Interesting day in Hawaii yesterday. Some phenomenal races, some not so much, lots of surprises, Kona was great yesterday and the winds delivered. So what surprised you the most? Here is a small list for myself.
Didn’t see Hoffman’s brilliant race coming yesterday, thought he would falter on the run, he climbed 3 positions into 2nd. Anyone see this coming?
Andy Potts had the 3rd fastest run 2:48:18
Carfrae battled back 14:36 and put in almost another minute on Ryf, I thought the race was Joyce’s once the run started.
Kienle not slowing down on the run, thought he was “injured”, mind game master
Seeing Pete Jacobs chicked twice on the BIKE by Ryf and Joyce
pete jacobs obviously battling lately, feel sorry for the guy
I wrote kienle off based on current form. Was happy to be proven wrong.
Didnt see Potts being that quick on the run too.
I also didnt think rinny would make up over 14mins for the win.
Didnt think Tim Van Berkal would get as high as 7th, stoked for him
Potts executed perfedctly. Cruised the swim in the pack. Cruised the bike, the paced the run evenly targeting the best time he coukd run, not a mythical time. Raced like it was a tt, no tactics. Exact same think Rinny does. Thats my take. Meaning, if potts can ride a little faster… he could win. Time to hit the wind tunnel.
Rinnys run wasnt a suprise, it was that Ryf and Joyce faded so hard. At one point I thought it was Joyces race to win, but she just biked too hard I think, keeping ryf close.
I would say it was ok…but given their entrance fees, endorsements, sponsors, the fact that Ironman is on everything from panties to airplane wings…I would say it left a LOT to be desired and there’s even a whole new thread on that issue already.
I am starting to fee like Rinny is the GJ of LC triathlon. “NO LEAD IS SAFE” apparently. So I don’t know if I’m more shocked someone cant hold on for a 17 min lead when they didn’t really seem to cook the bike too much, or that she actually can truly run that fast when she seems way down in contention. You go back and read the ST thread on the race, and she’s a complete afterthought until I think she had the lead down to something like 6 mins at the half way point maybe? That was what surprised me.
andy potts’s 4th, rinny making up that 14 min and then some, harriet not making the bike cutoff (still need to check, when i went to bed (midnight here) that was the rumor), totally believed kienle was injured (run) and would lose it on the run (so F’ing glad i was wrong). LOVED his response at the finish line.
I thought that was a fairly unprofessional performance on his partJacobs performance has been below his standard for two years now. I think his career is about done.
Ben Hoffman has to have been the biggest surprise. Mirinda surprised me as well, thought she could be close, but that run was just ridiculous. I didn’t think she had it in her to run run course records in consecutive years, which is almost what it took to take the win. Ohno wasn’t necessarily a surprise as I was thinking he could do well but he did do better than my expectation, I was thinking 10:30-11:00. Glad to see he didn’t blow up on the marathon.
i was wrong). LOVED his response at the finish line.