Things that never happened…
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hes like the LA of the tri field , someone youd want to chuck in the outside backs rather than racing the mutant twiggies in tri
I hear he is moving to andora to swim with cam wurf.
He didnt run 4min faster. Lionel ran 1:09 high, timing didn’t work, transition time was added to run time
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That explains why he was cutting through the field. I thought his 1:11 seemed slower than his actually pace.
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I think Marbella is similar to Oceanside. Salt water and wetsuit swim, a harder bike but nothing technical and a cooler flat run. So if the gets is act together it should be 1x per year in Oceanside and another 1x per year at a Spanish version of the Oceanside event.
I’d actually love an extended video with Talbot about Lionel’s practice and philosophy for remaining as injury free has he had for so long. I think the only injuries I can recall are a rib strain and a cracked tooth! I’ve seen him show his Nordictrak treadmill with coils, for one example.
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Last year he had a cracked rib, and this winter it was his hip.
I am not an expert on Marbella
But
Ocean side water freezing vs hot water
Not great for inefficient swimmers , e.g kona
Oceanside cold start to the bike and a dry air
Marbella I think is hotter and might be humid
Run I have no idea but I think the quality runners will be higher in Marbella and peaking bs Oceanside .
The sea temp in Marbella in the first half of November should be around 18-20 Celsius, and air is about 14 min and 22 max (that’s 57-70 F).
On an unrelated note. I would also like to take this opportunity to emphasize for the first out of probably 528 times that Marbella is at the Mediterranean Sea, not an ocean. We have seas in Europe in addition to the Atlantic Ocean. You said nothing of the sort but dollars against nuts that commentators will harp on about an “ocean swim”, especially if the sea gets choppy (which it very well might) 
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I expect at least half the T100 athletes will include Marbella (8/9th November) in their schedule. They’d likely plan to miss T100 Dubai (a week later) but I expect all who want to race the World Middle Distance Champs there to get a 70.3 in before 30 June (to get a Q): Knibb, Derron, Duffy, Gentle, maybe Waugh, maybe not Spivey (WTCS Final Wollongong). In addition almost every athlete at the sharp end of the IM Pro Series will be racing: Jewett, Matthews.
So, as you say, the best runners in the world will be there.
@Triathletetoth , the others have covered the air and water temp in Marbella, which is not that different for them in early Nov compared to Oceanside in April. The depth of field does not change that Marbella is a flatter run
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Is it really Oceanside? Or is it because he’s fresh and not overtrained for all the races after Oceanside?
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How much different of a field are we talking in Marbella for top enders? I don’t know, so I’m asking, how many T100 folks have qualified and think that they will qualify for 70.3 worlds?
Like when you look at Oceanside, it pretty much had the who’s who minus t100 people. Who I really don’t even follow.
Consider the competition too. Frodo was being humble when he said the comment about Lionel being the best if Oceanside would be raced 7 times per season, the reality is he schooled Lionel every single time he raced. With the exception of Blu, the majority of the top guys were in Singapore.
I would like to see Lionel racing 70.3 Worlds against the big boys.
ETA: different courses, etc. notwithstanding, but has anyone gone faster than 3:45 at Oceanside ?(Frodo’s 2018 time, pre-super shoes by the way)
If you scroll to the bottom it has who has qualified for both 70.3 and Ironman WCs.
It isnt updated post Oceanside yet.
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If he can actually act sensible with his training he is going to atleast give himself a chance in these bigger races than being “shelled” before the biggest races. Not that I think he actually has a chance to win (I don’t at any WC with that QoF), but I think whatever position, he can finally for once be “proud” of his race, regardless of what that actual position is.
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Damn, so what did Blu really run??
The timing was screwed up; some of the athletes had <30sec. T2s while others were ~2min. KB’s transition was 1:57 (his run split is legit). LS’ transition was 0:26, so ~1:30 of his T2 was included in his run split.
https://stats.protriathletes.org/race/im-703-california/2025/results
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