Olympic GOLD medalist Simon Whitfield too
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Super nice guy who was kinda shy and internally focused vs surrounding himself with a lot of people or doing a lot of self promotion
Had lunch some with him and dinner a few times back in the late 90’s as his massage preceded mine with our masseuse in Tucson. He’d get a massage, the 3 of us would do lunch and then I’d get my massage. Super nice guy & different than SQW whom I’m homestayed several times.
Peter never won when the pit was part of the run course. That was before Peter’s time. I am pretty sure when LVL when 8:04 and Hellriegel did 8:06 in 1996 the T2 was where it is now. When T2 was at the Old Kona Surf Resort at the far end of Alii drive the bike course was harder as was the run course. the bike course was harder because you came back past Palani and proceeded to climb on the highway 19 to the 200m point before doing the switchback descent down to Kona Surf and then right out of T2 you ran south with a ton of climbing, went in and out of the pit and then had to climb back to connect back to Alii drive to the current Kona run course Alii drive turnaround. Peter never won on that course. Just Dave Scott, Tinley, Molina and Allan. Mark was a freak to do 8:09 when you consider the harder bike course, the harder run course, the longer swim course than we have today AND slow tech on the bike relative to today.
These are Mark’s splits from that course (longer swim, bike with more climbing, run with more climbing). T1 included in bike and T2 included in run. :
MARK ALLEN USA 00:51:17 04:37:52 02:40:04 08:09:15
I guess Ironman was who he was at that point in time, and once he had accomplished all that he felt was possible, he was happy to move on. He knew that he was one of the least naturally gifted pros but he learnt from Mark Allen and others how to train and win Hawaii. Don’t forget he took down LVL in 1998 (who was extremely gifted and had a strong swim background), but from the interviews it was clear that he was always in two minds about the whole thing. AGs with nice jobs don’t have to train that hard or risk so much. I remember him talking about how you had to starve yourself to get down to race weight. He could only do the “monk” thing for so long, whereas the Norwegians seem to thrive on it.
Peter won twice during “the pit error”. I was 18 and raced in 2000 and we went down into the pit. That was the last year going down to the pit.
It’s unfortunate Peter the Great…is rarely mentioned with there being so few multi-time winners.
Much better tech, optimized positions, power meters, nutrition, recovery, training, coaching improvements, course changes, the entry of athletes whom have been triathletes their entire lives have all contributed to faster times in Kona.
Someone mentioned the swim course is also shorter that ia true too. One thing that isn’t mentioned as much is the race start time. The 30 minute earlier start time usually means an easier swim, more energy saved for the bike which is also means less wind on the bike, the wind picks up less on the course and a slightly earlier start on the run when the heat of the run course isn’t as bad. That 30 min earlier start is a big deal especially when combined with all the other improvements.
With all that said the champions of the past paved the way for todays athletes and inspired many if not most of today’s triathletes. I would wager, most of the very best would still be amongst the best today if they were racing today.
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I stand corrected. I thought they went to the current T2 and current run course for 1996. As such when LVL and Hellriegel went 8:04 and 8:06 on that old swim course, the harder bike course and the harder run course is insane on the old tech.
OK, I found the results, they are intriguing, I pasted all the way down to 18th as Lothar Leder was the first ever sub 8 that year in Roth . Hellriegel, LVL and Peter Reid, Jurgen Zack went 4:24, 4:30 and 4:30, 4:30 on the bike. That’s even more impressive if they did that entire climb up to 200m elevation before riding down to Kona surf for T2
1 Luc Van Lierde 27 Belgium :51:36 4:30:44 2:41:48 08:04:08
2 Thomas Hellriegel 25 Germany :54:22 4:24:50 2:46:55 08:06:07
3 Greg Welch 31 Australia :51:23 4:35:43 2:51:51 08:18:57
4 Peter Reid 27 Canada :54:22 4:30:33 2:59:42 08:24:37
5 Dave Scott 42 Colorado :53:16 4:49:55 2:45:20 08:28:31
6 Alexander Taubert 27 Germany :55:31 4:42:52 2:52:22 08:30:45
7 Peter Kropko 33 Hungary :54:14 4:48:12 2:52:29 08:34:55
8 Jean Moureau 33 Belgium :55:40 4:41:55 2:57:54 08:35:29
9 Jan Van Der Marel 28 Netherlands :59:48 4:37:54 2:58:14 08:35:56
10 Matthias Klumpp 28 Germany :56:57 4:47:12 2:51:59 08:36:08
11 Jurgen Zack 31 Germany :54:20 4:30:58 3:11:25 08:36:43
12 Michael McCormack 36 Massachuset :54:19 4:34:35 3:09:30 08:38:24
13 Cameron Widoff 27 Colorado :51:30 4:40:29 3:07:41 08:39:40
14 Rene Rovera 28 France :59:54 4:46:21 2:53:39 08:39:54
15 Ken Glah 32 Pennsylvani :51:28 4:37:20 3:13:48 08:42:36
16 Pierre-Alain Frossard 30 Switzerland :57:26 4:45:28 3:00:01 08:42:55
17 Juergen Hauber 28 Germany :59:46 4:49:34 2:55:48 08:45:08
18 Lothar Leder 25 Germany :53:29 4:51:21 3:01:05 08:45:55
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I always had the impression he didn’t have a totally healthy relationship with IM. He seemed like a really good guy who sometimes struggled with doing things in moderation and it’s no surprise (to me at least) that he either ended up as an incredibly successful to the point of controversial, coach … or someone who walked away from the sport and never looked back.
His run in 2004 was incredible. I was there that day and there was carnage out on the Queen K away from the cameras - he looked imperious but was obviously already too far back from the Normanator to win.
In 2003 after the awards ceremony my sister and I got into the Triathlete Magazine after party. I saw Peter in the corner of the bar standing by himself. I told my non-triathlete sister that was the guy that won the race. She couldn’t believe that he didn’t have a drink in his hand. So she bought him a beer. He came over and talked with us for a bit. He was very nice and even asked about my race…etc. After a few minutes he says that’s he’s going home. He was going to get up early the next morning to go ride motorcycles all over the island. I think he drank half of the beer.
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I met him many years ago, after he retired. He was a guest speaker at one of the local tris in Vancouver. Nice guy, easy going. He signed a magazine cover with a picture of him crossing the finish line in Kona and we took few photos.
I guess IM for him is been there done that, I am done now, I have other interests in life. Good for him.
As mentioned the swim today is shorter. For that, I believe the REAL fastest swim for Ironman if you adjust the “then” record by Lars Jorgenson, to actually be faster than even the record setter from this year. 44:14 would be his “adjusted” swim time by your 2.5 minutes estimation. Sam Askey set it this year with a 45:43, which is significantly slower than Lars swam. I may be biased here of course, as the year Lars set it we roomed together in Kona–but he told me he was not even full throttle on the swim & just swam fast enough to get out first.
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Also note that Jorgenson swam in a Speedo and had to swim through all the pro men and women. Assuming that Askey swam in a swimskin and I’m not sure how many waves he had to swim through.
Lars swam in the pro field going first, so he did not swim through anyone. Have to recall back in the day there was just one start for everyone…
I thought he was an age grouper. Racer # 685. One start but age groupers were 10 or so yards behind the pros. It was brutal for me trying to get through the pro women and not get swam over by the rest of the fast age groupers. Jorgenson obviously never had any problems getting swam over.
He raced angry to prove his dad wrong about his career choice. When they made up he lost the fire-in-the-belly.
Wow this interview is really cool, Some context, Peter talks about his first years of triathlon when he was a student in Ottawa…we knew this guy locally who was up and coming…then he talks about his first big win at Wildflower 1996. I happened to be there, and it was cool having our home by take his first big win, and at the extreme other end, 2006 Peter was sitting beside me in the airplane after St. Croix and he was saying, “That’s it, I’m done”. So listening to this and him covering all of that in this interview was interesting. Later that year, he was working an aid station in the energy lab in Kona as a newly retired guy and came up beside me with a gatorade and pat on the back!!! Very cool hearing this (from 2013)
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He was an age grouper of course before, and crushed the AG season at one point (even on the cover of Triathlete Magazine as the next big thing in triathlon), then he turned pro & did Kona 2x. One time he didn’t finish, but he was a pro when we roomed that year, along with another friend. Funny, he spent most of the time sleeping & watching TV. Nice guy though. I passed him right about Hawi–he wasn’t doing well & don’t recall if that was a DNF or just a far back finish for him.