Congratulations to Michellie. First IM and a victory going away. My guess is that she will be the talk of Kona next year.
She won’t scare anyone in Kona with a 3:2x run split, just like Karen Thurig scares no one with a 1:13 swim.
Yeah, but how fast COULD she have gone? She didn’t have any reason to push herself on the run.
Francois. I agree with you, she’ll be fast at Hawaii, but the main point is that no one who has or plans to be on the podium will be too worried unless she can run a sub 3:10. Granted, she does have the track record and running capability to do it, its just that she has yet to do it. Let’s just say that she is not about to dethrone Nina Kraft unless she gets her run down close to 3 hours, given that Nina swims and bikes just as good as Michelle.
Two words: Simon Lessing. He was one of the favorites in Kona.
I wouldn’t say she will be a FAVORITE but she will certainly bear watching. She is an extremely consistent and talented athlete - smart too.
I don’t know about you, but the real revelation of Ironman Florida is Natasha Filliol. She is very young and one of the best short course racer’s in Canada, she was only left off the Olympic team due to a questionable selection process by the Canadian Olympic Committee and some underhanded actions by a fellow Canadian short course member. Natasha was 4th at her first Ironman…impressive for one so young. Is she the next dominant Canadian female Ironman distance triathlete? I think she can be if she concentrates on long course racing. She finished fourth with splits of 54:30, 5:23:38, and 3:11:07 for an overall time of 9:37:24. I notice that she was the second fastest female runner overall, just, significantly faster than Jones and has many years to improve her bike split at only 24 years old. Focussed long training will likely see her rise to become the next great Canadian female Ironman racer. I have been impressed by her for the last couple of years and was rather shocked to see her left off the Canadian Olympic team.
Francois what do you think about Natash being left off the Olympic team?
Thanks Spandexboy,
After the Oly selection Natasha felt like she needed a break from the ITU circuit and she wanted to do a little more riding, so we watched IMC and she felt inspired to try an IM, so Florida seemed like a good choice, and the right time to try a low pressure IM.
She definitely learned a lot and enjoyed the day. Going from ITU training where her longest rides being ~2.5hrs and longest runs of 1hr to IM training in 2 months wasn’t easy, but she handled the volume OK and enjoyed the change.
Overall the first part of her ride wasn’t great, most of the time she lost to the girls in the 5.12-5.18 range was in the first 60k, then once she warmed up she got rolling. I haven’t looked at her SRM file yet, but they’ll be more to learn from that. The run started a little quick, but she finished the last 10k really strong.
I will be posting race reports from natasha, tom and charlene in the next few days.
Joel
MJ looked seriously depleted at the end - at least what I could see from the webcast. But, still, how incredible is that? She definitely likes to lead from early on - just like at Ralph’s HIM. I bet she’s mentally optimized for leading - what I mean is she does her best at the front and would probably have more difficulty mentally digging deep to win coming up from behind. Just a thought.
That’s a very good point.
Will be interesting to hear her thoughts on racing over that distance. Is she going to concentrate on the Ironman or was it a one off ? Did she take the Hawaii spot ?
I wouldn’t say she will be a FAVORITE but she will certainly bear watching. She is an extremely consistent and talented athlete - smart too.
If you were a dude, you’d understand that she bears watching regardless of her speed or anticipated placement. 
Yes. I watch whenever she’s at a race I’m at! What I admire most about her is how much and the variety of racing she’s done since not making the Olympic team. She didn’t let that get her down. In fact, I’d say all of her recent racing is sort of an *In Your Face *statement to the Aussi Olympic Committee.
BTW: Before putting on her wetsuit, she sprays herself down with some foamy brown stuff from an aerosol can. Anyone know what that might be?
YES! She took the spot!
If you were a dude, you’d understand that she bears watching regardless of her speed or anticipated placement.
Gary Mc
BTW: Before putting on her wetsuit, she sprays herself down with some foamy brown stuff from an aerosol can. Anyone know what that might be?
Uuuum…spray-on Vegemite ?? 
Cheers
Barry