75 women’s Nice and 75 Men’s Kona Slots available at this weekends race.
For the Kona Allocation the majority of Ironmans are in the ballpark of 25-40 slots per race so this Texas race is a one of the few better opportunities to get the ticket.
Anyone here have a pulse on the top age group race? Throw some names out of who you think might win their age group or if you are trying to get a Kona slot let us know so we can follow along on Saturday.
Tom De Bruyn - M35-39!
Nice! I missed that he was racing Texas. Did he take all of 2023 off of Ironman?
I think I saw Eric Engel is racing as well. They are both in 35-39 I believe.
Afredo Ramirez Pinho is also racing. M35-39 will be stacked.
Tom won a 70.3 or two in 2023 but didn’t race any fulls since his AG win at Kona.
50-54
Paul Lunn and Olaf Kasten , both exceptional
.
Nice! I’m in 35-39 and realizing how fast all the age groups are. These 50-54 guys are rock stars. You get no breaks as you age. Just need to get faster.
Anyone have the breakdown of Mens Kona Slots for Texas and if many roll downs happened?
If you have a picture of the Kona Slot list from the awards today shoot me a PM!
Thanks
the slot allocation is on the IM app under info.
Learning something new! Thanks
This seemed like a very competitive race in the end. My AG (M45-49) had 22 people break 10hrs, and 10th place (last KQ not counting roll downs) was a 9h36. Those seem like fast times to me!
Is that considered fast for TX? Out of curiosity, I checked Roth results for M45-49 last year. 10th finished in 9:04, and 174 (out of 479) finished under 11hr. I’ve done both races and the course/conditions aren’t much different.
Would say the conditions are usually quite different. It can get warm-ish in Roth but it isn’t usually humid. 70 degree dew point on the run in Texas. Hard to run fast in those conditions.
Is that considered fast for TX? Out of curiosity, I checked Roth results for M45-49 last year. 10th finished in 9:04, and 174 (out of 479) finished under 11hr. I’ve done both races and the course/conditions aren’t much different.
Sorry, there was a typo in my post, 22 people broke 10hrs, not 11hrs. I think Roth is faster and would anticipate it to be significantly more competitive yet.
Would say the conditions are usually quite different. It can get warm-ish in Roth but it isn’t usually humid. 70 degree dew point on the run in Texas. Hard to run fast in those conditions.
Not to mention the wind on Saturday was 15mph with gusts to 24, blowing into the face of the riders for the two south bound lengths. I saw some splits that were 5mph slower going into the wind versus heading back to town.
If you wondered how fast you needed to go to get a slot I took the time to dig deep. Only a few slots in the men’s race rolled down. So this is just based on the slots available and the placement in each age group.
9:07 25-29 7th
9:11 30-34 9th
9:10 35-39 9th
9:28 40-44 11th
9:36 45-49 10th
9:56 50-54 9th
10:14 55-59 6th
Would say the conditions are usually quite different. It can get warm-ish in Roth but it isn’t usually humid. 70 degree dew point on the run in Texas. Hard to run fast in those conditions.
Not to mention the wind on Saturday was 15mph with gusts to 24, blowing into the face of the riders for the two south bound lengths. I saw some splits that were 5mph slower going into the wind versus heading back to town.
At the same steady watts does it make a difference to average speed? My Texas time was in line with other races. What you lose in the headwind is gained in tail wind.
At the same steady watts does it make a difference to average speed? My Texas time was in line with other races. What you lose in the headwind is gained in tail wind.
I’m not a scientist or aero specialist of any kind, so I can only go on what I’ve read on the internet (so it must be true 
).
https://www.tri2max.com/wind-hills-you-lose#:~:text=IMPACT%20OF%20WIND%20(HEADWIND%20%2B%20TAILWIND,resulting%20tailwind%20is%2034.5%20mph.
This is just one example of multiple articles about wind and/or hills affecting average speed.