Firstly I've got to say congratulations for qualifying on your first IM. Superb work.

I'm the chap in the 'pirate' top who you mentioned in the report (who came 7th). It was good to say hello to you before the prize giving on the Monday morning. If anyone wants to read my race report (it's quite long!) you can find it at http://www.rowerunning.co.uk/.../ironman-wales-2014/

Regarding difficulty - the swim really seemed to affect a lot of people. Many were sick and this I believe affected a lot of people even if they managed to get to T1 (which by is a 1km run away from the water). http://www.trirating.com/course-ratings/ gives the course a pretty difficult course rating (the only current race that Thorsten rates harder is Tahoe. We'll see if that's still the case next week). There's also some good little analysis of this years results with graphs etc. for all the age groups over at http://www.coachcox.co.uk/...14-results-analysis/

The winner of the M40-44 age group did 8:44:27 in Roth this year (and I believe 8:31 last year). In Wales he did 9:53:54. So is Wales 1 hour 10 minutes slower for an age group winner....

Ultimately everyone races the same course on the same day at the same time. Some years are quick, some are slower. Sometimes the conditions are good, sometimes not so good. You can only beat and race who turns up on the day.

It's a superb race, amazing scenery, amazing crowds.

Once again I say well done to S. and I'll see you Kona next year :)

I will play. I can't comment on Wales but there are several races in Europe where the women's field and older athlete field is very small. To the point there are zero finishers in some of the older age groups (IM France one year when I went had several that did not make the bike cut off) and only 1 in almost all the women's age groups. That leaves more slots for the male "dense population" age groups.

I got a big roll down one year at IM France with a 10:37 thanks to a bunch of guys not wanting to go and slots coming back to my age group from others. In total, there were around 7 slots allocated to 45-49. You'll find that on the tougher IM courses there are mainly only "racers" and less lifestyle folks there for the challenge of finishing an IM. There are still some but not massive numbers like in the US races. So the "dense" male age groups get more slots. Having said that, the competition is also really tough and you just need to go to Kona or 70.3 World's to see how fast the Europeans are compared to North Americans in terms of overall numbers of fast guys.

Thanks David,

Like mentioned, I really enjoyed our little battle and am very much looking forward to meeting you again in Kona next year. Enjoy the post-season break and all the best in training for 2015. Hopefully, we can do a repeat of our battle next year in Kona. The winner buys the other one a beer ;)

GReetz,
S.