I have a friend who is a triathlete but has had some health problems recently. As part of her recovery she wants to train for an IronMan next year and asked me what’s the slowest one can do an IronMan.
Without getting into any discussion about finishing versus competing, what’s the slowest you can go, pace-wise, and finish each leg within the cut-off time?
17 hours overall maximum
From memory I think the swim cutoff is either 2:15 or 2:30
The bike leg must be completed in 10-10:30 after the gun goes off. and the run (can it be called a run if you’re going that slow) has about 6:30-7 hours left, but if you ride faster than dead slow then you can run slower than 7 hours.
While IM is a laudable goal, just asking the cutoff question, seriously, may mean it’s a silly idea. Train for a 1/2IM. It’s also a very laudable goal, the training isn’t as damaging and won’t leave you (or your friend) nearly as devastated afterwards. After a couple of 1/2’s they can always move up to the full distance.
Not being cheeky, just realistic and sensible. You and/or your friend wants to feel good about achieving a difficult goal, but honestly, they risk significant physical and emotional damage if they fail. I dnf’d for the first time (320km bike race) last year and it had a surprising psychological effect on me. It is not to be sneezed at let me tell you.
Good luck but be sensible with your goals.
So if you made each leg at the cut-off that’s:
2.4 mile swim: 2:30 (4 mim/100m pace)
112 mile bike: 8:00 (14 mph pace)
26.2 mile run: 6:30 (15 min/mile pace)
Total IronMan: 17:00
200 people didn’t make the bike cut-off today?
200 people didn’t make the bike cut-off today?
Someone said 20-30 mph winds. I can relate to that. Living just south of the Windy City, I’ve had my taste of 20-30mph headwinds, and I’m no fan (as I say, “Wind blows!”). When one looks at the “14mph avr” … it certainly looks easy enough, but in big wind, you’re not “merely riding 12 mph”, you’re pedaling your rear off and “only going 12 mph”. Frustrating. Disheartening. Tiring. That’s what I felt on a 26-mile ride in high wind. I can’t imagine a 112-miler.
Frickin’ high wind. You spend 1:18 going 10mph for 13 miles, and then turn around and only get to enjoy 24mph for ~32min. Then, you’re “average pace” is only 14 mph. Meanwhile that 1:18 spent into the wind makes your legs feel like you just rode for 3 hours. Like I said, wind blows.
I would also guess that quite a few folks “took a rest” on the bike, and were unable to compensate for it.
How many people usually “don’t make the cutoff”?
At Lake Geneva I heard lots of folks predeict “record numbers of DNF’s” at IMWI. I’m not surprised.
When you look at the pacings, it looks as if almost anyone could just up and finish an IM race. But, we all know there’s more to it than that.
So if you made each leg at the cut-off that’s:
2.4 mile swim: 2:30 (4 mim/100m pace)
112 mile bike: 8:00 (14 mph pace)
26.2 mile run: 6:30 (15 min/mile pace)
Total IronMan: 17:00
200 people didn’t make the bike cut-off today?
Don’t forget transition times, At IMWI those are longer than usual.
Swim cutoff is 2:20
.
I agree with Tri-Dork. There comes a point where you may asking for too much. Perhaps doing a half IM first would give her an idea of her ability to complete a full IM. Halfs are tough as hell for the average athlete and should not be taken lightly. After a half she’ll have a relative idea as to her ability to complete a full iron.
Halfs are tough as hell for the average athlete and should not be taken lightly.
Wurd.
Who’s this “jaylew” dude that posted earlier in this thread?
In IMUK this year they extended the swim cutoff to the bike. In otherwords, there was no swim cut off, just a bike cut off, with the feeling that somw slower swimmers would be able to pick up time on the bike. Not sure how well it worked, but I thought it was a good idea.
Then again, I did hear that the slowest swimmer was in the water for around 3 hours! Man 30 minutes in the bath and I look like a shrivelled prune!
22h05 might be the record for a “regular ironman-distance”, done by Kenneth Bruun at HP Norseman in 2004: http://www.nxtri.com/results2004.htm
The slowest marathon-leg was 10h06, same year
That is slow…
I think that “record” for slowest Ironman finsi goes to Art Stack, who back in the early days of Hawaii, when the rules were a bit more slack then they are now. got so tired out on the run in the dark that he nipped into his hotel room for a 4 hour nap then got up early the next morning and ran to the finish line for something like a 24 hour + finish, or something like that.
As for the orginal poster, with all due respect why an IM? Why not a sprint, Olympic or 1/2 IM?
Fleck
Techincally I didn’t make the cuttoff…13.8MPH. But I didn’t take the full time for swim, so I got “Bonus bike time”
Of course roughly 1:15-1:30 of that time was spent sitting at various aid stations catching up on fluids and calories.
~Matt
I wonder if that’s the guy who said he saw the story about the race in a newspaper on the course while he was still running.
I thought Walt Stack just stopped for pancakes at a restaurant before finishing. (?)
I also remember reading that the rode with bags on his bike and had a 6 pack of beer in there.
That was Michael Collins, son of John Collins.
Babbit wrote about it in Becoming an Ironman. It’s a classic example of “how to know when you are having a bad race”.
Does this person have an athletic background? Ever done a triathlon? If the answers are no, I also question the wisdom of doing an ironman. 2 years out from a IM is a better goal. It gives you a year to build to smaller races and get a good base, then a year to focus on IM distance. Building up the milage needed in just a year is asking for more “health problems”.
22h05 might be the record for a “regular ironman-distance”, done by Kenneth Bruun at HP Norseman in 2004: http://www.nxtri.com/results2004.htm
The slowest marathon-leg was 10h06, same year
That is slow…
Doesn’t IronMan have a cut-off at 17:00 and if you don’t finish in that time you DNF?
yeah, normally. But I think Norseman is an iron-distance race that is not Ironman branded. Thus they have more flexibility with rules and can set whatever cutoffs they want.
C’mon you guys, you should have been able to see throught he OP’s intent. Anyone with a friggin calculator can compute the times.
“200 people didn’t make the bike cutoff today?”
No they didn’t. Tough day, tough conditions and for perhaps many a sobering reminder of what the IM distance is all about—respect. Respect for the distance itself, respect for the training that goes into it (or should, anyway), respect for the pacing you need to hold on the Big Day and respect for the fact that one needs always to stay in the moment. If you’re having a rough go of it, regroup and re-strategize for the rest of the day. Don’t get caught up in “damn, now I’m ‘x’ (minutes/hours/mph/etc.) behind where I should be at this point”. Just go.
2600 people signed up, less than 2100 show up and under, what, 1700 finish? Percentage-wise, tough one. But that’s still a lot of Ironmen crossing the finish line. Congrats to all who did, and to those that had the courage to start out and lost it somewhere on the course.
Having done a bunch of Ironmans, I can’t say they are healthy. If she is coming off health issues, who put yourself through an Ironman ?