so the "Queen of Kona" I just laugh, because you have to also remember they used to called Natasha Badman that, PNF, CW, MC...they (WTC) may be going off of the current previous year's winner status. Which means, if RYF wins this year, she will be Queen next year?
IMO, first to go out the door is Mirinda. Awesome record & the fastest time. But she never beat Chrissy--not even a road-rashed limping beat up Chrissy on her worst feeling day. We will never know if Chrissy was even holding back enough just taunting Rinny by being just out of range. CW may have been able to go much faster than Mirinda's current course record but had no reason to.
PNF won it more than anyone & how would she stack up against CW & MC these days with technology & having to raise her game to keep pace? Maybe MC's record has something to do with more ideal race conditions that allowed her to go faster? Was PNF's competition more "watered down" quality wise than today (just saying that because there is a huge number of "out of the woodwork sub 9 hour finishers" all over the globe in the women's pro fields) just in the last few years.
The sad thing about seeing Chrissy retire is when she went out on top, may have been able to dominate even up until today, keeping MC at bay from winning anything there to date.
But the undeniable ability of MC to have that never say die attitude & just keep going makes me never bet against her for the W in Kona--she is, without a doubt, THE force to be reckoned with for Kona.
In the end, it doesn't really matter--but the curious question is who is the REAL Queen of Kona & what do you base it off of? Current active status, x-won, OA, having never lost?
When I hear people say so & so the "Queen of Kona" I just laugh, because you have to also remember they used to called Natasha Badman that, PNF, CW, MC...they (WTC) may be going off of the current previous year's winner status. Which means, if RYF wins this year, she will be Queen next year?
