Crushed it. Swam well, crushed the bike (was the only guy doing a lot of work other than Frodo), and then ran really well.
Totally didn’t expect that given the tone of some of his interviews and super impressed.
Can he be Tim O’Donnell and move on from Rinny’s Husband?! (tongue in cheek btw)
I was very impressed!
Had a good laugh during the bike when he was leading and looked back to AB and Jan and yelled “come on, boys!â€
Jan took him up on the offer and never looked back.
Great race by Tim!
NEVER thought about him being able to do this
So happy for him. Seems like a great guy
Agree with all of this.
Always thought TO was a very good, but not great IM triathlete.
Today - he became one of the greats. Breakthrough performance.
That was an inspiring effort, that in most other years (prior to '18) would have been more than good enough FTW.
He just had the misfortune of having an all-time great having an excellent day just a bit up the road.
TO is nails. BAMF.
And like Frodo, he’s a Pro’s Pro.
LOVED his comment about “I’m up there riding with 3 Olympic Gold medals, and I don’t have any of them”
LOL.
I really like the guy
Shame he raced the way he did on the bike for the last 60k. Why the hell was he pulling Frodeno and Brownlee for that long and he was pushing it because the bike train was not closing during that time.
He was not going to win so guess didn’t matter but how much fresher would he have been sitting third wheel for that period vs pulling two of the GOATS !
Awesome race for sure.
Probaly because listening to his comments I dont know how much confidence he had in his ability just a few weeks before Kona. So I think you’d understand why he raced the way he did. He went for it and got it.
As odd as that comment you made seems, I completely get it.
He raced like he had nothing to lose.
Ironic when we seem to relate that to racing with lack of confidence. Pushing the pace with those two in second half of bike would seem a quite confident move !
But I think it was the opposite of sorts as you say.
I think 2 things. I dont know how much he was actually “pushing” the pace, as I think it was a mixture of the 3 take pulls, and what the last 45 mins of the ride, Frodo went ballastic to drop them. I thought it was more of a “controlled” effort but also enough push to keep the chasers away.
Too bad we didn’t have a poll before Kona…“A Vegan and a Low Carb guy race Kona. Where will they finish?”
Seriously though, Super impressed with TO for working with two of the greatest in the sport and finishing only behind the GOAT of Ironman distance. The announcers didn’t give him enough credit. Even Rinny quit to witness his finish.
Rinny didn’t quit for that reason…she had a glute issue.
I know she wouldn’t quit unless it was serious. I hope she recovers quickly.
And Lange “was sick 
TO is a true gentleman. A very nice guy to meet around a race. Not a big personality, but a solid guy that you will support if you ever meet him.
I used to look at his Kona strategy as favoring good overall placing, at the expense of really going for it. Looks like he went balls out today. Breaking 8 hours and only being beaten by the generation’s best triathlete? A helluva day.
Ok, awesome thread title.
Having said that, as someone who is slower than their wife and is occasionally referred to as “Mel’s husband†you have made me feel marginalized.
Great work considering I bet he does all the heavy lifting type stuff at home as well (mowing lawns, changing oil in the cars, painting the fence, shoveling snow etc)
Maurice
I am also slower than my wife, haha. I am content with my place.
It’s almost like everyone forgets he was 3rd and 4th in Kona previously, but yeah I can’t even tell you who was 5th yesterday…So totally understand everyone has short term memory 
.
Those are not 2nd. Did you watch any interviews with TO leading up to race? Guy sounded pretty up in the air about his own self confidence.
Was hoping someone was going to start a TO thread. He is never really talked about during the run up to Kona but man did he throw down yesterday! We talk about the strength and speed of AB and Frodeno but he went toe to toe with both of them from start to finish, beating AB. Big props to him. Plus he does seem like a genuinely good guy from his Tim and Rinny show.
I wouldn’t say it was a lack of self confidence, more the unknown of how the run would go given the foot issues leading into the race/final block of training.
k, a semantics issue then.
regardless of how you or i interpret his pre-race vibes he raced great and had a huge personal best. while not forgetting or discounting that he has placed highly before, i am still surprised and impressed at his race this year.