I don't know but I certainly hope so.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

The fastest time is the standard to win.

When I modeled the bike course today, it was only 10min slower for me than the last year's course so not a slow day by any means it seems. Wurf was almost exactly 10min slower yesterday than last year on it.

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
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I do wonder if it has made a big difference now that the pros start so much earlier. For years everyone started at 7am, and now the pro men go off 35 minutes sooner and the wind tends to pick up as the day goes along. Maybe the winds haven't been that mad in general in recent years (for sure last year they weren't) but maybe starting later would've slowed some of them down?

And the swim course was shortened two years ago. Which is just less racing to do.
I agree about the start time and the wind. That is the big difference.

it was quite overcast both years which allowed for faster times especially the run. Mark Allen said you can see by the shadows and for the men it was fine most of the bike/run but came up a bit more during the womens run dual

The last 2 years dave scott said the wind stayed low until the leaders approached Hawi, but then it becomes a tail wind....this is due to starting earlier. But this year the side winds in the last 3rd seemed higher than 2018

Are sub 8s more common in IMs generally?

Cam did 7,45 in italy as a training day but how many others?

If you want to beat a fit Frodeno!

I think sub 8 is the new norm if the conditions continue to be reasonable. Even this year it looked like a decent amount of wind but in the end it really wasn't bad enough to make much of a difference in times on the bike. I think it did sort some of the drafting benefit but the times of the top guys weren't that far off of last year where there was zero wind.

I'd like to think breaking 8 in kona is going to continue to be more rare than the norm, but its always going to be condition dependent.

And the run conditions seemed more favourable this year as well.

I'd argue 8:00 - 8:05 would still win this race plenty of days in the future. Not always but we have not seen the days of even a 8:10 being a winning time when the big island truly decides to put a tough day on.

Which is a bit disappointing because many of us thought he made some serious fitness progressions this year.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

[/quote][/quote]Are sub 8s more common in IMs generally?

Cam did 7,45 in italy as a training day but how many others?[/quote]

There are actually quite a few sub 8 performances. Here is a list (up until the beginning of 2018... so you can add Patrick, Cam, etc) of the fastest IM times. A bunch of the guys on the list have more then just one sub 8 performance, this is just their best times...

Jan Frodeno GER Challenge Roth 2016 07:35:39
Tim Don GBR Ironman Brasi l2017 07:40:23
Andreas Raelert GER Challenge Roth 2011 07:41:33
Lionel Sanders CAN Ironman Arizona 2016 07:44:29
Marino Vanhoenacker BEL Ironman Austria 2011 07:45:58
Brent McMahon CAN Ironman Brazi l2016 07:46:10
Sebastian Kienle GER Ironman Cozumel 2017 07:48:11
Ivan Rana ESP Ironman Austria 2014 07:48:43
Patrick Nilsson SWE Ironman Copenhagen 2016 07:49:18
Anthony Costes FRA Ironman Barcelona 2017 07:49:19
Luc Van Lierde BEL Ironman Europe (Roth)1997 07:50:27
Terenzo Bozzone NZL Ironman Western Australia 2016 07:51:26
Nils Frommhold GER Challenge Roth 2015 07:51:28
Jurgen Zack GER Ironman Europe (Roth)1997 07:51:42
Peter Reid CAN Ironman Austria1999 07:51:56
Dirk Bockel LUX Challenge Roth 2013 07:52:01
Rasmus Henning DEN Challenge Roth 2010 07:52:36
Matt Hanson USA Ironman Texas 2017 07:52:44
Mike Phillips NZL Ironman Barcelona 2017 07:52:50
Victor Del Corral ESP Ironman Florida 2013 07:53:12
Michael Weiss AUT Ironman Cozumel 2017 07:53:27
Andi Boecherer GER Ironman Frankfurt 2016 07:53:40
Chris McCormack AUS Challenge Roth 2007 07:54:23
Christian Kramer GER Ironman Austria 2014 07:54:31
Andy Potts USA Ironman Western Australia 2016 07:55:12
Andrew Starykowicz USA Ironman Florida 2013 07:55:22
Michael Gohner GER Challenge Roth 2009 07:55:53
Timothy O'Donnell USA Ironman Brazil 2015 07:55:56
Luke McKenzie AUS Ironman Western Australia 2015 07:55:58
Timo Bracht GER Ironman Frankfurt 2009 07:56:00
Ronnie Schildknecht SUI Ironman Texas 2017 07:56:21
Joe Skipper GBR Challenge Roth 2016 07:56:23
Lothar Leder GER Ironman Europe (Roth)1997 07:56:39
Thomas Hellriegel GER Ironman Europe (Roth)1997 07:57:21
Craig Alexander AUS Ironman Melbourne 2012 07:57:44
Jan van der Marel NED Almere1999 07:57:46
Viktor Zyemtsev UKR Ironman Barcelona 2017 07:58:03
Tyler Butterfield BER Ironman Texas 2017 07:58:29
Ben Hoffman USA Ironman South Africa 2017 07:58:40
Filip Ospaly CZE Ironman Florida 2013 07:58:44
Faris Al Sultan GER Challenge Roth 2009 07:58:57
Will Clarke GBR Ironman Texas 2017 07:59:02
Bart Aernouts BEL Challenge Roth 2017 07:59:07
David Dellow AUS Challenge Roth 2015 07:59:28
Kirill Kotsegarov EST Ironman Texas 2017 07:59:32
Igor Amorelli BRA Ironman Brazil 2015 07:59:36
Eneko Llanos ESP Ironman Arizona 2011 07:59:38
Stefan Schmid GER Ironman Cozumel 2017 07:59:44
James Cunnama RSA Challenge Roth 2012 07:59:59

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Member of the Litespeed Factory Team
www.litespeed.com

Considering he went 8:10 in 2018 and 8:06 in 2019, in addition to "a bit disappointing", it is also totally false.

Which is a bit disappointing because many of us thought he made some serious fitness progressions this year.
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<Scoffs> 8:06 for 5th place in Kona= disappointing. That's rich!

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Considering he went 8:10 in 2018 and 8:06 in 2019, in addition to "a bit disappointing", it is also totally false. //

I was wondering what the hell this guy was talking about, guess he is only off by 14 minutes.. Be good if people that like to opine on these threads, had the minimum amount of knowledge about what they are talking about...

Sorry I haven't memorized all the splits and placings.


I took CPT Chaos for his word that he went 10 minutes slower this year.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

So up to 2018 there were 50 sub 8s and 745 at italy is 5th fastest in history

My question is still how many sub 8s are there in 2018 and 2019? Or is it only the 4 at kona and one at italy?

ETA .... 6 sub 8s at roth 2018 but 1 sub 8 at roth 2019

Which is a bit disappointing //

SO are you less disappointed in him now?

Not entirely. His interviews had me convinced he was gonna look Jan in the eye and leave him in the dust.

In all seriousness, I picked Jan for the win and Cam for second. I thought he'd be first into T2 again.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram